Our diet, exercise and sleep-wake pattern are three important factors regulating biological clock which are also mentioned in Ayurved as Ahar, Vihar and Nidra respectively. We already had discussion on ahar and nidra. Today we will talk about vihar that is role of exercise in tuning of chronoprakriti. Light is the primary external signal for tuning of central biological clock present in the brain. But the peripheral clocks present in various organs are setting their rhythms primarily by food and exercise and not by light.
When people think about
exercise, they usually think in terms of building muscle or losing weight as
though it’s a punishment for bad eating habits. It is much more than that which
has effect on your body beyond fat burning or muscle building. We all need
exercise every day but we don’t need the same amount or the same level of
exertion. The time and pattern of exercise differs depending upon your body type.
Body does not understand whether it is a formal or informal exercise regimen.
Any kind of movement, including a single step will be considered as exercise by
the body.
The Sanskrit word for
exercise is vyayama which means improving circulation and communication through
specific movements. The body is considered as an interconnecting channels. Over
the course of a single day, these channels get sticky or blocked due to
metabolic activities. These blockages can be removed by vital energy which we
get from deep breathing. Exercise is essentially to pump the vital energy
through all the channels by deep breathing. It is a kind of cleansing
mechanism.
Altered circadian rhythmicity
in skeletal muscle is a cause of concern in our sedentary lifestyle.
This impacts reduced glucose tolerance and changes in
muscle functioning and composition. These have a significant correlation with
conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Hormonal regulation and resynchronization of the circadian
clock as a result of aerobic exercise have each been linked to improved sleep
quality, lower heart rate, and lower blood pressure. Skeletal muscle and
bone have roles in not only the regulation of locomotion and postural support
but also the control of nutritional homeostasis, such as maintaining glucose
and calcium levels.
The phase of expression of many rhythmic
genes in skeletal muscle occurs at the mid-point of the subjective active
phase. Scheduled exercise can entrain the circadian clocks in skeletal muscles i.e.
the phase of rhythmic gene expression in skeletal muscle may be regulated by
the rhythm of locomotor activity. Individual sleep patterns
can also impact the optimal timing of exercise. Sleep duration and onset time
depend on the chronoprakriti type.
In our urban lifestyle, we
are indoors for most of the time and even prefer gym schedule in the evening
after hectic daily activities as a mean for relaxation. Morning outdoor
activity is essential for our body which gives strong signal that the day has started
and sets the circadian rhythm necessary for regulating sleep-wake pattern.
Additionally when you exercise before first meal of the day, less sugar is
available in the circulation and body is forced to tap into fat reserves. Late
evening intense exercise on the other hand make you alert and overheated for
the sleep by suppressing the melatonin secretion. It confuses the body’s
circadian rhythm and interferes in sleep-wake cycle.
It is hard for most of the
people to start and stick to an exercise routine. The trick is to introduce
variation and not worrying about amount of exercise. It may be less than the
previous day but performed at the same time. Moderation is the key in anything
you do for sustainable goals and exercise is no exception to it. We will talk
separately about sports chronobiology where you need intense workouts for
specific goals but for average individual variety of exercise regimen which
allows deep breathing is sufficient for tuning of muscle clock.
All professionals directly
or indirectly involved in health or wellness do concerned with the change in
eating habits or lack of exercise or importance of sleep and recommend you
healthy habits so as to handle lifestyle disorders. But have you heard anyone
talking about internal clock? Very few of them are even aware about it. They
will tell you what to do or what not to do, similarly how to do or how not to
do. But none of them emphasis on when to do or when not do.
If my body requires certain
amount of calories, I may eat at any time of day and fulfil the requirement. If
my body requires certain amount of exercise, I can do it even just before going
to bed. If I am short of sleep hours during weekdays, I may recover it by
sleeping more on weekends! All these practices making us more vulnerable for
lifestyle disorders and all of us are blissfully unaware about it.
Whatever we do in our daily
schedule, it has to be aimed at tuning our internal clock. The clock is the natural
mechanism to prepare the body for specific task, may be it is mental or
physical. Frequent change in time in routine activities confuses the inner
mechanism and body has to spend excess energy to compensate the change. For
example, you are sleeping two hours late on every weekend as compared to
weekday is nothing but a kind of jet lag your body is experiencing and all of
us are aware about body response when we travel to different time zone.
This internal clock though
dependent on diet, exercise and sleep, does not work same for all individuals.
The external manifestation of inner clock is the natural preferences for given
activity or variation in peak performance time. Some people may be comfortable
in working earlier part of the day and some other may be later part of the day.
For such tendencies we call morning person or evening person in lay man’s term
to which the technical term is chronotype. Ayurved too insists on personalized
medicine based on the prakriti types. These types are nothing but a variation
in inner clock mechanism. Hence we are combining the two body types so as to
assess the chronoprakriti of an individual.
Let’s talk about exercise
regimen according to your chronoprakriti. Based on whether you are morning or
evening person, your muscle coordination will vary. Irrespective of that, morning
exercise in natural settings is recommended for all which will send strong
signal to brain about the start of day. If you are looking for specific weight
gain or loss or muscle building through exercise, then along with morning
workout, you need to follow additional work out regimens which will be based on
your chronoprakriti type.
According to seasons, doshas
show three types of response – 1) Accumulation of dosha 2) Aggravation of dosha
and 3) Decrease of dosha. As per the season and your prevalent prakriti
condition we need to select the type of exercise. Vata
people benefit from slow and steady strength training, Pitta people need training to calm and cool down
whereas Kapha people benefited by heated sweaty sessions. Based on the season
and your dosha type you need to vary the type of exercise.
The exercise regimen may change as you age. The body
requirements will be different depending upon your profession. Similarly women
may require different set of body movements as those of men. All these considerations
will make your personalized exercise format which will tune the muscle clock.
The clock present in the skeletal muscles retains its rhythmicity by scheduled
body movements. And this peripheral clock is not merely responsible for regulation
of locomotion and postural support but also the control of nutritional
homeostasis, such as maintaining glucose and calcium levels.
How much exercise do I need? This is a tough question. My
personal opinion is unless you are very much keen in muscle building or getting
train for specific sports activity that does not matter. The time and type of
exercise matter more than the amount of exercise to tune your internal clock. The
take home message is regular exercise is as necessary as your diet and both
together will help you to tune your peripheral clocks. I will recommend to find
out your chronoprakriti from our website for getting personalized
recommendations for your peak performance period.
For more
details do visit: www.chronoprakriti.com
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