Ep 32 - Learning to Love Movement: An Ayurvedic Approach to Balanced Exercise

What is the right kind of exercise for your body?

In this episode, we explore movement through the lens of Ayurveda—and why there is no one-size-fits-all answer.

Drawing from classical Ayurvedic texts and personal experience, I guide you through a more nuanced way of approaching exercise: one that honours your constitution, your current state, the seasons, and the deeper intention behind your movement.

Rather than following external rules or trends, this episode invites you to cultivate a relationship with your body that is rooted in discernment, compassion, and balance.

🌿 In This Episode, We Explore:

• Why Ayurveda does not prescribe a single “ideal” exercise routine
• The concept of half capacity and how to recognise your limit
• Signs of over-exertion and its impact 
• The risks of both depletion (too much) and stagnation (too little) movement
• Understanding exercise through the lens of Agni (fire) and Soma (nectar)
• How your lifestyle, constitution, season, and life stage influence your needs
• The importance of replenishment and recovery after intense activity
• A personal story of practicing Krav Maga as a dharmic (purposeful) form of movement
• Why joy and intention matter more than performance or aesthetics
• How to become a “good lover” to your body through your movement choices

Ayurveda teaches that:

The right kind of movement is not determined by trends, but by who you are, where you are, and what your body needs in this moment.

 A Question to Reflect On

If you were a truly loving partner to your body…

How would you choose to move?

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Transcript

Welcome To Lenan Ayurveda

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hi and welcome to the Lenan Ayurveda podcast. Here we explore how the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda can help us gain a deeper understanding of our body and open the gateway to finally feeling better.

