Hello from Victoria, Australia.

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[aiki03]

Hello from Victoria, Australia. My name is Ryan. I'm a twenty five year old. I've had some illnesses in the past but aside from my lack of fitness I'm much better these days (incase you were wondering:). My goal is to get fit in the next few months and then proceed to take up Aikido. I did some research on budo styles and decided I wanted to focus my attention on Aikido rather than my other prefference, Judo, no dispresect to anybody who practices Judo by the way, just my prefference based on my needs. I found a dojo so now I just have to prepare myself. Does anybody have any ideas as to what would be a good way to make myself as ready as possible for starting this appart from just joining the class ? I need to lose some weight and get a bit fitter. I looked at some single person exercises in an Aikido book written by Shioda for example, any way I could get some more insight into this ? I've taken some Aikido classes before but I want to get serious this time around. Anyway, Hi. See you on the forum, I guess.
Thanks.

Ryan Doherty.

[akiy]

Hi Ryan,

Welcome to AikiWeb. I hope you find a good dojo near you.

You may want to use the search function in these forums for your questions as they have been discussed before. Otherwise, you may want to repost your questions outside of the Introductions forum for more responses.

-- Jun

[aiki03]

Roger that. Thanks and thanks for the welcome. Nice to be noticed :)

[Shadowfax]

Hi and welcome. :) I was pretty out of shape when I started aikido myself. Still am in some ways but steadily improving. I would say no time like the present to start attending classes. Talk to the sensei where you intend to go about your needs as far as getting in shape without over doing it. It's better not to try learning tings out of a book or from videos you really should wait until you have a teacher who can show you the correct movements. There are things that you just won't get otherwise that could create bad habits that could take a long time to unlearn. Hard enough to get past the ones we already carry form our lives without adding new ones to the pile. ;)

[Zoe S Toth]

Ryan,

Hello! From a person who is currently losing weight doing Aikido, I would really advise going to the dojo and checking out how 'active' the style is.

Most sensei I've met are insanely talented at asking their students to do hard, yet manageable things; I've come out of classes soaked in sweat and panting yet I've never broke down in the middle of the sessions (like I've done in soccer practice before).

You do not have to be uber fit to practice aikido- its more about spirit I think anyway. But, if you show up to class a lot and work hard you will become fit.

[Tony Wagstaffe]

Hello from Victoria, Australia. My name is Ryan. I'm a twenty five year old. I've had some illnesses in the past but aside from my lack of fitness I'm much better these days (incase you were wondering:). My goal is to get fit in the next few months and then proceed to take up Aikido. I did some research on budo styles and decided I wanted to focus my attention on Aikido rather than my other prefference, Judo, no dispresect to anybody who practices Judo by the way, just my prefference based on my needs. I found a dojo so now I just have to prepare myself. Does anybody have any ideas as to what would be a good way to make myself as ready as possible for starting this appart from just joining the class ? I need to lose some weight and get a bit fitter. I looked at some single person exercises in an Aikido book written by Shioda for example, any way I could get some more insight into this ? I've taken some Aikido classes before but I want to get serious this time around. Anyway, Hi. See you on the forum, I guess.
Thanks.

Ryan Doherty.

Hello Ryan, I would suggest you build on your lower half then proceed to do the upper half, plenty of squats done slowly is always a good start. Sets of ten with a hold for as long as you can hold legs bent at 90* while holding that position, rest 20 - 30 secs then another ten up to twenty to get you started. You should work up to 100 everyday.....

Good luck.....

[aiki03]

Hello Ryan, I would suggest you build on your lower half then proceed to do the upper half, plenty of squats done slowly is always a good start. Sets of ten with a hold for as long as you can hold legs bent at 90* while holding that position, rest 20 - 30 secs then another ten up to twenty to get you started. You should work up to 100 everyday.....

Good luck.....

Good advice, thanks.

[Pauliina Lievonen]

One thing you'll find happens a lot in an aikido class is that you go down to the ground in one way or another :) and then you have to get up again. That gets tiring after a while if you're not used to it. So a very simple (but maddening) exercise you can do in preparation is lie down on the floor. And stand up again. An lie down. On your belly or back doesn't matter. And get up again. Rinse and repeat. :) Maybe listening to some music at the same time helps with motivation.

Actually I'm going to go and follow my own advice! not training for a few more weeks due to a slight injury...

Pauliina

[Patrick O'Regan]

Hi Ryan
Welcome to Aikido in Oz. My advice is to use the stairs instead of the lift/escalator at every oportunity.