Topic- Role of exercise in maintaining health.

At today's date everybody is familiar with yoga which comes under ayurvedic
science . As this lockdown started and we took a look at ourselves in the mirror
and found that we have added on alot of weight on our body so, the next day we
start a really heavy workout. This sparkling thought came to our mind when we
actually saw deep down inside ourselves. In today's world we only try things so
that we get more likes and comments on any social media platform. We don't do
it for the sake of ourselves but we try to impress others.And on top of that doing
all this workout we are not satisfied , we don't get that happiness which we
actually feel when we achieve something for ourselves.
So comming to the topic of exercise , we perform all our daily activities like
from breathing to reading any book and understanding it , this all things are
under control of vata dosha .These activities are controlled by vata dosha which
also induces other two doshas ie pitta dosha and kapha dosha to perform their
activities.
There is one saying in ayurveda which tells us importance of vata dosha . " If
we want rain to happen in certain areas , then the vata ie. wind brings the clouds
to that area and it rains" . The clouds cannot travel on their own, but with help
of vata dosha they can travel anywhere. So , the vata dosha is so much
important in our body . But if it gets aggravated & changes its direction it can
cause endless diseases and it can lead to death too.
We need to exercise not only to reduce our excess adipose tissue but also to
keep our physical and mental health upto mark .There are endless options
available for exercises like zumba , power yoga , aerobics , swimming etc. You
can choose from a wide variety of exercises to perform but there are certain
guidelines which are needed to be followed according to your body type.
Ayurveda is not only the science of health but also of lifestyle. It has also
provided us with alternative options for each and every person can follow
according to their body type and which suites them best.
"Vyayam sthairya Karanam"
it means exercise makes us firm in making any decisions or it calms our mind.
There is one saying in ayurveda that if a person performs more exercise then
their strength , can die in the similar manner a lion died which pulled an
elephant . The bottom line is , you should understand your body strength and
then exercise untill you feel like you are feeling exhausted. We are performing
all this things to provide strength to our body . And if you are working out
more you are inducing more ware and tare of your body and you end up getting
more tired .
There is the term named homeostasis which has to be applied in our daily life
. It means our body tries to maintain its temperature with respect to the
environmental temperature.
You must have heard that there are some people who exercise daily but
suddenly suffer from stroke and they die on the spot . Here is the reason it is
usually told to exercise in limit during summer season, than in winter season.
During summer you are sweating out more and if you work out more you end
up losing potassium and sodium ions through your sweat which are really ,
really important in water electrolyte balance as well as acid base balance inside
your every minute cell.
So to bring back that balance to normal conditions our body tries its various
protective mechanisms which should act quickly to bring conditions to normal .
If they don't return to normal conditions the cells starts necrosis (death) and
unfortunately leads to multiple organ failure and finally death happens. It has
also been taught in our basic science subjects that enzymes work or we can say
gets activated at certain temperatures only if there is slight increase or decrease
of temperature they gets denatured. Our body requires enzymes to start or keep
the reactions like breathing , digestion continuous. Even though they are
produced in petty amount yet their presence is important.
So the bottom line is in maintaining the homeostasis is really important and the
amount of exercise you perform can directly show you the results . So in our
ancient books written by our great acharya's it is said that adequate amount of
exercise should be performed during (sheet kala) cold seasons and even less
amount should be done during summer season. It is also told that exercise is not
good for very elder people (+70 yrs) and also small children (below 5 yrs) .
During your juvenile period bones and other cells are still not strong enough to
sustain exercise and in elderly body's healing mechanism slows down so it
cannot sustain more ware and tare. That doesn't mean that these age groups have
to just sit at one place ,they can also perform walking exercise , which I feel
personally is the easiest one.
Not only exercise but also healthy diet can only provide us a fruitful and
disease free life.