Author: @micazev

Crafting Your Ideal Day and Week
Stressful days and weeks are something we all encounter, yet we often find ourselves without a clear vision of what truly constitutes a fulfilling day or week. Daily planning can be a daunting task. You’re faced with the challenge of fitting work, family, self-care, and countless other obligations into a mere 24 hours span. It’s like trying to solve a puzzle with pieces that never quite fit. The pressure of making every moment count can be overwhelming and one unfinished task can feel like a failure.

Changes in circumstances, work, and personal goals necessitate a regular reassessment of your ideal day. That’s why idealizing a whole nice week might be a better alternative. By managing your activities across a week, you can achieve a more realistic and balanced routine.

For me, this shift in my approach to planning has truly been a game changer. If, for any reason, I miss going to the gym on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, it’s no cause for despair. I remind myself that there are still four more days in the week for me to reach my goal of working out three times a week.

In essence, adopting a weekly perspective is a form of self-respect and self-care. The rigid structure of working hours, based on clock time, was originally devised for industrial purposes to regulate workers, a construct far removed from the natural rhythms that have shaped our bodies over hundreds of thousands of years as hunter-gatherers. Embracing this critial thinking empowers you, whenever your routine shifts, to adjust the weight of societal expectations in your life, reconsider what your ideal week and day look like, and fine-tune your own priorities.

Let’s move from macro to micro:

The Ideal Week

When embarking on the “Ideal Week” planning process, begin by determining how you want to feel at the week’s end:
1. Relaxed
2. Smart
3. Abundant
4. Productive
5. Creative
6. Successful
Select the emotions and qualities that resonate most with your outlook on life and align with your current life phase.

2 options so you can pin your favorite design 🙂

2 options so you can pin your favorite design 🙂

With that in mind, start by considering the habits you aim to cultivate and the obligations awaiting your attention within your backlog of tasks.

This varies greatly from person to person, spanning a diverse spectrum, including parents, the elderly, nurses, and attorneys.

Instead of attempting to conform to the mold of productivity gurus, celebrate your individuality and embrace your uniqueness.

Each individual brings their unique set of familial responsibilities, specific tax regulations, cultural priorities, and varying income levels into the equation. Take the time to identify the variables that create your ideal, fulfilling week. The “ideal week” is a highly personal concept, far removed from a one-size-fits-all template.

Weekly planning vs. Weekly Ideation

While it can be applied to almost any aspect of life organization, remember weekly ideation is not about wishful thinking but rather connecting with your emotions, analyzing your reality and prioritizing, so you can find ways to make your week more peaceful – but it’s not entirely a weekly plan yet, with all minuntia.

A weekly planning is something you have to do everyweek to follow life changes, the weekly ideation is something you do every quarter, its an overall framework of everything you wanted to do independently of the variable tasks. What if there is a chill week where you have plenty of time? Go to your ideal week! What if you have to prioritize some tasks? Go to your ideal week!

Apps for weekly planning

You can always put your google/apple calendar into weekly view and go from there.

One tool that I’ve valued for years is Notion, renowned for its ability to adapt to these diverse variables. It allows you to commence with a template but offers the flexibility to evolve beyond the confines of a rigid PDF. Notion’s structured framework assists in identifying patterns and automating repetitive tasks, providing valuable mental space. Here are some ideas on how to structure it:
- You can employ a template without a complex database, instead utilizing practical automation via buttons;
- Start from a simple Kanban mode;
- In addition to the kanban, you can opt for a robust database and use the weekly calendar view.
There are more specialized options available, such as TeuxDeux, the YouTuber Matt D’Avella mentioned using it for years now.

And a similar, but free, version of it is the (so cute) tweek.so:

Another option is to configure a Trello for weekdays. There are numerous other apps available to explore and discover what works best for you – after all, you know your needs better than I do. (:

One more thing, I love that this concept of week span can even be safely applied to diet, as you can see on this section of video of the fitness specialist Thomas DeLauer:

Crafting My Ideal Week – Late 2023

Emotionally, I’m currently on a recovery journey after a challenging year. My main goal is to feel rested by the end of the week while also maintaining a sense of productivity. After months of unpredictability, having a sense of “control” over my life is crucial (but not the unhealthy kind of control – I’m sure you understand).

