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Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa , in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, describes his love of martial arts training, specifically boxing (and why he did it):

“I did not enjoy the violence of boxing so much as the science of it. I was intrigued by how one moved one’s body to protect oneself, how one used a strategy both to attack and retreat, how one paced oneself over a match.

Boxing is egalitarian. In the ring, rank, age, color, and wealth are irrelevant . . . I never did any real fighting after I entered politics. My main interest was in training; I found the rigorous exercise to be an excellent outlet for tension and stress. After a strenuous workout, I felt both mentally and physically lighter. It was a way of losing myself in something that was not the struggle. After an evening’s workout I would wake up the next morning feeling
strong and refreshed, ready to take up the fight again.”

- (Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, page 193.)

Nelson Mandela found an outlet for tension and stress through boxing, (a popular striking martial art), a balance for his mind-body-soul connection during his struggle with apartheid in South
Africa.

Science behind the stress management benefits of punching or kicking a bag/target

We are faced with daily stress in our lives; the stress of impending project deadlines, the pressure to perform in our sales goals, frustration of traffic congestion in the city, serving a difficult customer, personal problems i.e. relationship break-ups, conflicts with various parties, etc.

Human evolution has wired our brains and bodies for survival. Upon detecting stress due to threat, the “fight or flight response” kicks in. Stress causes our body to release hormones (stress hormone: adrenaline, noradrenaline, cortisol) to prepare our body physiologically to stay and fight the threat or run away from the threat, stay motionless. In the real world, we cannot just plant a fist in our boss’ face or colleague’s gut and expect the problem/issue to disappear, although you possibly wish you could. The prolonged stress due to an ever-present circumstance will continuously keeps our body in high state of alert. Exposure to prolonged durations of stress will make our body to wear out. Therefore, hormones that have been created in our body due to a threat must be flushed out from our system.

The act of punching or kicking is the precise action our body requires to remove stress hormones. Upon flushing out these hormones, the body is no longer in a state of tension and high alert. Therefore, we feel more relaxed after punching and kicking workouts.

One’s state of mind during the practice of martial arts must be considered. Venting out on the punching bag by imagining that you are punching the face of your boss or colleague will get you more tense, angry or aggressive as shown in research study by Bushman (2002).

The better solution is to distract oneself away from the source of tension by immersing and losing oneself in the performance of the martial arts technique.

Physical benefits: the repeated physical action of striking a target with either hands or legs invokes all major muscle groups of our body.The final results are better speed, power, timing, coordination, flexibility, fluidity of motion including movements of activity of
daily living (ADL). In addition, the overall body will improve muscle tone and is great for weight loss objectives.

Having said that, science has not caught up with the evolution of our body, mind-body-soul connection.

In conclusion, one of the best ways to divert oneself away from the daily stressors of our lives temporarily is to get involved in a martial arts program, especially a traditional martial arts program. A traditional martial arts program is holistic, the positive attributes of mental, emotional and physical in parallel to our need for balanced mind-body-soul connection.

Bamboo Kung Fu School can help you reclaim the balance you’ve lost, allowing you to become a more well-rounded, calmer and happier person.

References:

1) Brian Luke Seaward, (2007), The stress of life: Selye, Jung, Taylor
and You, Stress Management, Winter 2007, Retrieved Jan 2012 from:

http://www.brianlukeseaward.net/articles/stressoflife.pdf

2) Mayo Clinic, (2010), Stress management, Retrieved from:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress/SR00001/NSECTIONGROUP=2

3) Chris Woolston, (2006), Managing Stress: What Rats Have To Teach
Us, CONSUMER HEALTH INTERACTIVE, Retrieved from:

http://drugtools.caremark.com/topic/stressrats

4) Brad J. Bushman, (2002), Does Venting Anger Feed or Extinguish the
Flame? Catharsis, Rumination, Distraction, Anger, and Aggressive
Responding, Soc Psychol Bull, June 2002 vol. 28 no. 6 724-731, doi:
10.1177/0146167202289002, Abstract retrieved from:

http://psp.sagepub.com/content/28/6/724.short

5) Mandela – The Heavy-weight Boxer, Awesome Stories, Retrieve on Jan
2012 from: http://www.awesomestories.com/assets/mandela-the-heavyweight-boxer

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