If you’re a fan of the UFC, then you’ve definitely noticed a difference between the bodies of the martial arts experts (hey, Muay Thai guy!) and everyone else.  The fighters who are invested in long-term martial arts training are long, lean, and sport some seriously defined muscles (unlike other fighters, who mainly go for bulk).  You would love to lose the bat wings and have rock hard triceps, or replace that extra bit of belly fat (that just won’t go away no matter how many crunches you do) with a neat little six-pack, but you’re not sure if you can hold out for ten years of intensive training.  So how can you get a body like a martial arts expert?

For starters, you don’t need to excel in Karate or Muay Thai in order to look like you do.  Certainly training in martial arts is beneficial in many ways.  Most practices promote the health of your body, mind, and spirit in addition to the physical training.  And you can learn both the principles that guide a particular field of martial arts while you reap the benefits of body control and conditioning.  It should come as no surprise that the best way to get cut like you do martial arts is to actually do them (and by the way, you’ll see results long before you ever reach expert level).

However, you can also practice the same principles, sans fighting, by looking into one of the many exercise programs that uses martial arts techniques.  One great example is TaeBo, which gained notoriety through the efforts of trainer Billy Blanks.  But in all honesty, this is just a modified form of the more ubiquitous art of kick-boxing, which utilizes high and low kicks and a variety of punches in tandem with aerobic exercise.  The great thing is, this type of training allows you lose weight while working all the major muscle groups and increasing flexibility and range of motion (plus, all that twisting and crunching is great for your core).  And because it generally doesn’t involve weights, you can get defined lean muscles rather than the bulky ones brought on by lifting.  Most martial arts (like other types of conditioning) also encourage cross-training like running, biking, swimming, or weight-lifting to improve cardiac function and work specific muscle groups, so you may want to add these into your routine.

And keep in mind that diet will certainly play a role in getting the martial arts body you want.  Unless you start out pretty skinny, you won’t want to bulk, so ditch the high-cal protein shakes.  Cutting, by definition, requires you to lose fat as you gain muscle, so find a diet that incorporates healthy complex carbs for energy (you’re going to need them!), lean protein (chicken, turkey, fish), and electrolytes like sodium, calcium, magnesium, and potassium for recovery (try smart waters or electrolyte capsules if you can’t get enough in your daily diet).  You can get cut like a martial arts expert if you’re willing to commit to the program and (literally) work your butt off!

Martin Longreen is a fitness buff and writer for the popular self defense techniques website Hertao.

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