Can Martial Arts Training Make You a Better Person?

Chuck Norris and his karate movies were a main reason teenage me got into martial arts. The opening montage of "Forced Vengeance," with a wild fight silhouetted against a neon billboard, captivated me, despite the absurdity of Chuck doing crazy kicks that made no sense at all, but looked spectacular. Chuck Norris was my gateway drug into what has become a life of martial arts training.

Chuck Norris movies don't typically resonate with most folks as reservoirs of empathy, yet despite the hook that got me into martial arts, the main tradition of Okinawan karate that I eventually studied has a name and motto of "yuishin" or "only heart and character matter." This means the training should help you to become a better person. Other martial arts espouse similar goals, but is any of it actually grounded in anything measurable? Does it work?

Empathy at the End of a Sword Hand

The question of whether martial arts can help you become a better person was at the heart of a recent Frontiers in Psychology paper, "Neurophysiological mechanisms of embodied empathy in martial arts" by Guy Shpak from the Netherlands. Shpak defines empathy as "the ability to understand and potentially identify with others’ cognitive, affective, and sensory states" that can promote "social interactions and prosocial behaviors, which are deeply related to compassion".

Shpak argues that traditional "martial arts specify codes and morals alongside the physical routines as an integral part of the practice, such as self-discipline, courage, honor, and more. Among these principles, the importance of social responsibility and caring for your fellow human beings is paramount."

Martial arts training is a physically grounded activity, and the construct of empathy is expressed in the context of "partner interaction involving direct physical contact and synchronous movement."

When Redirecting an Attack Is a Kind of Touch

Shpak points out that martial arts training involves considerable amounts of bodily contact and touch through "carefully managed physical interactions, including sparring, grappling, and partner drills that serve predetermined purposes (self-defense scenarios, sportive competition, sensory awareness, etc.). While striking is focused on fast and short bouts of physical contact, grappling and partner drills involve a longer duration of physical contact, which can be considered as an embodied conversation."

Additionally, training emphasizes "timing, rhythm, and shared flow" that involve "mimicry and entrainment...correlated with empathy." Mechanistic constructs of martial arts training include "externally-focused Central Autonomic Network that generates embodied feeling, the internally-focused Default Mode Network that integrates the information into self-other narrative, and the Salience Network, which evaluates relevance and moderates the two" along with the mirror neuron systems.

Partnered Touch and Oxytocin

Release of oxytocin, the so-called social hormone, is triggered by physical touch. Research by Yuri Rassovsky, Anna Harwood, Orna Zagoory-Sharon, and Ruth Feldman in Israel and Los Angeles showed that "Jiujitsu training significantly increased oxytocin levels immediately after a high-intensity sparring session" and that these levels were higher after grappling than with striking, "probably due to the type of physical contact involved".

As an important assessment of the functional importance of such training, this group subsequently found that "low-risk youths had significantly higher salivary oxytocin levels at baseline and at peak-training compared to high-risk youths". There was also a difference in "reactivity of oxytocin and cortisol secretion" that were correlated with positive "cognitive and behavioral changes".

Brain and Body Benefits of Benevolence

In contrast to purely sporting activities, traditional martial arts training can and should involve safe and regulated "social settings that gain an increased recognition for their potential to promote physiological, cognitive, affective, and social aspects of our lives" as a "form of physical activity with varied and regulated levels of physical and mental arousal, which are closely related to empathy."

Mirror Neurons Essential Reads

What Mice and Monkeys Teach Us About Mental Health

Why Family Meals Matter

While more experimental research is needed, Shpak strongly suggests that "martial arts offer a unique type of social interaction that shapes our sense of empathy in distinct ways. Moreover, when practiced persistently, the observed network modulations, from functional connectivity to structural modifications and molecular reactivity, provide a typical neurophysiological state that may facilitate the transferability of embodied empathy to other social contexts."

The takeaway for me is the idea that while we actively train with others for a discrete and limited amount of time, we are around others throughout our day. Properly applied traditional martial arts training can be an embodied practice that helps develop and extend empathy and consideration to those we train with and to our broader social interactions. So, yes, martial arts training can help you become a better person. And along the way we can still be entrained and entertained by high skill levels (and admittedly low acting skill) of martial artists like the late, great Chuck Norris.

(c) E. Paul Zehr (2026)