Martial Arts Is Good For Your Mental Health

Question

Martial arts has been proven by many of those who learned it and also professional fighters to help not only improve physical fitness but mental health too by finding a sense of calm or finding a way to improve yourself.
In this article "UFC legend Georges St-Pierre explains how mixed martial arts can improve mental health." Georges St-Pierre, argues that in his early struggles. MMA was there for him in challenging times. In The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Hall of Famer said he started martial arts as a defense tool because he was a victim of bullying and he found that with learning martial arts he felt stronger and even felt mentally safe knowing he can protect himself if situations required it.

Answer 1

Yes! Not only does it help people feel more secure, but it also has several physical health benefits. According to the article, "12 Essential Benefits of Learning Martial Arts (Miller)," martial arts benefits physical health, increased flexibility, lowering blood pressure and heart rate, enhanced mental well being, increased self confidence, and a few more relating to physical and mental well being. Another article published on Webmd, "Mental Benefits of Martial Arts," goes into the more mental benefits including stress relief, and some claim finding a life purpose, according to the article. It's also reviewed by an accomplished health care columnist, a public speaker, and a contributing writer for the American Academy of Pediatrics' web site, HealthyChildren.org, Dr Dan Brennan.

Comments

Hey! I really like the way you approach the this fact-checking, martial arts is such a unique angle for health benefits! You pulled from solid sources, and I liked that you included Dr. Brennan’s credentials to back up the WebMD info. One thing I was curious about: are any of the benefits you listed supported by actual studies? It’d be interesting to see one or two research, based examples next time to add more weight to the claims. Still, you made a great case overall!

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I appreciate your take and the reliability of the sources you included. I think martial arts, like many other sports, is a great mental and physical resource to benefit one's life. However, I think it's important to consider the long-term effects a sport such as Martial arts plays in one's life. Just as we've seen Football have a horrible effect on players, it is a growing concern for the professional players of MMA. Though most hobbyists of martial arts may not be a huge concern, I think it is important to consider the long-term effects of a sport that has the potential to lead to head trauma. As covered by the National Library of Medicine, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6352039/ MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) is a growing concern for the development of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy)

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I think that you had a great approach to this fact check! You were able to not only use multiple reasons but also multiple sources to prove why martial arts benefit mental health. I appreciate that you added the additional credentials of the health care columnist that reviewed the WebMD article. Your response was able to effectively and efficiently tie the physical and mental benefits of martial arts together and provide the reader with several reliable sources that supported the claim.

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I like how you fully addressed both the physical and mental benefits of martial arts, backing both up with corresponding sources. Moreover, checking who reviewed the WebMD article was an important piece that added more credibility to your fact check.

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I completely  agree with you, martial arts does seem like a great way to improve mental health. I thought it was smart that you included both a general article and one with expert review. The part about stress relief and finding a life purpose was super interesting,  I hadn't thought about it like that before. Overall you just did a very good job at explaining and making a very convincing point.

Answer 2

It is true that Martial Arts may be a helpful tool in peoples mental health, but we cant necessarily claim that "Martial Arts is good for mental health" for everyone as it is such a general statement. I would classify this claim as an opinion as it works for some people and might not for others. It is like saying "Nike is an amazing shoe", although Nike might be a great shoe we cant officially claim that everyone will think it is amazing. According to the City News article Martial Arts has helped many fighters feel more fulfilled and can be "a therapy for me" says MMA fighter St-Pierre. The National Center for Biotechnology Information states that the "relationship between mental health and martial arts training is generally positive" in the context of sports based interventions for mental health. The article also states that martial arts had a "medium effect on internalising mental health". Although Martial arts can be good for peoples mental health we cant classify this claim as true or false.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33218541/

Comments

I liked how you kept your response objective, and I think you are right. The original claim of "Martial arts is good for your mental health" is subjective, as the study you linked said. Since the study used over 500,000 participants to measure aggression before and after partaking in martial arts and found no significant correlation I must agree that there isn't significant enough evidence to say this claim is true or false.

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I really like how you explained that the claim about martial arts and mental health depends on the person — that’s a smart way to look at it. I agree that just because something helps some people, doesn’t mean it will work for everyone, kind of like your Nike example!

I also think another reason the claim can’t be fully true or false is because different types of martial arts might give different results. Like, someone doing karate for self-confidence might feel way different than someone doing MMA for competition. So the benefits might depend on the person’s goals too, not just the sport itself.

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I think you most definitely struck the right vein with this response to the claim. While many people do find martial arts to be beneficial to their mental health, it is simply too broad a claim to register as true or false. You managed to keep your response measured and objective, pointing out the fact that this claim is more or less just an opinion formulated off a large survey.

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This is a good factcheck because it stays neutral and the examples that you gave made helped your argument make sense.

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Although I didn't think of it in my fact-check, I like that you explained that the claim "Martial arts is good for your mental health" is generally subjective. Although there are studies that reinforce that claim, the effect that martial arts has on mental health can vary from person to person.

Answer 3

The claim that martial arts are good for mental health is true. The article that you linked is an interview with Georges St-Pierre, a UFC Hall-of-Famer and arguably one of the best martial artists of all time. Georges' reasons for believing that martial arts improved his mental health, such as venting negative energy, are backed up by clinical studies and other martial-arts-related sources. According to a meta-analysis of 14 studies from the National Library of Medicine:
"Martial arts training had a significant but small positive effect on wellbeing (d = 0.346, 95% CI = 0.106 to 0.585, I2 = 59.51%) and a medium effect on internalising mental health (d = 0.620, 95% CI = 0.006 to 1.23, I2 = 84.84%). Martial arts training had a minimal non-significant positive effect in reducing aggression (d = 0.022, 95% CI = -0.191 to 0.236, I2 = 58.12%)" ("The effect of martial arts"). 
Although the eligible studies analyzed in the meta-analysis had significant variability, the statistics show martial arts as an effective method of mental health improvement. An article by Evolve MMA, a top martial arts organization with the most champions across all martial arts, offers six positive effects of martial arts on mental health. The six psychological benefits that Evolve MMA lists are stress relief, a purpose, physical exercise, emotional regulation, improved self-esteem, and personal development ("6 Psychological Benefits"). Overall, martial arts training is provably beneficial for mental health, as well as the physical benefits that come along with such rigorous physical activity. 

Sources:
The effect of martial arts training on mental health outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis - PubMed

6 Psychological Benefits Of Martial Arts In Improving Mental Health | Evolve Daily

Answer 4

Martial arts has been proved to not only benefit peoples physical health, but their mental health as well. According to the National Library of Medicine, they ran a study that showed that there was indeed scientific evidence that supported mental health improvement. They ran a large sample, and then reduced it to their best data. Within that data, there was sufficient evidence that supports the relation between martial arts and mental health. Not only is martial arts a physical pursuit, but it is a tool for mental health. 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33218541/