Health Report Card

Some time back I had gone to a doctor for annual check up and he asked me "Do you exercise?" I mentioned to him that I practice yoga. He persisted "Yoga is not exercise, I am asking if you go to Gym or some other form of exercise?" I said no. It set me wondering if yoga practice can help you to be fit or not. Nevertheless I continued my practice and life went on.

I have recently completed the 13th week of 30 week yoga course. I was interested in knowing about my medical profile. I went for Bio Chemical test of my blood last week to see how the vital organs are functioning. I want to share the result with the readers of my blog here.

It is difficult for most of us to understand the terms used in the report. I have tried to include the meaning/interpretation below.

Test	Result	Normal Range	Indicator
Glucose Fasting	92.00 mg/dl	60-110 mg/dl	Pancreas, Diabetes
Total Lipids	512.0 mg/dl	400 – 700 mg/dl	Risk of Heart disease and Blood Vessels health
S. Cholesterol	186.0 mg/dl	up to 250 mg/dl	Risk of Heart disease
HDL Cholesterol	40.00 mg/dl	30-80 mg/dl	Risk of Heart disease
LDL Cholesterol	118.0 mg/dl	up to 120	Risk of Heart disease
VLDL	28.00 mg/dl	more than 40	Risk of Heart disease and Stroke
Risk Ratio	4.6	3 – 6	Risk of Heart disease
Creatinine	0.79 mg/dl	0.6 – 1.4 mg/dl	Kidney Damage
Blood Urea	21.0 mg/dl	10 – 40	Kidney Damage
Blood Urea Nitrogen	11.3 mg/dl	10 – 40	Kidney Damage
Total Bilirubin	0.70 mg/dl	0 – 1.0 mg/dl	Liver Functioning
SGOT	29.0 u/l	up to 49	How your Liver, Kidney, Heart, Pancreas, Muscles and Red Blood cells are functioning
SGPT	23.0 u/l	up to 49	Liver Damage
Total Protein	6.8 g/dl	6.0 – 8.3	Nutrition status, Kidney and Liver Function
A/G Ratio	1.25:1	1.2-1.8 : 1	Liver Functioning
GGTP	28.3	10 – 45	Tests Hyperthyrodism and Cirrhosis of the liver

Interpretation

As you can see this blood test was primarily done to test four major things. Presence of blood sugar which can detect diabetes, cholesterol levels which can identify heart diseases risk, Liver disease and Kidney function. From the reports it seems that things are fine at this point.

I am in my late thirties and I think considering that, this is a good report. Though I would prefer lower LDL and higher HDL.

I think I have become fitter over the past one year and it is due to Yoga practice. I still have little tummy fat which I believe should be gone in next six months because the practice is becoming more intense as I progress in my course. To summarize, yoga practice has helped me to gain strength, build stamina, and improve flexibility and functioning of internal organs.

I plan to share another report six months later when I would done with my 30 week Yoga Course. It would be interesting to compare the results.

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3 Life Lessons I Learnt in 8 weeks

I have a list of life goals and one of them is to practice the 32 week Yoga Course. It has been almost 2 years since I thought of starting this but it kept on getting postponed. Then one day in December I wrote down this goal and other goals. Time passes by as usual, and suddenly today I am into the 9th week of my practice which means I have covered more than 25% of my goal. Now I am confident that I will be able to complete the goal of 32 week practice.

My Earlier Way of Practice
The practice I am doing is different from the way I used to practice. This is more goal oriented which make it more challenging and fun and at the same time more like to make me achieve greater results.

Earlier I used to practice in one of the two ways. I used to pick a set of poses and practice them and tried to analyze their effect. I used to make quite a bit of progress and then go on to another set of poses. That gave me chance to try out many poses and experiment with the effects but I was lacking the consistency and not practicing the sequence for long enough times. Another issue was once I moved to another set of poses I used to lose the efforts I made on the previous poses. Therefore when I used to come back to the previous poses again I had to start from almost the beginning stage.

I followed another route in which I joined a yoga class in 2008, which was following Bihar School of Yoga. In the class the sequences consisted of some set of beginning poses, followed by 8 to 10 rounds of Surya Namaskar and then Yoga Nidra and finally 10 minutes of Pranayama. I benefited a lot from that class due to the fact that I learned about Surya Namaskar and also Yoga Nidra (Yogic Sleep). in this case there were fixed set of poses and there was no scope of progressing to next level. These poses are good for a person who wants to practice yoga on a day to day basis for fitness and well being, where as my goal to explore Yoga at a more deeper level.

Later, late 2009, I decided to practice 42 rounds (21 sets) of Surya Namaskar every day for 30 days as an experiment and completed that in December 2009. I have already documented my experiences on that experiment in this blog. Success of the experiment led me to start this 32 week course.

In these last 8 weeks I have learned some valuable life lessons which I want to share. Though these lessons may already be known to you, it doesn't harm to reinforce them.

1. Take Challenging Goals to Achieve More
   Take up challenging goals. They will excite you more though they may be daunting, but these are the goals which will give you the most satisfaction. Goals which appear challenging today will continue to remain challenging till we attempt to achieve them and once we do that we mostly find that those are possible. Till I started this practice I never attempted few of the poses in this course and kept on thinking that they are quite difficult. Of course I underestimated my ability to attempt them. Once I practiced those difficult poses and gained more control, though not total control, now I am more confident about going for other poses.


