Needs as the 2022 and 2021 studies place them

As of 2023, midlife women have a strong interest in health. Longer lives have followed technology and medicine, and midlife now makes up a large share of the population. Midlife women meet bodily change such as the menopause, and with it a drop in confidence, a sense of loss, and a low mood. Midlife, before later life, is placed as a time when stress and a sense of crisis can bring darker feeling, and for midlife women that crisis can be more serious. In 2022, Lee Hwa-yoon’s doctoral study at Kyonggi University found great satisfaction from keeping social ties in leisure, and a positive bearing on mental health. Leisure done alone is placed at 80.4 percent, and leisure shared with family, friends, or neighbors at 19.6 percent. Women in the shared kind met depression less often and kept a better subjective state of health; spending leisure alone can even raise a low mood. Women with a spouse, or living in a city, reported still higher satisfaction in those ties. In Park Hye-ran’s 2021 master’s study at Korea National Sport University, the main reasons for coming to life sports are “keeping and promoting health” at 42.9 percent, “using leisure” at 18.2 percent, and “managing shape and weight” at 17.9 percent. The share for easing stress and using leisure is placed as having risen from the year before.

Taekwondo is a whole-body practice that can strengthen the body and help keep mental health. In Kim Tae-un’s 2006 master’s study at Yongin University, a training group showed higher social, academic, and general self-esteem than a group that did not train, and kept stronger mental health amid depression, hostility, and anxiety. Longer and more frequent training tended to strengthen those values. Steady practice, the essay says, can help midlife women raise self-esteem and a resistance to mental stress. Lee Seung-ah’s 2021 master’s study is also named, on how midlife women’s taekwondo training bears on the life of a taekwondo school, for the point that the practice can raise strength and flexibility and, at the same time, concentration, patience, a steadier mind, and an ability to protect oneself, and can help with the bodily change and psychological difficulty midlife women meet, as well as with fitness and social exchange.

Three program ideas, and a safer way to train

A shared poomsae program with music draws on Oh Jeong-seon’s 2016 finding that midlife women’s goal-oriented learning motivation is higher than men’s, and higher still when learning is joined to music. Combining music with poomsae can offer a more enjoyable training, with a focus on flexibility and lower-body strength, and can help social exchange arise naturally. Group classes can form a bond, and poomsae as a repeating whole-body exercise can also help heart-and-vessel health and the management of weight. A stress-relief breaking program keeps in view Mun Byeong-yeong’s 2009 finding that, in women, training reduced anxious and withdrawn conduct, though less markedly than in men. Breaking, done together, should be training for bodily and mental relief and for a stronger ability to protect oneself, and a chance to cheer and support one another. Meditation and the management of breathing, before and after practice, answer a worry about injury and about training that concentrates only on bodily intensity; the essay places the usefulness of meditation as already shown in taekwondo training, and a group format lets women share experience and find emotional support.

