If we talk about martial arts maybe the first thing crossed our mind is Kung Fu, Muay Thai, Wing Chun, or other Hollywood based fighting scene.
All of them are depicted in the movie, so often, as legendary practices which come from remote areas and rough places.
The masters or inventors of those martial arts always portrayed as a ‘mythical’ person with enormous physical abilities and amazing mental enlightenment.
To master each of their “style”, it needs an elongated period of time and great dedication.
Even if there are many benefits Shaolin Qigong and also health benefits of Muay Thai for females which scientifically-proven, but, here come the questions: Are those Hollywood stuffs real? Then, how about Pencak Silat?
For the first questions, we cannot say if that is real or that is not. But, for the second one, for sure, Pencak Silat tend to as equal as them.
Pencak Silat is martial art which comes from Nusantara Archipelago, Indonesia specifically.
It is spread across a vast area of South-east Asia including Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, South Philippines and Thailand, and other Indonesian-spread areas.
Pencak Silat is a martial art which demonstrating a full-body combat, grappling and throwing also implementing some specific weaponry.
Today, Pencak Silat is competed in numerous international sports events like Pencak Silat World Championship, SEA Games, and Asian Games.
Nowadays, the use of Pencak Silat within Hollywood fighting scene is more common. We can see it within some action movies like John Wick 3 – Parabellum or Fast and Furious 6.
Now, enough with the movie geek things and comes to the main discussion: What exactly Pencak Silat is? Are there any benefits of Pencak Silat on the mental and physical health?
Hence, to answer those questions, here are five health benefits of practicing Pencak Silat for mental and physical’. Is there any differences with the benefits Kung-Fu horse stance:
1. Stand as physical exercise.
Like we already know, Pencak Silat is martial art, which means that it requires a lot of physical activities and movement.
Some of them even need a prolonged period of body adaptations in order to start the practice.
These kinds of doing may keep people’s body stay energetic and fit. Even some physical instructors recommend best bodyweight exercises for Muay Thai.
A research from Revista Española de Cardiología Journals showed that regular physical exercises may give many bodily benefits. That means when you do Pencak Silat, you keep your body physically healthy.
2. Let you away from awful organ failure.
Like any other exercise, martial arts especially Pencak Silat let you to implicate a lot of physical conjugation, like the submission of upper and lower body movements, elaborate respiration sequences, also relation of perspiration and metabolic system.
In that case, a study believed that those multifarious physical exercises may prevent physical disruption called as ‘cardiovascular risk factor’ like diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, etc. What a good way to keep the body healthy.
3. Prolonged your life expectancy.
More than those benefits above, a regular physical exercise such as martial arts and especially Pencak Silat may also give you ‘more time’ to live your life.
A study said that taking physical activity for “moderate intensity” (for minimum 30 minutes 5 days per week) or “high intensity” (for 20 minutes 3 days per week) as a daily regular basis is able to prevent the prompts of organ failure and diseases which also increases the mortality rate.
So, not only that you can do self-defense, but Pencak Silat will make you ageless too.
4. Improving physical performance.
It is so clear that people who encourage some specific sports are having great development of physical performances, as the instances: their agility, durability, stamina, power, and many others physical aspects.
Even the very foundation of sports competition is to examine the most skilled athletes in those sports branches.
Especially martial arts, which combined many of those things into single practices, are the best choice in improving physical performance – based on a study. In that point, Pencak Silat will depart from.
5. Keep your mental healthy.
Of course a healthy body will also lead to a healthy mind – at least there was a proverb which was sang that way.
“Mens sana in corpore sano” in Latin is literary translated as “a healthy mind within a healthy body”.
Moreover, since martial arts also needs the deployment of sharp observance for an accurate body coordination and movement precision, the mind must always keep stable and steady both mentally and emotionally.
Actually, that’s the things that will make a Pencak Silat practitioner becoming a true “Jawara” (champion). Not so different with the psychological benefits Kung-Fu, right?
Therefore, those are five health benefits of practicing Pencak Silat for mental and physical’ which can add some insight for you.
Source:
Cordero, A., Masiá, M. D., & Galve, E. (2014). Physical exercise and health. Revista Española de Cardiología (English Edition), 67(9), 748-753.