As for my default activities, many aspects of my life are in autopilot mode right now, including investments, my home cleaning and beauty routines, and my gym regimen, to name a few. I’ve already integrated these into my weekly plan and feel confident about managing them.

In terms of changing environments, my current situation is different from the past. I’m not formally employed by a company, nor am I freelancing as frequently as before. My family’s needs, covering financial, organizational, and health-related aspects, have undergone a significant shift. Balancing these demands with my minimum requirements for financial stability, maintaining my routines, and advancing my career presents a unique challenge.

I’ve adopted a slower routine, with no pressure to achieve grandiose goals.

In the past, I’ve experienced various life phases, each accompanied by distinct responsibilities. These ranged from
- having a chill college student life
- to caring for my grandmother as a young adult
- to pursuing corporate success on my late 20s
- or even globe-trotting while working as a web developer.
Currently, in addition to the family responsibilities and typical everyday activities I’ve already mentioned, my more demanding personal priorities encompass:
- Hitting the gym at least 4x a week – up from 3x I could manage for most of the year;
- Publishing 4 blog post a week, which involves creating Pinterest images and tackling several challenging aspects, adds an exciting and fulfilling dimension to this introspective phase;
- Decluttering and selling items to achieve my new minimalist goals – this entails lots of back-and-forth messaging, photo-taking, and measurements;
- Progressing in my software architecture post-graduate studies.
The Ideal Day

Well, as you might be familiar, the ideal day planning or ideation (as you prefer to call it) usually consists in stacking the habits you want to fullfill, with a block of working and another block for studying and hopefully basic hygiene and hobbies.

What I want to add for discussion is not blocking huge activities simply, as “8 hour day working”, but realisticaly considering our attention span, biological needs and just mind cleaning and social healthy flexibility. Calendar block is cool, but its not a imperial order, remeber it!

So, usually it makes sense to block the day in 2 ou3-hours blocks:
- 8am-10am
- 10am-12am
- 12pm-2pm
- 2pm-4pm
- 4pm-6pm
- 6pm-8pm
- 8pm-10pm
- 10pm-12am
- 12am – 8am
simple breakfast idea (usually my go-to)

Within it you will also find the minimum viable daily, keep in mind the20/80 Pareto Principle, also known as the “80/20 rule,” that suggests that approximately 20% of your efforts or inputs lead to about 80% of your results or outputs.

Within it you will also find the minimum viable daily, keep in mind the20/80 Pareto Principle, also known as the “80/20 rule,” that suggests that approximately 20% of your efforts or inputs lead to about 80% of your results or outputs.

Typically, factors like regular exercise, dedicating at least one deep focus block, maintaining a healthy diet, and nurturing positive relationships encompass a solid 20% of what constitutes a fulfilling day, with long-term life in mind.

A habit tracker can be quite handy. But, you know, the real challenge with habit tracking is, who’s keeping track of the tracker? Haha I personally use Habitify, and I’ve found that it works best for me on my desktop. After struggling with it on my phone for years, it’s pretty cool to see how much better I track my habits on my computer.

Crafting My Ideal Day – Late 2023

I prefer the weekly view, but for the purpose of providing an example here, my ideal day looks something like this:
- 7 am – 8 am: Slow morning routine including self-care, reading, writing, tidying up, and delaying caffeine intake.
- 8:30 am – 10 am: Enjoy coffee, hit the gym, have breakfast, and take a shower.
- 10 am – 12 pm: Deep work.
- 12 pm – 2 pm: Light administrative work or cooking and lunch, often with family.
- 2 pm – 4 pm: Deep work.
- 4 pm – 6 pm: Engage in creative activities for work, manage tasks, or attend personal/family appointments.
- 6 pm – 7 pm: Dinner.
- 7 pm – 9 pm: Deep work.
- 9 pm – 10 pm: Screen time off.
- 10 pm – 12 am : Night routine and bedtime.
The goal is to work on content creation from 2 to 6 hours a day and allocate at least 2 hours to post-graduate studies. I typically maintain this routine on weekends as well, and I plan to continue doing so until the end of 2023. Occasionally, I might spend time at the park or attend a music show with a friend, but I generally stick to most of this block time schedule.

One more thing, it’s really interesting to try out different approaches and see how your ‘ideal day’ works in real life. For instance, this year, I tried incorporating more outdoor activities as a weekly park visit for reading and experimented with replacing my gym routine with indoor climbing twice a week.

