In Ayurveda, the exercises are recommended according to dosha dominance and it recommends exercise regularly seven days a week. These exercises are doshas specific, kapha type for example requires strenuous exercise and vata require least strenuous exercise and pitta fall somewhere in between.
If you have large muscular body then kapha is your dominant do-sha. If your muscular and physical development is more modest then you should put yourself in vata category, which requires light exercises. If you are in be-tween then you should put your-self in pitta category. For kapha types running, weight training, aerobics, rowing and dance are appropriate. For vata types yoga aerobics light bicycling, walking, and wagging are excellent exercises. Too much exercise can turn vata out of balance. Pitta types of exercise is more vigorous such jogging, running, hiking, mounting, climbing and swimming. Two excellent ayurvedic exercises that focus on breathing are known as Bhastrika Pranayama and Kapalabhati.
In Bhastrika the abdominal muscles work like bellows. You have sit to straight up on floor or in the chair, your arm should be parallel to your sides and bent upwards at the elbows, with your hands in the fists are approximately shoulder height. Then inhale and exhale a single deep breath through your nose then as you take another deep breath raise your arms straight up and as they reach full exertion open your fists and extend your fingers. Now quickly lower your arms back to the starting position while simultaneously exhaling through your nose.
Keep your hands facing forward throughout this exercise. Continue for two or three sets of fifteen repetitions. Kapalabhati is another breathing exercise which is equivalent to jogging. A Kapalbhati exercise cleans metabolic wastes from the body. This exercise accelerates heart rate without requiring a great deal of exertion from the large muscle groups of the body, it is a particularly useful exercise for the people who aren't at the high level of physical conditioning required by conventional athletics. The technique consists of short, powerful exhalations, each followed by a passive inhalation.
To begin, sit with your back straight, either on the floor or in a chair. Your shoulder should be back, and your abdominal muscle should be free to move. Correct posture is extremely important in kapalabhati, because the abdominal muscles must be able to relax thoroughly when you in-hale. Once your posture is established, begin breathing through your nose to establish a rhythm of deep, even breathes. Then, just when you're about to exhale, contract your stomach muscles quickly and powerfully, which will force air out through your nostrils.
This exhalation should be as complete as possible in one short, powerful blast. When you first learning this exercise, try to exhale approximately once per second. Then gradually increase the rate to twice per second, but don't try to go any faster than that. You can also use in mantra to in-crease the benefit of exercise such as silently repeating the syllable “so” each time you inhale and then, repeat the syllable “hum” when you exhale. Remember that the best times to exercise are during kapha period from 6 am to 10 am or 6 pm to 10 pm.
Yoga is derived of the word, Yoke' which means union of body, mind, soul, spirit and environment. It is a way of life which endows per-fect health thereby enhancing op-timal integration of body, mind, soul, spirit and environment and thus enhancing physical, men-tal, social, spiritual and envi-ronment well-being. Practice all eight limbs of Yoga on daily basis which are :-
It includes a series of twelve flex-ion and extension exercises that integrate the mind, body, and breath. The Sun Salute lubricates the joints, conditions the spine, and strengthens every major muscles group in the body. It creates balance, stability, suppleness and flexibility.
Salutation Position : Start the Sun Salute with your feet parallel and your weight distributed evenly over your feet. Place your hands together, palms touching, at chest level. Breathe easily for about five seconds.
Raised arms position : As you inhale, lift your hands over your head, lengthening your spine easily in an extension posture.
Hand to foot position: As you exhale, bend your body forward and down into a flexion posture. Allow your knees to bend.
Equestrain position : On the inhalation, extend your left leg back, knee to the ground. Allow your right leg to bend and your right foot to stay flat on lengthen upward.
Mountain position : As you exhale, place your right leg back, even with your left leg, pushing the buttocks up into a flexion posture. The body forms an even in-verted V from your pelvis to your hands and from your pelvis to your heels.
Eight limbs position : Carefully drop both knees to the ground and allow your body to slide down at an angle, with your chest and chin briefly on the ground. Hold this for a second and then move smoothly into the next position.
Cobra position : As you inhale, lift your chest up and slightly for-ward while pressing down with your hands. Keep your elbows close to your body. Allow your spine to lift your head-do not start the movement with your head or lift your body with your neck.
Mountain position: While exhaling, raise your buttocks and hips in a flexion posture, the same as position 5.
Equestrian position: As you inhale, bring your right leg for-ward, between your hands, the same as position 4. Let your left leg extend backward, with the knee touching the ground. Your right knee will be bent and your right foot flat on the floor.
