Fencing and Your Health: The Full Picture

Fencing is a healthy sport for body and mind at almost any age: it is a vigorous full-body workout, it exercises attention and decision-making, and it can be played for a lifetime. The evidence is encouraging but mostly shows association, not proof of cause.

This is the overview that ties together what the sport does for the body and the mind, with links to the research and to the fuller articles on each topic.

A full-body workout

Fencing is a real workout. A laboratory study of 15 skilled fencers in simulated competition measured around 8.6 METs, which the authors called a moderate physical demand, moderately recruiting both aerobic and anaerobic energy systems (PubMed, 2014). The constant footwork builds agility, balance and leg strength, while blade work and posture engage the core and upper body. It is also a useful tool for fencing and weight loss and for fencing and bone health.

We go deeper in our article on fencing as a workout.

A sharper mind

Fencing is as much mental as physical. Research links experienced fencers to faster reaction times and better response inhibition, and to strong anticipation and decision-making under pressure. We cover these in fencing and reaction time and fencing and decision-making. Because fencing is an open-skill sport, demanding constant adaptation, it engages attention and self-control in a way steady, repetitive exercise may not.

Mood, stress and wellbeing

Exercise is one of the best-evidenced ways to support mood and ease stress, and fencing adds a rare quality of absorption that quiets the mind. We look at the research and its caveats in fencing and mental health. It is not a treatment for any condition, but as an absorbing, social, active pursuit, it is a healthy habit.

A sport for a lifetime

A major health benefit of fencing is that it lasts. It welcomes children from a young age and adults well into later life, and a systematic review of Olympic combat sports in older adults found improved strength, balance and attention in the trials it covered (boxing, judo, karate and taekwondo; none were fencing). We explore this in fencing and the ageing brain. And its injury rate is low, as we cover in how safe is fencing. If you are older or living with a health condition, see fencing, balance and falls in older adults, fencing and Parkinson’s disease and fencing after breast cancer, and check with your doctor first.

So is fencing good for you?

Read across the research, and fencing is a legitimately healthy sport for body and mind, at almost any age. Much of the fencing-specific evidence shows association rather than proof of cause, and none of it makes fencing a medical treatment. But as a way to get vigorous, mentally engaging, lifelong exercise that people actually enjoy, it stands up well.

Making it a habit

The best sport for your health is the one you will keep doing, and fencing has an unusual habit of hooking people. The coaches at Fencing Masters scale the session to you, whether you are a young beginner or a seasoned veteran. Once you join, we lend a mask, jacket and blade for your first lessons (8 in a group class, on a membership of 8 weeks or longer, or 10 in private coaching with a 10-lesson pack and 5 with a 5-lesson pack or single lessons).

A single lesson will tell you whether you enjoy it: request a trial.