D i s c l a i m e r :
Don’t regard this post as a proposed ‘method’, not even as a general or particular truth. It reflects solely my own views and the extremely little experience on light weights training and its impact on my Aikido training.
One of the first things I considered when starting Aikido was that, since I’ve led an extremely sedentary life, I’m not “cut out” for this kind of thing. I thought that my poor physical form was going to be a problem, at 165 cm height and poor muscle tone. Only after a while it occurred to me that Asian martial arts masters were often shorter than me. So I got over the height thing, but the low physical strength problem remained.
About 2 or 3 years ago I bought two light weights, of 3 kg each, but I found I was too lazy to exercise regularly i.e. for long periods of time. However, last summer I actually exercised for about a month and my physical shape improved.
So, when starting Aikido, I said to myself “What the heck, if I’m capable of changing my daily routine in order to ‘fit in’ the training schedule, I might as well try to weight lift regularly, who knows – maybe it might actually help”. Apparently this does help.
So, once again, I’m not talking about heavy weight lifting, I’m talking about the ‘fitness’ type of weights, light weights, in the range of 3 to 5 kg each. If you want to improve your shape, you don’t want to pose any danger to your joints, so you just need to stimulate the muscular system, the blood flow and the cardiac rhythm. I find light weights for this to be ideal.
Also, I’ve found out by experimenting on me that it’s best to do slow motions, good for overall muscle resistance.
Keep in mind that the most important stage in weight training is the recovery stage: this is when the muscles recover and when you actually ‘put on strength’. So you most certainly don’t want to play Superman and lift weights until you’re sore and then you ache for 3 days at each move :)
Just train daily or once every two days and design a series of exercises that work best on you. Don’t run through them! Just inhale, lift, exhale and then come back slowly to the initial position. For a series of exercises with a “count” of 20-20-20-20-20-10 that I found to “work out” for me, the results are visible in at most 2 weeks.
I’m not interested in growing muscular mass – that’s not useful, at least not for my purposes; I need muscular tone, ‘muscular fiber’ so to speak, good mobility and overall endurance, so this is why I chose light weights training and slow motion moves. After finishing the 20-20-20-20-20-10 series, I go for 10-20 push-ups, 10-20 abs and 10-20 squats and then, if I feel I’m able to, I repeat the weights series.
Overall, excepting the visible physical result, I found another advantage to these ‘force series’ that I do at home. At the end of April and beginning of May, with the Easter and all that, there were about two weeks when the Aikido classes were not held. The trainings for “getting in shape” for the grade test started just then (after the two weeks pause). I was very disappointed that I got out of shape really bad. It felt I was clumsier than ever before. However, one thing alone was OK after the interruption: apparently my light weights training program was good for my endurance and flexibility.
One day during those trainings I was practicing ude osae (or ikkyo) with another (then) white belt. The guy was fairly big comparing to me and really solid. Large and strong joints, large hands etc. I was the uke (the attacker) and, after he stepped out the line of attack, the atemi (strike to a part of the body performed by nage, or the one who defends, in order to make uke lose balance), after the un-balance and the tai sabaki, he got me in the final ude osae pin. Still, something didn’t feel right. Although his grip on my wrist and elbow was firm, I didn’t feel like tapping out. Basically, he was just holding me pinned to the ground: I couldn’t get up no matter what. Since the form of Aikido we practice is focused mainly on efficiency and realism, Sensei teaches us that, each time we pin, we should use whatever we can to do an effective pinning. So, in the case of, say, ude osae (or ikkyo), nage’s knee on uke’s side is used as a third pinning point (apart from the hands used on the partner’s wrist and elbow), usually going onto uke’s shoulder.
So, since the guy was solid and his grip was firm, I couldn’t get up but he didn’t determine me to tap out either. I told him that, from his perspective, he should twist the elbow inwards (towards him) and the wrist outwards (in the direction opposing him). Then, while keeping the twist, he should keep the elbow on the ground and pull the wrist up, slowly, until I tapped out. However, although he apparently understood and his motions were slow in order to prevent injury, he was so concerned not to harm me that he didn’t twist how he was supposed to. The main forces couple I could feel was the push-the-elbow / pull-the-wrist one. I told him what seemed wrong and, just then, Sensei passed by. He observed us and told my partner the same thing I did and then, reconsidering, he stopped everybody from their practice to make out his point.
He basically explained the difference between mere force versus technique. Again, I was the uke because “this is best seen on somebody flexible” such as myself. I was like “Huh ?!” because I was never actually flexible. Oh well. So I was again down in the ikkyo pin, I couldn’t get up, and then he proceeded showing that if only force was used – namely the push-the-elbow / pull-the-wrist forces couple I wrote about before – it would have taken a longer while and a bigger effort to make me tap out. The force was applied gradually so there wasn’t any risk of getting hurt and I finally tapped out after a while. Then, from the same ikkyo pin, he showed us how the technique way worked better, being of course more effective and requiring less effort from nage: push-the-elbow-and-twist-it-inwards / pull-the-wrist-and-twist-it-outwards. Well, that definitely worked!
After class, I asked Sensei something and, after answering me, he asked me if I was into some form of ‘force series’ exercises lately, because something definitely changed. I admitted that yes, I try my best to bare with a few push-ups, abs and squats and I try some light weights too. He said this already starts to give out results, because, comparing to the shape I was in when I started, I now have increased physical endurance and flexibility. Yay!
So balanced light weights training is good. There can’t be an universal ‘receipt’, you have to experiment with yourself and listen to what your body “tells” you. Don’t push it. Just start with what seems reasonable for you and, once you feel you’re up to more, gradually increase your counts / motion time / practice time, whatever suits you best.
And remember: big muscles aren’t necessary strong muscles!