2. Practice Makes Any Task Easier
   Another key thing I learned is that practicing any activity everyday will make it easier each time we do it. Gradually tough poses become easier. As we keep on practicing, we start gaining more knowledge and insight and that proves useful in other tasks and situations. This knowledge can be applied to other areas like work, or learning a new skill.


3. Concentrate on the Task, Results will Follow
   When I started practicing few poses the first time, I knew that I was not doing them right. I had to adjust various muscles, stance or take support to gain the balance and to gradually gain control. I concentrated on making gradual progress and eventually got the pose right. Similarly when we concentrate on making small gains slowly we get on course to get the intended output. If we concentrate on the result instead of the process we will be discouraged and more likely to fail.

There are lessons to be learned in all spheres of life and it is up to them to learn from them make it part of our life.

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32 Week Yoga Practice - My Experience Till 8th Week

In the month of January I started the 32 week practice which is a course as per Iyengar Yoga. I am practicing at home and want to experiment and see for myself the progress I make and its effects. Today I started the 9th week of the practice. Till 7th week I was practicing regularly and making good progress.

8th Week Update
The practice is more challenging and I am now struggling to do the new poses as precisely and freely as the previous poses. Till the seventh week number of poses were 13 and I used to practice them in two rounds.

Eight week introduced 3 more poses and with it brought new challenges which I found difficult. Although it seems that only three new poses were introduced but at a practical level these three poses bring more pressure on the legs. As a consequence I decided that I would only be practicing one round of the poses which make the practice easier.

The three new poses which were new in the 8th week are :

Virbhadra Asana 3 (Warrior Pose 3)
This is a pose which I have practiced earlier and written on it earlier. Only difference is it was not practiced along with so many poses. When you practice some many poses together it is difficult to have enough strength for all the poses in the beginning poses.

Ardh Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose)
In this pose the buttock muscles are also stretched which I never imagine was possible to do. Hopefully at the end of this course I will have stronger butts :)



Therefore I decided that I will practice the 8th week course for 2 weeks which was till yesterday.

Effects of 8 Weeks of Practice
The major effect has been on the stamina which has increased a lot and I am feeling fitter. I have also reduced fat on my abdomen and the sides of the stomach. My chest is having a better shape. Since my childhood I used to have weak legs but now my legs are gaining more muscles and beginning to get a good shape.

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5 Great Reasons to Start a Yoga Course

I am into the sixth week of the 32 week course which I have started as a part of my Yoga goal for this year and till now it is going on quite well. I am doing this course at home as per the sequences prescribed by Shri BKS Iyengar. Starting this course has been an eye opener for me.

Till now I used to practice as per what I read and what I wanted to experiment and improve at that point of time. For example for some point of time I used to concentrate more on forward bends and then for some period of time I used to go for leg strength poses. Though I would make progress on those poses, but as a whole I was not making great progress.

This year I was thinking on what should be my Yoga goal and it is then that I decided to go for the 32 week course. Though I am still into the initial phase of the course I can already see the benefits of committing to a course and would highly recommend everybody to join a course.

What comprises a Yoga Course
Usually a Yoga course would be combination of various poses. A course of Yoga is composed of a sequence of poses which need to be practiced one after another. In some of the courses the sequences are altered and some poses are inserted or removed based on the level the participant reaches. The sequence goes on becoming tougher as the course advances till it reaches a particular level.

In some other courses the sequences remains the same during the entire course, though the participant is expected to improve on the poses with practice like in Bikram Yoga. Each course has a different objective and you should ask the instructor about the course in details before you start. Whichever course you take, it is guaranteed to benefit you.

Here are 5 great reasons to start a Yoga Course

1. Gain Rapid Health Gains
   When you start the course the benefits would be visible with in a week and it will increase rapidly. The courses are usually designed to include various elements of Yoga including yoga poses, breathing exercises and relaxation.
   
   The practice is done in a relaxed manner in most of the courses, and it will make you physically stronger, increase your immune system and stress free. If you have any physical ailments you will make rapid progress towards overcoming those. Be sure to tell your instructor about your illness so that some poses can be avoided which can cause complications.


2. Make Faster Progress
   When you practice without any tangible goals you will not make any substantial progress. When you have a goal you would make more progress in 3 months compared to what you can struggle to make in a year. I have seen this happen to myself also. Although I have been practicing many of the poses in this course for years, including the same poses in this course has helped me make more progress the poses within this short time.


3. Increase Focus and Motivation
   There a lot of times when you will not feel like practicing, and we look for motivation. When you join a course it proved the right motivation to practice. Most of the times you will look forward to the practice. For those who practice at home, a course gives you focus to stick to a particular sequence and the practice is more organized. This will ensure faster progress.


4. Practicing in Correct SequencesPracticing in a correct sequence is very important and more beneficial. When correct sequence s followed the organs and muscles which are used in one pose are relaxed in the next pose. This increases the progress and benefits compared to when you do it in incorrect sequence and reduces the chances of injury.


5. Expands Your Horizon
   You get a broader view of the practice instead of a localized experience. The mind, brain and the body experiences a different experience when we practice an organized sequence. This will increase your awareness of the body and mind and help you understand the relation between body and mind. When we have that awareness we can deal with stresses of life in a better way and take more intelligent approach to solve them.

