Thursday, March 31, 2011

Walk your muscle!! Muscle-brain connection...

We Indians have a way of exhibiting love by feeding our loved ones...overfeeding them!! Last month I was teaching a very ` spiritual'  set of mother-daughter. Ostensibly they loved my class. But the minute I pointed out, out of desperate concern, that the young girl's stomach was too huge (she has a heart problem and a large stomach is the first indicator that there is going to be serious trouble soon, v soon) the mother became restless: the child was having sweet iced-tea, cadbury chocolates, and everything else dangerous for her condition, in between can loads of pepsi!! Was I wrong?!! Or was the mother right to feel outraged... I know my answer... Any case, they dropped out.. Not surprising, na? If I was a `commercial' yoga teacher, I would have not bothered to alert her about the dangerous condition ..(Oh, contrary to general opinion, I am not always nasty when trying to get something like this across:)
If `commercial', I would have suppressed my concerns because I know, as a matter of rule, that when  I try to break patterns, most people resist, and drop out..but then, I am trying to do this with integrity, even where they will be mulish... So be it...

Anyways health is not just about eating less or more. It is about tone...
Not thin, not fat, but tone.. and not gym-toned (that is the fast-twitch white muscles)  but the supple, slow-twitch red muscles (yoga-toned)..I summarise this from an article I read in the Geo mag long ago...

 Muscle factoids:
 
(Super-toned Madonna, the original yoga freak, showing off her muscles in a scorpion variation:)

  •  Our 640 muscles connect to each other. MUSCLES CONNECT TO MAJOR ORGANS.  Flaccid muscles, flaccid or weak organs..... Savvy?
  • THREE WEEKS OF BED REST CAN age you and your insides by TWO DECADES!!
  • Muscles ensure perfect METABOLISM.(Weak metabolism can cause havoc with your feelings -- that lazy, lethargic feeling u know so well?? That is just metabolism on a go-slow).
  • Muscles ensure efficient hormone release. Everything u feel , all your emotions,  is just your hormones setting up a conversation inside your body.
  • Muscles can prevent onset of diabetes.
  • Muscles protect the HEART. Heart-muscle connection? Healing of wounds...
  • Other organ connections: SEXUAL ORGANS or fertility regulation;  liver, for efficient metabolism; fat deposits, muscles help to  breakdown and release fat; creates new blood cells, protects against cell death,  births new cells in the brain (hippo campus)

I particularly love the brain cell-muscle connection.That new neurons (brain cells) can be produced  (earlier thought to be impossible in biology); and where muscle tone can protect against cell death ...

The reverse snobbery of the obese or lazy (or both)  has spawned this silly idea: that somehow well-toned people are dumb! No dearies, they are just smart enough to find time for themselves:) They are also smart enough to be disciplined. And smart enough to be effortlessly organised about their time. They also believe they deserve it!!!

1 comment:

Geeta said...

Excellent article, Shameem..thanks for posting!

Love,
Geeta