It’s official

“I was a victim of incorrect posture and long working hours in one position. To my surprise,I was introduced to the concept of office yoga by my yoga teacher. She told me that there are quick asanas that help us maintain the flexibility of our body and also increase blood circulation,” says Prasad.

The trend of office yoga has caught up big with corporate houses and even small firms in the city,that are holding workshops and giving tips to their employees to ensure their good health and eventually good performance at work.

Dr Renu Mehtani,yoga teacher and owner of Wellness Health Care Centre,says,“I have conducted many workshops in the city,where I was asked to give quick tips to the office goers,who are usually very negligent about their health while on work. Against the common belief that workouts in the morning are sufficient for a good health,taking into consideration the nature of work which involves long hours of sitting or standing in same position with little or no movement at all,we need to do some quick yoga to remain healthy.”

Explaining the concept of office yoga,she says,“Every form of exercise has stemmed out of yoga. In office,the most common suggestion is to twist by holding the arms of the chair,which in yoga is called,Bhardwaj Asana. The back bending exercise is called Ushtra Asana and side bending is Ardh-kati Chakrasana. All these are quick tips and don’t require any particular costume or time. Moreover,being in the correct posture is what I call 24-hour yoga. Correct posture will save us from many problems and can reduce the problems considerably.”

Today when corporate executives hardly get time to take care for their health with fix deadlines and heaps of assignments,it is always a bonus for them to have a stress free exercise called office yoga. “Productivity of an individual is decreasing,so to deal with these problems,we introduced the concept in our organisation,” says Ajay Adkar,deputy general manager,DesignTech Systems.

Office yoga is slowly but steadily emerging as an important part in the corporate sectors that would improve health and reduces stresses one bears,“After the introduction,our team has benefited with all these Pranayams and Kriyasm and their performance under pressure has also increased significantly. Team is now more active and enthusiastic towards their job,” he adds.

Talking on to this issue,Dr Ravindra L Kulkarni a specialist in Yoga asserts,“It is a concept to fight stress,anxiety and depression.” Dr Kulkarni also conducts workshops on Yoga for office goers,visiting various corporate offices with his team and teaches the basic techniques of yoga. According to him,the common problems that office goers face are anxiety,emotional disturbances,inter-personal relationships,obesity,sleeping disturbances,headache,backache and most importantly family problems. According to him,other than the executives,there are top-level people,taking keen interest,considering their deteriorating health conditions. “Taking into account their hectic schedule,we conduct the workshops for 30 to 35 minutes,” he adds.

“Being a business school,the students here always endure some kind of stress. Therefore we had decided to conduct such a workshop that may help our students,” admits S B Mathur,director,IIBR. He further adds that today’s corporate sector is highly competitive and requires a lot of physical and mental stamina to be in the market. Around 140 students participated in the recently conducted workshop.