I’m thinking about starting a martial art for self defence. I want something to protect myself and disarm any attackers not to hurt them. So far I think Aikido is my best bet, but any suggestions and reasons why would be much appreciated.
Also I’m starting to work out and exercise more. Which exercises are most effective and how long should I exercise for each day?
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
run. you’ll learn your inner rhythm.
You need to learn Mui Thai. That is some nasty stuff and it’s easy to learn, at least I think so.
You could take a look at this website to see in detail what ju-jutsu is like
http://www.ultimatejujitsu.com/techniques/traditional.html
I’ve never learned any martial arts though
LoL
You might want to ask Super EDIJS for some advice:
-A “contest” in his honour here on blenderartists
-his personal website <= you’ve got to check out his videos!
Jk:D
Sauna to get a better bloodflow (exercise achieves this as well) and train every muscle to better anchor your nerves to them. That makes a great difference in whatever situation that requires physical actions.
I would suggest learning some techniques on how to run away. Really. Being able to run away when surrounded by a group of thugs and being held by a particularly strong one is a life saver.
Also, I’d suggest learning about body language, particularly how we communicate aggression and such. Being able to spot potential threats and being able to deflect any attack using body language is not just an asset.
In short: focus on avoiding and fleeing dangerous situations.
I’ve thought about doing that too. Help protect me from my ADHD kid 
I need to get “more” exercise too though…
When I was a kid, I learned some ju-jutsu moves; all I remember is the thumb pressure point and how to break a hand-hold on your wrist.
I sort of liked what I heard about Aikido from a guy who did it. It sounds like what you might want, especially since it’s apparently exclusively for self-defense.
My reservation about any of those martial arts is how far it gets into the mystic side of things, which sometimes depends a lot on the teacher.
what you should consider, is will it help not just you but others as well,
train with some really good martial artist at the chosen type of style and see if you can get any good advice from them!
I currently do Proactive Martial Arts, Zen Do Kai (Freestyle)
Solving your chav problem, I see 
I practice Ninpo and traditional Ju-jutsu. It is somewhat similar to Aikido (emphasis on somewhat). While I can’t say how well it works in a fight (as I’ve not been in one since I have been practicing), I can say that I have not been in a fight since I’ve been practicing! I lived in the slums of Baltimore for almost a year without any problems (Near of Poplar Grove and North Ave. for any Baltimorians), and while working in Washington D.C. I often found myself in some rather seedy areas.
I notice that there is a dojo in Wales:
http://www.genbukan.org/cgi-bin/site.pl?1711&seq=3&cxDatabase_databaseID=1&newSearch=1&country=United%20Kingdom&sortBy=sort%2Cname
Most of the more traditional arts I’ve encountered–such as Japanese Ju-jutsu and Aikido–help develop an attitude and awareness that helps you avoid fights. A peaceful confidence where you are aware of potentially dangerous situations.
When asked my opinion I always recommend my own art 
or another more traditional martial art such as Aikido, and to shy away from modern tournament arts.
Don’t get me wrong… there are many modern martial arts that help the practitioner develop such an attitude, but I’ve also seen dojo’s where the students all seem to develop an agressive “bad-ass” attitude that get them into fights. Without first hand knowledge of the specific school, I won’t give my opinion on it. Still, you can probably tell what kind of school it is by attending a class, and seeing what types of students it attracts and developes.
just a ab exercising tips i saw in the “men’s health” once that made alot of sense. Exercise your oblong (I think that’s what the muscle on the side of your torso/ab are called) to help develop your abs since the only real reason why we have muscle there is to keep the oblong from ripping your stomach apart. This might be the reason why so many ab exercises fails (execpt for those that utulizes the oblong as part of the exercises too, haven’t you noticed a trend toward this in the ab exercising machine? (the twisting motions in those exercises?)).
