Will Kendo be any good for my body ?
I am 13, short and a bit overweight. I have really week knees and weak legs. I want to start Kendo and I wanted to ask will Kendo get me in shape and will it be too much for my legs to handle?
Answer: The answer is yes and no. Kendo can be really hard and it can be nothing challenging. It is up to you and how your instructor trains you.
However, I want you to know this. At the beginning, you will learn basic movements, which is very easy and not hard at all. And gradually it will get hard.
If you know that you should get fit, you should start doing some extra exercise. Knees and legs are very important for us, human beings, so you should start exercising including losing weight. If you think you should go on diet, you should.
I personally do not give beginners hard training because their muscles are not used to kendo movements. I do not want them to work too hard. Instead, I want them to get used to kendo gradually.
I particularly advise my students who are overweight not to try hard. But I tell them to have a lot of kiai which helps them breathe. If you breathe properly, it helps you to burn more energy because of more oxygen intake.
1 or 2 hours training of kendo per week won’t help you to lose weight. So you should do something in addition to kendo if you want to lose weight. Of course, kendo can help you to stay strong so that helps you to lose weight. But kendo itself is not designed to lose weight.
Hope this helps.