Asahi E-Book

Asahi Nordic Institute

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 138

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Let Asahi Move you! Asahi is a health exercise developed in Finland, which can be done by people of all ages and states of health. The movements are easy to learn are done at slow, peaceful pace in time with the breathing. Asahi helps people stay in the workforce longer. It also has a positive effect on their mental health and provides a way to maintain social contact. By practicing Asahi regularly, the elderly stay more active and are able to live independently in their own home longer. This book, Asahi - The Nordic Health Practice, also includes ways to use the method as a means of self-care and rehabilitation. Asahi meets the physical activity recommendations set up by the WHO and the ODPHP. Because it is both safe and effective, many specialized health organizations recommend and teach Asahi to their members.

Leseprobe

The purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to beneficial information about health and well-being and to provide an update on the latest studies in this area. The text material, photos and drawings have been selected accordingly.

All the claims to health benefits made in this book are backed up by scientific studies. The two main medical sources for this guide are a book by the Centre for Health Promotion Research in Finland (The Medical Science of Physical Exercise and Health Exercise) and Finland’s League of Doctors online diagnostic source (https://www.duodecim.fi/english/). This book does not attempt to override any medical diagnoses, nor give advice or treatment for any specific ailments.

Asahi is quite safe for most everyone, when you keep in mind your own personal physical limitations. If you notice any unidentifiable symptoms of illness while practicing Asahi, you should have a medical check-up and follow the doctor’s recommendations about what kind of exercise is best for you.

The writers and publishers of this book do not recommend or support any of the techniques, advice, or other information presented in this book if it is in contradiction with the results of the medical examination carried out by the reader’s personal doctor. Thus, the writers and publishers of this book do not take responsibility for any personal accidents, losses, or risks occurring when using this book or the material in it.

Asahi

A Simple And Healthy Idea

Contents

Foreword

What is Asahi

1.1. How Asahi Was Created

1.2. The Physical Principles of Asahi

1.3. Gentle Power

Asahi Series One

Large Breathing Movement

2.1. Relaxation Movement 1

Relaxation Movement 2

Relaxation Movement 3

Intermediate Breathing Movement

2.2. Neck and Shoulder Module, Movement 1

Neck and Shoulder Module, Movement 2

Neck and Shoulder Module, Movement 3

2.3. Back Module, Movement 1

Back Module, Movement 2

Back Module, Movement 3

2.4. Leg & Balance Module, Movement 1

Leg & Balance Module, Movement 2

Leg & Balance Module, Movement 3

2.5. Asahi Adaptations and Applications

Asahi Series Two

3.1 Relaxation Movement 1

Relaxation Movement 2

Relaxation Movement 3

3.2. Neck and Shoulder Module, Movement 1

Neck and Shoulder Module, Movement 2

Neck and Shoulder Module, Movement 3

3.3. Back Module, Movement 1

Back Module, Movement 2

Back Module, Movement 3

3.4. Leg & Balance Module, Movement 1

Leg & Balance Module, Movement 2

Leg & Balance Module, Movement 3

3.5. Breathing as a Part of Asahi

3.6. Asahi for Athletes

Questions & Answers

Epiloque

About the Authors

Asahi Series One

Asahi Series Two

Asahi Module System

Foreword

Asahi is a health exercise method developed in Finland in 2004 to provide a safe and effective practice that anyone can do. The term “health exercise” means exercise that has a high ratio of health benefits with very few health risks. This is the first guide book about Asahi to be published in English. It gives you the principles behind the practice and explains its health benefits. It also includes step-by-step instructions on how to do Asahi.

Getting exercise doesn’t necessarily mean clenching your teeth and working up a frantic sweat. Professional athletes need to push themselves to the limit in order to stay at the top of their sport. But gentle health exercise may be the more rewarding and productive approach for the majority of us.

The Centre for Health Promotion in Finland has defined three levels of physical exercise. Level 1 is light to medium exercise. Level 2 contains light to medium exercise plus strenuous exercise 2-3 times a week, and Level 3 includes the exercise recommendations of Levels 1 and 2 plus an additional extremely strenuous or fast exercise session twice a month. Asahi health exercise is classified as Level 1 exercise. Asahi is neither a sport nor a fitness training program, nor is it, in itself, a weight-loss technique. However, even light exercise, when done regularly, can help you achieve weight-loss goals. Asahi was developed within these guidelines of light exercise, creating a safe practice with no negative side effects. It stimulates and strengthens the body tissue without damaging anything in the process. The heart beat stays within a safe range when practicing Asahi, so it is safe for people with cardiac problems, for example.

