One Size Fits All

Matching our movements with Nahid Khan

What difference does it make whether you hold your hands on your waist or on the hips while performing a neck exercise? Is there any harm to exhale from your nose instead of the mouth? Or vice-versa? How does it matter if you cannot synchronise your movements with others in the group?
The very fact you are trying your utmost to keep pace (without disrupting the exercises) is by itself a big deal.

Tara Chand is back from Delhi

But to Arun Patil that is not enough. With scant regard towards individual limitations, he has been insisting upon a standard (operating) procedure and those who do not fall in line are instantly ticked off. “You should exercise in the proper way,” he maintains.
The problem here is what is “proper” to Arun may not be so to many others. He has even been trying to link our exercises to certain asanas of yoga (never mind we exercise standing on our feet) not realizing that there are over 400 different versions of yoga and as many variations of the same exercise performed worldwide. And all of them are valid, and proper.
But then, why blame Arun Patil alone? Shekhawat has forever been after Bijoy Gupta’s life for not being able to sit on his haunches in a certain manner during the Kissa Kursi Ka round. He points at how some others sit, which, in his opinion, is the “proper” way. Gupta is fed up over this and now treats Shekhawat as a pathological case requiring urgent medical attention!
Not to be left behind, even Dilip Babani has started picking faults. The other day, he pulled up Arun, of all the people, for not rolling his shoulders properly. He was told that the “shoulders had become free from an arm dislocation” and nothing can be done about it.
The point is, there cannot be a standardized, one-size-fits-all regimen -- especially for seniors like us. At our age, we are constrained by multiple factors, including bodily decay. So what works for a younger person or perhaps, an athlete could become suicidal for us. There cannot be anything proper or improper about exercising so long as we listen to our bodies.

Bihari Milwani:
It makes no difference as long as you hold your hands on YOUR waist or on YOUR thighs, and not on someone else's.