Injury should not be overlooked. In 2020, Ma Yeo-bin’s study of injury by competition event placed the main sites as the foot, the leg, the hand, and the waist, with a higher frequency in the foot and the leg, and with ligament damage, bruising, muscle pain, and sprain among the types. A program for midlife women should strengthen the foot and the leg in advance, center on movements fitted to their bodily traits rather than on excessive ones, and include stretching and a warm-up, so that they can train safely and stay with life sports over a longer time. In a present of midlife change, stress, and a low mood, often worsened by broken social ties, a lack of programs fitted to midlife women is placed as a large problem. Taekwondo, the essay says, can offer play and a steadier mind, and can, through social exchange, offer the value of supporting one another. This page stays with the 2022, 2021, 2016, 2009, 2006, and 2020 figures as those studies place them, and with the 2023 interest in health as the essay places it, and does not add later official participation tallies. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. As of 2023, midlife women have a strong interest in health. Modern society has seen an overall rise in the standard of living through advances in technology and medicine, and with that, life expectancy has continued to increase. As the structure of the population has changed, midlife people have come to occupy a large share. Midlife women, through bodily change such as the menopause, meet a drop in confidence, a sense of loss, and a low mood, and the keeping of health and a rise in the quality of life have come forward as important tasks. Midlife is a period, before the passage into later life, in which people experience negative emotional trouble such as depression through various kinds of stress and a sense of crisis in life, and in the case of midlife women this crisis can be seen as more serious. In Lee Hwa-yoon (2022), that study found that midlife women feel great satisfaction from keeping social relations in leisure activity, and that this also has a positive effect on mental health. The study classified midlife women’s types of leisure activity largely into two: among them, leisure activity of a solitary type, done alone, was 80.4 percent, the most. By contrast, leisure activity of a shared type, done with family or friends or neighbors, occupied a relatively small share at 19.6 percent. The important point, however, is that midlife women who do shared leisure activity experience depression less than women who do solitary leisure activity, and keep a better subjective state of health. This also agrees with other studies, and tells us that leisure activity done alone can rather increase a low mood. Midlife women who take part in shared leisure activity feel greater satisfaction in relations with friends or neighbors, and raised their overall satisfaction with social relations. Midlife women who have a spouse, or who live in a city, reported higher satisfaction in these relations. This means that shared leisure activity strengthens social relations and, through that, leads to keeping a more positive mental and bodily state of health. In the case of midlife women, it is necessary to keep and strengthen social relations continuously through shared leisure activity. In addition, among the main reasons for approaching life sports, “keeping and promoting health” appeared highest at 42.9 percent. The largest motive for taking part in physical activity is related to health, and “using leisure” at 18.2 percent and “managing shape and weight” at 17.9 percent followed. Park Hye-ran, “A plan for activating taekwondo among midlife women,” master’s thesis, Korea National Sport University Graduate School of Sport and Leisure Studies, 2021, Seoul. The share for “easing stress and using leisure” appeared as having increased compared with the previous year, and this shows that midlife people have a great interest not only in health but also in mental steadiness and in the use of leisure. Therefore, midlife women who train should be considered as finding that taekwondo, beyond simple exercise, is of great help in recovering confidence and in easing stress. Taekwondo, as a whole-body exercise, strengthens physical fitness, improves the quickness and muscle needed in daily life, and keeps and promotes mental health. Physical activity such as taekwondo appeared to have a great positive effect on midlife women’s self-esteem and mental health. A taekwondo training group had higher social, academic, and general self-esteem than a non-training group, and kept strong mental health even in mental difficulties such as a low mood, hostility, and anxiety. Kim Tae-un, “The effect of self-esteem according to the form of participation in taekwondo training on mental health,” master’s thesis, Yongin University, 2006, Gyeonggi. This means that taekwondo, beyond simple bodily training, is of great help in forming mental steadiness and a positive self-image. The longer the period of taekwondo training, the more social self-esteem and mental health in the face of hostility were strengthened, and the more frequent the training, the more the average values of self-esteem and mental health tended to rise. If midlife women take part steadily in physical activity such as taekwondo, this can help in raising self-esteem and in growing a resistance to various mental stress factors. Lee Seung-ah, “The effect of midlife women’s taekwondo training on the activation of a taekwondo school,” master’s thesis, Korea National Sport University Graduate School of Sport and Leisure Studies, 2021, Seoul, is also named, for the point that taekwondo, beyond a simple martial art, is today a sport gaining popularity worldwide, an exercise that can strengthen at once not only bodily health but mental steadiness and an ability to protect oneself, and that, as a whole-body exercise, has an outstanding effect in growing muscle and flexibility and, at the same time, in growing concentration of mind and patience; these traits are very beneficial for midlife women, because they can help in overcoming the bodily change and psychological difficulty these women experience, and taekwondo, through a rise in fitness and through social exchange, also helps midlife women live a more lively and meaningful life. First, a shared poomsae program with music. According to Oh Jeong-seon (2016), it can be confirmed that midlife women’s goal-oriented learning motivation appeared higher than men’s. In learning motivation, it appeared still higher for midlife women when women were together with music. This means that they are taking part more actively in education and activity in order to reach a goal they themselves have set. Joining this goal-oriented motivation to a taekwondo program can be very effective. If one considers combining music and poomsae movements so as to offer women a more enjoyable training experience, a good effect can be hoped for. Through poomsae movements that consider women’s bodily traits, the focus is on strengthening flexibility