Sitting is the new smoking warn fitness experts

Sitting is the new smoking warn fitness experts
(http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/sitting-is-the-new-smoking-warn-fitness-experts/article6408048.ece?homepage=true&css=print)

Do you sit all day at a desk? If yes, then you're encouraging muscle
stiffness, poor balance and mobility, and lower-back, neck and hip pain.
But to understand why, you'll need to know what happens to some specific
muscles when you are seated.

Think about where your hips and thighs are in relation to your torso
while you are sitting

They're bent, which causes the muscles on the front of your thighs,
known as hip flexors, to contract slightly, or shorten. The more you
sit, the more your hip flexors get shortened. Some people walk with a
forward lean; it's often because of shortened hip flexors. The muscles
don't stretch as they naturally should. As a result, they are not
walking tall and straight because their hip flexors are more adapted to
sitting positions.

This same effect can be seen in other areas of your body. For instance,
if you spend a lot of time with your shoulders and upper back slumped
over a keyboard, this eventually becomes your normal posture. This
frequently leads to chronic neck and shoulder pain. Also, people who
frequently cross their legs a certain way can experience hip imbalances.
This makes your entire lower body less stable, which decreases your
agility, mobility and increases your risk for injuries. So, a person who
sits a lot is less efficient not only at exercising, but also at simply
moving from, say, the bed to couch, to the refrigerator.

Turning off the burners

If you spend too much time in a chair, your glute muscles 0r butt
muscles will forget how to fire. This is called gluteal amnesia. Your
butt muscles are your body's largest muscle group. So if they aren't
functioning properly, you won't be able to squat or dead-lift a suitcase
or a baby from the floor comfortably. And, you won't burn as much fat
either. After all, muscles burn calories and that makes your glutes a
powerful furnace to burn fat. Unfortunately, this furnace is switched
off by those who spend most of their day seated.

Just moving constantly may keep you out of that doctor's office and
medications

Think of your body as a computer: As long as you're moving the mouse and
tapping the keys, all systems are ready to respond, But let it idle for
a few minutes, and the machine goes into power-conservation mode. Your
body is meant to be active, so when you sit and do nothing for too long,
it shuts down, and when your muscles are not active, they become stiff
and weak.

Posture and spine health

When you sit all day, your hip flexors and hamstrings shorten and
tighten, while the muscles that support your spine become weak and
stiff. It's no wonder that the incidence of chronic lower-back pain has
increased threefold since the early 1990s.

Weak glutes as well as tight hip flexors cause your pelvis to tilt
forward. This puts stress on your lumbar spine, resulting in lower-back
pain. It also pushes your belly out, which gives you a protruding gut
even if you don't have an ounce of fat. The changes to your muscles and
posture from sitting are so small that you won't notice them at first.
But as you reach your 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond, they will gradually
become worse and a lot harder to fix.

So what's a desk jockey to do?

There are two spectrums of activity. One represents the activities you
do that are considered regular exercise at the gym, such as stretching,
strengthening and your cardio activities such as walking, biking,
swimming, etc.

The other denotes the amount of time you spend sitting Vs the time you
spend on your feet.

Even mini frequent moves through the day plays a big role in keeping you
pain free

Make the small choices that will help you move in the right direction on
that sitting-versus-standing spectrum.

Create some work to stand up or just take a few steps to fetch a glass
of water, move around while you're talking on the phone, walk to your
colleague's table at work, etc. There are a hundred useful reasons to be
on your feet.

Just because one works out for an hour or day, one can't declare that it
is okay to be seated for the rest of the day. Make it a challenge.

Just as you make goals for running a marathon or doing 100 push ups, you
also have to do the same for everyday movements, if you want a pain free
and carefree life.

So get off that chair and start moving.

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Dhrupad and Kriti

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Features » Friday Review
Published: September 11, 2014 19:16 IST | Updated: September 11, 2014
19:16 IST
Where dhrupad meets kriti
Ranee Kumar
A 'dhrupad' and a 'kriti' are parallel streams of renditions structured
by the Hindustani and Carnatic norms respectively.

