Do not overexercise

-by Sheela Rani Chunkath

I recently had some friends visiting from Sweden. We were discussing the great strengths of India including her amazing vegetarian cuisine, ayurveda and yoga. One of them, a great yoga enthusiast was telling me about the power yoga and hot yoga classes she had attended. The teacher of the class apparently was trying to copyright an asana, a modification perhaps of one of our ancient yogic poses. There is a tendency today to make yoga catch up with the vigorous cardiac exercises more popular in the West. My vaidyar is always warning me against doing exercises till I'm completely out of breath. Most yoga teachers would like you to bring your breathing back to normal between asanas by lying down a couple of minutes in shavasana or the corpse pose.

Exercise enhances vayu and so if you have aches and pains don't start exercising at once thinking that the pain will reduce or go away. First address the cause of the pain by decreasing the vayu in the body either through proper diet or treatment and then start your exercise regimen. If you do feel the need to exercise, do only gentle exercise.

The best exercise regimen that one can follow throughout one's life would be yoga. It addresses almost all your needs – from being a cardio exercise to a stretching routine to a soothing, calming finish to your day. If you are a person who has a lot of energy, you can expend it by doing more rounds of an asana, but in a slow and deliberate manner.

One of the main reasons that many people often exercise is to lose weight. Gary Taubes in his book "Why We Get Fat: What To Do About It", has after a great deal of enquiry into the available literature, concluded that exercise will not really help you lose weight; it may perhaps tone you up or perhaps build muscle if you lift a lot of weights; but it is of no great help if you just want to lose weight. I am sure all of you must have heard of people who have dropped dead in the middle of a vigorous workout in a gym or on the tennis court. As you grow older, exercise needs to be gentle and steady. Please do not overexercise. Walks and traditional yoga (not the vigorous western modifications) should be what one should be doing. "No pain, no gain" is the one adage one should not follow if one wants to live a long healthy life. Of course, if you want a six-pack or bulging biceps, it is a different story.

Ayurvedic precepts state that you should not exercise during summer. This is the time of the year when you are already dehydrating and to do vigorous exercise during this period is counterproductive to good health. If you want to start your biceps building or six-pack program, do it in winter and try to go easy during summer. This is not possible for professional athletes. Their bodies, consequently, suffer from severe stress and strain and this often results in injuries. Most professional athletes are punishing their bodies and should not be looked upon as models to emulate for healthy living. To be healthy, all you need do is to take up a yoga routine (which includes pranayama) that you can build on gradually and a gentle exercise program like walking or swimming.

Yoga is something that should be taught in every school. As a policy maker I would like to state that, if there is one thing that can improve the health status of Indians especially urban Indians, it would be the practice of yoga. Except where there is calorie insufficiency, the practice of yoga can be truly beneficial. This nation of more than 1 billion people can become one of the healthiest nations in the world by systematically practising yoga -- their national heritage.

--- The writer was earlier Health Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu and is currently Additional Chief Secretary and Chairman & Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation. She can be reached at Sheelarani.arogyamantra@gmail. com. Earlier articles can be accessed at http://arogyamantra.blogspot.com/