Fitness Challenge:  dedicate 1 hour two times a week to working out.

"We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."                         -Aristotle
To achieve lasting change, individuals need rituals.  Building rituals requires defining very precise behaviors and performing them at very specific times--motivated by deeply held values.

On your journey toward a better you, commitment is key.  Whether you want to improve your physical fitness, feel less stressed, become better able to focus, or you want to know how to protect yourself both mentally and physically, we at Red Dragon Martial Arts can help you achieve that goal!

Select a program, choose class times that work for you, and stick with it.  That's all it takes. 

​Just remember, "Excellence is not a destination; it is a continuous journey that never ends." -Brian Tracy


​Karate strengthens the brain, relieves stress, and creates a healthier body:

According to Dr. John Rates, MD., author of the best selling book Spark, "exercise increases levels of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine--important neurotransmitters that traffic in thoughts and emotions.  Toxic levels of stress erode the connections between the billions of nerve cells in the brain and chronic depression shrinks certain areas of the brain.  Exercise unleashes a cascade of neurochemicals and growth factors that can reverse this process, physically bolstering the brain's infrastructure.  In fact, the brain responds like muscles do, growing with use, withering with inactivity.  The neurons in the brain connect to one another through "leaves" on treelike branches, and exercise causes those branches to grow and bloom with new buds, thus enhancing brain function at a fundamental level."

Exercise is also critical to learning.  Dr. Rates continues "exercise improves learning on three levels: first, it optimizes your mind-set to improve alertness, attention, and motivation; second, it prepares and encourages nerve cells to bind to one another, which is the cellular basis for logging in new information; and third, it spurs the development of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus."

Dr. Rates then clarifies that not all exercise is equal, and that karate is like "Miracle Grow" for the brain:  "It's important to mix in some form of activity that demands coordination beyond just putting one foot in front of the other.  Aerobic exercise combined with complex activity have different beneficial effects on the brain.  The evidence suggests your regimen has to include skill acquisition and aerobic exercise."  Dr. Rates continues by explaining why karate specifically helps your brain:  "Karate simultaneously taxes the cardiovascular system and the brain.  While the aerobic exercise elevates neurotransmitters, creates new blood vessels that pipe in growth factors, and spawns new cells, the complex activities put all that material to use by strengthening and expanding networks.  The more complex the movements, the more complex the synaptic connections.  The prefrontal cortex will co-opt the mental power of the physical skills and apply it to other situations.  Thus, learning karate engages nerve cells throughout the brain.  To take the example of karate, as you perfect certain forms, you can incorporate them into more complicated movements, and before long you have new responses to new situations.  The fact that you have to react to another person [in sparring and grappling] puts further demands on your attention, judgement, and precision of movement, exponentially increasing the complexity of the situation.  Add in the fun and social aspect, and you're activating the brain and the muscles all the way down through the system.  And then you're primed and ready to move on to the next challenge, which is what it's all about."

Karate reverses the effects of chronic stress and protects against disease:
Rockefeller University neuroscientist Bruce McEwen writes in his book The End of Stress as We Know It that "the mind is so powerful that we can set off the stress response just by imagining ourselves in a threatening situation."  We can literally think ourselves into a frenzy.  Fortunately, Dr. Rates explains that "we can also literally run ourselves out of that frenzy.  The purpose of the fight-or-flight response is to mobilize us to act, so physical activity is the natural way to prevent the negative consequences of stress."  Dr. Rates further continues "It's well known that the way to build muscles is to break them down and let them rest.  The same paradigm applies to nerve cells, which have built-in repair and recovery mechanisms activated by mild stress.  The great thing about exercise is that it fires up the recovery process in our muscles and our neurons.  It leaves our bodies and minds stronger and more resilient, better able to handle future challenges, to think on our feet and adapt more easily.  At every level, from the microcellular to the psychological, exercise not only wards off the ill effects of chronic stress; it can also reverse them.  Exercise increases the efficiency of intercellular energy production, allowing neurons to meet fuel demands without increasing toxic oxidative stress.  We also get the janitorial service that disposes of broken bits of DNA and other by-products of normal cellular use and aging--both of which are thought to help prevent the onset of cancer and neurodegeneration.  Research proves that exercise combats stress-related diseases."  Dr. Rates further explains "Both stress and inactivity play big roles in the development of arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and other autoimmune disorders.  However, exercise can dramatically improve immune function."  Doctors even recommend exercise for cancer patients, both to help boost the immune response and to fend off stress and depression.  And research indicates that exercise may be a key factor in preventing cancer.  In his national best seller Spark, Dr. Johan Ratey, MD illuminates this connection:  "Twenty-three studies have shown: an increased risk of breast cancer for those women who are inactive; physically active people have 50 percent less change of developing colon cancer; and active men have a 70 percent lower chance of developing the advanced, typically fatal form of prostate cancer."

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Join karate today.  It will help keep your brain sharp, decrease your stress levels, help you feel better, and it's fun!