Aikido And Our Health

Aikido can be practiced at varying degrees, by anyone whether there young, old, have an injury or are physically impaired. O Sensei (Morihei Ueshiba) I believe accepted people of any age and condition, even over 60 and patiently helped them develop their Aikido.

Aikido improves our physical health and our spiritual health by training the body, mind and the spirit.

You don’t have to be able to roll, break-fall, be extremely agile or move at great speed to participate. You just have to want to do it - the enjoyment comes as you learn aikido. At our club in Sully, we have members ranging from 7 years of age to 68. Some of these have either asthma, cancer, heart conditions, muscle wasting etc and don’t think it is just the older Aikidoka’s that this applies too. Illness doesn’t distinguish between age, but one thing they have in common is the enjoyment and sense of achievement they gain through learning Aikido.

With Aikido you are stretching, bending, rolling, you’re breathing deeply and using you’re Ki (life force / spirit) while you’re moving; all this helps in our daily lives. Another benefit is, for that hour or two you can forget about everything else and immerse yourself in your training.

In aikido we learn how to breathe deeply and purpose filling our lungs to capacity and expelling almost completely. We train not only our bodies but our minds too, while learning how to accept the pain from the techniques we shift our focus of thought, so we can accept it and help our bodies to become more supple and receptive.

When you feel good and your spirit is lifted, then your worries and ailments all seem lessened. I would like to wish a big thank you to all who practice and participate in Aikido.