My Current Schedule
I would like to share my practice sequence with you for the sixth week. My current schedule is mixture of Poses which increase Strength, stamina, flexibility, and relaxation of primarily the lower region of the body.

This sequence is same for fifth, sixth and the the seventh weeks, which means this routine is same for three weeks. The reason of keeping 3 weeks for the sequence is to provide enough time for developing strength and perfection in the pose. Though three weeks is not sufficient enough time to build perfection, it gives a good start. While practicing, you should strive to reach as much near to perfection as is possible by you. It will take time but that should not be used as an excuse of not progressing.

At present I am following the routine mentioned below. It is divided into two sets. The first set comprises of eight standing poses and the second set comprises of six remaining poses. I practice first set for two rounds and the second set for one round.

Set 1 - Two Rounds
Tadasana (Tree Pose)
Utthitha Trikonasana (Triangle Pose)
Utthitha ParsvakonasanaVirbhadra Asana I (Warrior Pose I)
Virbhadra Asana II (Warrior Pose II)
Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle Pose)
Parsva Uttanasana (Sideways Facing Forward Bend)
Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-Legged Forward Bend)

Set 2 - One Round
Urdhava Prasarita Padasana (Upward Extended Feet Pose)
Navasana (Boat Pose)
Ardh Navasana (Half Boat Pose)
Sarvangasana (Shoulder Stand Pose)
Halasana (Plough Pose)
Ujjyai Pranayama in Shavasana (Corpse Pose)

I will write in more details regarding the way I practice in the coming posts and the various techniques which can help in the practice. This week was challenging and fun. I am looking forward to the seventh week's practice and would be sharing the details of my experience once I am through that.

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My Yoga Goal For 2010

I have been thinking about what should be my Yoga goal for this year since the past few weeks. I had thought of few alternative courses but was not able to decide. Yesterday I finally closed down on this and I want to share that with you all.

This year my goal is to complete Basic course of Yoga Poses as prescribed by BKS Iyengar. It starts with around 7 to 8 poses in the first week and goes on to finish with around 50 poses. There needs to be a push or a pull which can drive the practice. Usually most people are driven by external push for most work.

Purpose of Writing Down my Goal

Regular and dedicated practice of Yoga is very difficult. There are days when due to certain circumstances of sheer laziness it is difficult to practice. Writing down your goals is a excellent way to ensure that we stay on the course of our desired actions. I experience it when I wrote in my blog about completing 21 Sets of Surya Namaskar for 30 days late last year. The results pleased me a lot and more than that I felt that even on days I did not feel like practicing the power of written commitment pulled me towards the practice.

Similarly I feel that this time announcing this on the blog will help me to reach the goal and at the same time act a guide for my Yoga practice this year.

Another aspect of announcing this is for me practice of yoga is now a important part of my life. All the posts which I write, I try to include my personal experiences also, and that can come only from practice. This goal will provide me hundreds of ideas which I can convey to other and lot of people will benefit from this.

More details of my Yoga Goal for 2010

I follow quite a few schools of Yoga. For this year I want to follow Iyengar methodology. I have been thinking of doing this around 2 years now, but lack of commitment or self belief to this routine has been the reason that I never did this. I feel I have the courage now to attempt this.

I follow the "Light on Yoga" book from Iyengar. It is very comprehensive and contains huge list of poses. At the end of the book there is a prescribed course for practice. I am going to take up the beginner's course for this year. That is a minimum of 32 weeks course. Of course I will allow myself to finish that by the year end. At present I am in the 5th week and there are 12 poses and one pranayama. By the time I reach the 30th Week it will reach 50 poses in the session. One I complete the 30th week, the practice will divide the poses in three parts to be practice on three days and then repeated again. Realistically I feel I will need more than 32 weeks and for me if I am able to finish the course by year end that would be great achievement.

The benefits of this goal
Let me confess something. Though I quite practice regularly (Around 4 to 5 times a week) still my body is not strong enough to do this at this moment. I still have fat layer around my waist though it has reduced considerably after the 30 day Surya Namaskar practice I did as an experiment.

My aim is not to concentrate on fat reduction specifically, because if it was so, I would have continue to practice Surya Namaskar for 2 more months and I am sure would have lost the required amount of fat. My aim is to explore yoga more thoroughly and while doing my regular practice the body would automatically reduce fat from the wrong places. I cannot do that if I practice Surya Namaskar alone as that will take major chunk of my yoga time. I also want to explore to what height I can reach. This will be difficult journey and I look forward to this.

Another thing which will be good are the twisting poses like the matyendra asana where there is a spinal twist. Presently I rarely practice these poses. At the end of the course I will be doing all the types of poses like forward and backward bend, twists, sitting and standing pose etc. This will enhance my knowledge by many folds.

I plan to update my blog with my progress and experiences from time to time on this blog.

This will be hugely challenging year for me and I am also not sure whether I will be able to complete this. But there is no harm in trying and I am sure I will come out a better person. I am excited about this venture and particularly so after announcing this on this blog. This will make my commitment stronger than before.

Those who already are at the next level would be smiling at me, because it is a small step which I am about to take, but for me it is going to be a giant leap.

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Surya Namaskar - Day 30 of 30 day Practice

Today was the last day of my 30 day practice of Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) and it is good to finish my goal. It has been a great journey for me and I am happy to have finished what I set out to do 30 days ago.