Hand to foot position: Repeat position 3. As you exhale, bend your body forward and down, coming down into a flexion posture. Allow your knees to bend.
Raised arms position: Repeat position 2. As you inhale, lift your hands over your head, lengthening your spine easily in an extension posture.
Salutation position: Repeat position 1, ending the Sun Salute the same way you began, with your hands folded, palms together, in front of your chest. Breathe easily for about five seconds. Then begin the next cycle. (Position 12 becomes the first position for the second cycle; you can go directly into position 2 from here.)
This simple neurorespiratory exercise, called Pranayama, creates balance throughout your body. It's ideal to do Pranayama after the neuromuscular integration exercise and before meditation.
Daily exercise is a very important integral component of our ideal lifestyle. Exercising daily for thirty minutes help in maintaining optimum integration of various components of health including body, mind, soul, spirit and environment. Those who exercise they live long. Exercise has a tremendous impact on our personality, potentials, achievements, success and happiness.
Unfortunately most of us exercise after we have bypass surgery or after having any such major ailments. I firmly believe that if we exercise regularly it may help us not only in bypassing the by-pass surgery but also bypassing many aliments such as heart at-tack, hypertension, high cholesterol, premature stokes, arthritis, osteoporosis, cardiac metabolic syndrome etc. Either we can use our body for loose it, depending on what perception, thoughts, interpretations, experiences and choices we have. I firmly believe “Use it or Lose it”.
If we exercise for thirty minutes a day or three and half hours a week or fourteen hours a month or six days a year or one year of our lifetime of eighty years, then we will remain healthy physically, mentally, socially, spiritually and environmentally with a healthy heart as defined by World Health Organization. You must follow the laws of nature if you want to be healthy. Moderate regular exercise is enough to provide you with almost all of the health and longevity benefits without risks of more intense exercise.
The exercises can be classified as (1) Heart friendly or health friendly or aerobic exercises (2) Heart unfriendly or health un-friendly or anaerobic exercises (3) Unaccustomed. The heart friendly exercises are walking, wagging, jogging, swimming, dancing, cycling, skiing, rowing, walking on treadmill etc. are good for heart and require oxy-gen. The aerobic system is must more efficient, it increases oxy-gen–rich blood to your muscles and the heart unfriendly or an-aerobic exercises are weight lifting, isometric contractions such as pushups etc., which build the muscles and does not require oxygen and are not friendly for healthy heart. The anaerobic system is designed for short, quick, intense bursts of energy, the kind you use such as sprinting or dashing for a train. An aerobic exercise generate large amount of waste product such as lactic acid, which causes muscle cramps, soreness and pain. Unaccustomed exercise are such as pushing a car or changing wheel of a car or starting jogging for the first time at the age of 50 or 60 or exercising in extremes of weather either too hot or too cold or too humid or without awareness of our effort tolerance. One should perform the exercises which he or she is used to and should be aware of worming up and conditioning effects of exercise.
Your exercise session contains three phases: warm up phase, exercise phase and cool down phase. The warm up phase is for five to ten minutes. This helps to make transition from anaerobic to aerobic metabolism. During this time you gradually increase your heart rate and blood pressure and body temperature to help to avoid injuries and muscles sore-ness. Start your warm up with gentle stretching of muscle you plan to use. For example the leg muscles if you are not going to walk. This followed by exercise phase of 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise of your choice. This followed by cool-down phase of five to ten minutes. Cool-down phase is at- least as important as warm up phase. During aerobic exercise, your blood vessels begin to dilate in order to supply more blood to your muscles. The cool down phase allows time for your blood vessels and your heart to resume their normal state.
Exercise will make you fit, but fitness and health are not syn-onymous. Exercise alone is not enough to make you healthy. In order to achieve perfect health exercise is essential part of com-prehensive lifestyle program. “Fitness” refers to your level of conditioning and training effect. The best and the simplest way to assess your fitness is to know that how long does it take for your heart rate to return to normal after vigorous exercise. The sooner your pulse returns to its usual resting rate, the more fit you are. Another measure of your fitness is your resting pulse rate – slower is the resting pulse rate, more fit you are. You can also measure your fitness by knowing how long and how far you can exercise.
The Yoga asanas are excellent form of stretching exercises, which tones up the muscles. The bending and stretching provides a kind of internal massage, which improves the functioning of vital organs and also produce the feel¬ing of tranquility of mind. Besides Yoga asanas, regular meditation, dietary optimization with more fruits vegetables, nuts, milk and milk products, regular massage with optimize oil are excellent for health and longevity.
Live longer and live younger with regular yogic practices and create productivity, development and world peace.