Get set, not seat

The scribe has been advised to remove himself, forcibly if necessary, from his computer chair. Living in Nerdistan has its perils. Doctors say it's not enough to go through the minimum or mandatory dosage of daily exercise. A growing body of research seems to suggest that what you do when you are not exercising determines your true level of fitness.

So if you are someone who sits for not less than 9.3 hours as the average Joe does in America, you need to be concerned about serious side-effects of just sitting. Sports medicine buffs have dubbed them as 'detrimental metabolic effects' of repose.

When he wrote up his canonical treatise on yoga, Sage Patanjali may have had in mind such side-effects of what's euphemistically called 'state of extended sloth'! He defines asana simply as sthiram sukham asanam: literally that which gives quiet steadiness and comfort to the practitioner.

In actual practice, however, asana evokes an effect dynamically opposite to that suggested by the quietist yogi image: asana became that which turned a seeker into a super-athlete glowing with stability, strength and grace ( sthyryam-cha-anagalaghavam).

This is the sort of physical grace ( kaya-jaya) that translates itself into what's implied by 'couch potato fitness' of today's 'seasoned' sitters!

Thus, only those with extreme physical fitness brought on by assiduous practice ( abhyasa) could withstand otherwise unforeseen dangers of prolonged sitting for the pursuit of yogic dhyana, dharana and samadhi.

Get set, not seat, to go is the yogic mantra!