Digital Detox And Scheduling Updates

The Core Question About Exercise

What The Texts Say About Capacity

Overexertion Risks And How To Replenish

Stagnation And The Agni Soma Lens

A Personal Story Behind Krav Maga

Building Soma Movement Through The Week

Cycles Seasons Joy And Closing Reflections

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Hello, hello, my name is Vitote. I'm your host, and today I'm bringing you episode number 32. We're going to be discussing movement today and what is the appropriate kind of movement and exercise for our bodies. And spoiler alert, there isn't one answer. So before we dive into this topic today, I wanted to do a little bit of housekeeping here before the start of the episode because I've been on a social media break for a little while. In fact, as part of my spring cleanse experience, I chose to do a partial digital detox, which for me involved um getting rid of my Instagram app on my phone. And this has gone so well that I don't feel ready yet to come back. So until I do, um I'm going to use this podcast platform to do just a little bit of housekeeping as a way of um you know being in touch with you all and also communicating the little announcements that normally I would use my social media to do. So one of these announcements is especially destined for my US based listeners. I have opened in my calendar, in my consults calendar, an extra day with later time slots to accommodate US listeners who might be interested in booking a 30-minute consult with me. So those initial consults are designed for those of you who might be thinking about or are interested in working together in a one-on-one context. And this call is free, and you have my eyes and my ears for about 30 minutes where we look at your challenges, we look at the kind of support that you're seeking, and we see if working together within the context of my 12-week Ayurvedic program would be a good fit. So if you want to book this call, you can find a link in the show notes and also on my webpage leanonaurveda.com. And while I'm still on my social media break, the best way to keep in touch with my work is by following the podcast. So episodes should be dropping every two weeks as usual. So best way is to subscribe to the podcasts, like this, you don't miss any future episodes. And also you can sign up to my newsletter, uh, which also goes out regularly, and you can do that by also checking the show notes. There is a link to subscribe. Alright, so now that our housekeeping is done, I have my cup of Tulsi Chai. This is actually a herbal blend that some of the participants of the Spring Cleanse chose to work with during the spring cleanse days, and it's a lovely one to try because it's supportive for your lymph, it's supportive for your digestion, it's supportive for bringing more clarity for your mind and your senses. So let's go ahead and talk about movement. Many people wonder um what would be the ideal way to exercise, right? What is the optimal movement routine for my body? And as always, Ayurveda has answers, it provides answers, but it does not provide a one cookie cutter answer for everyone. So my hope from today's episode is to give you an overview of what the ancient texts say about appropriate exercise. And also, my hope is to weave in personal examples to show you how I use that to guide my own choices. So, to put really simply, if we were to ask Ayurveda as a tradition, how should I move my body? Ayurveda as a tradition would say who is asking, when are they asking? What is happening with the body of the person who is asking? Right? So all of these are aspects that will go into consideration as we formulate our answer. Let's start at the source. I think it's always good to start at the source, looking at what the ioritic scriptures say about exercise. And we'll see that there is such a thing as too much exercise, and there is such a thing as too little exercise. In general terms, too much exercise will eventually drive the body into depletion, into a depleted state. And too little exercise will eventually drive the body into a state of stagnation. Okay, so this is the territory that we're navigating. Hopefully, we are finding that golden middle, right? And this is um let me just quote um Characasamhita, which is one of the main reference texts for Ayurveda practitioners. Extent of exercise is determined by one's own capacity. One should stop exercise before getting tired. Strong persons and those habituated to fat-rich diet can daily practice via yama, so that's physical exercise, up to half of their capacity in cold seasons, like winter and spring. During the rest of the seasons, physical exercise can be executed with mild to moderate strength. Then the text goes on to describe how do we know that we are at our capacity when exercising, right? And that capacity is denoted by sweating of the armpits, of temples, nose, and joints coupled with dry mouth. Another sign of this capacity for physical exercise, which in Sanskrit is called Ardashakti Vyayama, is the dislodgment of vata located in the chest region going up to the mouth. So it's a sensation of energy moving up from your chest to the mouth. This kind of tightness and upward moving force. Okay, so that is another sign that you are at capacity. Now let's remember that in the first quote we saw that it is advised to practice at half of our capacity in cold seasons, like winter and spring. So, what I take this to mean is that if at the end of our workout session we are drenched in sweat, we have overridden our capacity. Okay? And I think this is very interesting to look at, you know, because oftentimes we would see like an image or a video of a body that is, you know, a per post-workout body that is drenched in sweat, and we would associate that with a successful outcome. And a lot of fitness coaches will, you know, I mean, their job is to push you beyond your capacity, push you beyond your limits, right? And we're entering really interesting um uh territory here, I think, um, because you know, from the Ayurvedic perspective, especially if this type of over ex over exertion is pictured or done daily, we are looking at a trajectory towards depletion, and also I want to say that there is merit in having somebody support us on our journey of conquering a part of us, right? So I am definitely not diminishing the role that fitness instructors, fitness coaches play because sometimes, again, we're we're coming back to this whole idea like who is asking, what is happening in the body of the person who is asking? Sometimes there is merit in this, right? Again, nothing in Ayurveda is viewed as good or bad, it's rather is this appropriate? So even if we look at this, you know, concept of depletion, what is depletion? Depletion is the using up, right? This process of burning up, using up, and in some cases, tissue um you know reduction is appropriate, is medicinal, right? If we, for example, carry extra weight, if we are um, if our