Why You Should Try MMA Too Part II

This post is a follow up post to my last one on why you should try out MMA. In my last post I described how I was first exposed to the sport and got started. In this post I want to go over the reasons why you should try MMA too. There's so many benefits to participating in this sport that I doubt I will be able to cover them all but I will do my best. If you know of any benefits that I forget to mention let me know by leaving a comment. 

Since trying MMA for the first time I have noticed numerous benefits in multiple areas of my life. I'm going to divide the benefits I've noticed into mental and physical categories. They could be divided into different categories and even more subset categories but I want to try and keep this at least somewhat simple, also I've there's a bunch of categories then there would just be a bunch of overlay between categories. So, let's dive in then!

Physical: I'm going to start with the physical benefits because these are the most obvious benefits, and they're probably the first thing that people think of when it comes to MMA. The first thing that comes to mind as a physical benefit for most people is probably just the pure exercise portion of MMA. For people who have seen UFC and think you could stand around and flail your limbs for 3 minutes like it was no big deal I only have one thing to say, You're Dumb! Alright now that I've gotten that out of my system I feel much better. Trust me on this! The first time I tried boxing with my friend we were both sucking wind like we were about to die. He even mentioned that he couldn't understand why he was so tired from just throwing his arms out in front of him. I've got to admit that I don't really know why we were so tired but I do know one thing, we were. Even if you don't ever want to actually fight a real human being you can do the same training and feel the burn. I have a free mp3 workout from How To Fight Now that I shadowbox to 3 times in a row. I know what you're thinking, "That doesn't even involve punching real objects! You're just aggressively dancing by yourself!" Well, you're right both accounts, but I don't care it's still exhausting. I'm a decently in shape person but after repeating that workout 3 times I look like I've just gone swimming in my own tears after discovering I'm so physically inadequate I can't even punch air without becoming tired. Just kidding. But, seriously that's how I look. 

Aside from all the wonderful man sweat, and air sucking there's another awesome thing about MMA. Never once have I felt like I was working out! I've never had to drag myself to the gym even though I didn't want to go. Nor have I forced myself to workout in my room till I'm blue in the face. Do you want to know why? Because it's fun! Yes you did in fact read that right. I actually enjoy shadowboxing and doing my jujitsu drills because I know that next time I roll around at the gym I'll be better than I was the last time. Also, let's face it when you beat all those horribly mean imaginary foes with your flying fist of fury while shadowboxing you pretty much feel like a bad ass. Think back to when you were a kid and you used to run around and pretend you were a superhero(I pretended I was Robin from the Teen Titans, which looking back he really wasn't that cool of a superhero, anyway I digress) You could run around for hours imagining you were vanquishing all the evil in the world and no one told you to! That last bit is the important part. No one had to drag you outside when you didn't want to and make you play superhero. Training for MMA is literally the same thing and that's why I think it's so fun. You also don't just have to pretend if you're feeling up to it you can actually punch or submit a real live human. If you used to pretend you were a lame superhero like Robin then you might be terrible at this part and you'll probably just tap out all the time. Eventually though you will get the hang of it especially if the guys you train with are nice enough to give you all sorts of sweet tricks and tips and help you out. Just be really humble and actually listen to their advice and you'll probably grow at an insanely fast rate. Unless of course their advice is crap but I've yet to get crappy advice so I wouldn't worry about that to much. If you are arrogant and built like a brick wall and you think that you could easily take on anyone then go for it. My fingers are crossed that you get knocked out or cry like a little baby after about 5 seconds, but try to at least put on a good show. 

Another thing that I know has already crossed your mind is that after working out and training so hard you can wind up looking jacked like this guy.

Then all the ladies will love you. Unless you're an arrogant douche in which case no one will love you, not even your own parents. Seriously though, not only will you make all the ladies swoon, and some males question their own sexuality but you'll generally feel more awesome. You'll get all the benefits of regular exercise but with way more fun. These include increased energy, decreased stress, and decreased risk for numerous diseases such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, and all sorts of horrible things that you don't want to get. Now that we've covered some the physical benefits lets talk about some of the mental benefits.

Mental: The first big thing that comes to mind was also a physical benefit and that happens to be decreased stress. You know when you have a crappy day and you hate pretty much everything well think about how much better you would feel if you could punch all that rage out. Maybe someone cut you off while you driving but you don't have the guts to hit an actual person. No problem! Just head over to your local gym and beat the crap out of a heavy bag while picturing their face. It's been shown that exercise in general decreases stress level but why not at least do something fun while you're exercising. 

