摘要：Background & Study Aim: The aikido is a philosophy and a Japanese art of self-defence, which is proposed to have several beneficial effectson mind and body. It is limited, but growing research on this topic. A summary of the empirical workscould shed light on the anecdotally postulated benefits of aikido. This systematic literature review aims tosummarise the current knowledge about the physiological and psychological benefits of aikido training.Material & Methods: Databases including SPORTDiscuss, PsycINFO, PubMed, MEDLINE, and ScienceDirect were searched by followingthe PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews. A total of 20 articles met the final inclusion criteria.Results: The authors of the half of selected articles examined the physiological benefits (flexibility, wrist strength, functionalefficiency, balance stability, scoliosis, and injuries) while the other half looked at psychological benefitsof aikido training (mindfulness, self-control, self-esteem, health-related behaviour, mood profile, and goalorientation) but also on Type A behaviour, as aggressiveness and anger. In line with the analysed reports, thegist of these studies suggests that aikido training has positive benefits on both physiological and psychologicalmeasures, including flexibility, scoliosis, balance stability, mindfulness, anger control, and/or ego-orientationindeed. However, certain methodological concerns weaken the strength of the evidence.Conclusions: The key message of this review is that the theoretically postulated benefits of aikido have started to emergefrom both physiologically and psychologically oriented empirical research, which provide infrastructure, aswell as the incentive, for future work in this currently underexplored field of study.