body is experiencing um, you know, overdevelopment of tissue, right, tissue reduction or tissue depletion is actually the right thing to do, right? So um again, I'm saying depletion here in a sense of we are using up our body's resources, right? We are overexerting our capacity, and for some people that will be appropriate, and for some people that will not be the most sustainable thing to do. Um, lifestyle. But again, let's go back to the source. Whenever there is confusion, let's go back to the source and see what iuretic scripture says about overexertion. So, over-exertion undisputedly destroys the body just like the lion who tried to defeat an elephant attacking directly. Okay, the lion who tried to defeat an elephant attacking directly. It also results in aggravation of vata, especially prana value. Prana is the form of vata that we inhale, right, and then it goes, it moves down from our face as we inhale it through our nose, it moves down into the chest, into our lung area, okay, and then it circulates um in in the body as life force, right? So that process of prana vayu moving is aggravated, okay, and aggravation of pitta, right? So this inner heat, chronic overexertion will manifest as chest injury even without any external trauma, right? So again, we have you know this chest area, which is where prana vayu lands first, and if that process is continuously disrupted, right, so chronic overexertion. So, in in in a case where somebody would be um you know breaching their capacity, their physical capacity for physical exercise on a daily basis, that um Ayurveda says would result in issues that have to do with the chest. Okay, but here is a consideration I would like to offer um in this context, um, you know, not to kind of like scare everyone who is working out intensely, okay. There are ways to soften and to mitigate the effects on the body after our body has endured hard things, right? If you think about, for example, like childbirth in a woman's life is one of those experiences that is incredibly depleting. And so what Ayurvada does afterwards, it supports the body after this process, right? So there's this whole protocol of how to rebuild and replenish your body as a mom of a newborn after you have gone through this excruciating process, right? That has asked a lot of you, right? So exercise, intense exercise, since it is a practice that is burning up your resources, right? It's using up the resources that you have, the energy that you have, you know, are you replenishing that energy, right? Are you replenishing it with practices, right, that support the body's juiciness so that it doesn't dry up? Um, are you supporting it through nutrition, right? That does not mean replenishing our energy with protein bars or protein shakes. Okay, there is no such thing. Um, but are we replenishing? Are we bringing in the juiciness? There is no juice in a protein bar, right? It's it doesn't carry life force, it's a processed food, just like protein shakes, right? Are we bringing in um nutrition through hydration, right? Are we bringing in overall contentment with nourishing relationships, with supportive relationships, so that we don't feel like we're constantly pushing? Are we spending time in quality relaxation of the muscles, right? And are we spending time harmonizing the flow of prana, right? So it does not become erratic, right? Do we take the time after our exercise to bring ourselves back to balance, or do we finish training and off we jump onto the next task? So there are also all these you know elements at play that will also contribute to the overall um result of how our body will feel. And one more thing I wanted to um kind of like tie together with you know this chronic over-exercising in some cases, and the effect that might have on the health of our deepest tissues. So here is what the text keeps saying. Care should be taken to abstain from over-exertion as it will eventually reduce the quality of semen and ovum, right? Which is reflected as extreme tiredness, lack of enthusiasm, weakness to perform all physical and mental activities, breathing difficulties, and higher brain faculty derangement. Okay, so this is um these are essentially all signs of depletion in a body. That is what happens when our bodies um either don't receive enough nourishment or burn up all the nourishment, right? Um, and essentially the body um dries up, right? There's a drying up of life force, there's a drying up of enthusiasm, there's a drying up of our reproductive tissue, reproductive fluids. Basically, not a place we want to find ourselves. Now, on the opposite side of the spectrum, I'm not going to quote texts anymore, but um, you know, as a general rule, when we lack movement, that can create stagnation, right? Because prana, our life force, in order to move harmoniously in the body, it needs to receive movement, right? It needs to receive harmonious movement. But if the body is not moving, it will get stuck, and we might start noticing stagnation in the body in different forms, right? Throughout different tissues in the body. So again, too little movement is also not a place in which we want to find ourselves in, right? So, how do we find that magic formula of finding something smack in the middle that would be fitting for us, right? When it comes to movement and exercise, because it's difficult to know what's right sometimes. I feel like nowadays we can be sold, you know, we can we can find proof for um anything we want, right? Uh if we want to uh if we want to convince ourselves that coffee is good for us, we can go and find studies that prove that. If we want to convince ourselves that coffee is in fact not good for us, we can go and find material too. Um so it can be difficult to know. And whenever there is confusion and overwhelm about something, you know, in the Vedic tradition, we go back to categories. This is something that um my yoga teacher often uh refers to. Go back to the categories you can recognize, and that will help you organize your thoughts, right? So the the big picture here is Agni and Soma, things that feel like fire, and things that feel like nectar. Okay, these are two opposing categories, the yang and the yin, if you will. Okay, and from there we can start asking ourselves how much of my life feels like fire, and how much of my life feels like nectar. Okay, that can happen too. It's less Common for the people that I work with for their life to feel overwhelmingly like nectar, it can happen, right? And that might look like you know you lounging most of the time and having no stress and no worries and and just like indulging all the time, right? And um, that can have its issues too, right? If that fire element is absent from your life. So here I want to talk a little bit about my own personal experience with exercise because I was never a person who enjoyed sports, not at school, not at university, I was never a member of any team. Uh, I just did the you know obligatory