But when people ask me what sort of exercise they should be doing to best maximise the benefit of Amatsu, my answer is quite simple.. walking.
In addition, as walking requires little or no technique it has the unique ability to be both mentally refreshing, invigorating and inspiring as well as relaxing and calming. Our mind can be free to ponder, to wonder, to notice and be present. Often great breakthroughs in our thinking, new ideas or options become clear when we are walking, where before we could only see a fog of uncertainty or difficulty. In his wonderful lecture on the subject of walking, the great naturalist and thinker Henry David Thoreau said ' You must walk like a camel, which is said to be the only beast which ruminates when walking. When a traveler asked Wordsworth's servant to show him her master's study, she answered "Here is his library, but his study is out of doors"'
As beings who like to be stimulated by novelty, it's only natural that we want to find the new, the latest, the Next Big Thing. But our bodies haven't evolved enormously in the last few hundred thousand years - what we need hasn't become more complex, advanced or progressive. We still functional physically and mentally in much the same way as our ancestors did. So although I get excited when I read about underwater treadmills and holistic stretching programmes, I have to remind myself that sometimes the simplest things are the most important, sometimes the most obvious is the most necessary.
As Thoreau says ' If you would take exercise, go in search of the springs of life. Think of a man's swinging of dumbells for his health, when those springs are bubbling up in far-off pastures unsought by him!'