A blend of Karate and Chinese Martial Arts, Taekwondo originated in Korea. It focuses on speed and agility and helps strengthen your core. It also helps with flexibility as the techniques require you to torque your lower body when kicking. Apart from the obvious benefits, you'll also sculpt a rock hard body and we guarantee you that most rapists and the like will not want to mess with you once they get a glimpse of those biceps.
Judo dates back to 1882 and originated in Japan. It is an extremely useful martial art as the aim in judo is to toss your opponent to the ground in the most violent way possible. In fact, a lot of judo competitors have suffered broken ribs because they were thrown with that much force. Judo also teaches you various submissions such as arm-locks, chokes and many more and will help you incapacitate your attacker.
Karate uses a lot of straight punches and kicks to break down opponents defences and allow you to land with frightening accuracy. In fact, one of the best fighters on the planet, the UFC's Georges St Pierre is a Karate black belt. It teaches you to land punches and kicks without sacrificing your distance management. And apart from self-defence, it also helps with weight loss and stress reduction.
Krav Maga is a brutal martial art that teaches you to use anything around you as a weapon. Be it a pen or a frying pan, you're going to have to use it to batter your foe. It stresses on conditioning and spatial awareness so that when you are cornered you'll have the confidence to break some fools face.
Muay Thai is also known as the art of eight limbs because you use your fists, feet, knees and elbows to inflict a ton of damage. Known for their resilience and sheer toughness, the people of Thailand developed Muay Thai after noticing that the previous style, 'Muay Boran', was a little to brutal with even headbutts thrown in the mix. Muay Thai has now been refined into a martial art that all professional fighters include in their arsenal.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a martial art that doesn't require you to be a professional bodybuilder to get good at. By using leverage and technique, a smaller person can incapacitate a much larger attacker. This martial art uses arm-locks, knee-locks, foot-locks and a lot of chokes to make it one of the, if not, the most effective martial art there is today. In fact, back in 1993, when the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championships) was first organized, the person to win the whole thing was a Brazilian-Jiu-Jitsu black belt.