sports lessons at school, and that was pretty much it. Um now I do have a lot of vata in my constitution, so you know, weight was never my issue because when we have a lot of vata, we spend our energy anyway. Um, and I am a person who moves, you know. I I do like walking and and gentle forms of exercise, but like participating in sports was never my thing, right? But I want to tell you a story how I started practicing a combat sport three years ago, which is totally crazy, and people are genuinely shocked when I tell them that, like genuinely shocked. So I want to share that story with you today. Um, because I feel like it will be a good illustration of this, you know, Agni and Soma. What feels like fire, what feels like nectar in your life. Okay. So um, as I said, I was never a lover of sport of any kind, really. Um, and I had about three years ago, um, I had a series of experiences that were relatively close together. So it wasn't like a one-off thing, it was like one thing after another and after another, um, where I realized that in the face of danger or perceived danger, I am unable to react. Okay, so I had some very unpleasant things that I went through where I realized that I freeze. When I sense danger, I am unable to stand up for myself. I am unable to even run. I just freeze. So I was having this free freeze response. And since this happened to me on several occasions close together, I was like, okay, I can choose to not do anything about this, or I can choose to take this as a message, as a loving message from the universe that was showing me something that I needed to work on. Okay. So as soon as I came back home, this was during um a summer vacation. I came back home, I signed up for um a Krav Maga club, which is um, you know, it's it's a self-defense modality that is frankly pretty brutal in nature. Um, but it was, you know, it was a club that was close to me, and I was like, okay, I'm just gonna do that. I saw self-defense, I was like, okay, I'm doing this. Um, so you know what when I joined, uh, and this was about three years ago, I felt completely ridiculous because I was a not somebody who was into sports at all, and here I am with all these like you know, super muscly people men and women, women also alike, like powerful and muscle trained, and and they were all lovely and welcoming, but still, like for me, it was such an awkward experience because I was coming from this like really comfortable life. Probably the most intense exercise I did before that was like going to um vinyasa flow, seriously. Um, so for me it was a shock. I was going from this very, you know, very soma kind of environment, right? And there's a lot of soma in my life right now. There's a lot about my life that feels like nectar. Truly, my job feels like nectar, my family, my marriage feels like nectar, my friendships feel like nectar, you know. Um, so there isn't a lot in my life that I feel like I am combating, right? And that that's not everyone's experience. Some people like if if I were um you know, if I were like a full-time lawyer and I spend a lot of my day in verbal combat, adding an Agni activity in the evening might not be the best way towards a balanced life if I want to feel more balanced, right? So me joining this like super intense Agni activity that is like literal combat, I don't think you can get more Agni than um than a combat class, truly. Um I feel like it was deliberate and appropriate, right? Because I wasn't joining because I wanted to look different. I wasn't joining because I was like I wanted to work out so I fit into whatever size before the summer, right? I wasn't joining because I wanted to win something. I was willing to go through this, you know, through this discomfort, frankly, looking pretty ridiculous at first with my you know salivating through my mouth guard. Um but I felt like it was okay, first of all, because the rest of my life didn't feel combative, and also I was not punishing myself, I was rather supporting myself. Going to that class felt like me supporting myself to be more equipped to stand up for myself in case I need to. Right? So I was the way I was approaching this Agni activity, the reasoning behind it was more soma, it was more rooted in support, right? Rather than a motivation that came because um, you know, I need to work out because I I ate a cake and now I have to burn it off. So it's not something that was rooted in self-punishment, it was something that you know in yogic terminology uh we would say feels dharmic, right? We do something as part of our dharma, which essentially means doing what needs to be done, right? Doing what is in front of us to do, as my teacher would say. So from my perspective, I saw an issue, a pattern in myself that I chose to deal with, and signing up for this intense Agni activity for me is a remedy, essentially. What I see as a dharmic remedy, and intense exercise can absolutely be dharmic. For example, if it is your job to be, you know, a soldier, right, or a firefighter, you need to um practice intense exercise to be fit to do these, you know, to do the job that you need to do, right? And that and that is for you to do. So it's not to say that intense exercise cannot be done, right? Again, we're going back to who is asking and what is happening for them in this moment, and so three years on, I'm still going to these classes and I'm gaining more skills, I no longer feel so terribly misplaced in that class. Um, but you know, I'm sharing this because um even though I definitely over-exert my capacity in that class, in terms of you know, the description that we saw, what it means to over-exert your capacity, meaning that you know your nostrils might be flaring, you might be red in the face, definitely tired, definitely sweaty. Um, so there is definitely that overexertion, but for me, what's important is that um I do this once a week, I don't do this every day, and the rest of my life feels very much like soma, right? And the rest of my movement feels very much like soma. The rest of my movement throughout the week includes swimming. That's something that I do when I accompany my kids for their swimming lesson. I go and swim on my own, and then I do some very gentle strength training that is focused on pelvic health, right? So for women who have given birth vaginally, um, you know, to support that area of my body, right? And again, like even when it comes to the gentler form of exercise, what I am like when I notice my thoughts about it, I'm not thinking like I have to do these things, right? But my motivation feels very much like soma. I actually started um doing this strength training for my pelvic region after I started connecting to what to my womb. So this workout um and my relationship with this workout was actually born out of that connection with my womb, which is a very different kind of motivation, right? I am again not trying to, you know, I'm not asking my body to look different, I am not um asking to be a