Today I finished the 21 sets in around 11 minutes. When I started this experiment 30 days ago it took me around 18 minutes and I was doing it in three sets. Now I am able to practice the entire 21 sets in one go and did not feel it was too tired. I am able to practice few other poses comfortably and that does not seems difficult for me.

I have lost around 8 pounds of weight in these 30 days and overall energy levels is really great though I was expecting the opposite. Which is really good. The body feel lighter and agile. The thinking pattern is very clear and I am more confident about myself and what I can achieve. I think personally for me more than the physical aspect I feel that the increased energy and confidence are major benefits. I am also able to notice how Surya Namaskar builds stamina and how much fitter I am in just a month.

I will like to recommend Surya Namaskar practice to all of you based on my experience and hope that more people include this in their routine.

People with obesity problem should practice Surya Namaskar regularly and it will definitely help them to lose weight in a healthy way and the effects will be long lasting compared to various shortcuts in the market. Usually obese people are weak in terms of both physical and mental strength and Surya Namaskar will help them in both these conditions.

I plan to write about the poses which consists Surya Namaskar. i have already posted articles on three of them and rest will follow soon. I will also be posting few posts on Surya Namaskar which will provide more insight and person experience on Surya Namaskar.

My next plan and challenge will be to finish 108 rounds of Surya Namaskar for a week and I will undertake that in near future.

How Many Surya Namaskar in a Day to Lose Weight

How many rounds of Surya namaskar practice should I do to to lose weight? This is a question which is asked by many people. Although there is no magic number for this but ideally if you very obese you should start with around 8 sets (16 rounds) practiced slowly. If you are just starting the practice and unfit then after each round take some rest for 5 to 10 seconds.

By the end of the first week you will have improved fitness and ideally shed some weight. From the second week increase 2 more sets every 3 to 4 days. Ideally around 12 to 16 sets are more than sufficient 21 sets can make you really fit and great stamina. Some people want to go ahead and practice more rounds, but that requires more time and depends on individual interest.

You can also mix the speed. In the initial 3 sets do it slowly. Then increase the speed little bit for the next 4 rounds. Then practice with even higher speed in the last remaining rounds.

You would observe that you body sweats a lot and you would lose weight and cloth size would begin to fall after the second week itself.

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Two Announcements

E-Book on How to get rid of back pain

At present I am really excited about my upcoming E-Book on Back pain. I plan to release it in early January. Once the book is ready I would be making it available for download.

That book will try to compile information from various posts I have written for Back pain plus add some new perspective.

Share you experiences
I would like to hear from you about your Yoga experiences. It may contain information on ...
1. What and who inspired you or how you started?
2. What is your experience or how do you feel when you practice Yoga?
3. Do you have plans to go to the next level and if yes what are they?
4. Any particular style of yoga you follow and where do you learn and practice?
5. Would like like to have more information on certain topic on this blog?

I will be great to hear from you about your experiences. You can email your experiences to me at nilendu.bhattacharya@gmail.com This will also help me when I know more about the perspective of other Yoga practitioners or new comers.

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Sun Salutation - Day 26 of 30 Day Practice

Today was the 26th Day of the 30 day practice and only 4 days are remaining. Now I am practice the entire 21 sets in one go and there is not much tiredness and it seems that the body is quite strong enough to take the entire 21 sets and stamina has also increased. It is really pleasing feeling for me. At present I am doing slowly and take a break of 5-10 seconds after 4 sets. Present style is to be more of awareness style where I try to focus as much as possible on the breathing. Now in next few days my aim would be to see how much faster I can do to test the stamina and without the small break also. When the speed increases it will be more of a exercise and less concentration will be possible on the breathing. But I would like to see how it goes and what is the capacity of my lungs to tolerate that. This will test my vital capacity.

Gains Till Now
Following are the major physical gains.

1. The most significant strength and the shape up have been in the legs and the chest. The shoulders are also in a healthier shape. I have some fat deposit on the abdomen and though it has reduced my I had expected more.


2. As mentioned above, the stamina has increased a lot.


3. Overall body flexibility is much more now.


4. Back Strength has improved significantly.

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Importance of Proper Breathing in Yoga and Day 21 of Surya Namaskar

Today was the 21st day of my 30 day Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) practice. Which means that I am on to my last 10 days of my practice. Now I am only doing two batches with the first one of 14 sets and the second batch of 7 sets. I think I am now ready to shift the practice to even higher intensity and finish all in a single set and I plan to try that tomorrow. Earlier I planned to gradually increase the sets in the first batch but today when I finished 14 sets I did not feel any lack of stamina and I feel I could have continued for few more sets. I am writing this post after few hours of the practice and feel no tiredness. This means that the legs and the arms are strong enough after 20 days of practice and I can try to push myself for continuous 21 sets.

Since I increased number of sets I am doing together I have slowed down a bit, but plan to pick up pace again in a few days. My plan is also to finish the 21 sets with in as much less time as possible while taking care that my breathing is proper.

Importance of Proper Breathing in Yoga Practice

In Surya Namaskar, proper breathing is very important. In all the twelve sequences while moving into them it is important to understand that the transition should be done either with inhalation or with exhalation. Also remember that you should breathe with the movement and not before or after the movement. Also inhale and exhale slowly so that it lasts from beginning to end of the movement. For example while moving from the Pranam Asana to Hast Utthanasana (Raised Hands Pose) start inhaling when you start and when you reach the final position the inhalation should be complete. Similarly, start exhalation in the the Hast Uttanasana when moving to Hast Padasana (Hands to feet pose) and make sure that the exhalation in complete when you reach the final javascript:void(0)position. As a general rule remember that while moving forward you will exhale and while moving back you will inhale. Also you breathing will be opposite to what you do when you move into the pose.