Through experience, I discovered that it didn’t quite suit me, at least not at this phase of my life. YouTuber Lefie also attempted a similar experiment. You can check it out here, her planning phase:

and the actual outputs:

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16 de October de 2023
Lost in translation: How AI Can Boost Your English Communication Skills

Have you ever found yourself pondering, “Are there any English errors in this sentence?” If so, you’re not alone. Navigating the intricacies of the English language can be challenging, even for native speakers. In this blog post, I will show you real examples of how I’ve been using AI as a non-native English speaker who dares to maintain humor while refining my language skills.

Here is my main simple-yet-effective prompt:

Are there any English errors in this sentence? What are the errors, and why?

Let’s dive deep on a real example:

My initial phrase was:

“a life is a huge broaden THING, so this post will be big. guide yourself by the table of contents.”

You can see I had an overall idea of what I wanted to say, but I didn’t want to sound weird or, worse, not be comprehended. At the same time, I didn’t want to loose the sense of humor expressed on my phrase. Given that, that’s how I analyse the chatGPT answer:

The first tip was extremely necessary, I learned something;

The second point was exactly the thing that, if I used, I would loose the human and funny part of my sentence, so I understood AI’s tip, but I choosed not to use it;

On the third bullet, it said that it would be awkward to use the sentence that way, that’s valuable, it means that people would understand it, but would find it a weird colocation. The sentence construction could make sense in portuguese, but not in english. Or maybe I tried to sound natural, but I didn’t succeded on it.

That is the main thing I’m trying to spot when taking the next step in communicating in english, how to ‘sound more natural’.

So in the end, I wrote the phrase like this:

Life is a huge broad THING, so this post will be substantial. Navigate through it using the table of contents. (through the post, I mean)

Simple Tweak of Words

If you think that’s a very time-consuming way of learning, it’s because maybe it is, at least when compared with talking to a person.

If I had the money right now, I would just hire a native English teacher; it could also be more fun. I would collect my doubts during the week and present them to my teacher in class. It would be faster to talk instead of typing. The conversation would probably go this way:

‘Have you ever heard ‘substantial’ used to mean ‘big?’

‘Yes! It didn’t occur to me; that’s a great improvement to the phrase. Thanks!’

Then we could skip to the next.

The AI corrections are not always that long, though. Sometimes the sentence is just almost correct:

I love when it says it’s just a ‘minor error’ 😮‍💨

Also, sometimes I just want to find a better phrasing, so instead of googling ‘synonyms for …,’ I can just ask AI:

‘I don’t want to repeat “during” in the same sentence: ‘I would collect my doubts during the week and show them to my teacher during the class.’

With which it would respond:

‘Certainly, you can rephrase the sentence to avoid repeating “during.” Here’s an alternative way to say it:

‘I would collect my doubts during the week and present them to my teacher in class.’

Simple Text Correction

Sometimes my doubts revolve around simple things like ‘should I use ‘in’ or ‘at,’ ‘on’ or ‘in,’ and this is something I can ask AI to ‘correct the phrase’ simply or, if I have the time, ‘explain why this phrase is incorrect.’

If most of your English mistakes are in this area, you might already know the right way to say things, but even after years, it’s totally normal for non-native speakers like us to slip up, and it’s usually no big deal during casual chats.

However, when it comes to writing, correction becomes necessary. Hiring an editor to correct texts in bulk can also be more practical and safer, since ChatGPT can sometimes change phrases (even when we BEG it not to do so) and spotting these changes can be challenging and tiresome during lengthy text corrections.

Whether we opt to learn from AI suggestions, hire a human professional or decide to go for any other method, our primary objective when learning a new language remains clear: to be understood. Our secondary aim is to ‘sound more natural.’

After all, even in our native language, we occasionally grapple with this aspect, depending on the context — be it work-related, interactions with customer service representatives, or in between different social circles. At times, we’re all susceptible to coming across as a bit unusual.

Nevertheless, there are moments when our expressions hit the mark perfectly:

🥳

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2 de October de 2023
Boosting Your Obsidian Second Brain with the Smart Connections Plugin
Find out how to make your note-taking system in Obsidian even more efficient with the Smart Connections plugin. This plugin uses artificial intelligence to help you find more related information among your notes in the same vault and allows you to “chat” with it.

