If you are wondering should you take Krav Maga classes not only to learn a new martial art but also to lose weight and train, then you are in the right place. We will tell you everything you need to know about Krav Maga training and is it good for weight loss and fitness.
Like most other martial arts techniques, Krav Maga is an excellent technique for weight loss and fitness.
Krav Maga is a modern self-defense system designed for men, women, and children. A practical combat method that trains how to avoid, prevent, and resolve any type of attack, and it is also easy to learn and remember.
What is Krav Maga?
It is a comprehensive and effective system of self-defense that is intended for everyone, regardless of age, gender, and prior knowledge. It fits perfectly into the hectic style of everyday life, is very efficient, and can lead the student to a certain goal in a short time.
The system is based on science and experience and provides the possibility of self-defense or defense of their loved ones within their own capabilities. In short, Krav Maga is a practical method of combat that trains how to avoid, prevent, and resolve any kind of violence and attack.
How did the Krav Maga self-defense system come about?
It originated in Israel, under the pressure of real-life demands and conditions. The method was developed by Imi Lichtenfeld, and Eyal Yanilov continued to develop and modify it with a team of top instructors from the international organization Krav Maga Global (KMG). Krav Maga is a system with a unique and logical approach. It is easy to learn and remember, performed naturally and instinctively and can be practically used in stressful conditions.
Krav Maga is adapted to everyone
You may think that age or gender are limiting factors, but that this is not the case. Krav Maga training is suitable for everyone, regardless of gender, age, and prior knowledge. Of course, training for children differ from training for adults because they are primarily focused on the development of general motor skills, speed, agility, coordination, and as the child matures, techniques and tactical actions in the event of an attack or potentially dangerous situation are increasingly involved.
Krav Maga is a complete system of self-defense, which teaches us how to spot, avoid, or resolve any type of attack or violence. Of course, when we talk about self-defense, we mostly mean the self-defense techniques themselves, but the essential advantage of the Krav Maga system is that integrity. This means that the Krav Maga system educates students on how to recognize potentially dangerous situations, how to position themselves in certain situations, to try to avoid an attack if possible, and of course to react correctly and in a timely manner when an attack occurs.
What are the benefits of Krav Maga?
Through Krav Mage training, we can master self-defense techniques relatively quickly, raise our fitness, improve our health status, raise our self-confidence, and at the same time have a good time because the training is varied and interesting.
Krav Maga is based on natural human movement, so learning self-defense is easy to remember, logical, and leads to the desired goal in a short time.
Through training, we strengthen self-confidence and improve our concentration, focus, and determination, and such changes bring benefits in our daily lives.
With Krav Maga training, we contribute to losing weight, achieving the desired shape, and strengthening our body.
Through training, in addition to physical training, it also brings mental training and we learn to function in various conflict situations and make effective decisions under stress.
Is Krav Maga good for Weight Loss and Fitness
Like almost all other martial arts, Krav Maga is excellent in building conditions, your fitness levels, and at the same time weight loss. There are some other martial arts options out there for weight loss, such as boxing, and you can check our link and see if it fits you better.
Of course, we have to be clear, weight loss is mostly done in the kitchen, but Krav Maga can help you build your muscles, cardio, and self-esteem, which in return can motivate you to eat less and thus lose weight.
If you are a beginner, you will see that you have to sweat a lot while training, which means you are burning fat and losing weight, but some sporting intermediates or professionals can find that it is not enough for them. In that case, we would suggest combining Krav Maga with something else. That way you can learn amazing self-defense technique while combining with, for example, fitness – which gains you muscles or running – losing weight even more, or some other cardio exercise.
The point of Krav Maga is to prepare you for self-defense in life treating situations. What would the point of it be if you get exhausted in the first few minutes of the fight? That guarantees you that you will have to get in great shape to be able to master Krav Maga in the long run.
Below you can see how much calories you burn by doing Krav Maga training for one hour.
| Activity | 130 lb | 155 lb | 180 lb | 205 lb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Krav Maga | 590 cal/h | 704 cal/h | 817 cal/h | 931 cal/h |
What if you are not in good physical shape?
In accordance with the age in which we live and today’s way of life, a significant part of the population is not in an active physical form. An easy and gradual approach ensures that you reach your goal whether you have problems with physical fitness or weight loss. And in these segments, you will notice significant progress.
Krav Maga and physical preparation
Krav Maga has 4 foundations on which to work continuously: technical, tactical, mental, and physical. If you miss one of them, then your whole platform will be shaken. Here we will talk about the connection between Krav Maga training and fitness training.
An extremely important part of Krav Maga is physical preparation. Let’s look at it this way: if you can perform a deep squat with heavy weights without compensation and help, then your body has a strong propulsion engine and effectively produces force. This means you can hit harder with both hands and feet, and you can also move fast. In short, you will be better at practicing Krav Maga.
Krav Maga is your primary activity. It just means that all the other activities and all the other training should help you get better at Krav Maga. If you kill yourself in the gym, then Krav Maga will suffer from sore muscles, lack of energy, etc. We will all agree that this is not in line with your main goal with this training, and that is, build the best Krav Maga skills as possible.
Focus on quality of movement and do not overload your Central Nervous System (CNS). You don’t have to go to a dismissal every session at the gym. To be strong, you don’t need to be tired.
Physical activity
Choose the right activity. Ask yourself what you need to train. Include your coach. Do you need to get stronger, work on your mobility, speed, flexibility, endurance? Choose from many qualities that you can perfect. We all differ because everyone carries their injuries from previous workouts and activities. Find what you need to fix now and work on it.
Choose a few exercises to focus on. Make these exercises worthwhile, in the sense that they will help you become better at what you need and to help you lose weight and build muscles. Use these exercises to connect your body as much as possible because in Krav Maga you need coordination and a harmonized body. Focus on exercises that follow the natural pattern of movement (squat, bend, lunge, pull, push, and carry).
The body is a connected organism: when you improve one quality, then you will mostly improve other qualities as well. What do we mean by that? Exercise strict push-ups for a few weeks (with tension in the abdomen, gluteus, and legs) and then switch to a pull-up. There’s a good chance the pull-ups will improve as well, and you haven’t trained them directly at all. The thing works and vice versa. This is because you train to become stronger, you improve the tension of the whole body, and this is then transferred to other exercises.
If you do the same exercise for too long, it can be counterproductive again. Use the same training regimen for 4-6 weeks and then switch to some other exercises. Plan your training so that your body and mind can adjust to the exercises, but without stagnation, that way you will build your fitness best, and it will always challenge your body so it losses weight.
We’ve already written in this article: it’s up to you (and your instructor) to find what you need to work on right now and get started from there. If you’re big and strong or obese, and you think you should work on your mobility and weight loss, then be sure to have fun with that. If you are very mobile and flexible, then work on your strength and stability. Take your Krav Maga to a new level. It is best for our bodies to find a good balance between different qualities.
Conclusion
Krav Maga is an excellent martial art for weight loss and building muscles, but weight loss firstly comes from your mind (and kitchen). You have to be motivated (something that Krav Maga builds), and tell yourself you want a change, then focus on your food intake, while adding cardio exercises in the mix.
If you choose Krav Maga for your choice of cardio training, you will not go wrong, cause it builds cardio, fitness, self-esteem, prepares you for all kinds of attacks, and at the same time, you are burning fat and losing weight.