and lower-body muscle, and training combined rhythmically with music adds to the pleasure of the exercise. Further, it comes close to midlife women in a friendly way, and helps social exchange be promoted naturally through exercise. Poomsae is a repeating, whole-body exercise, and it promotes heart-and-vessel health and increases the burning of calories, so it is also of great help in the management of weight, and through group classes a bond is formed among trainees, and from this a positive effect on mental steadiness and on easing stress can also be hoped for. Second, a stress-relief breaking program. According to Mun Byeong-yeong (2009), there was a difference in the effect of women’s and men’s taekwondo training on mental and bodily conduct. In the case of men, when they trained in taekwondo they showed more positive change in hyperactivity, anxious conduct, withdrawn conduct, and aggressive conduct than when they did other exercise or did not train. By contrast, in the case of women, taekwondo training was effective in reducing anxious conduct and withdrawn conduct, but compared with men this effect was relatively less marked. When taekwondo is joined to a life-sports program for midlife women, there is a need to consider this trait. Midlife women are likely to have a greater interest not only in bodily training but in strengthening mental steadiness and in easing anxiety. Therefore, when a taekwondo program is designed, it should not stop at simply physical activity, but should consider a mental element. Breaking should not be simple exercise, but should be important training that strengthens bodily and mental relief and an ability to protect oneself. If women take part together as a group in breaking training, they can cheer and support one another and strengthen social ties. An environment such as the above will be of great help for women in recovering confidence and in coming to have a still firmer ability to cope. Third, meditation and the management of breathing in taekwondo training. One of the reasons women hesitate to choose taekwondo as a life sport is a concern about the risk of injury and about a limited way of training. This concern exists because taekwondo training often concentrates only on bodily intensity. But today, as the efficacy of meditation has been demonstrated in taekwondo training, it is being shown that a program that includes meditation can offer both bodily safety and mental steadiness. Meditation is very effective, during taekwondo training, in promoting psychological steadiness and in easing stress. Therefore, when a taekwondo program is designed, a meditative element should be included so that midlife women can train safely, and so that they can seek not only bodily training but also mental health. This program helps women find mental steadiness through taekwondo and keep an inward peace. By including meditation and the management of breathing before and after taekwondo training, trainees come to learn a way to govern the mind and to manage stress. Meditation raises concentration and makes a state in which a person can sink into the training, and the management of breathing helps in maximizing the effect of a movement and in regulating the use of energy. Also, this program proceeds as a group, offering an environment in which women can share one another’s experience and obtain emotional support, and if it is made so that an inward steadiness can be found through taekwondo, it will be of great help to midlife women. A program that reduces the risk of injury. Taekwondo is an excellent exercise that can promote bodily and mental health for women at the same time, but the point that a risk of injury exists in that process also cannot be overlooked. According to Ma Yeo-bin (2020), the main sites of injury occurring during taekwondo training include the foot, the leg, the hand, the waist, and the like, and the frequency of injury in the foot and the leg appeared high. This is because taekwondo has many movements that use the legs, such as kicking. As for the kinds of injury, ligament damage, bruising, muscle pain, sprain, and the like often occur, and can vary according to the intensity of training and the kind of technique. Ma Yeo-bin, “A study of types of injury in athletes according to the taekwondo competition event, and of plans for meeting them,” master’s thesis, Korea National Sport University Graduate School, 2020, Seoul. Therefore a life-sports program for midlife women should be designed in a direction that minimizes this risk of injury. Because midlife women have relatively weaker muscle and joints, the risk of injury can become higher, so it is necessary to develop a safe program that can prevent injury when training in taekwondo. For example, strength exercise for the muscle of the foot and the leg should be carried out thoroughly in advance, and a program centered on tailored movements that consider women’s bodily traits, rather than excessive movements, should be run. Also, in order to prevent injury, stretching before and after training and a proper warm-up should be suitably included. Making muscle and joints supple, reducing the possibility that injury will occur, and making it so that midlife women can train safely in taekwondo will be an important element not only for the promotion of health but for being able to continue life sports over a long term. In conclusion, in modern society midlife women, together with bodily change such as the menopause, have a high possibility of experiencing mental stress and a low mood. This problem can be further deepened through a break in social relations and through psychological isolation. Many midlife women, through daily stress and through difficulty in the management of weight, are having difficulty in keeping health. In this situation, the point that there is a lack of taekwondo life-sports programs fitted to midlife women will be a large problem. In order to resolve this problem, taekwondo can, the writer thinks, be an excellent method that can offer midlife women a large element of play and a sense of mental steadiness. Taekwondo, going beyond simple bodily exercise, through a process of developing body, mind, and spirit in balance, raises the value of socialization and strengthens self-esteem. Midlife women can, through taekwondo, promote not only bodily health but mental health at the same time. With the needs and traits of midlife looked at in the main part in view, it should be still more activated as a life-sports program that can keep health for midlife women and at the same time give enjoyment. Taekwondo will be able to offer them, together with bodily training, the value of being able to support one another through social exchange. It is hoped that, in life sports, taekwondo will become a sport that can give midlife women health and happiness. This page stays with the 2022, 2021, 2016, 2009, 2006, and 2020 figures as those studies place them, and with the 2023 interest in health as the essay places it, and does not add later official participation tallies.

Last updated: 14 November 2026