There are many types of physical exercise practices to choose from these days. Some of them are made up of long series of movements that may be hard for beginners to remember. They may also involve mental or spiritual practices that are hard to understand. For these reasons sometimes even teachers of these practices may just skip over the spiritual aspects. The cultural history and origins of these practices often date back centuries and their claimed health benefits are based on medical beliefs that have yet to be scientifically proven. Asahi follows general health recommendations that are internationally accepted and are based in scientific research. It has no religious, political or cultural connections. Asahi's goal is to strengthen the muscles and make them more flexible while loosening excess tension. It teaches proper posture and ways to move ergonomically. Asahi relaxes the mind as well. Its theory, terminology and approach are all easily accessible and based in medical science.

Everyone values good health. When you're healthy it's possible to really enjoy life instead of just surviving from day to day. You may gradually become used to the changes in your mind and body caused by a stressful lifestyle and forget what it is like to be relaxed, pain-free, carefree... The negative patterns may begin to feel so normal that you just give in to the suffering they cause without even thinking about it. Or maybe you feel it would take too much effort to make any changes. Asahi was designed to be easy to start, easy to learn and easy to do regularly. It gets to the root of the problem and helps to lower stress levels. You will want to practice regularly, because you feel so good after each session.

Becoming an Asahi health exercise teacher is also quite easy. This makes it possible to form new groups and make Asahi known to more and more people. Practicing Asahi in a group is highly recommended as a way to promote mental health and to build social contacts. It is also recommended as a personal daily practice, alone or with an exercise buddy. Since Asahi requires no special equipment, it can be done almost anywhere, anytime, indoors or out, as a private practice or with a group. You may find a good exercise routine online or in a magazine, but with the flood of information you get every day it may be hard to find when you want to do it again.

Physiotherapists often print out exercises for you to practice at home, but as you recover, the paper copies may get misplaced and forgotten. Asahi is easy to remember and do from memory, because it has a set sequence of movements. This is similar to some other forms of health exercise, but much simpler. Once you learn them, you have them for life. You can practice even when you're feeling tired or sick without having to search your phone or your desk drawer for the instructions.

Being healthy is an important personal goal, but also for society on the whole. Think of how great the health and welfare savings would be if more people started exercising regularly! Governments should invest more in promoting health exercise for their citizens. Research shows that exercise lowers the risk of many diseases, such as diabetes and dementia. Women who exercise have a lower risk of getting breast cancer. Large medical expenses occur each year for rehabilitating broken bones after falling. For the elderly, being bedridden with a broken hip, for example, can set off a chain of new health complications from which they never recover. And how much money could be saved if workers took fewer sick days?

Of course, not all problems can be cured by exercise. But, exercise usually has a positive effect in recovery from illness and may be more beneficial for you than medication. Exercise helps people stay in the workforce longer, keeps them more balanced mentally and connected socially. Staying physically active after retirement makes it possible to live independently at home longer without being dependent on outside help. Asahi provides a practical way to keep health problems at a minimum.

The ambitious goal of the Asahi Nordic Institute is to spread this easily exportable health exercise culture from Finland to all corners of the world by training new teachers, providing continuing education for present teachers and promoting research into Asahi's health benefits. Since Asahi can be done outdoors with a mask, at a safe distance from other people, it adapts to the current times we are living in.

The Asahi Nordic Institute has compiled this book and takes full responsibility for its content. A large part of the book is based on the Finnish book by Ilpo Jalamo and Yrjö Mähönen entitled "Asahi-Terveysliikunnan opas harrastajille".

Margaret Vainio translated the text material from the Finnish and Mark Sedio did the proofreading. Risto Lehto designed the layout and cover of the book. He is also the model in several photographs. The drawings are by Mika Rantanen. Ollipekka Kangas, Galina Ranta and Risto Lehto took most of the photos used in the book with a few additions from the ANI files and some group shots by Vilma Hilden. We have permission to use these photos from each person who appears in them. A few photos are from pixabay.com. We are grateful to our mascot, Asahi Bob, for his tips and words of wisdom throughout the book!

A big thanks to everyone!

Use the QR code

Check our Asahi videos for more information. Scan the code with your smartphone camera and open the link to our video collection or to the particular video in question.

The Head Instructors from left to right

Margaret Vainio, Maarit Lintukorpi, Yrjö Mähönen, Risto Lehto and Ilpo Jalamo

Join us!

The Finnish company, Asahi Nordic Institute Ltd., was founded in 2020 by Asahi's head trainers. The purpose of the Asahi Nordic Institute is to provide Asahi Nordic teacher training of the highest quality to as many people as possible and to ensure that the standards and quality it has set are maintained as Asahi Nordic spreads around the world.

