I want to start to do pilates.

As I said before, I walk on the treadmill and walk with my dogs every day. This is my daily routine. It had been going very well until I hit this miner setback, which is a relapse of backache. I still don't know which position of my chair is best for my back. I can adjust its height as well as its back support and incline of the seat. It's a bit annoying and frustrating to be honest. Anyway I had a foot bath this morning so I am feeling a bit better. I hope the backache will go very soon because I've been itching to beef up my exercise and start pilates soon.

My body is getting thinner and fitter but walking is a cardio exercise so I need to build up muscle so that my body burns more energy. I need to do some muscle training but that sort of training is pretty boring. And my back is still not 100 % recovered yet so I have a little bit of reservations about doing it. But ,, hang on! That brought me some memory when I was doing pilates on a regular basis back in Japan. I did feel that my back felt better after I did pilates.( at that time I didn't have any (×a)backache.) As you may know, pilates was devised by a doctor to heal injured soldiers . And backache was one of their symptoms. So basically it should be good for my back as well. I am toying with the idea of starting pilates again tonight. Well, what should I do? Maybe I could start with very simple easy exercise only for a short time. Yeah, that's it! I will do it!

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

Walking gives me a lot.

Hi, everyone. How are you going?
I am doing well. My back was pretty sore for the past several days but thankfully it's getting better and better. I found out the reason why I got a relapse. Seems like Gori unconsciously changed the height of my chair when he was using my PC and forgot to put it back to the height that it had orginally been. I didn't know anything about it so I kept sitting on it. I was dull enough not to notice the difference (^^;) Anyway I am very relived to know the cause. At least I know that my walking routine had nothing to do with it. What a relief.

Speaking of walking, I walked for 40 minutes on the treadmill today! This is the longest record so far so I am so stoked and proud of myself. I have been walking for almost 2 months now and the distance I have walked has increased(×The distance I walk for is increasing) day by day. I also walk with my dogs in the afternoon before dark too. We usually walk on the driveway in Gori's mum and dad's property, which includes some relatively steep slopes. When I started this walk, just 10 minute walk made me feel out of breath but now I can walk for about 30 minutes. I am making a progress. aren't I?

When I walk, I try to soften up my back as well. This technique is very similar to the one I showed you in my previous blog, which targeted the neck and shoulders. I press the hard part of my back with my fingers and keep it that way and walk normally for about 30 seconds. I've been doing this for a while and now I know the stiffness trigger point of my back, which is the bottom of the ribs and the muscle where the backbone and the ribs meet. Every time I do this muscle softening up technique, I can tell that the back really softens up. It feels much lighter, which gives me more motivation for walking. So in my case, walking is good not only for being fit but also for my back! I am thrilled!

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

I'm very happy but I might need some break

Hello, everyone, how are you going?

I've been feeling a bit tired recently. My life has been much better because my back is not as sore as before, actually it's much better. I've been walking almost every day for about 5 weeks or so, which makes me feel happy and excited because this is something I couldn't do for a long time. I like doing exercise(×exercises). Exercising is good both physically and mentally. When I had a terrible backache, I tended to get stressed out very easily but now I think I am coping with things better.

Now that I've walked continuously more than a month, walking is becoming a part of my routine. I can tell that I am getting fitter and slimmer, which gives me more confidence about myself. In addition, I am enjoying the activities in the online English club and I am very motivated to study English.

It's been fantastic recently and I am very happy about it. To be honest, it's been quite some time since I felt this happy(×like this much). I feel like I've gone back to being a normal(healthy) person.

Having said that, I have to admit there is also a tiny bit of feeling that I might need some break. Maybe am I doing too much??? I guess I should slow down a bit.

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

That's my bad...(^^;)

Hi everyone, how are you going?

I am doing.. well.. so-so.

In yesterday's blog I mentioned that I had a backache but it has become a bit worse since then(^^;) That's probably because I went for a walk yesterday morning and I also had to squat many times at work.

The reason why I got this backache is that I had too much exercise two days ago. I have been on a diet since this Sunday. What I do to lose weight is to do some walking ( with Ambi), step exercise, muscle toning with light weights and pilates. I don't do all the exercises everyday, of course.

Among these exercises , the ones I really find helpful are walking& stepping and pilates.

when you want to lose weight and tone up your body, you gotta do some moderate aerobic exercise such as walking, swimming, and biking etc and strength training for example, weight training, sit-ups, push-ups etc. So walking and stepping are really good for burning my fat and pilates is good for tone up and sculpt my body. It's also good for my mental health too. I really like pilates because it really works very well! No wonder Hollywood celebrities are going crazy about it. I did pilates 3 days in a row ( but not yesterday due to my backache) and now I can definitely tell the difference around my belly!! It is really amazing and a big wow to me!!

When you go on a diet, which would you care more, about your weight loss or size??

Well I care more about size, I mean how I look rather than how much I weigh. The reason is very simple; nobody can tell how much you weight by the look!! I DO weight myself on a regular basis but I am more focusing on waist size. After all if you just drink some water, that makes you heavier, doesn't it? I don't want to get bothered by it.

Well back to the reason why I got this backache, I did exercise for more than one and half hours two days ago! It's not that I did that long non-stop, I did 3 kinds of exercises for 30 minutes each separately. I had never done those kind of things before, so obviously I got carried away.

And I have my reservations about my technique of pilates. I have been doing pilates on and off for more than 4 years. I bought a pilates book with DVD and learned the exercises from them. But now I feel that as time has gone by, I have forgotten the very important basic part and have been doing in my own way, which might have caused my back problem(^^;) Well I gotta shape up and get back to the book and DVD and learn the technique once again. Pilates was created in order to heal injured soldiers by some doctor and it is supposed to be good for people who have got a backache not causing a backache!

Anyway I gotta rest for a while until the backache goes. I really hope it goes very soon.