Ayurveda promotes health, balance and holistic healing. To help promote balance and to prevent disease ayurveda recommends regular exercise for all doshic types. Exercise needs to be modified according to the person’s sex, age (stage of life), strength, as well as the variations of the time of the day, the season, climate and environment.
Asana is recommended as the most effective form of exercise in ayurveda because it is considered balanced, wholesome and safe. In addition, a proper asana practice has the potential to enhance sattva guna and stillness than other forms of exercise. Asana helps with the flexibility of the body, particularly flexibility of the spine which helps circulate blood, nutrients and prana freely throughout the body.
Asana, if done with an understanding of Ayurveda can be used as a special form of exercise that helps to eliminate the doshas from the deeper tissues and keeps the flow in the srota systems and channels clear and even. Often asana is used as exercise to remove excess vata and ama that tend to accumulate in the joints and bones. Thus asana in Ayurveda can be used as physical therapy (asana chikitasa) and a form of medicine to help heal and prevent disease.
Ahara (intake nutrition) and vihara(output expression) the best form of physical vihara is asana, right diet is ahara these mutually support each other. The prescription of asana and good Ayurvedic diet should go together to really work successfully.