Living in London means that I am lucky enough to be exposed to the very latest trends and ideas in exercise, health and wellbeing. I love it! I can go to yoga in a infra-red heated room, buy a cold pressed vegetable juice and have my movement analysed for optimal balance and spatial awareness. It's exciting to see the world of health and nutrition becoming so vibrant and well received by more and more people!
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.
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.
As much as I love all of these new concepts and ideas, my main form of exercise is still walking. It doesn't sound exciting to most of us. We don't need any special kit, we don't break into a sweat, we can't really compete in it and it's not a team event. But when we walk, we do what we were born to do. Our legs swing like pendulums from our pelvis and ( as long as we are not carrying bags or talking on the phone), our arms swing freely too. This movement that involves top and bottom, left and right helps to send electrical brain activity between the two hemispheres of our brain, firing us up both mentally and physically. A slight twist is induced in the mid section of our body, stimulating the organs and the digestive function. Our diaphragm is stretched so we can breathe more deeply. Our legs and buttocks are toned and there is very little impact on our joints or chance of injury. It is almost impossible to come back from a walk feeling worse than before you set out!
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!'
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!'
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