Fighting or just training to fight can also be seen as a sort of moving meditation. I don't mean the sort of meditation where you cross your legs and chant to yourself either I mean the cool kind where you know, you punch stuff. Most people today are constantly going from one thing to the next. They rush around like busy bodies and never just take a moment. Well a great way to take your mind off of the business of the day is to have someone throw fist at your face. You literally can not think about anything else. I mean, I guess you can but odds are good that you're going to get hit in the face. You lose yourself completely in the moment of fighting and that's a good thing. No distractions, problems, or worries. Just you and your opponent duking it out. This is true even if your opponent happens to be a heavy bag hanging from the ceiling. 

MMA is a lot like trying to solve a puzzle, and play a game of chess at the same time. Except the loser of the game gets their face rearranged or possibly gets their limbs torn apart. The point being that it's a great mental exercise. No need to play some boring bain training game that treats you like you're retarded anymore. Just go fight someone that's better than you and I guarantee your brain will get a workout just trying to keep up. Also it's called MMA which means that there is so many different styles each with completely different techniques that you can try and learn. It's literally a never ending vault of things that you can study your entire life. You can keep studying and learning forever! This should keep your brain from turning into goop and becoming useless as you get older. 

Thanks to looking like a stud muffin and generally having a feeling of increased badassness you will get a major confidence boost. After being punched and kicked repeatedly in the face and body or having your limbs almost bent to the snapping point other things in life just aren't as big of a deal. You won't feel the need to hunch your shoulders and look at the ground every time you walk into a room. Asking for a raise doesn't seem that scary anymore. Quitting your horribly boring day job to try and find something you're passionate about is no big deal compared to eating a knuckle sandwich. You should be warned though you probably won't have any increased confidence while you're at the gym right away. There will be people that have been doing this for years that will make you cry for your mommy and tap you out like a little baby in a matter of seconds. It's no big deal though if you ask them how they destroyed you so quickly and actually learn from them. These guys are a wealth of knowledge and let's face it who doesn't like having their ego stroked. Also, hopefully these guys will be super helpful and nice, they'll try not to make you feel to retarded. At least the guys at my gym have been that way to me. You'll also feel more confident and assertive, in a positive and not douchey way, because you can! I mean you'll learn how to pummel peoples faces until their unrecognizable, and rip their limbs apart. That knowledge is practical and works on people other than your training partners. That means that when some douche who isn't you gets up in your grill and is just generally douchey, you can politely and respectfully ask him to stop knowing full well that if he tries anything you can break him. Don't go out and pick fights just because you can though that would make you the douche. Also, fist can't beat everything including guns, knives, and bats so be cautious even if someone else is being a douche. I've seen people who have had their jaws broken clean in half by bats at work. It's not a pretty site. I'm just saying that in today's day and age you never can be to safe so it's nice to know at least a little bit about fighting in case of emergencies don't go flaunting it though. Alright you've been warned. 

MMA is based in martial arts which have a long and proud history which means that it's very tied into values such as honor, courage, commitment, patience, respect, and discipline. These things used to be ingrained into our society as a whole but these days they are seriously lacking. People today don't even know what it means to be a person of character. They don't what it is to serve something higher than themselves and think about other people. I admit that I barely know what any of that means and I think that is one of the greatest tragedies of our time. By taking up MMA hopefully we can all learn to have some more traditional values and become greater men and women in the process. 

I know that I've already learned so much in the way of values just from my short stint in the sport and I hope that you will join me to reap the benefits of this amazing sport. That my friends is why I think you should try MMA. 

How I Got Started In MMA and Why You Should Too Part I

SMACK! That was the noise I heard when I became a man, and found out what I'm truly made of. It was the noise of a 16 oz leather boxing glove catching me squarely on the jaw. I instantly became dazed as my jaw bone smashed up into a bundle of nerves for the first time in my entire life. I looked at my good friend who was apologizing profusely and thought to myself, "That was AWESOME!"

Have you ever felt overweight, under driven, physically or mentally weak? Maybe you just sometimes feel unsatisfied with yourself. If this is you, I think I've found the cure... It's MMA. If you've ever seen the movie Fight Club then I can tell you from personal experience that the movie isn't to far from the truth. Have you ever been in a fight before? Have you ever even been punched before? Have you ever lost yourself in the moment and felt completely and totally alive? Have you ever woken up early and pushed yourself to your breaking point while actually being excited about it? If you answered no to one or all of these questions then you should definitely check out the world of mixed martial arts. 