Some books will say that you should not breathe in the final position, and that needs to be done when you stay in the pose for a few seconds. When you stay longer in a pose, you should do normal breathing while in the pose. While in pose for some time your breathing is very fast. Try to slow it down, by your breathe and also notice which organ in your body is causing it to become faster.

When you do this properly and with awareness that entire body is being oxygenated, you will experience that the tiredness is comparatively very less. When you breathe in this manner, capacity of your lungs will also increase which will increase the stamina. Longer breathing also helps in keeping the heart rate in control, and keeps the mind calm, whereas shorter breathing increases the disturbance of mind.

The muscles which are being used during the pose will get more oxygen and therefore less toxins will be accumulated which will prevent the pain in the muscles. Proper breathing will also allow you to practice for a longer time without feeling tired and therefore provide more benefit. With practice of longer breathing you will see that Pranayama (Yogic Breathing Technique) come easily to you as your lungs are ready for the stress.

Once you practice the poses with proper breathing you will notice that it is not that difficult while the benefits are many. Start observing your breathing pattern and make sure that you make the right adjustments so that you can reap all the benefits which your practice should provide you.

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Day 15 of 30 Day Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) Practice

Today I have reached the half way mark in my endeavor for the 30 day practice of Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation). As I have mentioned in my previous post I now strive to finish all the 21 sets in one go instead of breaking up into three batches with break in between. As per the plan now I am down to two batches with the first batch of 12 sets and the second one consisting of 9 sets since yesterday.

In today's post I would like to highlight few benefits of Surya Namaskar(Sun Salutations) on Glands and how they affect us. With practice of Surya Namaskar gradually one gains strength and confidence which can be attributed to secretion of feel good hormones due to activation of the various glands.

Benefits of Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutations) on Glands
Glands play an important role in overall health of a person and the growth of children. When the glands work properly the mental health is maintained apart from physical health.

Pituitary Gland
This is one of the most important glands in the entire body and in a way it acts as the controller of other glands. This gland controls of the growth and development of a person. Surya Namaskar improves the blood circulation in the brain due to which the gland starts working properly which is extremely beneficial for the health.

Pineal Gland
This is another gland in the brain region and helps in mental activities like wake sleep pattern, imagination power etc. This gland is activated by Light, and it controls the various biorhythms of the body. It works in harmony with the hypothalamus gland, which directs the body's thirst, hunger, sexual desire and the biological clock, that determines our aging process. This gland starts working properly with practice.

Thyroid and Parathyroid Glands
These glands control the metabolism of the body and growth of the body. When these glands do not work properly, the affected persons get lazy, start gaining weight and have negative outlook on life. They also suffer from low blood pressure and constipation. This is called Hypothyroidism. There can be another type of problem where in the glands starts working overtime and leads to anxiety and high blood pressure. Patient can start loosing weight. This is called Hyperthyroidism. In both the conditions gradual practice can cure the problem.

Adrenal Glands and Pancreas
Adrenal gland are located near the kidneys. The adrenal gland produces a hormone that regulates nearly every type of organ and tissue within the body. It also helps to maintain appropriate proportions of water and salts within the body. When the proportions are disrupted, it results in low blood pressure. Patients with adrenal insufficiency suffer from fatigue, poor appetites, weight loss, and nausea.

Pancreas control the secretion of insulin which controls the blood sugar levels. During the forward bends these glands are pressed which helps in increasing the blood flow to these glands and helps in having restoring proper function of these glands.

When all the glands work properly, it almost guarantees peak physical and mental health and practicing Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) regularly ensures that.

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Day 13 of 30 Day Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) Practice

From 10th to 13th Day
Today was the 13th day of my 30 Day Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) Practice. Since last few days I was feeling that the 3 batches of 7 sets which I originally set about doing is no longer challenging. It was as if I was going about the motions and becoming monotonous and less challenging. The satisfaction was there on completion, but in the back of the mind I had the feeling that I can do much more.

On 11th day I decided to introduce some more challenge in it, though not too much. I decided that I would now go for 8 sets of Sun Salutations in the first 2 batches and 5 in the last set to make it 21 sets. I implemented that on the day 11 and 12 and felt good about it and not too tiring. On the 13th day I went for 1 set in the beginning which was more of a prayer set and done quite slowly and with lot of focus. Then followed with two batches of 10 sets. It felt great and legs were quite tired but it was what I was looking forward to.

Doing this will decrease the time taken for the practice and I would like to compare the results at the end with the first day.

Doing this has now increased my ambition and my next aim is to completed the 21 sets continuously on the 30th day without any breaks. That will be awesome for me to accomplish. In the beginning of this practice I would have been satisfied with doing the 7 sets three times, but see how success fuels further ambition and that is good when it is in right direction.

How do I plan to reach 21 set practice without a break?
I know that at this moment it will not be wise to do this at a single stretch as I may not be having the stamina, but over the next two and half weeks I plan to bring down the practice to a single round. Next, from the 15th day I will bring it to 2 sets and then every two days I will add more sets to the first batch. Depending on how I feel I may get there in 25th to 27th day. One of my other aim is to practice 108 rounds of Surya Namaskar for a week. This is the stepping stone for that.

