TRYING YOG CLASS FOR THE FIRST TIME

In recent times everyone has understood the importance of Yog (pronounced like Vogue!). I believe everyone should practice yogasan regularly. Therefore in this blog I am going to offer a few tips about starting yogasan practice and also address some of the misconceptions. 

 Things to consider before starting a Yog class for the first time:  

1] If you are going to try your hand at Yogasan for the first time it's best to do it in an offline format i.e. in front of a teacher. It's very important to understand the nuances of Yog practice and it's only possible when you are physically present. 

2] Although it's true that everyone should practice Yogasan its necessary to consider personal capacity and tolerance. All of us have differing flexibility and tolerance for physical activity. Performing all the Yogasan positions may not be possible for everyone. Therefore practice as per your tolerance.

3] Initially you might be able to hold a Yogasan steady only for a few seconds and might be able to participate in the Yog class only for 10 to 15 minutes. With regular practice your capacity will improve and you will be able to practice longer and harder. 

4] It's very important to give as much attention to joints, muscles and breath as to an aasan position. Since ancient times all Yog gurus have emphasized this aspect again and again.  

5] Make sure to wear comfortable clothes as Yogasan practice requires complete and free movement of all the joints. 

6] It's better to practice on an almost empty stomach so that no aasan will cause discomfort. If practicing early in the morning you can eat a small fruit like a banana/ dates etc. about an hour earlier. This way you will get necessary calories without the stomach getting full. 

7] Please consult your Doctor before practicing Yogasan to find out if any positions or actions are to be avoided. 

Now let's address some misconceptions about Yog practice: 

1] Yogasan practice is always harmless- Please remember that any physical activity performed beyond one's capacity can be harmful and yogasan is no exception to this. Therefore practice carefully and increase the difficulty level slowly.  

2] Yogasan practice is too easy and doesn't provide any challenge - Although Yogasan are not performed fast, forcefully or with music beats, they are challenging. There is a challenge to keep the focus on body and breath apart from assuming aasan positions which are new and unfamiliar to the body. 

3] My body is not flexible therefore I can not perform Yogasan- There are many easy to perform Yogasan to choose from. After practicing the easy aasans for some time your flexibility will improve and it will be possible to try more difficult aasans. 

4] My Yogasan position doesn't look as good as the guide book/video or my teacher. Is my practice useful? -  Our yogasan positions will look different depending on our flexibility, age and capacity. It's important to remember that it's a journey and making a regular effort is most important. You will definitely feel the benefit. 

It's advisable to learn Yogasan from an able teacher. Get a program custom made for your needs and practice it regularly. Yogasan are very helpful to increase tenacity and resilience of the body. Yogasan are also very useful to avoid repetitive stress injuries (injuries which occur due to performing any action repetitively e.g. using a computer for many hours.) as well as wear and tear of the body amongst sports players and athletes. Natural wear and tear caused by aging can also be mitigated by Yogasan practice. Yogasan practice is very helpful to achieve mental peace, emotional and intellectual balance.  

Happy Exercising and remember the mantra:

'WHEN IT COMES TO EXERCISE BEING REGULAR IS MOST IMPORTANT'

 DIET OR EXERCISE: WHAT IS MORE IMPORTANT?

Whenever we try to lose weight we always wonder what our priority should be: diet or exercise? A person trying to lose weight is looking for a reliable, fail proof way to reduce weight and hopefully maintain it. In the struggle of balancing family, work and weight reduction we want to set our priorities. So, let's try to find an answer to this million dollar question; is diet more important or exercise?

If the answer was that easy then this would not be a million dollar question! Let's first understand how we humans burn or use calories all through the day. Let's assume we burn 100 calories everyday. You will be surprised to know that most of our daily calorie expenditure, almost 70% of it, is used simply to keep our body functioning, just to keep us alive and to do all the basic body functions like respiration, circulation etc. So out of all the calories we eat in a day upto 70% are necessary to mearly sustain our bodily functions. Apart from these another 10 to 15% calories are required to eat, digest and absorb our meals. The remaining 15 to 20% calories are used for physical activity which includes daily activities such as brushing our teeth, bathing, basic moving about in the house and also exercise! Whatever the purpose of calorie burning, they come from our diet. The calories provided by the food we eat are either used immediately during the day or stored in the body as fat and used later on as needed. 

