Exercises: Do we need varieties?

As the evolutionary species, we undergo changes and also we need changes. In association to this, the exercises for the purpose of our health and fitness need to have varieties. There are two phases to the exercises namely the experimental phase and operational phase. There is clear distinction between the phases while one progresses through the exercises.

Experimental Phase: As a beginner, the first phase involves in getting many different varieties of the exercise formats. This is an experimental phase where one is testing the suitability of the exercises and the following benefits that one gets out of the exercises. Also, the varieties in the exercises keep the person to stay motivated to try out all the different exercise formats.

The drawback with the experimental phase is that the body is subjected too many variables. There is a high probability that the body gets confused by the varieties. A systematic training is the key element for the body to get trained.

An important aspect for the sustainability during the earlier days of the exercise regimes is to stay motivated. So, to stay motivated, it is good to work on the varieties of the exercises during the experimental phase.

 Operational Phase: Body has an inbuilt intelligence. The intelligence and hence the body can be trained when the exercises follow certain protocols such as regularity, timing of the exercises & the emotion that one attaches to the exercises. In this phase, the set of exercises is fixed. The external variability is stopped with the fixed set of exercises. This now gives an opportunity to see the variables within you, your internal elements such as your feelings, bodily sensations & your thought process.

Now, the fixed set of exercises acts as a mirror in which one sees himself, his own internal world. Every day, the set of exercises are the same but the way how one feels with the exercises are different as the internal state of the person depends on his mind, emotion & body corresponding to the corresponding day.

Exercises have now become a monitoring tool to witness our own internal state. This enabled awareness plays a vital role in bringing one to a balanced healthy state.

You are clearer to yourself with the fixed set of exercises. Exercising has two paths. First path is related to the actions that we do in moving the body and second path is related to the feelings that we get out of those actions. The actions are voluntary whereas the feelings are involuntary. With voluntary conscious actions, we gain access to our involuntary subconscious internal system. Such is the power one gets by fixing the exercises routine.

Boost up your Metabolism

Some of us do religiously regular workouts, having complete control on intake of their diet; provide good rest to the body and having proper sleep. Still they struggle to maintain their body weight in spite of all the good things that they have done. Also, there is a different set of people who don’t pay attention to any of those above activities. There is no doubt that this set of people will have poor metabolic rate. But, what is wrong with those who do regular workouts, proper dieting but still can’t maintain the weight? Why the metabolic rate is not balanced?

Agni: In simple term, metabolism is a biochemical reaction that governs the energy intake and further utilisation of the energy effectively to all the cells of the body. There should be an optimal flow of energy to every cells of the body. Metabolic disorder occurs when there exists in the body certain diseases such as diabetes,  thyroidism etc. In yogic language, AGNI is defined as the fire that governs the metabolism as well as the digestion process. The strength of the Agni determines the digestive ability. Disruption in the Agni is the primary reasons for the diseases.

24 x 7 firing: An hour workouts performed in the gym helps in activating the Agni for certain period of time. But, rest of the day, if it is going to be a deskbound job then your metabolism slowly moves to a stagnant mode. This is the problem with most of us who are basically stuck to the chair in the office. We have to flip the switch in order for the Agni to light up all the time during the day. Otherwise, the workout is effective only for few hours & hence, your efficiency of the metabolism drops down during the rest period & hence , have the difficulty in maintain the weight.

Two Key elements: In order for the metabolism to stay active throughout the day, it is important to understand

 1. The seat of Agni ( manipura chakra) , the navel region. This is the centre of mass of our body. We need to activate this area.

2. The spine is the energy distribution channel and hence a consistent movement of spine is required for proper energy distribution.

Suggested Practices:  To start with, a simple abdominal breathing is sufficient to activate the centre of mass, the energy generator region. This practice should be performed frequently throughout the day to keep up the metabolism. Alternatively, certain technique such as Agnisara Kriya helps in boosting up the metabolism. In simple terms, it is a practicing of flapping the abdominal muscles by holding the breath after exhale.  Any body movement from the centre of mass such as a simple forward and backward bend helps in boosting up the metabolism too.

Also, the energy distribution channel can be optimised by giving simple movements to the spine. For example: Arching the spine backward and forward or simple twisting movement of the spine etc.

The suggested practices are simple but very effective in boosting up your metabolism and maintain your ideal weight.

“First step” a crucial factor in Change management

Life is all about changes. In fact, nothing is permanent in life except the constant changes. A positive change bounds to happen when the change works in your favour that aids in your growth. Being in the human development field, people come to me because they want to have a positive change in their life. Most of them have achieved what they really desired but not all of them. Here are few guidelines for those who really wanted to have “sure success” recipes to change their life for good.