size smaller or a size bigger, right? Um I actually enjoy, like for example, yesterday I was swimming and I was thinking, I I don't always enjoy like actually like going to the pool and especially you know when when you have a shower and then you have to walk to the pool, like those second though this these couple of minutes actually feel really cold. Um and and I dislike cold, cold annoys me. So it's not that everything about that experience is pleasurable, but once I am inside the water, I really enjoy you know moving through it, I enjoy feeling that movement and you know the synergy of muscles as as I am advancing through this body of water, right? I enjoy creating and cultivating a little bit more strength in my muscles, and I definitely don't over-exert myself there. I literally I don't measure my progress. This is um a very, you know, soma way of moving, right? When we're just relaxed about what we're doing and we're compassionate about what we're doing, and um, you know, that's very different if we compare it to the combat class, right? Um, but the reason why I'm in water, the reason why I do my um strength training is because I enjoy feeling my body become just a little bit stronger and supporting my body and building that capacity. But it's not competitive. I'm not trying to be better than I was before, than I was a week before, you know. I am just showing up, um, you know, at whatever percentage um of my capacity, it's probably half, maybe less. But I'm there and I'm moving, right? And I am moving the life force inside me. And I was thinking of metaphors of how I could um you know, how I could illustrate this relationship, and I was thinking of this metaphor of being a good lover to your body, right? A lover who is kind, who is compassionate, and who understands what her body needs, right? Like we might understand what our lover really needs, and also compassionate because um, you know, we want to respect the cycles that we might have as women, right? So I, for example, never exercise on at least the first three days of my period. If I'm bleeding, um, and especially the first three days, um, I will like indulge in just laid back living to the extent that I can. You know, cooking more simply, um maybe asking that somebody else cooks during these days, um working a little less, um, you know, it doesn't mean I don't move, but I definitely try to do less. For example, one of the things that I don't do is my um mantra practice in the mornings when I'm bleeding, right? So there's an energetic reason why um my teacher guided me towards not doing that, but um why I'm saying this is that you know, we we can either see it as a limitation or we can see it as an opportunity to be a little bit more laid back once a month, you know, it's rare to get opportunities like this, I think. Right? So we can um when we get that opportunity, we can take it and we can enjoy it, you know, just like really leaning into this um process that our body is going through a natural detox during these days, and that's it, that's just information, and natural detox is happening, and we can, you know, either choose to like keep on pushing through because we have the right, or we can surrender to that process and really choose to enjoy it and enjoy what that opportunity to do less offers. So, as you can see, there are so many layers that we can take into consideration, right? Who is asking for this advice? Who is the person asking? What is their birth constitution, meaning what are their natural tendencies, right? What is the body naturally programmed to do? Is the body naturally programmed to be on the move, or is the body naturally programmed to be more steady and to be more you know accumulative in nature, right? And what is happening with that doshic balance right now, right? So looking at the person's birth constitution and what how are the doshas playing out right now, right? If the person is a woman, where is she in her cycle that will determine how much physical activity is appropriate? Also, what is which season is the person in? Like literal seasons, if the person is asking in winter and in spring, there is more capacity for the body to do a bit more strenuous exercise than, for example, in the summer, because in the summer there is already a buildup of inner heat, right? So that is when that is a time when we would want our exercise to feel a little bit more like soma, right? A little, you know, less intense, a little more like juicy movements, perhaps something like yin yoga, right? We can also um look at the stages of life, right? Because our practice um of physical exercise evolves with age. What is appropriate in your you know early 20s is perhaps no longer appropriate in your early forties, right? Um if you used to do hot yoga ten years ago, perhaps something a little bit more mellow for now. And is the overall lifestyle of the person asking for this advice on the perfect kind of exercise is it leaning more towards Agni, so domination of fire, or is it leaning more towards soma where you know qualities of nectar would be more present, more dominant? Right? And and last but definitely not least, where does the person find joy? Right, that is also a very important component in deciding what kind of exercise routine would be the most beneficial, right? Because what we enjoy will be more beneficial than what we force ourselves to do, right? And also understanding that sometimes we want to learn to enjoy the things that we have to do. So if you already have some leads where you know that you will find joy in moving your body this way or that way, that's already you know a great way forward. If you don't enjoy any movement, right, then looking at how can you make enjoyable what is appropriate for you, right? So sometimes we need to um help the joy unfold, right? We might not see it right away, but we can invite it in, and I want to wrap up this episode by um leaving you with this. Metaphor that I evoked earlier of being a good lover to your body. If you were a really good lover to your body, what kind of movement would you choose? How could you be compassionate yet? How could you advocate for your body in really showing it what it needs? And then finding joy in moving in that way. I hope that this episode was useful and that you um perhaps found some inspiration to look at this question of exercise through a very different lens. Do let me know if this discussion resonated and what you took from it. And if you would like some tailored support on your journey, you can always go ahead and book a free initial call with me, for which you'll find the link in the show notes. And as always, if you enjoyed this episode, thank you so much for leaving me a review or rating because that really helps to support the show and it helps for more people to discover it. Thank you for listening. Thank you for engaging.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

I'm wishing you a beautiful day, and until next time.