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How the Smart Connections Plugin Works

Once installed, simply open any note in your Obsidian. When you open the right-side menu, the plugin will display notes that are more relevant based on identified connections.

menu lateral direito com notas relacionadas e suas porcentagens de relação

For example, in the image above, you can see that the plugin on the right-side menu indicates the percentage of relevance that the currently open note has with others in my vault.

Chatting with the Plugin

Another useful feature of “Smart Connections” is its chat capability, similar to how we chat with ChatGPT. However, it responds based on the content of your notes. For example, in the image below, you can see that I ask it to summarize a note.

menu lateral direito com chat para consultar suas notas

This feature is handy for handling private information that hasn’t been shared online yet. It’s also more reliable because the information comes from your own notes. As many of us have noticed, ChatGPT can occasionally give inaccurate responses, so searching within your own notes seems like a more dependable approach.

How to Install the Smart Connections Plugin
1. Access Obsidian settings > “Plugin Community.”
2. Search for “Smart Connections” and click to install.
3. To use the plugin, you’ll need an OpenAI API key to configure it. You can obtain this key on the OpenAI website and input it in the plugin settings in Obsidian.
Creating a Password and Adding Credit

Go to https://platform.openai.com/ and click on API. After logging in, in the upper-right corner, click “View API keys,” as shown in the adjacent image. Then, in the left-side menu, go to “Create new secret key.”

🚨 The API only works if you add credit to your account.

To add credit, go to Billing. The amount will be charged in dollars to your card, so I recommend using a global card with lower fees, like Nomad, which I discuss in my travel posts.

How does the cost work?

The plugin consumes tokens based on the number of processed words. So, every time you “chat with your notes,” as seen above, it counts the characters in the response as processed words. Depending on your usage, costs may vary, but they are generally affordable, and more importantly:

🚨 You can set usage limits to avoid surprises on your bill.

To set spending limits, go to Rate limits. I set a limit of $1 per month, which I found sufficient for around 100 searches in my notes. When you reach half of your monthly usage, you receive an email alert, which I found very secure.

email que recebi quando cheguei a metade do uso dos créditos do mies

Custom Settings

After entering your API key, you can test it, but it will only work if you have credit.

Additionally, the plugin offers various customizable settings, such as language model selection, file exclusions, and display options. You can tailor the plugin to your specific needs for a personalized experience.
- Language Model: I use the “3.5 Turbo 16K” model for fast performance. However, it also offers the GPT-4 model.
- Exclusions: You can specify which files or pages to exclude from the plugin’s processing. I included the plugin’s own created file in the exclusion list.
- Display: You can choose to have an expanded view of all notes, but I prefer the simple view with just the current note and the plugin chat open.
You can adjust these settings according to your preferences and requirements. Below is a screenshot of my settings:
19 de September de 2023
Creatine is not only for gym rats

Everyone could benefit from 5g a day

Creatine is a very popular supplement, if you’ve ever touched your toe in the pool of supplements world, you’ve probably heard of it.

Maybe you’ve heard that creatine bloats the whole body, or you’re familiar with the age-old creatine cycling tactic. Both are myths and we’re going to talk more about that today.

Creatine is just a common supplement, as much as whey protein and coffee to give you that boost.

It helps improve exercise performance, muscle recovery, increases lean body mass, and provides cognitive benefits.

In addition, it is relatively inexpensive, costing less than 1 buck per dose.

Creatine is found in foods of animal origin, in general, in meat. Vegan creatine, on the other hand, is produced synthetically from plants, such as amino acids from grains, legumes and vegetables.

If you’ve never heard any of that, that’s fine, let’s get down to the facts here: Creatine Monohydrate is the most tested, safe, and effective sports supplement around. And you don’t even need to be a gym rat to benefit from it…

Is creatine an athlete thing?

According to Dr. Lane Norton, PhD in Nutritional Sciences, creatine supplementation has been widely used by endurance and endurance athletes to increase cellular hydration, which can improve muscle strength and physical performance.

Dr Lane is considered one of the world’s leading experts in understanding how we extract energy from our food and how exercise and what we eat combine to impact things like body composition and overall health. According to his studies, there is no doubt that creatine can improve the ability to perform high-intensity exercise, resulting in significant benefits for sports performance.

