This is what the Tang Soo Do 6th Degree Black Belt and Jiu-Jitsu purple belt had to say about the benefits of Martial Arts and staying in shape:
BJJ friend asks this question after a 2 hour training session: “Damn, you’re 57 but you have the body of a 30 year old, you really do. You are in incredible shape and it shows that you work hard for that. You eat right, you exercise and you do all the right things. Is that for quality of life now, or is it more for longevity reasons to be around longer for your children and their children?”
Peter Liciaga: It’s definitely for both. I would love to be around for my children, no doubt about it. I love being a dad and the last thing I would want is my kids to miss me because I was foolish and didn’t take care of myself, but it’s not totally selfless; I would still do it even if I didn’t have children. I would still take care of my body and eat right. One, because I’m sane, two because I love doing martial arts. To enjoy martial arts, especially Brazilian Jui Jitsu, you have to be in great shape, otherwise you just get choked out and arm-barred all the time. I’ve been doing martial arts for most of my life; it’s been a big part of my life since 1970, so that’s most likely reason why I enjoy exercise.
Also, I need a way to manage stress. One of the most underrated aspects of exercise is the effect on the mind. I have friends that are really intelligent who sort of half-heartedly take care of their body. I think they’re doing their mind and their emotional state a disservice by not clearing out all the garbage that comes from every day stress. There is all sorts of fight or flight going-ons and reward systems that are in place in our bodies that are not being managed by day to day society working in a cubicle or sitting in your car in traffic. There are all sorts of things that your body doesn’t do that it’s sort of designed to do.
For me, one of the best ways of staying level is forcing myself to train extremely hard. Extreme, rigorous training. I have four training gyms that I train at. I have one gym that I go to that is simply for weight training. I have a gym that I go to for my stand up martial arts training and another gym that I go to for my BJJ training. My other “gym” is my home in my garage where I do body weight exercises. I have elastic bands and a heavy bag. I take my smart phone with me to watch YouTube videos or listen to music for motivation when I work out there. That keeps me sane and keeps my stress level low.
There’s a big difference between how I respond to situations in life when I’ve been working out hard on a regular basis and not. If I get out of jiu-jitsu class after a really hard rolling (sparring) session and someone rear-ended and totaled my car (which really happened), I’d be bummed out, but my reaction would be so different than if I was on my way to class all tense and angry cause I haven’t had a chance to work out for a few weeks. Then I would be like, ‘What the HELL?’ My perspective changes depending on my stress level.
I think we would all do ourselves a world of good if we managed the stress from our lives and took care of our bodies. If I had a company, a place where everybody showed up at work, one of the things I would do is set up a gym. Set it up, have it available for free and give people an hour every day, even if it means they only work seven hours a day instead of eight. I would be happy to have someone who only works seven hours a day instead of eight, but they work out for an hour. Then I would think I’m giving them something back, giving them something for free, alleviating their stress, lightening their load and, I would assume, improving their quality of life. I think most people burden themselves down with a lot of stress and don’t give themselves nearly enough release from that stress.
