The Indian army has turned to an ancient tradition for a new way to keep soldiers in shape at its high-altitude bases in Kashmir it's teaching its fighting men and women yoga.

While many outside of Asia tend to think of yoga in terms of meditation and finding inner peace, the stretches it requires provide excellent exercise especially on remote mountaintops where even the shortest of runs can leave the physically fit gasping for oxygen.

The army's top brass also believes yoga can help keep stressed out soldiers alert, and has made yoga a regular feature of training given to soldiers assigned to "high-stress areas," said the army's spokesman in Kashmir, Lieutenant Colonel V.K. Batra.

"Yoga helps soldiers to convert negative stress into positive energy, which is necessary for alertness. And alertness in these areas can mean life or death," Batra said.

The yoga initiative began late last year, when "we trained a batch of 100 soldiers" how to do yoga, Lieutenant Colonel Latika Mohan was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency. The officer commands a hospital unit based in the Kashmir region of Ladakh, which rises from 3,350 metres to 4,570 metres.

"The soldiers gave up drinking and smoking. Their physical fitness level increased and the mental faculty sharpened," he said.

Source: China Daily