 What usually happens in life is things get harder as we age. When practicing the martial arts we are undertaking a lot of physical work on our bodies and we exercise a lot of mental stimulation. As we get older this can become more and more difficult and in my years in the martial arts I have heard this question asked often and I've even honestly wondered it myself. Is it possible to be too old for the martial arts? I'm going to begin this video with a very direct and bold answer, no. The answer is no. You are not too old to train in martial arts. However, I'm putting a big asterisk on this because like anything else we've talked about here there is a lot to consider. First, let's realize that there's two perspectives that go out here. One is of the student who started young and has continued training and is now advanced to older age. The other scenario is someone who may have never trained before or very briefly and they're interested in starting the martial arts. In both cases I heavily suggest consulting with a physician before beginning any martial arts or rigorous workout program. If you are of an advanced age then I absolutely applaud your choice to begin martial arts. However, it is extremely important to establish a baseline of ability. This means know the context of your limits. Any pre-existing health conditions, injuries or illnesses can put you at risk if you don't take them into consideration. Talk to a doctor, tell them what you want to do and understand what your limits are and use that as a starting point. The martial arts can be healthy at any age but you want to be smart about it. So how does age affect training? If you're someone who started martial arts at a younger age and continued training throughout adulthood then I'm willing to bet that you've noticed some differences over the years. Our bodies change and even if we're extremely active we go through a transformation both mentally and physically. I'm not going to speak for everyone, however I can only relate to my own observations and experiences and the differences I've noticed. I started training Kempo when I was 14 back in 1993. I was fast, limber and excited about joining the martial arts. In my teens it was fun and I was all about learning fancy kicks, lightning fast techniques and like most teenagers, showing off. I loved doing the complicated jump spinning kicks, jumping up from the ground, kicking up from the ground, flashy sparring, all of that. Into my 20s my approach shifted a little bit more academically. I sought more knowledge, I had begun teaching as an assistant instructor and I started to see the material at a greater depth than I did when I was younger. I still loved the fancy stuff, I was still into sparring and being super active but mentally I was on a mission to learn more material and continue my education. Hating my 30s was a little bit more of an eye opener. Diet was an aspect, when you're 30 you don't burn through calories as well as you did when you were a teenager so that was something to be aware of. Also in my 30s I started to feel consequences of smaller injuries I had when I was younger. I had surgery to repair a chip bone in my knee as well as another surgery to repair a tear in my Achilles tendon that had gradually worsened over the years. It was also harder to get past the downtime of being out of training. Each surgery prevented me from training for about three months and even when I got back to it I had to ease back into it. Joining some body parts often don't feel as springy as they did when you were a teenager. Mentally I transformed even more. I got much more interested in the academic side of the system, learning deeper levels of the material and spending time analyzing and exploring. My techniques were more focused on power and effectiveness rather than flash and fanciness. Less jump spinning acrobatics and more grounded focus fighting. I also began to seek knowledge and expand it to other arts as well so I wanted to keep continuing my education. I turned 40 this year and I'm as excited as ever to be in the martial arts. I started training in combat jujitsu last year. I wanted to try something new, expand my horizons, but I did ask myself that same question. Am I too old to be starting this? There's a lot of throwing, falling, rolling and joint manipulation and honestly I'm not the lightest person in the world and I'm not accustomed to being picked up and tossed. Was this something that I should have started when I was younger? However, once I went to the school for the first time and I did my first trial class I realized the answer was no. Once you learn proper methods of falling and safe practice the classes are very rewarding. But I did ask myself that question and I figured it would be a good topic to talk about. So what are some realistic expectations you should have if you are older and starting from scratch or going into a different art? First it's not going to be easy, at least not likely. Martial arts can be very taxing on the body and while there are many benefits from it you might feel that impact at first and it might take some time to acclimate to it. Also as we age we become a little bit more prone to injuries. Kids are made of rubber. They can fall down, take bumps and bruises and rebound quickly. At least a lot more than adults can. We lose a lot of that flexibility as we get older. You'll show up to your class in your first day and expect to be running and doing flip kicks off the wall. Also, depending