However, even those who are not athletes, when they take creatine, they also saturate (hydrate) their muscles. Training or not training, when supplementing, the levels of this saturation are maintained.

It’s important to say this, because usually those who train think that they should only take creatine on the days that they lift weights or do high-intensity cardio, but this is not true.

⚠️ Another myth to be debunked: you don’t need to cycle creatine, as you do with steroids. That is, that old story of taking higher doses for 5 to 7 days, then reducing to the normal dose, is a myth.

Taking larger doses initially will saturate the muscle cells faster, but it can also cause irritation in the intestine, the safest thing is to take a maximum of 5g per day and, in a short time, saturation is reached equally.

How it works

Muscle is made up of 70% water, creatine acts as an osmolyte by drawing water into the muscle cells.

This is known as “osmoregulation” and can be anabolic, that is, it can create an environment that favors muscle growth, which is why taking creatine improves lean mass, because adequate hydration of muscle cells can improve their strength and ability to contract , a hydrated cell is generally more efficient in its functions, including metabolic waste removal and fuel recruitment.

Creatine works even in non-exercisers because it is a substance that helps with natural body functions, such as the production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which is crucial for cellular energy.

It supplies phosphate for the conversion of ATP to ADP (adenosine diphosphate) and then helps recharge the phosphate to recreate ATP, which results in more energy 🔥 This is important not only for your muscles, but also for your nerve cells and of the brain. …

Cognitive benefits

The brain consumes a lot of energy. 🧠

Creatine supplementation can increase ATP regeneration in the hippocampal region, which is important for memory. Dr. Nick Schmidlkofer says that creatine improves cognitive performance, especially in periods of stress or intense activity, because it provides more energy to the cells, it is an additional source of quick energy for the brain in these situations, which can lead to an improvement in focus, mental clarity and the ability to handle complex tasks.

It can also aid in recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI) such as concussions or head injuries, as this extra dose of energy can aid in the healing and recovery of damaged tissue, assisting in restoring normal functions and reducing symptoms associated with brain injury. .

Regulation of neurotransmitters

Other positive effects of supplementation are on mood and depression. Depression is a complex condition and one of its aspects is related to low methylation. “Methylation” is a biochemical process that involves the addition of methyl groups (-CH3) to specific molecules, such as neurotransmitters and hormones. Creatine helps modulate methylation through the release of methyl groups and may be beneficial for people with low methylation.

Learning and memory

There is a creatine phosphate system in the brain, in the frontal cortex, which is related to the dialogue between neurons and glial cells (the ones that nourish neurons), some studies show that creatine supplementation seems to increase the activity of phosphocreatine in the brain, leading to changes in the functioning of the NMDA receptor (N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors), a type of glutamate receptor that has been implicated in various brain functions by increasing neuroplasticity.

Therefore, creatine supplementation may possibly promote positive changes in neural circuits, which may be related to improvements in depression symptoms and even the stomach, since the digestive system and the brain are connected through the gut-brain axis.

Research indicates that creatine phospho in the brain may play a role in regulating stomach and reward patterns. While there is still much to learn about this mechanism, the relationship between creatine and improved mood and depression symptoms is promising.

Adapting to life changes

Let’s dig a little deeper into these systems:

Phosphocreatine System: Phosphocreatine is a molecule found in muscle and brain cells. It plays an important role in regulating energy supply for high-intensity, short-duration activities, such as intense exercise or intense brain activity. Phosphocreatine acts as a quick energy reserve, releasing the phosphate group to regenerate ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the fundamental energy molecule in cells.

NMDA Receptor (N-Methyl-D-Aspartate): NMDA receptors are a class of receptors for glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain. These receptors play a crucial role in neuronal plasticity, a process that allows the brain to adapt and reorganize in response to new experiences and learning. Neuroplasticity is fundamental for the acquisition of new skills, memory and adaptation to changes.

The connection between the phosphocreatine system and NMDA receptors is related to the following aspects:

Energy and Neurotransmission: Phosphocreatine plays a role in maintaining ATP levels, which is essential for the efficient transmission of signals between neurons. This includes the transmission of neurotransmitters such as glutamate, which bind to NMDA receptors to initiate processes associated with neuroplasticity.

