Have you ever noticed your footprints and realised that the arch is missing in yours? Flat feet are a common condition, which is happens because the tissues holding the joints in the foot together, called tendons are loose. The tissues tighten and form an arch as children grow older.

While most flat feet do not cause pain, some adults may find it achy after standing for prolonged period or doing any sort of physical activity.

In extreme cases, a person may have accessory navicular syndrome, a condition where an extra bone is present in the inner arch of the foot and causes pain, swelling, redness and tenderness.

However, there are 5 Yoga asanas that can help you relieve the pain.

Tadasana (Mountain Pose)

Stand tall with your heels touching and your feet slightly apart. Keep your soles firmly grounded and your arms relaxed by your sides. Look straight ahead and hold this position for 5 minutes. Take a 1-minute break and repeat 3-4 times.

Benefits: This simple yet effective yoga pose stretches the entire foot, improves breathing, relieves tension, and boosts blood circulation. It also engages the thighs, activates the calf muscles, and strengthens the knees. Practising this regularly helps to strengthen the long muscles of the body and opens up the spine, shoulder, and hip joints.

Vrikshasana (Tree Pose)

Stand straight and bring your hands in front of your chest, pressing your palms together in a prayer position. Keeping your palms joined, raise your arms upward. Now, bend your right knee and place the sole of your right foot against the inside of your left thigh. Keep your left leg straight and hold the pose as long as you can. Relax for a minute and repeat on the other side with your left foot. Do this 5 times.

Benefits: The Tree Pose helps improve your spinal alignment, strengthen your calf and foot muscles, and enhance balance and posture. It also opens the shoulders, improves blood circulation, and supports heart health.

Veerabhadrasana (Warrior Pose)

Stand upright and step your feet about 4 inches apart. Turn your left foot out 90 degrees and your right foot in slightly. Raise both arms to shoulder level. As you exhale, bend your left knee and turn your head to look left. Stretch your arms further apart while gently lowering your pelvis. Hold the posture, feeling the strength and focus of a warrior. Repeat on the other side with the right foot forward. Do this 3-4 times, taking a 1-minute break in between.

Benefits: The Warrior Pose enhances overall body balance, increases stamina, and releases tension in the heels. It strengthens the ligaments and tendons in the feet, reduces stress, and helps regulate heart rate, lowering the risk of arrhythmia.

Virasana (Hero Pose)

Sit between your feet with your knees bent and toes pointing backward. Keep your spine straight and rest your hands on your thighs, palms down. Shift your weight into your hips, not your knees. Roll to one side to release your legs. Breathe normally throughout. Take a 1-minute break and repeat 5 times.

Benefits: The Hero Pose stretches the inner line of your leg muscles, down to the feet, while strengthening the tendons that support the arches. It also stretches the hips, thighs, knees, ankles, and feet, improving circulation and relieving tired legs.

Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose)

Start on all fours with knees hip-width apart and hands shoulder-width apart. Gradually lift your hips off the floor, straightening your elbows and knees to form an inverted 'V' shape. Press your hands into the ground, stretch your neck so your ears touch your inner arms, and direct your gaze toward your navel. Hold for 5-8 breaths, then return to the starting position.

Benefits: This pose provides a deep stretch for the calf muscles, calms the mind, lengthens the spine, and energizes the body. It also helps with blood circulation and supports overall heart health.

Working long hours, sitting at a desk and prolonged hours in front of laptops can do a number on their backs. With these jobs becoming more common, corporate job workers have normalized back pain, neck pain, and other lifestyle issues. To tackle these issues, one can try yoga and not just any type of yoga, desk-top yoga.

Desk-Top Yoga Poses You Can Try

Desk yoga is a great way to combat the physical and mental effects of sitting for too long, especially for office workers. It involves gentle stretches and poses done at your desk, like seated twists, shoulder rolls, and forward bends, that can relieve tension and improve focus. These exercises can help you strengthen your back, as well as ensure you are not straining yourself more than you are supposed to.

Seated Cat-Cow Stretch

This well-known yoga move is excellent for waking up your spine and making it more flexible. It helps loosen your back muscles, which often get stiff from sitting. By gently arching and rounding your spine, you can bring more movement and comfort to your whole back.

Seated Spinal Twist

This easy twist is perfect for releasing tightness in the middle of your back. It helps your spine move better, easing any stiffness from long hours at your desk. Doing this stretch regularly can improve your posture and reduce general back discomfort.

Desk Pec Stretch

Spending a lot of time hunched over a keyboard can make your chest muscles feel tight. This stretch helps to open up your chest, countering that rounded posture. It's great for improving your overall alignment and making you feel less constricted in your upper body.

Seated Side Bend

This simple pose targets the sides of your body, effectively relieving tension in your side muscles and upper back. It helps to lengthen your torso and can reduce stiffness that builds up from sitting still. This stretch provides a nice release for your entire side body.

Seated Figure-Four Stretch

This stretch is fantastic for opening up your hips, an area that often gets tight from sitting. Tight hips can contribute to lower back pain, so this pose helps to relieve that pressure. It brings relief to your lower back by addressing hip stiffness.

Wrist and Finger Stretches

Even though these stretches aren't directly for your back, keeping your wrists and hands healthy is very important. Tension in these areas can easily travel up your arms to your neck and upper back, causing discomfort. Regularly stretching them can prevent this radiating tension.

Neck Stretches

Looking at computer screens all day often leads to stiffness in your neck and upper back. This stretch helps to relieve that common tension in your neck. By slowly tilting your head, you can loosen tight neck muscles and reduce strain from holding your head in one position.

