Aikido Fitness 

You begin Aikido/martial art training. Improved fitness is one of the big benefits you are looking for.

You have been doing Aikido for a while and want to take get stronger and make your techniques more powerful.

You have a dan test coming up and want to make sure you can get through the whole thing without physically falling apart due to fatigue.

We've been exercising even longer than training martial arts. Here are the best fitness resources we've found to compliment your Aikido training.

 Strength Training

The Training Habit
by Brooks Kubik

"To be successful your training must be a HABIT. It must be something you do on a regularly scheduled basis—like clockwork—come heck or high water."

7 steps to building the training habit, including a super-simple, super-effective workout you can do at home or at the gym, 3 days a week.

The Training Habit - Part 2
by Brooks Kubik

"The idea is to get back into the HABIT of training—not to take super hard and demanding workouts. You’ll start training harder later on—but for right now, your job is to get back into the training habit. So keep your workouts short, fast and easy."

Conditioning/Interval Training

Aikido Conditioning

Interval training—the real aerobics. Intervals are short periods of high intensity exercise, alternated with periods of recovery. Benefits include cardio-vascular conditioning, production of new capillaries, increased oxygen delivery ability, improved performance, and weight loss.

Exercises, workouts, interval timers, and recommended reading.

Recommended Products

 Conditioning/interval training

TacFit Commando
The best and most complete fitness program we know of.

TacFit Commando is based on a 4 day rotation with days dedicated to strength training, conditioning, recovery, and Prasara Yoga.

The best warm-up for Aikido and exercise

Intu-Flow
Moving a joint releases synovial fluid, which both lubricates and nurishes that joint.

Intu-Flow is a systematic, Aikido type warm up for every joint of your body.

The program takes about 14 minutes to complete.

There are 4 levels: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Master. You get the full joint-health benefits right from day 1. As you advance you gain increasing levels of coordination, balance, and the ability to relax.

Strength training

Brooks Kubik
For weight lifting, the book I would start out with is Dinosaur Training: Lost Secrets of Strength and Development, by Brooks Kubik. Intelligent, clear advice from a very smart guy. (Brooks' day job is being a lawyer, but don't hold that against him. He makes up for it after hours in his garage gym and vegetable garden.)

—Or if you're age 35 or older, or are dealing with an injury, get Brooks' new book, Gray Hair and Black Iron. How to continue lifting and progressing at any age, while minimizing the risk of injury.

The Training Habit by Brooks Kubik

Dan John - Olympic Weightlifting
Another great teacher. Dan competed in the discus for Utah State University, and was the Strength Coach and Head Track and Field Coach at Juan Diego Catholic High School in Draper, Utah.

His specialties are Olympic weightlifting and the discuss/track and field throwing events. 

Power in athletics is defined as force x acceleration.

Olympic weightlifting builds power more than any other form of exercise.

If you're young and have good knees, this form of exercise may be for you.

Never Let Go - book

Olympic Lifting for Beginners - DVD

Paul Wade - Bodyweight Exercise
Convict Conditioning: How to Bust Free of All Weakness Using the Lost
Secrets of Supreme Survival Strength
Book -304 pages

Focuses on 6 'ultimate' bodyweight exercises including 1-arm pullups and hand-stand pushups. 

The important thing is the author gives you do-able progressions to achieve them.

"Many talk about "mastering your body weight" yet Convict Conditioning actually delivers a blueprint for anyone, regardless of your current fitness. . . . This program will give me the tendon strength to blast past my previous body weight abilities and real usable strength and speed for hand-to-hand training!"
—Tim Larkin, Master Close Combat Instructor, Target Focus Training

Yoga for athletes

Prasara Yoga
The yoga of flow.

Martial art training including Aikido can tend to break your body down. Yoga practice builds your body back up.

Prasara Yoga is especially well suited to athletes because it is the yoga of movement.

Along with the traditional yoga benefits of re-aligning your body, Prasara Yoga helps you develop/regain the ability to move easily and freely in any direction.

Supplements

Joint Support

1. Read Dr. Barry Sears: The Anti-Inflammation Zone.

2. Eat right.

3. Supplement with fish oil. This fish oil from Carlson Laboratories is not only inexpensive, it has no fish taste.

These simple steps will reduce inflammation, improve the health of your joints, and your overall health.

HA Joint Formula Free Bottle Offer   Hyaluronic acid can help your body re-grow the cartilage cushion between joints. Smarter than masking knee pain with ibuprofen.