The Role of Exercise in Ayurvedic Health: Benefits and Cautions

EXERCISE Exercise is another factor that can profoundly influence your health for better or worse. Regular exercise improves circulation and increases strength, stamina, and immunity. It helps one to relax and to sleep peacefully. It benefits the heart and lungs, is vital for effective digestion and elimination, and helps the body purify itself of toxins through sweating and deep breathing.

Exercise increases the rate of combustion of calories, so it is good for maintaining body weight and for weight loss. It also makes the mind alert and sharp and develops keen perception. On the other hand, insufficient exercise, overexertion, or exercise that is inappropriate for one’s constitution can lead to ill health. Lack of exercise eventually brings a loss of flexibility and strength and puts one at greater risk for many diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, and heart disease.

Some amount of sweating helps to eliminate toxins, reduces fat, and makes you feel good. But overexertion may cause dehydration, breathlessness, chest pain, or muscle aches, ultimately leading to arthritis, sciatica, or a heart condition. Yoga stretching and some aerobic exercise are valuable for all body types, but the amount and intensity of your exercise should be based upon your constitution. Kaphas can do the most strenuous exercise, pittas can handle a moderate amount, and vatas require the gentlest exercise.

Even though fast-moving vatas are attracted to active sports, quieter exercises such as walking and yoga stretching are better for them. They should leave jogging, fast bicycling, aerobic dancing, and fast walking to pitta and kapha types. Kaphas are the most reluctant exercisers, preferring to do little or nothing, but it is important for them, or they will tend to put on weight and feel emotionally heavy and dull. So here again, self-knowledge—knowledge of your constitution—plus a few pieces of vital information give you the opportunity and the challenge to maintain good health or fall into imbalance and illness.

You will find additional information about exercise in Part II, where we discuss the Ayurvedic daily routine. AGE As briefly mentioned in chapter 1, Ayurveda divides the human life span into three stages. At each stage, certain diseases and types of disease are more common. Childhood is the age of kapha.