I study Combat Hapkido and used to study Philippine weapons. I LOVE hapkido. It's a very defensive art, where you use the other person's momentum against them. It's perfect for women too b/c you learn some self defense right away.
I looked online and I don't see anyone near Schaumburg teaching that style of Hapkido (yes, I'm in Omaha but am a Chicagoland native!) But I recommend hapkido, aikido and aiki-jujitsu, all three are similar enough. You will learn to take a fall (required so you don't injure yourself in training) so if you have a bad back you might want to talk to your dr first. The good thing is falls require you get back up...talk about an ab workout! It's not a bad cardio workout too, plus you get to find some muscles you didn't realize you had and get a good stretch. I was sore after my first workout!
I would just go watch and check out a couple schools. Any decent one should let you do that, as well as give you a week or two of free classes so you can find martial art style that you like. My dojo is like a family, there's about 20 hapkido students and we're all pretty close, which makes it even more fun.
Good luck!!
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