Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Adding Yoga to my Life.

We finally closed the Redmond purchase. Now integration can begin.

One of my passions is health. Partly this might be a fear of death or aging. Partly this is a productivity thing.

I have lots of health "shoulds" in my life. I do not eat red meat. I do not eat shellfish. I never eat chicken or turkey at home. I should just become a vegan. I try to limit my intake of sugar and sweets (although I tend to eat what is put in front of me). I still know I should eat healthier.

I am fairly good on cardio work outs. I run quite a bit. I cycle and use an elliptical occasionally. I lift weights less than I should. I do a circuit on weight machines weekly or more. By choice, I lead a fairly high stress, high pace life and working out is my best stress release.

Now I see that I should add yoga which I have done on an off a bit. This wire story was picked up many places including MSNBC.

NEW YORK - In breast cancer survivors, the Iyengar method of yoga not only promotes psychological well-being, but seems to offer immune system benefits as well, according to research reported Monday.

The research was reported at the American Physiological Society meeting in Washington, DC.
The Iyengar method, created by B. K. S. Iyengar, “is considered to be one of the more active forms of yoga,” lead researcher and presenter Pamela E. Schultz from Washington State University, Spokane, told Reuters Health.


Of course for me, I always seek to balance time with health although in the end, good health is so important to energy that spending a bit of time on it is critical to me for good time use. The real question is how much time is enough. I suspect there is diminishing returns. Doing 10 hours of cardio per week likely has similar results to doing only 3. Still, thinking of adding yoga or pilates to my schedule.

3 Comments:

At 3:45 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's always an intersting discussion - the work/life balance one. We in New Zealand are lucky to have a slightler slower pace of life. At a conference this week there was an interesting speech by Alicia Beverley of IP Wealth, discussing the legacy we leave as leaders. It's over on my blog if you're interested
benkepes.wordpress.com

 
At 7:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

As the CEO of my six-year-old company, a recent start-up and the co-founder of another start-up, I've been enjoying your posts on leadership and time management. But as a vegan for the past 13 years who also practices Ashtanga yoga 5 mornings per week, I especially loved this post on yoga and veganism.

I rarely encounter other entrepreneurs who are vegan...or even considering becoming vegan (or even vegetarian for that matter). Aside from the ethical reasons to choose this path, I can tell you that the mental and physical effects are immensely helpfuly in giving me the energy and clarity to run three busy companies.

From a purely business perspective, being vegan is highly profitable.

 
At 6:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wanted to offer a comment on the diminishing results thought in your entry. The shape of the curve for many individuals is bell like, and unless you're training for sport or competition you won't be concerned with the downward slope side where considerably more effort is needed for smaller improvements.
However, the general peak of the curve comes in at 30-40 minutes a day, and between 3-5 days a week. Getting rest days is important, with no more than 3 days working out in a row (the three on, one off rule). And of course, type, intensity and variation of workouts all play a factor.
So if you're looking for the optimal balance where you're maximizing your time (as I know you are), then set a target of 4 days a week to put in 30 minutes and you'll be very close to your optimal bell curve for time vs benefit for maintaining fitness or slightly improving it . Self monitoring can tune that to suite your personal goals/time strategies.

Take care Jim.

 

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