Doing this could help you utulize your exercising time and energy better (by not doing any such useless ABs exercises like sit-up and stuffs).
good luck with your chav issues. I never had any issues since most of those kind of people around here seems to avoid handicapped or such people like me. I don’t mind it since I can still communicates with most hearing people anyway so it a plus for me :D)
brizillian jui-jitsu, hands down
learn as much as you can possibly learn about the man, the legend, the greatest fighter i have ever seen…super wu-man…i mean rocye gracie
sit back and learn about the greatest fighter ever to live!
he is a ultimate fighting champion, back about 10 years ago they held the beginnings of what is now known as ultimate fighting. however 10 years ago there were virtually no rules. just two guys, no time limit, no gloves, first to tap out would lose.
oh and on top of that you had to fight three guys somtimes four guys in one night. the sport was almost banned because guys were getting beaten nearly to death. the sport has now changed, lots of rules, gloves, time limits, and one fight a night, not three.
but back to the legend, two guys would walk into the ring, royce gracie, and some huge steriod dude that was 100pound heavyer, and a foot taller then the skinny rocye gracie.
but forget it! about one or two minutes into the fight rocye would have them down on the ground tapping for their life! it was amazing, no blood, nothing. the brizillian jui-jitsu is mostly just using leverage and choke holds, submission moves, really amazing.
it didnt even matter what other fight style the other guys would use, karate, akido, greco roman wrestling, anything, they flew guys in from all around the world, the best of the best in there fight form, and rocye would beat ALL of them!
he would put a guy in an arm-bar and hyper extend his arm untill it broke or untill the guy tapped out. it was amazing to see this skinny little dude walk in, and within 2 minutes he would have these gigantic hulks down on the ground screaming and tapping on the mat like babies, AMAZING!!
not only that, he would do it three or four times in one night. the guy is a fight god. he would beat his opponets in 2 minutes or less usually, almost never get hit, he would never bleed, and he almost would never make the other guys bleed, he would just let them know, you need to tap, or i’m going to choke you until your unconcious, or you need to tap or i’m going to hyper extend your neck or arm out of it socket, or tap out now or i’m going to break your arm.
simply the most effective, and skilled fight form i have ever seen…
so yeah brizillian jui-jitsu, royce gracie, learn as much as you can from him, watch the early ultimate fighting stuff, on dvd or google videos, and thank the wu for saving your ass, haha!!
but seriously rocye gracie is the greatest fighter to ever live, humble, smart, extremely skilled…the best
but yeah, i dont want to talk about what happened to royce with matt huges…i said i dont want to talk about it!! lets just say rocye already proved himself a million times over before that fight, that fight means nothing to me, royce is still a fight god to the wu…and you knew it was right!
Ju jutsu is amazing. This kid I knew who was only 13 was experienced with it and he gave the impression that he could kill me in a single blow, yet he never seemed aggresive. He could also take hard kicks to the nuts without flinching. Really. I always wanted to know how to do that… :?
He lied to you, either he was born,uh, sterile (to put it nicely), or he was wearing a cup (like in baseball). 
Uh no, I saw it with my own eyes. He is neither sterile or wearing protection and he could take hits there without a flinch.
BJJ like wu says. It’s great (really, really great) for grappling, the most common thing that happens.
Also I’m starting to work out and exercise more. Which exercises are most effective and how long should I exercise for each day?
Push ups, vary the position of your arms, close to your chest to wide out and far forwards. These all work different areas of the chest.
Still, the best thing is that if you want to be able to punch hard, practice punching something. A lot.
A list of good threads on a forum:
http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=75229
That’s insane.
By the way, how do you know he isn’t ‘sterile’ or wearing a cup? Either he told you, and you believed him, or you checked. 
Uhhh… uhh…
I’m a brown belt in Shotokan Karate. Highly recommend it.
I think you should give Aikido a go, if you’ve got a decent dojo in your area. Most places let people go a few times before they start asking for money, so make use of that and have a look at whatever is around you.
I did Aikido for a while, my father has been doing it for quite a while and is still doing it. My older brother did it for a few years too (he might still be doing it but he moved and stuff).
For the fitness thing, might be worth your while to go to a gym, if only to get a bit of proffessional supervising so you don’t do things wrong (mainly just for when you start). It is more than possible to keep fit and even bulk up just doing things like pushups and chinups (though the result will probably be a little different to what you’d get with weights).
Something else you might like to give a go is Parkour, look it up and see if there’s a group near you.