Now it becomes easier to understand how a good diet and exercise regime can contribute to weight loss. As 70% of our daily calorie expenditure is necessary for basic, essential chemical reactions, it's very important that daily diet is well balanced and nutritious. It's important to realise that the good diet is a basic requirement of our body like water and air. Good exercise can not make up for a bad diet. A nutritious, well balanced diet should be our personal and family lifestyle forming the foundation of our health. In case of weight loss however, we need to burn more calories than what we consume. So the food we eat needs to maximise nutrition and satisfaction but minimize unnecessary and unhealthy calories. This well balanced, nutritious diet looks different for each invidual depending on daily schedule, habits, availability of resources etc. 

The imperative 70% to 80% of our daily calorie burn is not entirely in our hands. It is decided by our gender, body size, age, genetics etc. But the extra activity is in our hands. Even small amounts of regular exercise leads to lot of calories burnt over a week or a month. Just like a customised diet, this regular exercise will be different for every individual. 

In short both diet and exercise are very important for weight loss!

The difference is in frequency. We have to make informed decisions about our diet everyday: multiple times. However exercise performed even 3 to 4 times per week can also contribute to weight loss. A combination of diet and exercise wil give us a 'healthy' weight loss. A good diet will lead to fat loss, support muscle building while providing good calories for all essential body functions. On the other hand good exercise will increase muscle mass, reduce fat and provide a good shape, strength and stamina to the body. 

For both of these aspects of weight loss CONSISTENCY is a key!!

Happy Exercising and remember the mantra:

'WHEN IT COMES TO EXERCISE BEING REGULAR IS MOST IMPORTANT'

    WHAT IS WEIGHT TRAINING?

Weight training or resistance training means lifting weight that is challenging for you. It means performing actions which require some effort from our muscles or performing actions against some resistance. So whether it's a dumbell exercise or push ups your body has to make an effort to perform the action as there is weight or resistsance making it challenging. 

 A large majority of people on earth engage in daily weight training naturally. People doing farm work, construction work do weight training almost everyday. Even women in these situations do weight training everyday; its just that the weight does not look like dumbells. On the other hand in modern city lifestyle the need for physical labour is greatly reduced. Now a days a lot of people have a sedentary lifestyle. Therefore all of them need to deliberately introduce resistance training to their lives; men, women and the seniors.

The term weight training tends to frighten some people as they tend to associate it with body builders who do very heavy and intense weight training. A lot of people perceive that lifting weight is only a sporting activity done by wrestlers and body builders. But all of us have muscles which need to be maintained. There is also a fear amongst women in particular that one will look like a heavyset body builder after regular weight training. It's very important to know that muscle strength and muscle endurance (stamina) are crucial to maintain a healthy,  pain free body capable of performing various daily activities comfortably. 

All of us lose physical strength and stamina naturally with time and age. With sedentary lifestyle there is even a bigger loss of muscle and bone mass. Slowly even the normal day to day activities can start feeling cumbersome leading to aches and pains. 

Let's first understand what is weight training or better yet what is resistance training? When we lift, pull or push a weight that is challenging for us it will be called as weight or resistance training. When we do this regularly it sends a signal to our brain to make our muscles and bones stronger and more resilient. Weight training will not only improve the health of your muscles but also other soft tissue structures in and around the joints like tendons and ligaments. Tendons and ligaments are wirelike structures which keep the muscles and bones in place. 

Now lets look at various ways in which we can do resistance training. All the traditional equipment like dumbells, barbells, mudgal etc can be used for weight training. In addition to these weight training machines, tubes, medicine balls, kettle bells are also used effectively. We can use our own body weight for resistance training eg. squats, push ups, planks etc. Yogasan also offer good resistance training effect. One can mix and match these modalities over the years and keep the stimulus to the body fresh. 