Other Observations
I also tried to compare how I feel during the other poses. The body is lesser stiff after the practice compared to the first few days. Now the muscles are getting more used to the practice so they have less comparative workload which reduces the stiffness. I can practice halasana (Plough pose) and Sarvangasana quite easily after the practice now, where as on the first day I had to really stretch to touch my feet on the ground on the first few days.

Another observation is whenever I practice Trikon Asana and few more standing poses before the practice then legs are more tired after the practice. I guess at the end of 30 days this should also be gone. Shavasana is very important at the end of the practice as it relaxes the muscles and reduces the tiredness.

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Topsy Turvy Day 10 of 30 Days Surya Namaskar(Sun Salutation) Practice

Today I completed 10th day of the 30 days of Surya Namaskar(Sun Salutation) Practice. Till 9th day I practiced in the morning but today got some work in the morning which I could not avoid and then had to rush to office. I completed the practice at around 9 pm in the evening after the office.

I was tempted to miss the practice for today but decided to go ahead with the practice, in the evening if though it meant that I would be practicing when I was tired after the office. The difference I noticed when I practiced in the evening was more of a mental state more than the physical state. When we return from the office in the evening, we are mentally tired and need more efforts to focus while on the physical front the body may be little tired but stiffness is less. I devoted some more time for focusing and stretching which helped in getting me focused. When I started the practice after that I felt not much difference physically. I am feeling physically bit tired now but it would be interesting to see how I feel tomorrow morning.

It gave me satisfaction that I have not stopped the practice till now. I think 30 days of continuous practice requires dedication. There are two aspects here. First is the physical angle where in body resists going through the regimen and wants rest. Another angle is the mental angle where in the mind resists any disciplined effort. Human mind by nature is restless and does not wants us to focus or concentrate. When we start the practice it is more of the physical capacity factor but later on you would require more of the mental strength. Today was a good test of the mental strength required and I am glad I crossed that hurdle successfully. It is essential to follow the same routine so you become habituated to that condition and face less mental challenge. Today that routine was disturbed and that is why it was challenging and important to finish the practice today. I now feel quite confident that I should be able to finish rest of the 20 days. I think after 4 more days I may want to increase the number of rounds in the first two sets. That could be the next challenge to make it more interesting.

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Day 5 to 7 of 30 Days Surya Namaskar Practice

Today I completed the first week in my pursuit of 30 days Surya Namaskar Practice. Personally I think this has been a great week for me. I was planning to go for this since last year and started last year and failed. Now I am pursuing it again and it feels great. Apart from the fact that I am practicing Surya Namaskar, the fact that I am pursuing one of my goals, give me added pleasure and motivation. I think biggest obstacle to start is procrastination and once we start we are enthusiastic for the first few days. The challenge is to continue after that. I am glad till now I am able to continue this journey.

I think the process of pursuing a worthy goal is a great experience. Often we forget the bigger picture and quit when we face small obstacle. We then justify ourselves how what we did was the best thing to do at that moment. This happened to me a lot of times and this time I want to ensure that I complete this goal. I hope this will be a good reference documentation for people who want to research on Surya Namaskar in future.

My experience in last 3 days?
The fifth day somehow the legs were bit stiff though it reduced a bit on the 6th day. Today the stiffness is almost gone. The good thing is now the stamina has visibly increase and the tiredness is quite less in the last sets which was there in first 3 to 4 days.

Surya Namaskar increases the blood flow in the entire body and that helps in detoxification. Apart from that when practice is done at a reasonable rate, it gives multiple benefits of Cardio Vascular workout, strengthening the arms and legs as well as massaging the internal organs. When this practice is done along with deep breathing the oxygenation increase and improves the lungs and respiratory oragan's health and therefore it is good for diseases like Asthma.

On the work front I find my self being able to concentrate myself better and the thinking process is clearer. I am able to focus for longer duration to a task and that is always beneficial in all spheres of life. It would be interesting to observe myself more on this in the coming weeks.

I plan to buy a weighing machine this weekend which will also help me to track any weight loss which I definitely feel has happened though I have not measured it. Looking forward eagerly to the next few days and keeping everybody posted.

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Day 4 of 30 Days Surya Namaskar Practice

Today was the fourth day of Surya Namaskar practice. Yesterday the practice was done first time on a weekday and I wanted to see how I feel at the end of the day after office. After the office I felt good and did not have any major tiredness. I remember, last time when I started this practice last year, I started feeling the exhaustion after the 4th day even though I did not reach 21 sets. This time I feel little tired but comfortable. In the recent months I have been giving more emphasis on the standing poses which has increase my leg strength a lot as well as increased the capacity of my lungs and heart.

I will suggest standing poses to anyone who wants to increase their lower body, back and overall strength. Overall body balance also increases. Most of the fractures to elderly people happen due to falls and there are two major factor behind that. Firstly due to lack of exercise the leg muscles are weak which reduces their body balances and leg muscles become weak which increases the chances of fall. Secondly due to the lack of exercise the bone density decreases which makes it more likely to break during a fall. Incorporating simple standing poses will help avoid injuries for the elderly people.

