Maintaining one’s overall well-being is only a matter of movement, says dance artist Diego Maranan, who teaches wellness classes specifically designed for overworked office people tied to their desks for more than nine hours.

“You don’t have to go to the gym. You don’t even have to be a dancer. You just have to keep moving or else it will be bad for your health,” explains Diego, who trained in contemporary dance, Pilates, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, and Laban Movement Analysis in Canada, where he was based for 10 years.

Diego’s workshop, aptly called “Keep Moving,” offers four different programs that can be done anywhere, whether a dance studio or an open space.

The two-hour session on “Conditioning for the Rat Race,” developed primarily for office workers, includes easy-to-do exercises that relieve muscular tension. The program also teaches participants how to protect the spine from the perils of office work.

Another program, “Repattern Your Life,” which includes six to 10 classes held over several weeks, allows one to understand habits and patterns with Laban Movement Analysis.

“You can tell a person’s social class from the way he carries his head, uses his eyes, holds certain muscles, and even his posture. Everything is acculturated,” Diego explains. “Unless one is aware of his or her patterns, attempts at personal growth will be limited.”

Diego also holds workshops on team dynamics through theater games and exercises, as well as specific programs dealing with trauma and pain, which he has done with Justice for Children International.

Discipline is the key
Lifestyle plays a big role on one’s physical regimen. While most urban dwellers lead sedentary lives, in the rural areas, men do a lot of physical labor and thus have trimmer waists and well-toned muscles.

Proper exercise should also be complemented with a good diet, and this requires some adjustments. For example, while the regular Filipino meal includes ample servings of refined rice, Diego suggests that red rice would be a healthier, albeit more expensive, alternative.

“In the Philippines, eating healthy seems to be the privilege of the rich,” he observes. The poor compensate by cutting down on red meat and eating less rice and more of vegetables, which is actually healthier.

“You really have to change your relationship to food. Avoid bingeing and especially greasy food, which is typical of the Filipino diet,” suggests Diego. The five-foot-four-inch-tall dancer maintains his 127-pound frame with regular dance routines and including more vegetables in his meals.

It all boils down to discipline, Diego explains. Maintaining one’s well-being is a matter of consciously eating healthy and staying active.

Find out more about the Keep Moving workshop here and Diego Maranan’s Open Source Dance project. Photo from the Keep Moving gallery.