The head trainers who form the Asahi Nordic Institute are:

Ilpo Jalamo, coach and one of the founders of Asahi

Yrjö Mähönen, internal medicine and geriatrical specialist.

Coach and one of the founders of Asahi

Risto Lehto, coach

Margaret Vainio, coach

Maarit Lintukorpi, coach

It is our pleasure and passion to make the Asahi Nordic health practice available to people of all countries. Join our enthusiastic Asahi Nordic team by becoming a practitioner or an instructor! To stay abreast of the latest developments, sign up for the monthly English Newsletter here: www.asahiworld.com

See more at:

www.asahinordic.com

The main page of Asahi Nordic Method

www.asahiworld.com

Asahi Nordic instructor classes and courses in the USA

1. What Is Asahi

1.1. How Asahi Was Created

In 2004 physical exercise experts Ilpo Jalamo, Yijö Mähönen, Timo Klemola and Keijo Mikkonen sat down together to create an easy-to-learn health exercise for the everyday Finn following these guidelines:

Practice should be so easy that anyone can do it without previous experience.

Practice should develop the body and mind at the same time, without the risk of injury.

The method should be logical and easy to learn from both the practitioner’s and the teacher’s point of view.

Any costs involved should be minimal, so that everyone can have an equal opportunity to learn it.

The team examined the form and structures of ancient health practices from around the world in light of modern medical science. In their research three problems became apparent:

1) in these older practices there were claims to health benefits that couldn’t be clinically proven.

2) a few of the movements in those practices put undue strain on certain joints.

3) some practices have religious, political or cultural ties and are practiced in a very devout way. Asahi is designed for modern people. Asahi is more fun to practice together in a group without getting all serious about it. Laughter is allowed!

Each member of the team added his own expertise to the development of Asahi. As an internist and specialist in geriatrics, Dr. Yrjö Mähönen had a key role in seeing that Asahi met the medical criteria set for it. Ilpo Jalamo is one of Finland’s most experienced karate coaches and has practiced Chinese tai chi more than 40 years. Keijo Mikkonen is a professional coach and experienced fitness entrepreneur, who has vast knowledge about how to train and teach athletics. Timo Klemola has years of experience with Eastern health practices and their philosophies. He worked for several years at Tampere University in the Physical Education Philosophy Department and teaches mindfulness.

The new practice was called Asahi. At first it was only a working title for the project but it stuck and became the final name. The word Asahi means ’’morning sun” in Japanese conveying the idea of getting energy from the sun through exercising. Choosing a foreign name for a Finnish practice was not at all that curious as there are quite a few activities in the world that have a name of foreign origin. For instance, “Yoga” is Sanskrit, “Zumba” is Latin American Spanish and the name of the well-known endurance sport “triathlon”, is from the Greek language. All these names have become part of the daily language. Hopefully that will also happen with Asahi.

Asahi in Finland

Due to its simplicity and effectiveness the popularity of Asahi grew very rapidly in Finland. By 2015 there were more than 1000 instructors around Finland teaching their own groups in parks, health gyms and schools. To unify the instructors and thousands of practitioners an umbrella organization called Asahi Nordic Association was founded. This non-profit association operates only in Finland and works in cooperation with many major Finnish health organizations.The Asahi Nordic Association's main focus is to promote health. It has no political, philosophical or religious connections, nor does it involve any practices of alternative medicine."

The Asahi family is full of members with fresh new ideas about how to promote the practice and develop it in new ways. Asahi is taught to pregnant women, in day care centers, at schools during physical education classes or recess, for office workers, for athletes, for choirs to open their voices before a performance, for people with Parkinson's, asthma, heart disease, arthritis, depression, people in wheel-chairs, for the elderly or for those, who for any reason, enjoy exercising gently. Asahi has been successfully combined with mindfulness training, kettlebell training, and in programs for personal caretakers.

The movements of Asahi are basically relaxing and are designed to gently increase muscle stamina, balance, coordination and concentration. Gymnastic and health exercise practices from other traditions were studied during Asahi’s development process, but each movement used has been adapted and simplified to be suitable for Asahi. In some parts Asahi may resemble Chinese qi gong but Asahi’s structure and theoretical foundation are very different. The decisive difference between Asahi and other health practices is how the whole series is put together, what health effects it has and how those effects are interpreted and proven. Asahi is based on 11 principles which determine how the movements are done. These principles are more important than the movements themselves. In many other practices, students follow their guru to eventually become an instructor. Asahi has a structured education system for instructors enabling them to progress from beginner level to full-time licensed educator. There are no spiritual leaders in Asahi. During Asahi practice the frame of mind and the emotional atmosphere differ greatly from other types of health practices.

Asahi Goes Global