Some people say you need to be physically fit before you start taking martial arts classes (i.e. Karate), but some people say you take martial arts classes to become physically fit. There are many schools of thought. One thought believes that martial arts instruction should be up to the individuals’ desire to seek deep martial arts instruction, so the group classes are conducted with vigorous physical fitness exercises with small elements of martial arts techniques. The other school of thought believes that it is up to the individual to take initiative to conduct physical fitness training on their own time and that attending martial arts classes is for the main purpose of learning martial arts techniques. I think that both views are valid, what do you think?

In recent  years I have felt I needed more in my physical fitness training. With the strength and conditioning training that  accompanied martial arts was not enough for me. A few years ago I started to take weight lifting sessions from a professional personal trainer and that kicked off my interest in physical fitness. I felt that weight lifting was a great compliment to martial arts training, even though my intentions was not to gain massive amounts of muscle, but I felt the needs of developing all muscle groups was deemed necessary for physical fitness even for the martial artist. After my enlistment to the United States military, made me realize that physical fitness is a big part to a healthy lifestyle, especially for a soldier.

After some research I have decided to enroll in ISSA’s personal trainer certification course. It looked like the best option for me as a current deployed soldier in the middle-east. The course is self paced which will allow me to take all the time that I need and test for certification online. I hope that this course will further my martial arts, stay tune to see what happens.