The Pure Cold Reality of the Fighting Arts: The Restorative Effects for Men

I’ve trained off and on in martial arts throughout my life. Okinawan Karate as a child and even got to brown belt. As an adult I trained in Muay Thai, Systema, Krav Maga and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. And then life and business and family got busy. 

So after almost 17 years and frankly a stressful few years after Covid and a wreck of a family life, I came to Thailand to train in Muay Thai with my business partner Fares. It’s good to have an escape from regular life and get the creative juices & body moving. 

And it’s no hardship, we went to a nice resort with all the amenities, an on-site sports medicine/ treatment center, a nice spa and onsen, a massive gym, lots of classes in yoga, fitness and professional Muay Thai fighters. 

Nothing better than to talk business and plan our year and initiatives after some fight training and sitting in an on-site Hot spring to recover from the day. Or even better to have a good Swedish massage to fix all the knots in your back from training. 

Imagine yourself punching, kicking and kneeing for an hour or two straight. The punches that were strong and straight are now weak and off balance. You are out of breath and you take punches and kicks yourself. There was nothing more clarifying than getting a punch in the head. When you get hurt it means you messed up badly. 

This was most men’s lives thousands of years ago. When other men would come and take what they wanted if you didn’t fight back. There is something clarifying and cleansing about martial arts. Whatever aches and pains and how exhausted you feel, it is an amazing feeling of accomplishment. You sleep so well. You wake up clear headed. Any and all anger I’ve felt has been burned out. I’m more calm and focused than I’ve ever been. Nothing like the feeling that you left everything in the ring. I think only athletes, MMA fighters and soldiers truly understand this. 

And you just get tougher. As the Norwegian special forces motto goes: “Pain is weakness leaving the body.” If this is true, I must have been VERY weak indeed. :)

I wish I had done this martial arts retreat earlier. So for all those men out there dealing with massive problems in your life, I recommend taking up martial arts. Look at what it has done for Mark Zuckerberg in the last few years, the level of confidence he has gotten from MMA training. Silicon Valley nerds can learn something here. You have to be smart, rich AND fit. Only then can you be a true full human. 

Even a week of intensive and intense training will change your perspective and life. Besides, there is a harder, harsher and tougher world coming. So this will help you get prepared for it now. As a passage in Bushido says: "The only solution for bad and violent people are good people that are more skilled in violence."