By Staff
Jerry A. Chenault, Urban R.E.A.
Aren't we in a fine shape? Diabetes is now more popular than ever, our state ranks among the top in numbers of obese people, heart disease and high blood pressure are in high fashion, and juvenile diabetes is about as popular as the NBA! What happened? And how can we fix this mess we're in? Let's look.
I recently read an article written by Keith D. Yates in Martial Arts Professional journal that really brought the message home. He slapped me around with a few facts like a recent study reported in the British Dental Journal. They revealed that teenagers who consumed four soft drinks a day increased the risk of tooth erosion (that's a nice way to say rotting teeth) by more than 500 percent! And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Say it isn't so Ethel!
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concludes that soft drinks are one of the major contributors to obesity in our country. Our kids are now consuming more than twice as much of these sugar-loaded drinks than they are milk. And soft drinks aren't the only problem. Add to our high fat and high sugar diets a healthy dose of television, video games, and lack of required P.E. classes in school and you see life expectancy declining. The situation is even worse for adults!
So fat Americans in poor health (even our kids) may not be a news flash, but it needs to be changed! And right now is a good day to start. I've decided to tell everyone I can about the positive things that martial arts can do for you and your family.
I've been around the arts long enough to know all the jokes, the kidding, the excuses and so on …but even if you forget all about trying to be like Bruce Lee, there's a whopping ton of good things martial arts can do for your family.
So you're not 20 years old anymore? So what? So you don't want to get hurt? Fine. Instructors don't want you to either. They want you in class and they want to help you develop physically and personally. Martial arts are for everyone, even if you're 80. Sure, you probably won't be doing flying and jumping kicks, but you will improve your stamina, your agility, your concentration, your flexibility, your confidence, your blood pressure and even your self defense skills.
I don't know exactly when we decided that martial arts were for little kids (while mom and dad sit and watch), but that's far from correct. Moms and dads need exercise too–not just work. Come on!
So take a new look at martial arts for 2006 (and for your life) this month. You'll be glad you did!