Footloose and injury free

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.

In the 1950s, legendary Hollywood director David Lean commissioned L&T to build a bridge, as the main set for his classic war movie The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Why L&T, one might ask. We’ll probably never know. It could be because it was closer to the location (Sri Lanka, then called Ceylon), and cheaper, as the payment was in Indian rupees. Or perhaps, because it was to be destroyed in any case at the climax scene?

But the climax itself was an anti-climax. Bombs went off, but the bridge did not. Take one was hence aborted. The L&T crew on location went to work on the bridge once again. Hammers and tongs were employed to undermine the bridge. The second take was successful. L&T established a principle: L&T builds for a lifetime. As must you. Take care of your inner engineering.

Fortify your foundation

Over the years, as a corporate L&T made giant strides and became a highly successful company and continued to obtain larger and longer contracts from India and overseas. It attracted a new and diverse breed of investors and over time became a target for all kinds of intrigues and takeover manoeuvres. As the company was under threat of takeover, the L&T management acted swiftly to add inner vision to its innovative skills. The company distributed shares to its employees. Sure enough, with employee shares and numbers to support them, the founders protected their interest and immunised L&T from hostile takeovers. L&T lesson number two: Strengthen your immunity system to fortify your body. Prevention, protection and precaution are better than cures.

Strong footing

Your legs are the longest, strongest parts of your person. Whether they are vagabond vagaries or vanguards of good health, depends almost entirely on you. Those long limbs give you a leverage on your life. You can pull or push, lower or raise your legs for almost anything you wish for. But their physical form and application require your attention — like your vehicle does. Naturally so, for they get you where you want to be.

Your legs are the longest, strongest parts of your person. But their physical form and application require your attention — like your vehicle does.

Our sheer dependence on them as we walk through our life’s journey, coupled with ageing, weaken our legs’ muscle and fibre. Starting now is your best option to keep your legs mobile. Here’s what we have done in class and in person for the past 30 years and counting: In addition to aerobic exercises like cycling and walking which we’ve already written about in our earlier columns, we’ve kept our legs firm and flexible with these supplementary exercises. Similarly, keep your legs strong for as long as possible. Remember to inhale through the exercise activity and exhale after you finish. Keep this cycle going:

• Lie on your left side, palms on the floor. Keep legs parallel to floor. Lift your right leg up. Lower without touching your left leg. Rep: 20 times. With your toes pointed out. Likewise with toes flexed.
• Revert to above starting position. Bend your right knee towards your body. Extend right leg straight out again parallel to left leg. Lift your right leg straight up. Revert to start. Rep: 20 times.
• Grab your right leg with right hand and touch heel to your bottom. Hold position for one minute.
• Still on your left side, supported by your left palm on the floor, hold right foot with right hand and place it in front of your left leg. Lift left leg an inch from the floor with toes pointed out. Repeat exercise with foot flexed. Ensure that the left leg’s inner thigh faces the ceiling. Rep: 20 times.

Now, repeat this exercising sequence with your right side on the floor.

Lessons from the leg-end

Dancing and December go together. Hand-in-hand, cheek-to-cheek. But hang on — just a sec. Out there, on the tiny dance floor, folks are doing their own thing. The song Kung Fu ­Fighting is playing. And people are prancing around. But is their performance borrowed from a film fight sequence? Or is it a new dance format?

Meanwhile, out on the dance floor, there is choreographed chaos in motion. Disco died in the USA with John Travolta’s Saturday Night Fever. Its theme song Stayin’ Alive is now recommended as a silent musical accompaniment for doctors performing an emergency CPR because its 103 beats per minute match the required heart rate. I know that music heals. Likewise, so does its beats.

Professional ballet dancers start young. And like fellow gymnasts, retire early, before age 20. Many of them do that because of the ‘ballet-foot syndrome’. A health hazard that goes automatically with their tiptoe posture. Jane Fonda found this out the hard way. She took up ballet to impress her then boyfriend. And fell in love with the former. Her on-and-off affair with ballet continued along with her acting roles. Her injury was an accident waiting to happen. Wearing high heeled shoes, she ran for a film scene. Running to chase a helicopter, the actress fell and fractured her foot in the process. This is why we have kept our floor exercises safely horizontal. This way, they don’t cause injury. And are effective to boot.

A lesson from the actress: Modern ‘fast’ dancing is a high impact activity. It can injure hip, leg and feet joints. Hence, forget high heels. Sneak in sneakers for better suspension. Furthermore, such dances require regular exercise-like warm-ups. Not whisky and starters. Take care. Have a ball. Season’s greetings.

The writers are authors of Fitness for Life and Simply Spiritual – You Are Naturally Divine and teachers of the Fitness for Life programme