Regulation of Neuroplasticity: Studies suggest that phosphocreatine availability may influence NMDA receptor activity and therefore neuronal plasticity. By regulating energy balance and NMDA receptor function, phosphocreatine may influence the brain’s ability to adapt to new stimuli, learn and form new synaptic connections.

Maybe I repeated myself a little, but these are complex subjects and repeating them always helps to stick, right?

In summary, the interaction between the phosphocreatine system and NMDA receptors in the brain highlights how metabolic and neurotransmission processes are intertwined with the brain’s ability to change and adapt over time. This interconnection between cellular energy, neurotransmitters and neuronal plasticity contributes to our understanding of brain function and potentially to the development of therapies for neurological disorders.

⚠️ While more research is needed to fully understand this process, it is interesting to note that creatine may offer effects such as increased mania in people who already suffer from this condition.

In Practice: What to Expect

Just like any other supplement, creatine does not work miracles.

It’s like taking vitamin D or Omega-3, they are add-ons, they are extra things you can do for your health and functioning of this machine, which is the body.

Other than that, it’s worth remembering that each human being has their specificities, no supplementation has exactly the same effects on everyone, including some people naturally have higher levels of creatine in their muscles.

So, if you sleep well, eat well and get a good night’s sleep, the effects of creatine could be more or less as follows.

Initial Weight Gain: During the saturation phase, it is common to experience a temporary increase in weight due to water retention in the muscles.

Increased Strength: Many people report an increase in muscle strength, which can translate to lifting heavier weights or performing more reps.

Increased Endurance: You may notice an improvement in your ability to perform high-intensity activities for a longer period of time due to increased energy availability in your muscles.

Faster Recovery: Some people report faster recovery between workouts, which means less muscle soreness and fatigue after intense exercise.

Appearance of Muscles: Due to water retention in muscles and increased strength, muscles s can look fuller and more defined.

Improved Cognitive Function: Creatine has been linked to improvements in memory and cognitive performance, especially during times of stress or sleep deprivation.

Increased Muscle Mass: Although not a significant gain in 30 days, creatine can contribute to a gradual increase in muscle mass over time, especially when combined with proper training and diet.

Possible Side Effects: Some people may experience stomach discomfort or weight gain due to water retention. These effects are usually temporary and subside as the body adapts to the supplementation.

⚠️ Creatine can affect blood creatinine levels, which can be interpreted as a sign of kidney problems, but is not harmful to healthy people. According to Dr. Lyne Norton, although there may be an increase in creatinine, which can be a marker of kidney function, it is not a cause for concern as long as cystatin C levels are normal. Elevated levels of liver enzymes and creatinine are markers and do not necessarily indicate tissue damage. Correlation does not imply causation, you need to consider the big picture.

⚠️ Hair loss has been suggested as a potential side effect of creatine, but the evidence is not strong and comes from a single study in 2009.

Is it essential?

While supplements can be helpful, they are not necessary for progress. Proper nutrition, recovery, and intense training are key. According to Dr. Huberman, a daily dose of 1 to 5 grams is enough for most people to benefit without significant health risks, but it’s not essential for survival, of course. There is no evidence that taking a dose above this provides any additional benefits.

Finally, the time of day you take creatine doesn’t make much difference, the important thing is to take it regularly.

Sources

Understanding & Conquering Depression — Dr. Huberman

Dr Layne Norton: The Science of Eating for Health, Fat Loss & Lean Muscle | Huberman Lab Podcast #97

235‒Training principles for mass & strength, changing views on nutrition, & creatine supplementation

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9 de September de 2023
Hit the gym or practice yoga?
Yoga is a practice that has captivated people for centuries, and although many believe its origins date back to ancient India, its evolution over time is a story of exchange and invention. While we honor the traditions of the past, we also celebrate the dynamic evolution of yoga as a living practice that continues to inspire and transform lives.

Some of the developments in yoga occurred in the last century as a result of ongoing cultural exchanges, reflections of the onset of globalization. By the end of the century, scholars from all over the world joined the quest to discover the origins of this global phenomenon — whether through linguistics, history, archaeology, anthropology, sociology, among other areas of knowledge.

What they have discovered so far is that the tradition of hatha yoga initially had only meditation poses, cleansing practices, celibacy to obtain supernatural powers, and static physical postures, which were performed for hours and considered forms of austerity (“tapas”).

