Wholistic Fitness

“Don’t try harder, try softer.”  – Coach Ilg, The Winter Athlete
WF™ and HP Yoga™ Certified Teacher, Joy “Ananda” Kilpatrick knows how to let go…
photo by steve ilg,  Snow Canyon, Utah

HP Yoga™ Restorative Aphorisms
Short Teaching Triggers To Deepen Your Restorative Practice

Those of you who have taken my HP Yoga™ Restorative classes are seemingly surprised by the serenity of the dialogue and the slow, delicious dance into the niceties of this quieting practice of seated forward bends, twists, and side bends intended to clear the stress of the day and the lactic acid from the recent workouts for a go(o)d night’s sleep thanks to the deep neural relaxation afforded to you by this Restorative Practice.

Few Yoga Systems, if any, offer such a wholistic spectrum of physiologic and psychospiritual as HP Yoga™;  the gradient between an HP Yoga™ Restorative class and that of a HP Yoga™ PROP Workout™ has got to be one of the steepest known to any Practitioner!

I must admit surprise however toward those of you surprised by my softness as well as my well fabled hardness. Even a cursory study of my Wholistic Fitness™ writings will surely highlight the fact that softness, instead of hardness, is central to the tenets of this Path. I’ve Taught often: a big key to performance (and podiums). Don’t try harder,  try softer. Cultivate softness during hard training. Yin is all-ways more powerful in the long run than Yang. Slowness builds strength.

For those of you that have established a Solo Asana Practice or any other Fitness Discipline that you truly, passionately, love? You’ll find the following Teaching Triggers (that’s what i call them) to be searingly effective at guiding your mind, thus, your prana,  to precisely the areas where the need is most. So, may my Teaching Triggers contribute to a healthier and more whole you.

May our Collective Inner Work Be Of Benefit To All Beings In All Realms,

coach ilg

Take any or all of the following into your next Solo Asana Practice or any sport or Dance that moves you and you will find me right next to you:

• inner eyes quiet
• let the back body rest
• eyes become juice in their sockets
• a soft and expansive heart and lungs create spaceand relaxation
• mindfully remove tension
• broaden your inner chest
• move the top of your sacrum inward
• quieting, soothing, do not over effort
• relax your nerves and mind
• lengthen and reach the spine
• relax facial muscles as the chest remains Bouyant
• coat the body with breath
• draw your inhale into the hip creases
• now is not the time to fight with the body…
• create as much length, space, opening as your body comfortably gives you right now
• Trust consistency in Practice (Abhyasa), not force
• observe the sensations present; practicing breathing into those sensations
• don’t turn head and neck beyond what the chest  allows
• settle in even though you are at your edge
• attention without mental or physical strain
• keep the sense of quiet inside
• practice opening the body without overefforting
• let the brain itself rest
• it’s more about quieting than efforting