Standing Forward Fold (with chair support)

This pose is a good way to decompress your spine and stretch your hamstrings, which can get tight from sitting. Using your desk for support makes it accessible and safe. It helps to lengthen your back and provides a refreshing stretch for your entire body.

Interval Walking Training (IWT), often referred to as “Japanese walking,” offers a safe and sustainable way to improve your fitness without stepping into a gym. Developed by Japanese researchers to target cardiometabolic health in older adults, IWT blends short bursts of brisk walking with periods of slower recovery walks — making it an ideal choice for people across age groups and fitness levels.

What Sets Interval Walking Apart?

Unlike traditional walking, which is usually done at a steady pace, IWT alternates between fast and slow intervals. The recommended protocol involves five sets of 3 minutes of brisk walking followed by 3 minutes of slower walking, totaling 30 minutes of exercise. This is typically done five days a week.

What makes IWT stand out is its ability to deliver significant improvements in physical and metabolic health markers without the strain often associated with high-intensity workouts like HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training). While HIIT focuses on intense bursts of activity and is popular for its efficiency, it can be too demanding or injury-prone for some, particularly beginners or older adults. IWT, in contrast, keeps the intensity manageable while still pushing the body enough to trigger measurable benefits.

The Evidence Behind the Benefits

The benefits of IWT are well-documented. A 2009 study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings tested the approach on over 200 adults with an average age of 63. The results were promising: participants experienced notable improvements in blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), blood glucose levels, aerobic capacity, and muscle strength. Importantly, these health gains were achieved without overtaxing the body, making IWT a realistic and maintainable option.

Adherence was also high—more than 95% of the participants stuck with the program throughout the study, suggesting that it’s not just effective but sustainable. This is particularly relevant given how often people abandon overly strenuous fitness programs.

A more recent 2024 review also reinforced these findings. The review confirmed that IWT benefits both healthy individuals and those with metabolic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes. Compared to continuous walking, it was found to be more effective in improving physical fitness, body composition, and glycemic control.

Starting Small and Building Consistency

One of the best parts about IWT is its adaptability. You don’t need to be an athlete to start. In fact, beginning at a comfortable pace is encouraged. Experts recommend a gradual approach: start with shorter intervals of brisk walking — even 20–30 seconds — followed by a few minutes of slower walking. Over time, as your endurance improves, you can increase the intensity or duration of the brisk segments.

To get the most out of IWT, certain practical tips can make a difference:

• Set realistic goals. Even 15–20 minutes is a good start.
• Monitor your intensity. If you’re breathless but still able to talk in short phrases during the fast intervals, you’re likely in the right zone.
• Choose proper footwear. Comfort is key for consistency.
• Listen to your body. If you feel dizzy or in pain, slow down.
• Track your progress. Whether through a fitness app or simple journaling, tracking helps you stay motivated.

IWT offers a balance between challenge and accessibility, making it an excellent long-term strategy for better health — one step at a time.

The benefits of yoga range from mental as well as physical benefits. People who do yoga often notice changes in their bodies, ranging from reduced body aches, supple movements as well as better strength and flexibility. However, there are also many passive benefits of yoga, like yoga that helps us get rid of chronic conditions or improve symptoms of these issues. One such issue is migraines. While many people believe that there are not many ways to improve migraines, many studies have shown that yoga can definitely help improve the symptoms and increase the quality-of-life people experience.

Migraine is a common and often painful condition, affecting many adults. It's a leading cause of disability worldwide, with some people experiencing severe headaches several times a week. While traditional medicine is important, practices like yoga can also help ease migraine symptoms and improve overall well-being.

How Yoga Can Help With Migraine

Yoga is an ancient practice from India that combines body poses, meditation, and breathing exercises. It's known to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression—all common triggers for migraines. By relaxing tense areas like the neck, head, and shoulders, where we often hold stress, yoga can help prevent migraines or make them less severe.

Yoga can also lower blood pressure and slow your heart rate, which helps your body recover from stressful events like migraine attacks. If you have migraines, it's best to avoid intense or hot yoga styles, such as Bikram yoga, and poses that put strain on your neck.

Simple Yoga Poses to Try

Studies have found these yoga poses can help reduce how often headaches happen and how bad they feel:

Sukshma Vyayama (Gentle Exercises)

This yoga focuses on relaxing your neck, face, and head to ease tension. Try Face Massage by gently rubbing your cheeks, Jaw Exercises by opening and closing your jaw, and Neck Circles by slowly rotating your head. These simple movements help release stress often linked to migraines.

Pada Sanchalanasana (Cycling Yoga Pose)

Lie on your back, then lift and bend one leg as if cycling. Extend it forward, then bend it back towards your chest, inhaling as you lift and exhaling as you pull it in. Keep your heel off the floor. Repeat 10 times forward and 10 backward for each leg to boost circulation and relieve tension.

Hand Stretch Breathing

Stand tall and interlace your fingers at your chest. As you breathe in, stretch your arms straight out in front, twisting your palms outwards. Breathe out as you bring them back. Repeat this 5 times, then repeat another 5 times stretching above your forehead, and finally 5 times stretching towards the ceiling.

Shashankasana (Rabbit Pose)

Sit on the floor with your legs bent back, resting on your feet. Breathe in and raise your hands, stretching upwards. As you breathe out, bend forward, stretching your arms out to touch the ground. Try to touch your nose or chin to the floor, keeping your arms stretched. Repeat 5 to 10 times for gentle relief.

Savasana with Yoga Nidra (Deep Relaxation)

Lie flat on your back, legs straight and arms relaxed. Yoga Nidra is a guided deep relaxation technique that helps you calm your mind and body. Slowly focus on relaxing each muscle, one by one. This practice is excellent for reducing overall stress and supporting recovery from migraine episodes.