Can kendo make me healthy
or
Does it hurt me?

Overall, kendo is a good exercise. Kendo makes you healthy.

You must use the whole body to acquire kendo movement. You must use your legs, arms, shoulders and so on, basically all of your body.

Besides, you must yell a lot. It is not just a yell, strictly speaking. You must use the abdominals to have a good shout.

If you do it right, you will have a muscle ache in your abs. So, kendo really works out all the major muscle groups.

Can I Lose Weight?

Good question. You will, if you train hard. Kendo can be aerobic exercise and also anaerobic exercise. It is a good exercise, once you get into it.

A question is "Can we keep training until we start losing weight?" It's all up to us!

Common Injuries

Snapping (left) achilles tendon. Since the left leg is used to kick the floor to jump forwards, Snapping the left achilles tendon is a common kendo injury. I snapped mine.

Carpal tunnel syndrome: Because we must use our hands and wrists to swing a sword repeatedly, we tend to have carpal tunnel syndrome.

Back pain: If you try to straighten your back too much, you will tend to have a back pain.

I have done them all. I dislocated my left shoulder too. This is not very common though. How can you avoid these injuries? I will tell you the secret.

Don't do kendo TOO much.

If you have a great physical ability, then go ahead and train hard as much as you can.

However, if you are like me, without a naturally athletic body, but you choose to do kendo, then do not push yourself too hard.

You will end up like me and keep hurting yourself.

If you feel a pain, no matter where, rest. Go and see a doctor. Fix it before it's too late. The reason why I kept hurting myself is that I did not take a break.

When I snapped my achilles tendon, I kept training. I do not remember how, but I did.

When I dislocated (maybe sprained) my left shoulder, I kept training.

I do not recommend the way I treated myself. Doing anything TOO much is NOT good!!

One more thing. If you feel a pain, that is because either you are doing kendo too much or you are doing something wrong.

So step back and ask yourself why you are feeling a pain. Ask yourself what you are doing wrong. Ask your teachers or your kendo mates what they think why you feel a pain.

Self-awareness is a key to prevent and recover from injuries.

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