A historical account of the practice of “tapas” comes from the legendary Alexander the Great (356 BC — 323 BC), who encountered yogi ascetics on his travels. Alexander and his caravan were surprised to see men motionless under the scorching sun, apparently possessing superhuman powers to withstand the hot ground under their bare feet.

His encounter with the yogis was a cultural shock; he had never witnessed such a demonstration of mental and physical discipline. Here is an excerpt from his accounts:

“[…] Another was on one leg, with a three-cubit-long piece of wood raised in both hands; when one leg was tired, he changed the support to the other, and so continued all day” — Roots of Yoga, Mallinson and Singleton (2017: 88)

From then on, much has changed, and it is interesting to note that hatha yoga texts were influenced by bodily practices from other places. Below I list some texts and the number of postures described in them:
- 12th century; Dattätreyayogasästra; 1 posture
- 13/14th century; Vivekamärtanda; 2 postures
- 13/14th century; Goraksasataka; 2 postures
- 15th century; Sivasamhità; 4 postures
- 15th century; Hathapradipikä; 15 postures
- 18th century; Hathapradipika-Siddhäntamuktävali; 96 postures
- 18th century; Gherandasamhitä; 32 postures
- 18th century; Jogapradipyaka; 84 postures
- 1966; Yogadipika by BKS Iyengar (“Light on Yoga”); 200 postures
Although the early texts had few postures, by this time in ancient India, there were already several sequences described, but in other contexts, such as in Jain scriptures, the Upanishads, the Mahabharata and Ramayana Epics, the Puranas, and the Pali Canon of the Theravada Buddhist tradition.

They are also in Tantric texts, for example, the Pasupatasutra prescribes dance as part of the worship of Pasupati, while the Nayasutra of the Nisväsatattvasamhita teaches the practitioner how to reproduce the forms of the alphabet letters with bodily postures.

All these strands may have influenced hatha yoga later on, but it is worth remembering that the exchange between India and other countries has always existed, and we can draw other parallels as well:

Note that the increase in postures occurred from the 15th century, which may be connected with the growing interest in male beauty after the Middle Ages. At this time, Michelangelo sculpted the statue of David, and many discoveries were made about anatomy, biomechanics, and muscle kinesiology, trends that may have come into contact with Indian lands.

The case of the Sun Salutation — Surya Namaskar

For decades, the Sun Salutation sequence has been practiced in yoga studios worldwide, with many assuming it to be a series of movements from ancient Hatha Yoga texts. However, the truth is that none of the texts, images, or sculptures discovered to date mention this sequence.

Despite its popularity, the origins of this practice are often neglected in yoga teacher training. Surya Namaskar A, B, or any other variation practiced in yoga studios was created less than 100 years ago by Indians looking for a “complete” physical exercise and was then incorporated into Hatha Yoga, its popularity boosted by both yoga gurus and bodybuilders.

I explain, during World War I and II, showing health and strength was a way to demonstrate national sovereignty. For example, the Germans used their gymnastic exercises not only to develop healthy bodies but also to promote morality and create “new Germans.”

In Europe, various texts on sports such as rowing, horseback riding, boxing, and swimming, as well as manuals on walking, climbing, and jumping, were published at this time. In this context, health and fitness magazines emerged, such as L’Athlète, which debuted in 1896, the same year as the first modern Olympic Games. In 1893, the first international bodybuilding exhibition also took place:

In India, various Western gymnastics like Ling, Sandow, and YMCA had a significant impact and were incorporated into the local culture of fights. This influence is evident in The Indian Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding (1950), a book that was translated into English and sold in other countries, and which included a description of Surya Namaskar as an exercise, along with a detailed history of the tradition.

This history of Surya was probably inspired by what was written in Yoga-Mimansa, the internationally famous book by Kuvalayananda (1920), where the author narrates that young Brahmins of the 18th century used to perform up to 1,200 sun salutations every morning. This information, however, has never been found in any other historical or religious account. Kuvalayananda probably used this story to promote his technique as more traditional and original than other manuals, a common marketing tactic at the time.

In reality, Surya Namaskar was created by a wealthy and powerful Rajah of Aundh, a region near Bombay. After trying other exercise manuals and not achieving the physical goals he hoped for (who hasn’t?), he created his sequence of postures from some movements he saw his father do when young and, with the help of guru Paramahansa Yogananda, adapted it as a form of gymnastics for the general public.

