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Exercise that involves complex movement impacts our brains such as martial arts and karate that involve a plethora of coordinated movements that causes more connections to grow between neurons in our brains. Exercise, like kata, forces us to improve balance and coordination that overcomes clumsiness while reducing shyness and even helps us make social connections, friends or dojo-mates, that also benefit the introverted to connect outside their comfort zone.
These types of movements or exercises or drills and kata and kumite and basics strengthen our neural networks of the cerebellum, that area responsbile not only for balance and physical coordination but also for coordinationg social interactions.
There is also a psychic benefit; a karate sensei involved in a study that observed that adult students gained control over their bodies they also gained control over their lives. Attaining better self-control benefits not just health and well-being, but also the skills necessary to handle volatile situations requiring self-protection.
Research further indicates that these kinds of exercise also affect the basal ganglia and corpus callosum, sharpening memory and increasing the capacity to master new information which is a boon for the aging martial artists/karate-ka. It is felt that this contributed a good deal to the long life span of Okinawan's, the founders and leading proponents of the karate community.
MOVEMENT: Kata, karate and martial arts are the contributors to the larger activity of movement that nourishes the brain. We already understand as karate-ka that the mind leads the body while the body leads the mind, in short the motor functions are crucial to all the other bran functions.
There are many connections between motor and cognitive functions suggesting that this type of physical activity, all physical activity, improves motor functions and cognition.
Movement through such activities release what we need to bring the body back into balance because as human beings we are meant to be moving and in my eyes there is no better way to move than through karate/tai chi, etc.
Remember, movement involves both the physical and psychological, i.e., movement of the body mass and changes or developments implemented in the mind/brain achieved from the study and understanding of words, idea's, and philosophies, etc.
ADDENDUM
Another study of older folks practicing Tai-chi-chuan, those who practiced it on a regular basis have achieved improvement in both their physical and mental abilities. Coordinated movement of tai-chi increase concentration, will power, and balance, and also enhance the ability to cope with physical and emotional stress. Tai-chi consists of active exercises, postures, and the regulation of breathing that when combined achieve relaxation and meditation reducing excitability, aggressiveness, and enhancing emotional and life satisfaction.
It is noted that the primary motor cortex, basal ganglia, and cerebellum, which coordinate physical movement, also coordinate the movement of thought. Just as the MA/Karate endeavors order the physical movements needed for moving, they order the sequence of thoughts needed for thinking. Fundamental movement such as walking trigger the most deeply ingrained neural firing patters in these parts of the brain.
When you consider that movement is involved in almost every aspect of the human experience: thoughts move from one topic to another, emotions stir us deeply and language is essentially a complex semantic movement of the mind and tongue, a sophisticated form of motion that allows us to manipulate the contents of our world, our reality. To improve our brains we have to move our bodies, take action, get going and karate/martial arts are one of many ways to achieve that goal.
Ratey, John J. “A User’s Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention and the Four Theaters of the Brain.” Pantheon. January 1, 2001.
For reference and sources and professionals go here: Bibliography (Click the link)
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