Let the change that you deserve be in any particular dimension of your life. Say for example, better career, better health, wealth & better relationship management. What is more important is the way how you approach the change process. In particular, your “first step” for the change is a crucial element in determining the success.

Successful First Step: Your “first step” in your change process should always be successful.  “First step “is nothing but your first action in the change process. Let us assume that you wanted to have a great health. The first step is a simple movement to generate some energy in the body.  You need to pick up this movement in such a way that it is not exceeding your resource capabilities as well as not too small for you. In other words, it is a well-balanced selection of exercise appropriately selected for you.

Why we insist on the success? It is because; the experience of this exercise is stored in your memory which will have an impact when you repeat the exercise next time. The emotion attached to the exercise plays a key role in either continuing the exercise or discarding the exercise. A simple but successful pattern encourages us to perform exercise on regular basis. A wrong "first step" leads to a bad emotion that disowns the success pattern.

Pushing the Limit:  Growth can be defined as a change but is always happening in the positive direction. So, one has to step out from the comfort zone and step into the discomfort zone to experience the growth. The failure happens only when one overstep into the discomfort zone which really demands resource more than his present resource capabilities. This is one such typical pattern that leads to the failure. As a coach or trainer, it is the responsibility of the coach to take care of the clients to ensure that they travel in the path of the success pattern.

Brain circuitry: The motivational centre of the brain works based on the reward mechanism. Keep the exercises for the change neither trivial nor difficult so that the reward mechanism generates “feel good” hormones which motivate us to repeat the exercises. Repetition and regularity are the key factors to strengthen the neurological pathway. This neurological pathway eventually becomes our habits. This in fact is our success habit.

Law of accumulation: Big success can be easily achieved by adding up all the small steps of the successes. The exponential growth of success in fact is due to the effect of many different small actions but all are leading to their own minimal successes.

So, when you look for a change, it is important to understand your present resource capabilities and play the game where you step into your discomfort zone mindfully. Neither really overstepping nor underperforming but just setting the right balance. Do this continuously on a repeated basis to realise the big change.

Attention & productivity

There is a direct correlation to your productivity and your ability to pay attention to a specific task. Attention is one of the cognitive skills that can be developed by some simple practices. No doubt, pronounced productivity keeps us on the top in the field of our work. In other words, attention plays a crucial role to stay productive and to excel in the field of your work.

Current scenario: Recent researches show that the ability to pay attention to a specific task has dramatically have gone down in the recent two decades. We live in the information age and obviously, the information is abundant. We are bombarded with enormous amount of information each day in the light of technical advancement such as email, mobile, whatsapp, social media such as Facebook, twitter etc. Our present living condition is completely different than what we had experience few decades before. Distraction in the form of information overload is the main reason for the decline in our ability to pay attention.

There is also another research which says that we are attentive only 51% of the time and the remaining 49% of the time, our mind wanders on unnecessary random thoughts. Unknowingly, we have this pattern that happens on day today basis. Because of this, we literally waste almost half of our life time unproductively.

Tests: Here are few simple tests that can be performed right away to verify the above research facts.

1.       You would have taken probably a minute or two reading the content of this blog from the start to this point. Have you 100% completely engaged in this blog for the past one minute? Or were your mind engaged with some other thoughts irrelevant to the current task? 

2.       Here is another test .The test is to stay attentive but this time you are KOWINGLY testing yourself. The task is to stay focussed on one single thought for a minute. This thought could be anything related to something which happened at the start of today or even something that you will be doing tonight. But, JUST stay on one single thought for a minute. You would have noticed that the mind starts wandering after few seconds even though you wanted to stay focussed on that single chosen thought.

Default Network: Wandering mind is the default network of the brain. Attention is the activity from the prefrontal cortex of the brain. If you have failed in one or both of the above tests, do not get discouraged. This is quite NORMAL and in fact, majority of us fall in this category. The good news is that attention faculty of the brain can be developed by practice. Like any other skills, this skill is learnable & one can develop this skill.

Practice: Here is a simple practice to strengthen the attention muscles of the brain. Begin the practice to sit in upright posture & stay relaxed. Pay attention to your breathing preferably at your abdomen. Initially, try to have few rounds of deep breathing and switch back to normal automatic, spontaneous breathing. You might witness the rise & fall of your breath. As you inhale, your abdomen bulges out and as you exhale, abdomen sinks in. Just follow the natural rhythm of your breathing for five minutes. You would definitely witness the mind slowly starts wandering after few seconds or minutes after the start of the exercise. Once you become aware of wandering mind, gently bring your attention back to your breathing and continue to observe nonjudgmentally the natural rhythm. This five minutes practice every day strengthens your attention faculty & you will see a good change within a month in the way you pay attention to a specific task.

So, simply enhance your attention faculty by such a simple  practice, increase your productivity & excel in the field of your work .