Excercise

I was just wondering guys. Do you get any excercise in Aikido. I am thinking about starting aikido but am a little wary of getting any excercise from it. I take a korean karate and get plenty from it. I am just wanting to know before I make the switch, will I get good excercise. Besides that I like everything else aikido has to offer. The thought of redirecting, throws, joint locks, etc. Thanks.

You fall down and get up a lot.

You huff, you puff (at first), you move a lot, you sweat a lot, you get quicker, you get flexible.

Put it this way, I never used to do any exercise but two years after starting Aikido I ran nine miles in 60 minutes last weekend. It has fantastic CV work, quads, calves, I've never been so close to passing out through exercise and enjoyed myself so much than at the dojo. I still drink too much, but watcha gonna do?

Julio Edge (JEbuck) wrote: I was just wondering guys. Do you get any excercise in Aikido. I am thinking about starting aikido but am a little wary of getting any excercise from it. I take a korean karate and get plenty from it. I am just wanting to know before I make the switch, will I get good excercise. Besides that I like everything else aikido has to offer. The thought of redirecting, throws, joint locks, etc. Thanks.

It depends on the dojo! Some places are a good workout, some are not. Even in the more active places it may be that you don't get a good workout because of the level of student that shows up in a given night. Finally, it's dependent on your condition as well.

Frankly, there is no absolute answer. You'll have to look and see what's going on in the dojo and even then different teachers may have different tendencies.

It depends a lot on you and the dojo you choose. Each dojo and each student is different.

I agree that it differs from Dojo to Dojo, and the training ethics of the people. Because Aikido stresses full body alignment and smooth circular movement, you can get a great cardiovascular workout by training.

Until again,

Lynn

I still drink too much, but watcha gonna do?

Amen!

I found that simply getting used to the techinques and front-back rolls was plenty of excercise. Having never taken a MA before, it was a welcome suprise... I needed the excercise, and I'm getting it with Aikido at my dojo. Lovin' it too.

Its hard to have strong directed excercise out of aikido - though it can be tiring. If you are very fit you'll probably have to do something else to maintain it (but if you are very fit, you probably are anyway). Also, as said before, depends on the class.

Ian