Coming back to my practice for yesterday and today, I felt lesser tiredness on the third batch 7 sets. I think the time might have reduced a little bit as compared to the first day but I did not note the time. I plan to clock my time on the 7th day again and then compare that with the first day. The major tiredness which I feel is on the hamstring, but overall the body seems to be adapting very well to this regimen. I plan to write more in details about each of the poses which constitutes the Surya Namaskar in the next few posts to come. I am sure that the stamina is increasing slowly and it would be interesting to see how I feel when I go back to my normal routine after 30 days. I am hoping that increased strength and stamina will help me to incorporate more poses in the single session of practice.

Warming Up
Warming up is important when starting Surya Namaskar. As I mentioned earlier also, few poses like Tadasana is quite good for warm up. I do two rounds with 30 breath counts. This stretches the back, shoulders and the leg muscles. Also, since this pose involves standing up on the toes it helps you focus on the task ahead. Another useful thing is to practice the first two round (1st Set) slowly with concentration on the breathing (both inhalation and exhalation). From the second set onwards you can increase the speed.

How I feel?
The energy levels are pretty good and I feel I can easily concentrate on all the tasks easily at the office. Even at the night after the day at office I am energetic enough to play the kids. I am feeling good that I have started the journey to achieve one of the goals of my life. May be this is what is helping my enthusiasm apart from the fact that I am really loving this entire process.

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Day 2 of 30 Days Surya Namaskar Practice

Today was the second day of the 30 day experiment of Surya Namaskar. I woke up without any signs of tiredness. I was expecting sore muscles but that did not happen. I had taken rest last afternoon to reduce the tiredness and that might have worked. One of the reasons for starting the 30 day Surya Namaskar on Saturday was I would get two days of rest in the weekend and that would give my body more chance to rest.

Today I was able to successfully complete the 21 sets in three batches. Till the second round it was easy but tiredness crept in the third set. I must say it took determination to finish the last 7 sets and was thrilled after I finished the routine.

I relaxed in Shavasana for a around 5 minutes and that cooled me down. It was followed by Sarvangasana (Shoulder stand pose) and then few forward bends and finally finishing with Bal Asansa 2. Shavasana relaxes all the muscles and Balasana 2 relaxes the nerves therefore these two should be included in the practice.

Yesterday I did not include other routine asanas in the practice apart from Sarvangasana , but today I included some of those poses and plan to gradually include most of them during the rest of the 30 days.

In the afternoon my limbs were tired but by the evening time most of that tiredness seems to have gone. I rested for half an hour in the afternoon. I feel major challenge would be tomorrow as tomorrow is not a holiday and the office resumes.

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21 Sets of Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutations) Practice For 30 days

I have started the 30 days of practice of Surya Namaskar(Sun Salutations) today again. I had tried this practice earlier also in December 2008 but failed to continue after 7 days due to illness which I feel came mainly due to exhaustion. I feel this time I am more prepared for this practice. Here is the link to that post earlier
My Experiment with Sun Salutations - Surya Namaskar

As you may be aware that Surya Namaskar consists of sequence of 12 poses which are practice one after another in a particular sequence. My goal is to practice 21 sets if two rounds, which means 42 rounds of Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutations) each day for the next 30 days.

Why am I starting the Surya Namaskar experiment again?
Although this has been in my mind for a long time but some how I felt I was not ready for continuous 30 days of practice. Recently I was trying to compile a list of my wish list of things I wanted to do before I died and decided that this was one of the items in that list. If you want to see that list please see here. Though it may seem to be a very small thing in the scheme of life, but doing it continuously for 30 days is not easy. This is also the base for accomplishing one of my other goals from that list, which is practicing 108 rounds of Surya Namaskar for a week.

When I compiled the list it reignited my desire to achieve this goal. I thought of this last week and decided that on November 21st I will start again. As per the plan I have started that today. For last few months I was not including Surya Namaskar in my practice routine, so I started preparation around 4 days back. I started with 9 sets which included 2 breaks. Next day I had 12 sets with 2 breaks which means in each batch I practice 4 sets. On the third day each of the three batches included 5 sets, which means I practiced 15 sets in total. Yesterday was the 4th day and there was body ache so I decide to take a break and did not practice.

Last time when I started started with lower number of sets and intended to reach 21 sets and then continue for 30 days. But after the 7th day could not continue and therefore never reached 21 sets. This time I am already into the 21 sets in 4 days. Which means I am in much better shape for this and I feel that the chances are brighter this time.

How was the experience?
I decided to do in three batches of 7 sets each. I practice slowly with around 25-30 seconds for each round with concentration on the proper inhalation and exhalation. I also took a break of 2 minutes between two batches. First and the second rounds were relatively simple but the third round was tiring. Legs were bit shaky but not too much. During the last 4 sets I let my body loose tried to move naturally with the breathing which is less tiring. I think within some time the strength will increase and the last few sets should not be this much tiresome. My total time for the practice was around 18 minutes.

How is my routine practice affected?
I reduced my regular practice for last few days by few poses. Today I only did some stretching pose like Tadasana and Kati Chakrasana and after I finished the sets I practice Sarvangasana (Shouder Stand) as the legs were too tired. I plan to resume the rest of the asana practice after my body adjusts to this workload.

I will keep you updated on my progress in the next posts.

