Tag Archives: exercise

NOW ONLY PLAYING IN MY HEAD

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Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time doing nothing (by necessity), and whenever I have about half an hour’s worth of time to take up, I think about how that’s roughly the span of a TV show. And so I engage in the same failed exercise: I try to form an original anime episode in my head and pretend I’m watching it from start to finish. I’ll play a poorly thought-out song in my head, maybe have characters talking about something with some kind of goal in mind, and then try to progress from there. Eventually I get tired and have to take a break.

Then I look at my watch and realize that it’s only been five minutes. This is why I call it a failed exercise.

This reminds me of how when I didn’t have a music player while exercising, I used to sing anime openings in my head as I used the treadmill. The opening to Getter Robo was a favorite, and the best part was that if I lost track of a song it didn’t really matter, and in fact starting over could be seen as a good thing as it acted as further distraction.

ABeshi!

The Otaku Exercise Regimen?

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I might not have any sort of specific numbers or charts or data, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be off when I say the vast majority of otaku are out-of-shape, yours truly included. Whether we’re malnourished and underweight or heavy eaters with huge guts, exercise is not exactly a part of the standard image of the otaku, or the geek, or anything of that sort.

What if there was an exercise regimen geared towards otaku? Maybe something one can do while watching anime, finding healthy foods to eat based on anime dishes, back-strengthening exercises to prevent the pull of heavy bookbags, that sort of thing. I know it sounds like a complete gimmick, and that it might as well be one because in the end exercise boils down to hard work and diligence, something that shounen manga is eager to teach us again and again.

If I had to guess as to why so many otaku are sacks of flab, it’s because we grow up with this mentality of brains vs brawn, that the two have difficulty existing with one another, that one is the opposite of the other. If we can first shed this misconceived notion, I think we’d be on our way.

Like I said earlier though, I’m hardly a prime physical speciment, but there is one piece of advice I can give that I know is 100% guaranteed to help otaku.

Stop drinking so much goddamn soda.

Oh, and watch out for my Otakon 2008 report tomorrow.