Though the music of India got bifurcated into north and south
(Hindustani-Carnatic), there still exist certain similarities in the two
streams especially when one takes a re-look at the archetypes sans
evolutionary makeovers. By now it's evident that the Islamic rule
changed the contours of Indian music in the northern parts ushering in a
new era of creative (khyal/kalpita) music. The Carnatic music flourished
with its performance-based orientation with the advent of the Trinity
who composed 'structured' 'kriti' in a certain format which comprised a
raga (melodic configuration of syllables), a tala (beat), a rhythm and
poesy (sahitya) all arranged in a metrical fashion. The kriti was also
vested with ample scope to improvise under the rules of the raga to
which it was tuned.

Similarly, in Hindustani music, a genre that survived the winds of
change that swept across the northern belt is the 'Dhrupadh' which was
an orthodoxc musical system that evolved in 1400 AD. The term is a sort
of contraction of 'dhruva' which means firm and 'padha' (a composition
fashioned through words). The origin is traced to the 'prabhandha' of
ancient times. On keen observance, this traditional form bears close
resemblance to the south Indian kriti in more than one way. If a
Carnatic music connoisseur were to attend a dhrupad recital, he/she
would be able to discern a lot of similarities between the two.

For one, like the kriti, the dhrupadh is also a highly formatted piece
of music which follows a set pattern of rendition that comprises majorly
of two halves — a preface (alaap/alaapana) of the raag (raga) done
through syllabic sounds like that of the alapana in Carnatic music with
a splash of the tanam too and not the aakaar taan of a khyal. The alaap
of a dhrupad is supposed to contain 'beeja mantras'. It explores the
nuances of the raag, scales through the three octaves and then launches
into the bandish (song/composition) led by a mridang or pakhawaz (not
the tabla). The raga grammar is rooted in tradition and text; hence it
is not easy for a Hindustani audience to appreciate since most raag are
of the ancient school.

By the same token, a Carnatic musician/listener can fully comprehend and
appreciate the dhrupadh which sounds close to his/her own school of
music. Like in a Carnatic kriti, the 'padh' (hymn/verse/bandish) of the
dhrupadh is of supreme significance. This is the core of the dhrupadh
and like a kriti rendition, a bandish exploration takes up a larger part
of the recital. The devotional poetic element apart, the rhythm and
melody are inherent in the bandish of a dhrupadh composition. The
underlying spiritual wisdom in the bandish is to be evoked by the
musician, so it calls for in-depth involvement and dedication.

The improvisations and variations within the bandish are akin to the
sangathis and also neraval of the kriti, more so the latter and are in
keeping with the spirit of the bandish. The bandish is generally in the
ancient Vraj baasha , a very popular regional lingo of the northern
states in early times. The composition is divided into two or four parts
(like the pallavi, anu pallavi and charanam). The slow glides between
the swar (notes) with a mild oscillation (gamaka) of the dhrupadh are
also similar to the kriti.

If Carnatic music is all math and singing, so is it with the dhrupadh.
Also strict adherence to the taal makes it sound so similar to the
kriti. The taal often set for dhrupadh is the 'chau taal', a 12-beat
cycle, a remnant of the southern 'chaturasra jaathi ata talam'. The
theme of the composition is spiritual/bhakti like all Indian classical
music. The 'laiy vyavahaar' (dwigunh, chaugunh) sounds close to the
trikala renditions of the pallavi of a kriti. Many a scholar on the
Hindustani and Carnatic medium have acquiesced to similarities between
the kriti and dhrupadh, especially with regard to Muthuswami Dikshitar's
compositions. Both must have been delved out of the same source
(Caturdandi). The vilambit (slow tempo) is also akin to most of
Dikshitar's vilamba kala, roopaka tala kritis, we are told. The dhrupad,
like a Dikshitar kriti, has a dignified flow of melody sans jerks which
is as imposing as an elephant's saunter.

Keywords: dhrupad, kriti, Carnatic, Hindustani,
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Quote from Thought for the day: Life is not a spectator sport...

"Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life"
-- Jackie Robinson

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