Kendo and done
As far as it goes
My upper body is less strong than my lower body. I do a lot of walking so my lower body obviously is better toned. My core and upper body can’t even be called strong, perhaps weak would be more right. Due to motivation issues, it is hard to do things like strength training - something that I have started and given up several times. The journey to persist is hard indeed.
One of my approaches to solving this was to perhaps consider a martial art that would exercise the top part of the body more. And Japanese martial art of Kendo has been something that had been on my list. My local Kendo class offers initially free classes to try until someone figures out whether Kendo is for them, and it is certainly good that they do it that way to encourage tryouts.
New classes start the first Monday following the Labor Day holiday and I had dutifully marked this on my calendar to try out. Which I did last Monday and I lasted about one hour into the two-hour class. When I tried the kneeling meditation position my knees gave up and I could not continue from the immense pain it caused. So, that was the end of my Kendo experiment.
Four days later my body is screamingly still in pain. I am unable to turn my neck to both sides and have extreme pain in both shoulders. These should go away in a while. But the moral of the story was that it taught me that nearing sixty I am in no position for these activities.
So perhaps I need to start with something gentler like Tai Chi which I went for nearly a year during the pre-pandemic times. That might bring something sustainable back into my routine before I try out something more complicated for where I am at. At least I know what my next experiment should be and I am proud that I tried even though I gave up on it quickly. And I am sure that I will persist in finding something else that works.
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