According to the book by Elliott Goldberg “The Path of Modern Yoga: The History of an Embodied Spiritual Practice,” Bhawanrao Shriniwasrao Pant Pratinidhi (1868–1951), also known as Bala Sahib, was an Indian political leader who popularized the practice of the Sun Salutation in the early 20th century and founded a school of yoga and gymnastics in Satara, India, where he taught the Sun Salutation as part of the curriculum.

Bhavanaro probably named his sequence Surya Namaskar due to its resemblance to the sun worship ritual in which Brahmin priests kneel and prostrate — a ritual that can still be seen today at the Sun Temple in Andhra Pradesh.

However, Bhavanaro and Yogananda’s sequence does not include the “Om” mantra, the “Gayatri” mantra, or any other prayer, which are usually part of the sun worship ritual. The sequence is purely physical and is not intended to be a spiritual practice, although it has been incorporated into the Hatha Yoga tradition as such.

There was a booklet — like other manuals of the time — that included illustrations and recommended practices in cycles, ranging from 25 to 50 cycles for children aged eight to twelve, 50 to 150 cycles for boys and girls aged twelve to sixteen, and 300 cycles for everyone over sixteen.

After becoming popular in some regions of India, this sequence was disseminated worldwide, both in the bodybuilding book and in Kuvalayananda’s book mentioned above, but generally inserted into mediums related to Yoga.

The practice navigated between these two worlds probably because the nationalist or anti-colonialist propaganda of the time suggested that God desired healthy bodies for the nation and emphasized the importance of developing physically, as well as mentally, morally, and spiritually strong Indian youth.

Thus, the practices were all performed in the same gyms (known as akharas), where practitioners shared various techniques. In these places, there were strong anti-colonialist movements, creating a paradox between accepting European and foreign techniques in general, but at the same time strengthening the nationalist movement. Therefore, sometimes everything was appropriated, adapted, and renamed as a “purely Indian” practice — sometimes placed under the umbrella of yoga.

It is also interesting to note that this holistic view (body, mind, consciousness, and religiosity being interconnected) already comes from Indian culture, and it is possible to find in medieval hatha yoga texts descriptions of various things called “yoga” and the reproduction of these same concepts compiled later, centuries later, in other texts, also as yoga.

In more modern cases, there are texts reporting, for example, the practices of Iyer, a world-renowned Indian bodybuilder, who incorporated religious pujas and hatha yoga cleansing practices into his gym training routine. Similarly, Bhavanaro himself performed Surya Namaskar daily between 3 and 4 in the morning, chanting Vedic and bija mantras.

K.V. Iyer combined bodybuilding in the style of Sando with yoga postures. 1930. Otley Coulter Collection

The fusion of yoga and bodybuilding is perhaps best exemplified by the Bishnu Charan Ghosh Cup, an annual yoga competition held in Los Angeles. The event is named after Bishnu Charan Ghosh, a famous Bengali bodybuilder and founder of the Calcutta College of Physical Education (1923), now known as Ghosh’s Yoga College.

Ghosh was none other than the younger brother of Paramahamsa Yogananda, author of the iconic “Autobiography of a Yogi” and co-author of the Surya Namaskar sequence with Bhavanaro, as mentioned earlier.

After just a few decades, the relationship between yoga and bodybuilding seems to have been forgotten, with many online videos portraying the two practices as total conflicting opposites. However, a closer examination of history reveals that these two disciplines would be very different if they had never crossed paths.

As we have seen, the wave of bodybuilding influenced the creation of the Surya Namaskar sequence, which was later incorporated into the repertoire of Hatha Yoga and is now practiced as a meditation in sync with breathing.

Another example of the ongoing exchange between yoga and bodybuilding is the stomach vacuum, a cleansing technique described in medieval yoga texts known as “nauli,” which was incorporated by bodybuilders and is still practiced today.

If you are interested in studying other connections like these, the online study platform Yogic Studies offers university-level courses to explore yoga, Indology, and South Asian studies. The platform is a unique place where scholars from around the world offer modules in their areas of expertise. It’s an opportunity to explore the rich history and culture of yoga, its relationship with other disciplines, and historical moments.

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*Curious fact: fascists and Nazis loved yoga (or what was disseminated as yoga).

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19 de February de 2023