• Exercise That Dosha, Baby!


    The human body is an amazing and complex system of joints, nerves, and muscles designed for the express purpose of movement. From every stand point of life, be it Eastern science, Chinese medicine, and, yes, even Ayurveda, the physical body is designed to move. But not everyone is suited to running an 8 minute mile (Lord knows I’m not); and a great number of people can’t think of anything more tedious than picking up a heavy object and putting it back down at infinitum. Also, the idea of spending an hour in a studio with 20 other people stretching and bending the body into a pretzel-like shape is enough to send some to distraction. So how do you determine which type of exercise is best for you? Simple! Let your dosha tell you.

    Believe it or not, choosing an exercise based on your physical and mental dosha will not only help achieve physical goals like weight loss or increased endurance, but will help improve existing skin concerns by addressing the physical needs of your dosha.

    As we know, each dosha has specific types of body, mental, and skin ailments. For the most part, they’re all related. For instance, Kaphas are known for accumulation: fluid, mucous, fat, etc… The right type of exercise for Kapha is one that gets the blood moving, thereby eliminating toxins from the body and skin! Pittas are all about inflammation. What we need here is to cool and soothe. Stimulating the competitive streak or flushing the skin with blood is never a good idea when exercising. By calming the mind and keeping the body at a cool temperature, we reduce inflammation both internally and externally! As for our Vata friends, the idea is to keep them grounded and well-hydrated. The Vata tendency is to flit and fly and forget the importance of things like hydration and balance. By keeping them grounded and centred, both the body and the skin have a chance to hydrate and regenerate.

    There’s an added benefit to exercising right for your dosha. It’s fun. I know, I know…you kind’ve want to punch me right now. But trust me, it’s true. Once you form the habit (it takes about 20 days to form a habit), you will actually gravitate to an activity that is most suited to your dosha and, I promise you, it will become a form of therapy for you. In the spirit of helping you find the right type of exercise for you and learning how applying this can help with your related skin concerns, we will post subsequent blogs pertaining to each dosha. In them we will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each dosha; tendencies; general preferences; and yes, there will be recommendations as well! All this to help you find the right type of exercise to help balance your body, mind, and spirit.


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