Wholistic Fitness

Of Student Quotes, WF Dharma Points, and One Smart Finch…

Hey Coach, I’ve been dedicating my daily

zazen to your friend Stephan may he find peace where ever he is now.

And thank you so much for your DIRECT LINES forum.

I read and re-read them daily. They are food for my practice.

Namaste, gassho, thank you…….

laura, NV

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hey coach!

you are gonna be sooooo stoked on how i did, i can hardly believe i pulled it off, and it still hasn’t set in with me, but, i got 1st place in the 24 hr race this last weekend! yup, the hills were singing and everything just fell into place for me in the race. i just kept repeating all you said to me in my head throughout the race, and 16 laps later, i came out on top! i am soooooo excited! i qualified for world championships as well! so, it’s off to canada for me in 3 weeks for worlds!

love always,

timari

Chatsworth, CA

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Dear Coach,

Just returned from Durango, Colorado…a little more hectic pace than I

remember. It has been 16 years since my last visit, and that southwest

monsoon is more beautiful to me than ever.

I am happy to see others discover the beauty of the region, but it is so

hard to appreciate with cell phone in one ear, and triple-no-foam-latte, in

one hand, from the cockpit of a gas guzzling sport-barge towing the personal

water craft. I find it funny that they all leave the city, only to do the

same damned thing somewhere else. I wish everyone would STOP, sit zazen, and quietly watch an ominously dark afternoon thundershower pounds out a swath of wet landscape, punctuating its

presence with fractals of thin bright light, and the erie clap of thunder,

passing as quickly as it appears, leaving behind a sticky, humid air filled

with the fragrance of wet conifers.

Oh yeah, and the MTB racing was pretty cool too!!!

Namaste,

Student Mikel

Ventura, CA

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Beautiful Students, thank you for the input about you guys wanting HP Yoga to be profiled in Yoga Journal…i suppose when the yoga world is ready for our brand of intensity, they�ll come calling…meanwhile, seeds may be planted with: Yoga Journal Public Relations Director: Dayna Macy at 510 841 9200 ext 304

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check out this review of my HP Yoga video by Professional Road cyclist, Bradley Saul. i encourage you to visit his great site:

http://www.organicathlete.com/

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OrganicAthlete.com e-Newsletter

8/2/02

High Performance Yoga with Steve Ilg

�Why workout when you can work within?� asks the

Wholistic Fitness slogan. For the last few seasons,

I have asked myself the same question. Why cannot my

sport and passion be a path to spiritual empowerment

and community wellness, rather than personal

satisfaction? Perhaps this is why I am attracted to

the practice of yoga.

By some intuition, I bought a copy of Steve

Ilg�s �The Winter Athlete� for Jennifer last

Christmas. The opening pages of the book echoed the

direction of my personal life and training, and I was

hooked. Parts 1 & 2 articulate the four Wholistic

Fitness lifestyle principles (breath and posture,

mindfulness, appropriate action, and practice) and

five fitness disciplines (strength, cardiovascular,

yoga, meditation, and nutrition).

The High Performance yoga video integrates all these

principles and disciplines into a one hour practice.

And holy cow is it deep! (�Scuba deep� as Steve

would say). The class is nutrition for the body,

mind, and soul. The challenging vinyasas (movement

series) and poses test my practice of appropriate

action. So many times I�ve had to let go and rest in

child�s pose, rather than try to keep up with the

intensity and be somewhere I�m not ready to be. But

with each practice I�m able to endure more, move

further into the poses, keep with the movement

series, and most importantly, the quality of my

mental focus improves.

The lessons of HP yoga easily transfer to back on the

bike. From using breathe to focus to developing core

strength and confidence, HP yoga is now an integral

part of how I train.

See more on HP yoga and Steve Ilg at

http://www.wholisticfitness.com.

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3 important things to remember about

Wholistic Fitness Discipline:

1) prioritize high intensity strength training and cardio when young. with age, shift emphasis toward yoga and meditation. structure and power before softness and openness. otherwise, there is no grounded balance to temper our spiritual growth.

2) nutrition is the most important fitness discipline…regeneration of cells is key for using our body as a vehicle of liberation. in other words, if we don�t feel good, we won�t feel God. there should be a bottle of herbs, not Diet Coke, beside us every waking moment.

3) our Highest workout is everywhere…use everyone and everything as a Teacher or Teaching. in other words, how we do anything, is how we do everything.

3 important things to remember about

Wholistic Fitness Lifestyle:

1) our life is a sacred process of unfurling Joy, not a grab fest of external pleasures or gratification of sensual (lower chakra) desires.

2) it�s all okay…our sacred process is always in tune with our spiritual fitness capacity. we are never given more than what we have been Divinely designed to handle.

3) use it all…use everyone and everything as a Teacher or Teaching. balance intellect with innate trust. this is called, Intuitive Wisdom and can only be rediscovered through meditation, not books.

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i have noticed a certain finch that visits my bird feeder. when feeding, he wiggles his genitalia up and down against the side of the feeder as he eats.

perhaps a bit over attached to sensory pleasure, but still, that�s one smart finch.

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In Sweat, Insight, and Spirit,

Coach Ilg