Do you do a lot of conditioning in aikido?

Question

my main reason for taking martial arts is to stay in shape and keep a decent amount of muscle on my bones. so i was wondering if aikido conditions you a lot. do most martial arts in general do a good amount of conditioning?

if there is a style that doesnt focus on conditioning a lot, what would that be?

Answer 1

Styles that focus a lot on conditioning are the more competitive fighting arts, such as Muay Thai. If you want a lot of conditioning, do Muay Thai. You'll learn to love a jump rope and focus pads.

Lol.

-Sean

Answer 2

Conditioning as in strength?  Not so much.

Conditioning as in endurance, breathing, cardio and flexibility?  Absolutely.

Endurance:  You get thrown over and over for an hour or more.  Its not the landing but the constant getting up over and over again.  At the beginning, I got sore after a class, now, I never get sore after training day in and day out.

Breathing:  Learning to make efficient breathing natural - that is a form of conditioning even if not what you had in mind specifically.

Cardio:  The constant motion with no breaks - throwing and being thrown in succession - it has the same effect as running or swimming.

Flexibility:  The shoulders, back and wrists especially will become more and more flexible as you train.  The legs during the pre-class stretching.  This may not be conditioning directly, but without it, you are more likely to pull a muscle and cut your conditioning session short.

I think there are many kinds of conditioning and as another poster said, it depends on your teacher and your training partners.  Some are more relaxed and take it easy.  Others are more energetic so it varies quite a bit.

At the beginning, there will probably be a good deal of strength conditioning - when you start out in softer arts, you learn right away that the instinctive response to resistance is to use strength so you will use strength.  Over time, you will need less and less of it - its still there, but you won't NEED to use it.

On the other hand there is nothing that says an Aikidoka can't lift weights if they want to.

Answer 3

There's not much conditioning in aikido.  The lesson starts with stretches, then practice rolls and side steps and then the actual lesson that can be done at a leisurely pace - depending on the teacher.  If you do aikido too fast you can hurt your partner.

So the answer to your question is; no.

Answer 4

Just because there's not a lot of physical conditioning in Aikido doesn't mean that you won't get exercise.

There's generally some stretching and warm up exercises, but as you perform techniques and take falls, your body is definitely burning energy - after a good 1-1.5 hour class, you'll know you just had a good workout :)

If you *are* interested in "competitive Aikido", there is ONE style which promotes competition - Tomiki-Ryu Aikido. Personally I have no desire to do competition, I enjoy doing JuJitsu/Aikido for the self defense and health benefits.