Make sure to include weight/resistance training to your fitness schedule 2 to 3 times per week. It makes the bones stronger by helping to increase the bone mineral density. It will help you to avoid osteoporosis while keeping the muscles toned and firm. It will also help you with weight loss leading to inch loss. Weight/resistance training will give you a strong, resilient body. 

Happy Exercising and remember the mantra: 

'WHEN IT COMES TO EXERCISE BEING REGULAR IS MOST IMPORTANT'

AT A GLANCE

 5 ASPECTS OF COMPLETE FITNESS

Are you only walking or only doing Yog/dance/weights for exercise? Choosing to do only one type of exercise improves only some aspects of fitness and does not develop overall fitness. Let’s find out the 5 fitness components you should work on to get well rounded, balanced physical fitness.

I should point out that I am going to focus on 'Health related physical fitness' in particular. What do I mean by that? Is there any other type of physical fitness? Isn't everyone trying to improve his health and maintain body weight? Yes, it's true that all of us hope to get better physique and health after regular exercise. But the type of exercise and how much we will exercise will depend on our specific goals. E.g., an athlete is looking to improve her performance in a sport and will have to engage in fitness goals which challenge her limits. Therefore, the intensity of her workouts will be much higher than an average person. She will also need to focus on practising some special skills which are required for her sport e.g. components such as speed, agility, balance and coordination in addition to the 'health related fitness components'. 

However, most of us are working out to improve our functional fitness. We want to develop enough strength and stamina to do our day-to-day activities better and also maintain overall health and body weight. Therefore, our workout will look different than that of an athlete. 

So here are the 5 components of 'health related physical fitness’ that we should include in our workout: -

1] CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE	It's the capacity of our heart, lungs and blood vessels to supply enough blood to the exercising muscles. This component is what we refer to as our 'stamina'. We can improve our cardiovascular endurance by regular walking, jogging, dancing, swimming etc.
2] MUSCULAR STRENGTH	Muscular strength indicates the maximum weight our muscle is capable of lifting. It's the maximum force a muscle can produce. Better muscular strength will make the bones stronger, improve the shape our body and reducing inches for fat loss. We can work on this fitness component by including weight training in our fitness regime.
3] MUSCULAR ENDURANCE	Muscular endurance is the capacity of a muscle to keep contracting and relaxing without taking a break. This tells us how many repetitions a muscle can do without getting tired. This is also a type of 'stamina'. Having good muscular endurance avoids muscle fatigue. We can improve our muscular endurance by including weight training to our fitness regime.
4] FLEXIBILITY	Good flexibility is the capacity of a joint to perform an action through the complete range of motion. It tells us if all the joints and the muscles move and stretch normally as we do our work. Maintaining good flexibility is very important to avoid injury while doing various actions all through the day. Stretching all the joints and muscles regularly will improve flexibility.
5] BODY COMPOSITION	A healthy body composition is to have a balanced ratio of lean body mass and fat mass in the body. We want to have more lean mass (bones, muscles, other organs) in the body than the fat. This will improve the shape of the body and reduce the risk of  heart disease.

    There are many combinations of exercises one can try, to include these components in the workout. If you are working out on your own, consult a qualified fitness trainer and get a fitness routine customized for yourself. You can always change it after a few weeks or months. This approach will also help you to make overall health as your priority and not just fixate on weight. To develop a body which is healthy, strong and energetic we should ensure that we work on all these components every week. This is important no matter what age you are as we need all these attributes for our daily life.

    Before I end, I want to congratulate all those who are doing some type of any type of physical activity regularly. Whether you are already exercising or not, give this article a careful read and try to improve your fitness regime. Happy Exercising and remember my mantra:

'WHEN IT COMES TO EXERCISE BEING REGULAR IS MOST IMPORTANT'

AT A GLANCE