You see, just 3 weeks ago I was just like you are now. I had never been in a fight in my 20 years of life or even been punched once that I can remember. I had absolutely zero fighting background. Luckily that all changed and it started approximately a month and a half ago. I was in Fresno visiting my girlfriend when I went with her sister's boyfriend to watch a UFC fight. I had heard of UFC but I'd never watched an entire event like this. His friends went all out too, with all sorts of delicious food and the full Pay Per View package. I don't even remember the fighters names but I do remember getting completely caught up in it all. In every single fight that night both fighters would push their bodies beyond the breaking point just for the sake of pure competition. There was something even more then competition and violence though. Beyond the shear physical aspect there truly was a beautiful and inspiring art form. You could see the pure skill that these guys developed after years of intense dedication and training. They punched, and kicked, and grappled all with so much power and precision it was completely astounding. If you've never thrown a punch just stand up and throw the best punch you've got for 3 minutes. You'll probably be completely exhausted and realize that you punch like a 12 year old girl, or at least that's how I felt when I first tried it. Hopefully now you realize it's more than just two guys throwing random hay-makers and hoping for the best. After being utterly blown away by all of these athletes a deep curiosity formed inside of me and when I got home I began to do some research on the subject. I still didn't know I would actually want to try it but I definitely wanted to find out more. 

Upon returning home I began to do some research starting with boxing. I turned to Art of Manliness as it seemed like a logical place to start and as I've said before I just love this site. They just so happened to have a great series on the fundamentals of boxing starting with how to wrap your hands. This article series seemed to be of good quality and looked like an excellent place to start. I read the entire series and played around with the basics of stance, defense, and striking in my room. I felt completely awkward and slightly ridiculous doing this by myself in my bedroom but at the same time I was having a blast. I would clown around and swing my fist through air and practice slipping and rolling punches for a couple minutes to work up a slight sweat. I didn't think of it as exercise it was more of an experiment. I began to search YouTube and Google for even more resources to better learn the basics. One night on YouTube I stumbled upon this video and discovered yet another resource. The resource was Trav's YouTube channel and his website How To Fight Now. I have found all his videos not only extremely informative and helpful but also incredibly entertaining. I began to shadowbox in my room, which for those of you don't know is when you dance around and fight all these invisible opponents and generally make a fool of yourself, even more frequently. I began to really focus on technique and I actually noticed a very minimal but exciting improvement.  

Upon returning to Fresno I asked my friend who had originally taken me to the fights when we were going to fight. He informed me that he had head gear and one pair of gloves and that he actually used to do Muay Thai. He told me that he would be more than willing to spar and suddenly my curiosity spiked and just had to know what it was like. I wanted to know what it would be like to actually punch another person who was punching back and more than anything I wanted to fight! 

We didn't get a chance to spar while I was in Fresno but when I got home I realized it was definitely something I was thinking about more seriously. One night my parents were out of town and my good friend Bodey was over and I mentioned in passing that I had become interested in MMA. I told him that we should body box somewhat jokingly but I only had one pair of gloves. It just so happened that he had some hand wraps and gloves in his truck. We grinned stupidly at each other and decided that this was the best idea we had ever had. He ran out and grabbed his gloves and we began moving furniture so that we would have enough room to hit each other. I set a timer on my phone for 3 minutes and we began. I was fighting!  Neither one of us knew what we were doing and we looked completely retarded but we had an absolute blast! I utterly lost myself in the moment of trying to hit and defend. It was amazing! We mainly just caught each other in the arms but we both got our wind knocked out pretty severely once and I took several solid punches to the sternum. Then something beautiful happened. We had agreed to just punching each other in the body but Bodey accidentally missed my body on one shot. I didn't even see it coming but instantly my head was turning and I was looking dazed and wondering what had happened. I slowly came back to my senses and realized that I had been punched square in the jaw. Bodey was apologizing but I just looked at him and said that it was alright and in fact it was utterly amazing! I now knew what it felt like to get punched in the jaw, to be dazed, and to be a man. I was on top of the world. That was the moment I realized that this sport was for me. 

I was able to get a free 2 week membership at the local MMA gym by donating blood. I remember the first time I walked in and was hit by the smell of dedication, hard work, and perseverance. For those of you who don't know what that smells like is a whole lot of sweat, blood, and tears. I went to my first class which was kickboxing and tried jiujitsu right after. Everyone was absolutely amazing. They were all extremely helpful and didn't mind that I had no real idea of how to even throw a punch. Since that first class I fell in love and haven't looked back. I've been exercising more than I ever have in the past just due to pure excitement, and let's face it punching stuff is just plain fun. I'm constantly thinking about my technique and form and trying to iron out all of the kinks. I decided I'm going to get a 1 month membership to the gym so I can go more frequently and really immerse myself prior to leaving for the NAVY. I've honestly just had an absolutely amazing time and I'm so happy I was exposed to this sport. In my next post I'll go over why you should try out MMA too with some cold hard facts that prove it is awesome so stay tuned.