29/08/2026
I get asked often for advice on choosing a martial art and less often on choosing an exercise option.
Most of the time these are people wanting help choosing between our classes of course but my advice is, I think, universal.
You firstly need to understand your goals and find a school that aligns with them. The same is said for generally choosing a form of exercise.
I say school, not art because you might want to compete as a goal and so saying Karate! MMA! Judo! Is fairly irrelevant. You want to find a school focussed on competition. You might want to learn spectacular kicks, that rules out judo and generally points at Taekwon-Do, Kyokushinkai, Capoeira etc. but if your secondary goal or even primary goal is self defence then you need to pick a school with a good focus on this.
Same for exercise. If you want muscles you need CrossFit, weight training etc. but if you also want cardio add in a second.
For weight loss you need a prolonged, steady burn but you can choose form lots:
Various gym kit
Skipping
Working a bag, steadily
Cycling
Etc
Now. Once you have narrowed this down to a reasonable list try them.
Now here is the clincher.
You will hear many people telling you that you ’must’ do this style as all other styles fail in this area or that.
As a rule of thumb ignore this advice. The people who give it do the thing they are trying to get you into. It has changed their lives, fulfilled their needs and they LOVE doing it.
You might not.
My bottom line is this. Pick something you really like to do, and pick someone with whom you really enjoy doing it with.
The absolute main requirement for SUCCESS is CONSISTENCY. Let’s make up a martial art. We’ll call it Moo Cow Milk.
It is the best martial art in the world, in everything. You try it, you hate it, you stick at it for a few months, you quit.
What good did it do? Not much.
Now ignore the comments saying ‘one day of x is better than a lifetime of y’.
Pick something you love to do, and you will do it often, you will train hard and you will gain.
Hate one, do another.
If you love it you will not persevere you will flourish.
That’s it.