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Surya Namaskar - Day 7

One Week is Over

I successfully finished the first week. Unfortunately today I did only 7 rounds as I had to rush to office. I am hoping to compensate it tomorrow. But one thing is sure that I have made substantial progress as far as my stamina goes, although I cannot attribute this to last week only. I have practiced Surya Namaskar for last two and half months but generally doing only 7 - 8 rounds only. But that foundation gave me a head start. Although I am at present only doing 14 rounds but I feel I can easily complete more rounds.


Progress Made

Today I decide to take a stock of the progress. I have come down to 15 minutes for 14 rounds from the 21 minutes I was needing earlier. Currently the abdomen at its widest is 96 cm which is 38.4 inches. Of course the waist is much lesser. My weight in now 72 Kg which is in range for my height of 173 cms. My body mass index is in a quite healthy range, but my major problem is body fat percentage. I think abdomen diameter is quite a good indicator of body fat percentage. I aim to reduce it, but without being conscious about it. I want to see if increasing the regimen of surya namaskar rounds is able to do the trick.

My blood pressure was 142, but good thing is pulse rate came down to 78 from the 90s. That is a sign that my heart is beginning to become much more efficient.

Sore Throat

The sore throat that I contacted 2 days back is a viral infection, but the good thing is there is not throat pain. I wonder I am getting infected although I am into Yoga. May be it is result of some Karma. I think documenting these aspects are also important as they will give me reference points in case I fall sick in future.

How many rounds can I progress to?

I recently read someone's comment about practicing 108 rounds in 54 minutes during equinox. That looked quite tough to me until I ran into another writeup which mentioned that author finished 108 rounds in 25 minutes. Which means more than 4 rounds a minute.

I personally think it is quite impossible to be aware of the breathing and body movements if we are practicing too fast, and in that case this practice ceases to remain as Yoga. But 108 rounds in 54 minutes still seems good proposition. It is a distant dream but may be I will also attempt it in 2009. It is a good landmark to achieve.

I think that it may be quite realistic goal, tough bit difficult. But it will really be fun to share my experiences and also compare the results. Wow I am already looking forward to 108/54.



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Surya Namaskar - Day 5

Today morning I woke up with sore throat. There was slight infection, and I was not feeling too good. I think I might have got this infection from a colleague of mine at the office who was suffering for last two days. None the less I decided that I had to continue with the practice as this is not that serious problem.

Effect on the practice

I wanted to learn how throat infection affected the practice and vice-versa. As far as the practice went I did not feel any discomfort or weakness during the practice, and I feel that this attack of infection will not be able to affect me as it might have otherwise. I will need to wait for 2 days more before I can get to some conclusion. But one thing is clear that I am not as weak as I used to feel when I has infections earlier. I used to have severe pain in the throat along with some fever. This time I had slight throat pain in the morning but didn't have any pain by lunch time.

Although I was affected with the infection I don't think I had to stretch myself to complete the routine. The flow was smooth and the concentration was also there as I made less mistakes.

Reduced one more set

From today I am doing two sets of 5 rounds and 1 round of 4 sets. I will follow this same routine till tomorrow and then increase the first two sets to 6 rounds.

After my lunch I took 1 glass of water mixed with teaspoon spoon of Triphala. I had mentioned in an earlier article how Triphala is useful for curing dry eye problem. But Triphala is also one of the tonics which can be used during infections. I will be able to update tomorrow about how I am feeling.

Importance of this experiment

It is an interesting phase in life, where in I am doing the experiment and also documenting it. Whatever happens, I think at the end it is going to be very valuable document for anyone who wants to start of on Surya Namaskar. I feel really please that I am contributing something to the yoga community.

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Surya Namaskar - Day 4

Today was the fourth day of my Sun Salutation experiment. Yesterday I increased the number of round in a set to 4. Now I am doing 3 sets of four rounds and one set of two round which still make if fourteen rounds, but the total number of rounds have decreased from five to four. From tomorrow I am planning to reduce the sets to four.

I felt that the legs were tired during the third set. But after around 30 minutes of finishing the routine I did not feel any tiredness in my legs. This I think is a good sign and shows that I am gaining strength in my legs. I remember that few months back I used to be quite tired after doing 5 rounds. Another improvement I have noticed is I am able to recover faster between the sets. The breathing comes back to normal rates faster than it used to take 1 month back, which indicates that the heart is now much more efficient. What I really want to see is if my resting pulse rate decreases after one month. It is consistently in nineties for past few years, and that is way too high from the average of seventy to seventy two.

It took around 21 minutes to complete the 14 rounds which also included rest between the sets. I feel that gradually this will also decrease. At present I am not doing the routine too fast and trying to synchronize the moves with the breath as much as possible. What I have also noticed is high concentration is also required to correctly do the otherwise I sometimes end up moving the wrong leg. I am hoping that this will help in improving my concentration also.

Food
The food I am taking these days is the normal food I would take as per preparations at home. I know that if I also control the food intake that would make it more useful, but my purpose is to test the benefits of Surya Namaskar purely on its own.

Detoxification

Surya Namaskar is one of the detoxification techniques used in Yoga Therapy. When I intially started, boils appeared on my chest and face. The skin infection that I have on the elbow and back of neck is improving but not that much significantly. I think once I graduate to 21 rounds the benefits will be more visible. But there is no itching on those places. Two days back on the 2nd and third day I also had eye pain. Today it is not there. I do not know if that was due to detoxification of some problem of the eye. I will find that in a few days.

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