Wholistic Fitness

Noble Sangha,

look who dropped by WF Head Temple on his way toward the Front Range the other day!

Warrior Leaf!

allWays a distinct honor to give an overnight bunk to one of our Tribe’s most devoted students!   Warrior Leaf executed the option to share a
half-day training camp with me before resuming his eastward travels…

so,  it was up before dawn for some Nature Meditation courtesy of  Teacher Rudoloph, the wild Animas, and the newborn dawn of Father Sky…

then, off to the Rec Center to take a 90-minute Spin/Core class beneath the rapid-fire feet and eagle eyes of pro triathlete, Marisa Asplund…

then, it was into my garage for a waxing clinic on Leaf’s skate and classic skis…before heading up to Hillcrest Golf Course, now covered thankfully with a precious gracing of snow, for a combo clinic on both classic and skate technique…

here are a few shots..enjoy and be sure to schedule YOUR unique WF Half-Day Winter Sport Training Camp!

head bowed,

ec

Warrior Leaf, demonstrates a superb ‘nordic tuck’ on a downhill section of our local in-town nordic course.   Never having been on classic skis before,  this pic shows precisely why personal coaching is so important…just look at his flat spine,  drishti (eye focus),  deep knee bend,  elbows resting skeletally on knees to recover before the next (inevitable) upper body use…hate to tell you,  yet ilg see’s people up at the nordic areas that have been skiing for decades with far less beautiful, efficient ski mechanics than what Warrior Leaf exuded within his first 50-minutes on classic skis!   at the end of this downhill?  Warrior Leaf was grinning ear-to-ear and remarked with chi-ld like glee, “That was FUN!!!”

“Hec yeah,” came my reply across the snows, “the skinnier the ski?  the more exhilarating the descents!”

Anybody can rent or buy a pair rockered, metal-edged fancy skis, ride a chairlift up a mountain slope and profess to be a skier…however,  to know the rasas (essence) of skiing?  Got to go to the very root of all skiing;  classic nordic skiing on edgeless, skinny skis without a chairlift in sight…ahhhh!   Now THAT, my Friend,  is genuine skiing!

Ohhhhh how ilg loves this shot!
Check the focus!  The weight shift!  The relaxed shoulder girdle!  The beautiful arm drive!   You kiddin’ me?   All this poetic movement from a rookie on the classic skis?  This is true kick-and-glide verve!   Got this pic as Warrior Leaf summits his first-ever sustained uphill on classic skis…his c(om)ment was, “Oh my God!  You know,  you can do  HP Yoga® Prop Workouts, cardio work, strength training…yet,  until you get out here and really do this stuff for real? You don’t realize just how intense nordic skiing is!”

Well said.   The most enduringly seductive call of nordic skiing to a wholistic athlete is the fact that to c(om)pete well in it?   Or even to be effective in it?   Your upper body must be as strength endurance strong as your lower body…oh, and not to mention your core has to be the cornerstone of all propulsion.  Compare world-class nordic ski racer physiques to world-class marathon runners or Tour de France cyclists….phhhfff!   No competition…there is no endurance athlete like a nordic ski racer.   Human Performance studies since the sixties have affirmed;  nordic ski racing is the most intense endurance sport on the planet.

After our classic clinic/workout,  we made a final transition into our nordic skate skiing gear…the above pic details Warrior Leaf’s fantastic focus on the V-1 Technique whereupon the inner affirmation is, “Step, Glide….Step, Glide…Step Glide…”    I describe V-1 Technique as the “bread-and-butter” of all nordic skate skiing.  It’s used on everything from false flats to all uphills.  Working with Warrior Leaf in skate skiing is made so much more easier from a coaching standpoint due to the fact that he has been a devoted HP Yoga® student of mine for several years…so, if  i sense too much kyphosis (rounded) in his spine,  the simple voice c(om)mand of,  “Bring more Upward Dog!”  totally revitalizes his spine, lifting his sternum away from sinking into his pelvis.   If, as another example,  my coaching call to him is, “Feel Mula Bandha!”  he knows by kinesthetic training conditioning,  to engage his pelvic floor, scrape his tail under, and press his abs spineward.

S(om)etime,  in the future,  perhaps after feeble ilg is long gone, the  fitness warrior tribe will finally embrace the East/West Wisdom upon which WF now and for the past 35 years, has been forwarding sooooo far out in front of the other methods….

In this Tribe?

We are Blessed…

thank you, Warrior Leaf…our Half Day renewed our Countless Lifetimes as Brothers together once more…