Training Room

I thought I'd take this time to share my workout routine. I've been an active person since high school. In middle school I wasn't so active. I didn't do much during middle school, mainly because I was a very shy person and often closed myself off from the real world. I really didn't like that about myself at that time. But once I got an 'image change', you could say that that gave me a boost. And when I entered high school, I gained confidence. Once I entered high school I became very active. From Freshman year to Senior year I have done gym, soccer, security class (which consists of A LOT of working out to the point where I would often go to the restroom to puke), hip hop dance, and believe it or not; folklorico. Folklorico is a Mexican folk dance that never in a million years thought I'd ever take. I only took it because I needed a different physical curriculum at the time and I asked a friend if she could suggest me to any and she suggested me to folklorico. I was the only half American half Japanese girl in there while everyone else were Mexican! It was rather embarrassing, but everyone was so nice and it was surprisingly a lot of fun. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't the thing I wanted to do most of my time in high school, so I stuck to hip hop dancing as much as I could.

Those days were in America. Now that I'm in Japan, I feel had to find different ways of being active. I've already been in Japan for a year and a half now. Last year, I would workout after dinner EVERY night. I would also go the park about twice a week to run on the track. I had a tremendous amount of stress at the time, and exercising was kind of my only escape at the time and it also helped me sleep. This year, I've changed it up a bit. Now that my work schedule is very busy and I'm literally going town to town, it's hard to workout every night when my body is so exhausted already. However; since working out is sort of my hobby, I pushed myself to at least go to the gym 3 times a week. I love working out and I don't think I could ever stop!

So, the gym I'm currently going to is in the same building as one of the places I work at, which is super convenient! In order to get access to the gym, you have to take a lesson so you can get an official ID card with your name on it to go to the gym at anytime. Though you have membership with the ID, you have to go to the office to pay ¥300 for two and a half hours, and you receive a number badge. This badge is sort of a pass to get you in, and for the office people to keep track of how many people are in the training room at the time.

After receiving the badge, I go up a floor where the locker rooms and the training room are located. The lockers are ¥10, and the locker rooms come with showers and a sauna.

Once I get into the training room, I always do stretches on the mat before I start using the machines.

I use all the machines in the training room, but when the room starts to get jam-packed with people, I only start to stick to my favorite ones. I like being on the bicycle for about 30 minutes to evenly shape up my legs. I prefer to use the bicycle that leans back so it also has a better and easier workout for when I'm nearly pulling my legs up to my abs.

This machine (totally forgot the name) twists and turns your waist by standing in one place on a platform and using the handle bars in front of you to move just your top half left to right. It feels great, but try not to go too fast or your head will be spinning~

Another favorite. I always like machines that really do ab work. I think this machine is called the roman chair(?). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I love this thing! I wish I could have this at home. It's a really good abdominal exercise. Not only do my abs feel the burn, but so do my thighs. There's a step where you can either lower or higher yourself to whatever position you're comfortable with. I try to get to the highest point for better results. It's a little scary when you higher the step, because when you lean forward, you feel there's a chance of you falling. There are bars on the side in case of that ever happening.

The machine I use between every other machine is the belt vibrator (it sounds weird, I know). I wrap the belt around my waist, under my bottom and all along my legs. It helps lessen the tension in the muscles after every workout on the machines. It's pretty rough when you put up the speed, but it feels so good (yes, sounding weird again lol).

Last favorite is the treadmill. I forgot how hard running is sometimes. I tend to only run 30 minutes straight and have to turn down the speed on the machine to go to walk mode for a bit and slowly make my way back up to running again. I do this as my last workout before leaving, so I do this for the rest of the time remaining. Not exactly a lovely view we're seeing while running, but it's nice watching the clouds.

Once I'm done with the machines, I go back to the mat and do my final stretches. I don't know about most people, but I always get sore after a workout if I don't properly do stretches. After that, I head to the locker room. And after I'm done, I go to the vending machine and always drink oronamin c. It's refreshing and it's like a senzu bean drink (sorry, DBZ fans would know). I do drink water while working out, but once I'm done, I kind of need that energy drink boost for me to continue the day.

The only workout machines I currently have at home is a horse riding exercise machine and the wonder core.