An ounce of oxygen leads to the bounce in your body. As you inhale, your lungs pluck the oxygen from the air, which includes nitrogen and other gases like carbon dioxide. The lungs then circulate the oxygen through your body. The pure oxygen is absorbed by your red blood cells into your haemoglobin and these tiny sponges of oxygen bob in your bloodstream and feed the tissues (muscle, bone, nerves). A group of cells form a tissue, and a group of tissues form your organs — heart, lungs, ­stomach, etc. These sponges squeeze out the oxygen and absorb the waste carbon from your tissue. They then bob back to your lungs from where the waste gas is expelled as you exhale.

Your shoulders, stooped or squared, are important to first impressions. The former indicates a negative impression, and the latter, a positive one. Real-life examples for both: a village girl carrying a pot of water on her head is the rural example of the urban fashion model. Then, there is the coolie (or railway porter) carrying baggage. The above vocations are external examples of the spinal posture showing longevity and the body’s inner strength.

Yasuhiro Akumatsu developed radiation sickness after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Doctors told him there was no medical cure for his count of dangerously low white-blood cells. Akumatsu began swimming regularly 30 years later in 1975. Six years and 2,000 nautical miles later, he recovered completely. Many swimming champions have been asthmatics. American freestyler Rick Demont is one of them. He won the 400m Olympic gold medal in 1972 at Munich, but was later disqualified for using an asthma preparation held illegal by the Olympic authorities. Demont continued swimming undeterred. He swam an hour daily and represented the USA once again in the 100m freestyle event.

What really defines you and pigeon-holes you in society’s memory bank is your skin. More accurately, your colour — black, white or brown — is your most visual characteristic; it profiles you in the mental folder. Most often, your reference is not your facial features. It is the more obvious colour of your skin, and this, consciously or unconsciously, becomes your identity card. Beauty is not just skin deep. Because the skin stands for so much more…

Stress is spread over our daily bread. Office work stretches beyond the eight-hour shift quite naturally. Because the sun doesn’t rise or set on it because service industries, in particular, can seldom be conveniently compartmentalised into global time zones. Back-office stress stalks the post-Covid back-to-office routine as increasing globalisation goes loco. For example, a male employee in Mumbai addresses the clients’ requirements in a Manhattan-set timeline. The man from Matunga now competes with someone from Madurai, Madrid or Mexico. Outsourced work crosses geographical borders and time zones. And the red-eyed corporate traveller catering to the western multinational corporation (MNC) is accompanied today by the India-based, blurry-eyed work-from-home/call-centred colleague. This trend is entrenched and extended as shrinking western economies seek new bases and bigger markets in Asia. And India.

Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it. That most times we learn more from mistakes than from success is a well-known fact. Here is a unique lesson from Larsen and Toubro (L&T) which tells us that one can simply be too good for the given task.

Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ is the default option, or rather compulsion, dictated by life’s evolutionary nature. Simply put, fitness is mainly about man’s adaptation to his environment. Unlike the rest of the animal kingdom or species that dwell on earth, man alone has the ability to think.

Swedish sweat in the 19th century is the fountain-head of modern calisthenics — the prime source and course of western exercises today. It is believed that Swedish landlords were aghast when they saw the stooped and sagging peasants’ shoulders at work. The landlords wanted their subjects to be soldier-like in bearing. And hence, devised drills and movements on militarist lines. Erect spines and square shoulders were sought and taught through calisthenics.

At some stage in almost everybody’s life, comes a time when she feels insecure. Though the sun in her life is at its zenith, she is more conscious of the twilight over the horizon.

Preservation begins with proper preparation. The principle is to live young as long as possible. Internally, there can be a 20-year difference between our chronological age and our chromosomes. For example, a 40-year-old could be 60 or 20 within himself or herself. Inherited genes and a gainful lifescape make the vital all-important difference.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a healthy body as one that is in a ‘state of complete physical and mental well-being… By health we mean the powerful force to live a full, adult living, breathing life in proximity with people and things that you love. For you to realise all that you are capable of being and doing.’