Health and exercise
How hard, or how much do we need to exercise for good health?
It’s a question that comes up from time to time with yoga practitioners with regards to heart health in particular. Do we need to do ‘cardio’ exercise outside of our yoga practice to have a healthy body?
For most of my life I have done fairly intense cardio vascular sports which we could argue made my body very fit and strong. This is true to some extent, but what is a healthy body?
In a podcast I had with Simon Borg-Olivier a few years back, we talked about this at length and discussed health within our practices. Check out the link below for the episode:
When I was an active competitor in various sports I was very fit, strong, my diet was very good and in general I felt good. But also during these years I would say my stress levels were higher, I lacked any real meditative or calming practices and would fairly often catch cold’s and flu’s. No more than most people but they happened.
BJJ being one of the more cario vascular sports I did.
I loved all of the different sports I have done over the years, learning to move my body in different ways and adopting new techniques. These are great fun and definitely have a lot of benefits to the body / mind, but as I said I was fairly often sick with common viruses, and also injured often. These injuries and imbalances definitely increase as we age also.
As I discussed in the podcast with Simon, what are we looking for in our practices is we want to be Healthy.
What is it to be healthy?
Health is less about cario vascular fitness but more around how we feel, and how well we can reproduce. Not necessarily within our sex life ( this is also important ) but how we can regenerate.
‘Cell regeneration is the process of replacing or restoring damaged or missing cells, tissues, organs, and even entire body parts to full function. All living organisms, including plants and animals, have some ability to regenerate as part of their natural maintenance of tissues and organs.’
If cell regeneration and providing enough free flowing blood and oxygen to our cells is the goal then what are the best practices for this?
In my opinion, competetive sports definitely have thier place and have obvious benefits, but as a long term Yoga practitioner my overall health is much better these days compared to how I used to push my body. Sometimes breaking it.
Overtraining, breaking the body down and going beyond what my body needed ultimately led to imbalances that caused injury, and depleted my immune system. As I said, I was physically strong and fit but probably not in my healthiest state as well as my stress levels being higher. Competetive sports were essentially breaking my body more than they were healing it and not recovering fully.
Stress is good for the body, as in ‘stressing it’ to create resistance and strength but going beyond the feedback we get from our body to ‘achieve’ something is where things start to have negative effects on our health.
What I have found with having a long term yoga practice is those imabalances are much less.
I have excellent mobility in my body, my breathing capabilities have massively improved, and stess levels have greatly reduced. I am hardly ever sick or injured and generally am much better at setting boundaries in my life leading to more stability and energy for the things that are important to me.
This you could say means I am generally feeling healthier. I get my blood work done regularly to check in on things and as I am moving through my 40’s everything comes back well within the optimum ranages and this relates to how I feel. Blood pressure, resting heart rate and other measurements can be good indications of health as mine over the years of having a consistent Yoga practice have been excellent, but as I said, alot of it is about how we feel.
It’s great having an excellent Vo2 max, or can set specific records in timings on events but if you are sick alot, stressed alot and your body is breaking down in more ways than one, then it could be time to re-evaluate your practices to balance the body more.
This doesn’t mean giving up the sport you love but just finding a way to balance things out. Making more time for mobility work and breathing practices that reduce stress levels and help to heal and restore the body.
Common conversations I have with students who incorporate a regular Yoga / Mobility practice in thier life include:
More energy and better sleep
Less anxiety and reduced stress
Better mobility and less pain
Reduced injuries and faster recovery time
Improved focus at work and more creative ideas
Feeling better in thier body and are sick less
Better at setting boundaries and improved relationships.
Having a space for practice can have tremendous benefits for the body / mind.
Having some time and space for yourself daily, to be still, reflect, breath and move has so many benefits for the mind / body.
The reason I do what I do and am passionate about sharing it is because it has helped me so much in my life as well as others.
Mobility work, Yoga, breathing less, strength work and not breaking our bodies down, but being kind to our bodies and healing is the foundation of these practices that can bring about so much energy and less pain.
If you are interested in starting your journey into Yoga and mobility work check out The Better Mobility Guide.
