How to Stay Healthy Following Kung Fu Workouts

Kung Fu and other martial arts can provide practitioners with a variety of health benefits, both physiological and psychological. However, as is the case with any physically-demanding activity, it is important to take the proper precautions in order to stay healthy. These include having the proper conditioning and technique, but what you do after training is also of paramount importance.

One of the most important steps you can take to be healthy after an intense training session is to stay hydrated. Of course, it is imperative to drink water during your training session, but your body will still be taxed after your session has concluded, so drinking plenty of water to aid recovery is key.

It is also important to take a shower after you have finished training, and while it might seem intuitive to take a cold shower—after all, you are likely feeling very hot after a difficult training session—it is probably best to take a warmer shower, as this will flush out any toxins that are in your system. If taking a warm shower seems like an uncomfortable thing to do when you are already feeling too hot, taking some time to do some “cool down” exercises, such as a short ten-minute walk or some stretching can help to lower your body temperature. Cooling down can also go a long way toward repairing muscle and lowering an elevated heart rate that accompanies a difficult training session.

Meditation is also a great way to help stay healthy after a training session has concluded. The relaxation that is associated with meditation can go a long way toward lowering your heart rate. Additionally, the psychological benefits that go hand-in-hand with meditation can help reduce stress, which is vital. Even if some of the stresses afflicting you may not be physical in nature, compounding intense physical training with other stressors can result in fatigue and fatigued training can result in injury. For that reason, meditation is an excellent way both to stave off any harm that may result directly from training as well as the harm that may occur due to the compounding of external stressors (such as school or work) with physical stressors that result from training.

At JadeDragon Kung-Fu, We believe that Kung Fu and martial arts are generally a safe way to get healthy. There are still precautions that are necessary in order to fully minimize your risk of injury. Showering, cooling down, staying hydrated and meditating are the most prominent of these.