Doctors advised him not even to lift a box since he suffered an injury in his spine six years ago. He cannot stand for 10 minutes at a stretch. But now, he is a black belt holder in a martial art.
K Ethiraj Reddy said the only thing that made this possible was his continuous practise of yoga.
“I was in Nigeria working in an oil and gas company in 2009, when the car I was travelling in suddenly jerked due to a huge pothole on the road and I suffered an injury in my spine. For three years, I consulted several doctors in reputed hospitals. But they all said that a disc in my spine had bulged and there was no scope for treatment and advised me to rest and not strain myself,” he said. It was in 2013 that someone suggested yoga to him and said that an institution in Kancheepuram was healing people of their physical ailments with yoga. “In just six months, I could feel the reduction in pain,” he said. As he persisted, he said his physical fitness improved to the level that he started practising martial arts. He is now a black belt holder in Zenskar, a martial art, which is a mix of Karate, Kung Fu and Varmam.