vyāyāmaśakti: what the term means and how it is translated
vyāyāmaśakti व्यायामशक्ति is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 5 different ways, which is the reason this page exists: the renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken to mean.
| Transliteration | vyāyāmaśakti |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | व्यायामशक्ति |
| Also written | karmaśakti, vyayam shakti |
| Category, as gathered | prakriti |
| Grouped here under | Regimen and constitution |
| Classical citations | 2 |
| Citations checked | 2026-10-08 |
How it is translated, and whether the translation holds
Each rendering is given with the source that uses it. The assessment is ours.
power of performing exercise
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.7.5 item 9 · standard
The only occurrence of the compound in the WHO standard; no headword of its own.
Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that licence permits. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
Therapeutic exercise
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-9.1.51 (vyāyāmaḥ) · standard
'The process of making the person take exercise as a therapeutic measure.'
Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that licence permits. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
Sweating induced by exercise
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-9.2.58 (vyāyāmaḥ) · standard
A second vyāyāmaḥ headword, a svedana modality. WHO carries vyāyāma twice as a treatment and never once as a faculty.
Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that licence permits. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
capacity for exertion
Charaka Samhita, tr. Kaviratna (1896-1913) · Vimanasthana 8 · translation
Kaviratna deliberately avoids 'exercise'; his footnote elsewhere in the Vimanasthana notes that vyāyāma there 'means exertion or motion, and not physical' exercise.
exercise tolerance / exercise capacity
Indian Ayurvedic college usage · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
Fits Vi 8/121's criteria better than most such borrowings, but implies standardised testing the classical procedure does not have.
The classical passages
Each citation gives its address so a reader can check it in a printed edition, our account of what the passage establishes, and the result of reading it against its source.
Charaka SamhitaVimanasthana 8:121 · checked against the source
vyāyāmaśaktitaścēti vyāyāmaśaktirapi karmaśaktyā parīkṣyā| karmaśaktyā hyanumīyatē balatraividhyam||121||
The whole term: vyāyāmaśakti is examined BY karmaśakti, and from karmaśakti the threefold division of strength is inferred. Note the verb anumīyatē, this is explicitly an inference, not a direct observation of bala.
Charaka SamhitaVimanasthana 8:121 · checked against the source
Next, as to examination (of the patient) in respect of capacity for exertion : capacity for exertion should be ascertained from capacity for action (such as capacity for bearing weights, the length of time for which one can undergo physical labour, &c.,) ; since by capacity for action the strength, which is of three kinds, of a person is capable of being judged.
Public-domain English for Vi 8/121, and the source of the two concrete criteria usually quoted: weight borne and duration of labour sustained. Kaviratna's footnote adds that the three kinds of strength here are superior, middling and inferior, following Gangadhara.
Not to be confused with
- karmaśakti
- Vi 8/121 makes karmaśakti the MEANS by which vyāyāmaśakti is assessed. Not synonyms: one is the observable, the other the inferred capacity.
- bala
- Vi 8/121 says bala is inferred FROM karmaśakti; vyāyāmaśakti is an indicator of bala.
- vyāyāma (the practice)
- WHO's only vyāyāma headwords are the therapeutic procedure. The dinacaryā rule to exercise to half one's capacity concerns the practice; Vi 8/121 the capacity.
- ardhaśakti
- The half-capacity rule presupposes vyāyāmaśakti as its denominator but is a prescription, not an assessment.
- āhāraśakti
- The adjacent item; both śaktis assessed for the same purpose, but one is intake-and-digestion and the other output.
Renderings that do not hold
- exercise. Drops śakti. The examination item is the capacity, not the activity; WHO's own vyāyāma entries are all the activity and none is this item.
- physical fitness. A population-normed modern construct with standard tests. Vi 8/121's criteria are relative and clinical.
- stamina. Covers only the duration limb and drops the load limb.
- strength. That is bala, which Vi 8/121 says is INFERRED from this. Collapsing the two removes the inference the verse describes.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Has anyone mapped vyāyāmaśakti onto a standard exercise-tolerance measure? Nothing found.
- Does Kaviratna's note that vyāyāma can mean motion generally rather than physical exercise bear on Vi 8/121?
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, vyāyāmaśakti
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/vyayama-shakti/, CC BY 4.0.
The whole lexicon is downloadable from the index.
Machine-readable source: Markdown.
Data exported 2026-10-08.
Educational reference only. A term entry explains what a word means and how it has been translated. Nothing here is advice, and nothing here describes how any condition should be treated.