Perfect Mothers Day Gift: Aikido Lessons

The best advice for Mothers’ health and longevity is, of course, proper diet, regular exercise … and AIKIDO. 

Aikido derives mainly from the martial art of Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu, but began to diverge from it in the late 1920s, partly due to it founder Morihei Ueshiba’s involvement with the Ōmoto-kyō religion. Many of Ueshiba’s senior students have different approaches to aikido, depending on when they studied with him. Today aikido is found all over the world in a number of styles, with broad ranges of interpretation and emphasis. However, they all share techniques learned from Ueshiba and most have concern for the well-being of the attacker. 

The term dō connects the practice of aikido with the philosophical concept of Tao, which can be found in martial arts such as judo and kendo, and in more peaceful arts such as Japanese calligraphy (shodō), flower arranging (kadō) and tea ceremony (chadō or sadō). The term aiki refers to the martial arts principle or tactic of blending with an attacker’s movements for the purpose of controlling their actions with minimal effort. One applies aiki by understanding the rhythm and intent of the attacker to find the optimal position and timing to apply a counter-technique. Historically, aiki was mastered for the purpose of killing; however in aikido one seeks to control an aggressor without causing harm. The founder of aikido declared: “To control aggression without inflicting injury is the Art of Peace.”    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aikido

It is entirely defensive and uses no weapon, no particular stance.  It has no moves that can be used offensively and the various throws (such as the shihōnage shown above) all presuppose an attack.

Moms would find Aikido more in keeping with their need for purely defensive martial arts, and for relaxation and exercise. So for Mother’s Day I thought a post on Aikido would be good.

Streetfighting aikido ala Steven Segall which exhibits more aggression is not, strictly speaking, proper aikido. Aikido is so passive, I guess, it does not make for a good action movie.

In short, without an attack an aikido practitioner does not act; neither in anticipation nor with any presuppositions.  An enemy becomes such only after he acts aggressively.  When an attack comes, the aikido practitioner uses the force of the attacker against himself.  

A charging enemy is off balance as he charges. That is the nature of an attack.  It is tension, high emotion and consequently a vulnerability in itself.  He is grabbed by the arm and wrist; wheeled around using the force of his charge and gained control of by twisting arm and pulling his thumb behind his back in order to keep him pinned down to the floor.  Simple.  Elegant.  No screaming….enter the dragon stuff.

Essential too in Aikido, is breathing. That is, diaphragm breathing as opposed to chest breathing.  

The diaphragm is the muscle between our chest and stomach when you breathe in using the said muscle it presses down and expands the stomach area.

In chest breathing, the greatest amount of blood flow occurs in the lower lobes of the lungs, areas that have limited air expansion in chest breathers. Shallow, chest breathing results in less oxygen transfer to the blood and poor delivery of nutrients to the tissues.

My Aikido teacher taught us never to raise shoulders or expand our chests and ribcages to breathe in. Proper breathing is with the use of the diaphragm.  He said watch babies and you will find that this is how they breathe and its more natural than chest breathing.  He said watch people who are asleep and this is also involuntary breathing.  

To find out whether you are a chest breather or a diaphragm breather just put one hand over your chest and another over our stomach and breath as you normally would. The hand that moves when you breathe indicates what kind of a breather you are.  With diaphragm breathing it is the stomach that expands when you draw breath.

Our breathing exercises included a form of meditation.  He asked us to sit still and empty your mind of thoughts.  Should random thoughts cross your mind just let it brush the top of it and let it slip away.  

Straighten up the vertebrae like there was an imaginary hook pulling up your head.  Breathe with the diaphragm.  In through the nose and put a “haaaaaa” sound in exhaling through the mouth extending it for as long as possible. Exhalation should be at least thrice as long as Inhalation. This way the lungs are fully expended and the intake of the next breath would also be fuller.

Between breathing in and breathing out, you should hold it in for a few seconds and feel the peace within. He said imagine the intake of breath as you taking in life force and the exhalation is you giving back to the world from the life force you received. We did this for half an hour twice a week in our Aikido classes about fifteen years ago and diaphragm breathing has been 24/7 for me since.

When we are asleep, involuntary breathing makes use of the diaphragm as well.  But one healthy tip to improve circulation during sleep is to put a pillow to raise your feet and fling your arms up over your head to open the chest cavity and allow for better circulation.

Another tip from our Aikido teacher.  Make it a habit to keep your weight in the lower half of your body.  If your weight is not there where it should be at a relaxed state, the indicator is that you are easier to physically push out of balance.  When we are stressed and our muscles are tensed, our body weight is shifted to our upper torso.

Aikido also teaches you the proper way to roll after being thrown.  Each of the throw techniques were taught to us by everyone lining up to get thrown.  So the first lesson was how to roll instead of just falling when you are thrown.  The health benefits of this constant rolling is that your vertebrae gets a good massage on the mat and as we all know the pressure points lining up both sides of our spinal column are vital acupressure points.

A relaxed body and an empty mind is not a weakness.  Rather, it is a stance in preparation for anything that can happen.  It is when the aikido training takes over because your body moves accordingly in response to aggression without the delay that cerebral thinking and/or emotion entails.

But using your opponent’s strength against themselves during an attack is a good strategy even for boardroom battles or court cases and I have found it to be useful against my adversaries.  The advantage will be yours if you empty your mind in preparation for any form of attack and from whichever direction it may come.  You keep your cool and your mind is placid and will react intuitively free from emotional baggage or from overly cerebral processes that hinder essential survival action.

Hence, as physical, mental and emotional discipline, for philosophical enrichment or just healthy exercise and self-defense, I highly recommend Aikido for all Moms.  Happy Mother’s Day!!