As a health provider, I might be biased to always try to include health benefits to Aikido but today, people of all ages are showing signs of lack of physical activities, and it is detrimental to their physical and mental health.
Because people are becoming less active, there is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the human body besides gaining weight. Muscles are getting tighter and tighter, and the joints are slowly stiffening. It can start happening at any age. I have shared on my website that I offered classes for Parkinson patients. I am mentioning this, here, because people who are affected by Parkinson syndrome are experiencing a lot of stiffness and rigidity in their muscles and joints and the work that I offered through Aikido helps those people tremendously. Imagine how people from the general population can benefit from aikido.
Every class begins with a 10 to 15 minutes warm-up and stretches to get the body and the mind ready for the class.
Those exercises include:
Arms and shoulders rotation and stretches.
Neck rotation and stretches.
Ankles, Hips, Knees, and lower back rotation and stretches.
And we shall not forget to breathe.
As we can see, just during the first 15 minutes of training, every joint gets some care and attention. Most classes are about one hour so after the training, people usually feel lighter and physically and mentally relaxed. Personally, I always get a good sleep after my training.
Aikido is for everyone, and it doesn’t matter if the beginner student is fit or not. A beginner is still a beginner no matter what. A student shall not feel stressed about not being able to do something. It is normal for the beginner student to not be able to do something.
If a student feels weak, he will gain strength with his aikido training and if a student is already strong, he will learn how to manage his strength.
At the dojo, we prioritize safety and the student’s well-being. Students are recommended to start at their own pace, and I personally recommend starting slowly and being consistent.
By being healthy, we live better lives.