on your body structure and your activity level you might not have the level of flexibility that you may want or expect, at least not yet. You may not be able to kick very high or powerful yet but that doesn't mean that with some stretching, time and effort that you can't get there. A quick note of caution however regarding flexibility, don't expect to be dropping down into splits if that's not something you did growing up. There are studies that have suggested it might be detrimental to try to learn how to do a split at an older age as our hips and soft tissues have set and we're not as pliable as we were when we were kids. Again, talk to a doctor or a physical therapist about what workouts are beneficial to you and what you should avoid. But enough of the warnings and being such a downer, let's talk about the many benefits of starting the martial arts at any age. First, being active is good for you. Keep your body and mind engaged. Exercise is good for blood pressure and weight loss. Keeps your joints moving, develops better breathing and endurance. We were designed to move and you do a lot of that in the martial arts. It will also help you with strength, whether it be striking power or developing better muscle support in our core and our legs, working out in the martial arts will definitely help you develop or at least retain muscle mass. Now you might not be delivering any rocket-vulva bombs but with the right mechanics initiated you are likely to leave your mark. I don't know about all of you out there but where I'm starting to feel it is in the knees. They crack and pop more than they used to, it's getting harder to spring up to standing position than it used to. Working out your legs will help with this and develop a good muscular support system. Then we have speed. Even though a person may not be in the prime of their athletic prowess, doesn't mean they can't become faster. It does depend on the age too but as you grow older we often lose speed, especially if you have no prior training experience. Now maybe you won't be snatching that fly out of the air anytime soon but training might make the difference in being able to bring your hands up fast enough to deflect a punch. I personally know a few practitioners of advanced age that are pretty darn fast. So why not train? At the very least you'll be faster than if you did nothing. Then we have reflexes. A lot of martial arts has learned habits. Especially in an art such as Brazilian jujitsu, judo, or grappling you learn how to fall properly, how to recover, how to get back up on your feet. This is a repeated action practice over and over and over again. Training in the martial arts develops reflexes at any age and you never know when the simplest of actions might spare you some injury. If you slip and fall you might instinctively break, fall, and avoid hurting yourself. Find out what your limits are at the beginning and use that as your starting point. You might be surprised that after a while you may be able to push those limits out a little bit. As a side benefit it's a great way to develop friends and a social circle. Most martial arts schools are a family and they look out for each other. So besides all the other physical and direct benefits of practicing you might also gain some new friends along the way. So now the big question, which art is the best? Honestly, that depends on a lot of what we covered in one of our first videos which is the best martial art. But it boils down to what you want to accomplish. A lot will also depend on your limitations. If you've got pins or repair works in your bones and joints you might not want a high impact art where you're going to be thrown a lot. Maybe you have difficulty with kicking then that leaves you the choice of do I look for an art that's going to improve my kicking or should I circumvent that and go to an art that focuses on handwork such as boxing. One good recommendation I have heard is actually Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Now this can be a pretty intense art and there are a few arts that are going to make you expend all of your energy like this one. However compared to other arts there are fewer high impacts to the body and it will also help develop hip mobility and grip strength. It also teaches you to get your whole body moving in unison. Additionally when sparring or rolling you can do that like half effort, 50% speed and that allows you to refine mechanics and techniques while still putting in a serious workout. Most importantly just don't stop moving, stay active, stay engaged. If you are apprehensive about starting the martial arts at an advanced age just realize that your body ages faster when you're not engaged. Keep moving, keep challenging yourselves, we're built for that. No one wants to get older, aging can suck sometimes but guess what? Training in the martial arts can slow down the aging process. It keeps your balance, strength, coordination, reflexes developed as well as continues to stimulate you mentally. It can also help improve digestion and metabolism, keeping your body a well-oiled machine. So if you're still sitting here wondering if you're too old for the martial arts I'm going to ask you to do four things. One, like this video. Two, subscribe to the channel. Three, close YouTube, look up a school in your area and go talk to them. Today, right now. And in four, come back tomorrow and leave a comment, tell me how it went. Thanks for watching and stay young everyone.