Wholistic Fitness

Takes One To Know How To Teach One…
there is a reason why so many WF Students and HP Yoga Students are champions; it takes one to coach one!
there is a reason why HP Yoga� feels so different than most forms of yoga; it was created by a champion for champions like YOU!

if there is one thing you can trust in when it comes to this WF Temple,
it is sweat.

i do not simply rest on my podium resume and write a dozen different books with just little changes of this and that to make a buck..no way baby…i’m still out there with the young guns dicing it up in as many sports and disciplines as i can to continue the pioneering success of Wholistic Fitness� for so many of you.

The trickle down Wisdom that i gain from my training and competing morph into the Life Changing Programs such as Green Tara, Cosmic Yang, etc., that you read about in my books and study Online through WF Online Training.

“Ripples make waves,” i once stated many years ago, and now, the Ripples of WF are changing the Way many Warriors come to view yoga and sport..

the Ripples of WF are changing the Way many Warriors come to view sweat and spirit…

***

As spring matures and the snow slowly recedes from the Sacred Peak, it is time to change gears again for my own Practice; change gears literally; it’s BIKE RACING SEASON!

This weekend i trained for the first time at race pace on consecutive days on my bicycle on club rides.
two-day totals;
128 miles, 6.75 hours in the saddle suffering like a dawg…getting ready for the Summit Center 3-Day Stage Race
at the end of the month.

yesterday, my Training Intent was Samkalpa (powerful determination). the day before, i put in 70 miles at a 20 mph pace…so i was feeling it upon awakening. Thank WF for Early Morning Ritual and the SUNRIDER Herbs (plus some BioBuilde�!)…after 2 hours and 14 minutes of high Zone 3 pacelining through rolling hills at 8,000’+ with two guys i waved g’day to my training buddies who soft pedaled home to watch the Giro on TV.

instead,
i took a left hand turn and kept riding.
it was one of the hardest left hand turns i have had to make,
cuz that left hand turn?
it led
up the Ski Road; 7 miles at 8%+ to 9,800′.

oh, i sure didn’t break any speed records as i slowly turned the pedals over up the sacred mountain…
yet, i was here as a yogin adorned in the WF Tribal garments of
pre-fatigued legs,
heaving lungs,
and muscles fully loaded with Lactic Acid.

i rode up the mountain as bravely as i knew you all would expect of me.
i rode up the sacred mountain as a Samkalpin.

my bicycle to me was merely another style of a Yoga Mat upon which to Practice.

“Yoga is everywhere, if you look with Yogic Eyes,” i like to re-Mind myself.

***

though Samkalpa was my victory this weekend,
and though it was Samkalpa that
took me to the top…
it
was
yet, another yogic principle – a Yama, in fact -that is a large part of my training this month; the principle known as, Aparigraha or ‘greedlessness’ is – ironically – a huge factor of my motivation to suffer so hard. You see, my intention for the Stage Race at the end of this month is not to win. Instead, my intent is to help my Team Leader as a type of ‘super domestique’ if possible…in other words, i am training hard just to be a ‘pawn’ for one of my teammates. I will race my body to its edge of edges in order to prefatigue the other competitors to chase me down so that they use up their energy in thwarting my efforts while my Team Leader can stay fresh and attack them after i attempt to tire them out.

that is bike racing, baby.
that is Warriorism!

Today, i’m feeling a bit worked, yet feeling quite capable to do more. which i won’t. Today is for some HP Yoga…however, this morning, my asana poses, which were so comparatively limber and open and full of Light on Friday, are now back to square one, errr, least it felt like it. my hip flexors are storing the adhesion and fatigue toxins of thousands of high intensity pedaling strokes, my paraspinals are gripped like a fist around my lower back and my IT Bands are once again…well, feeling “well trained,” as we say in this Temple.

so, breath by breath, i will ease more Ujjayi into my well-trained and tau(gh)t muscles and do my best not to compare my body today with last week. this is the Way of our MultiDisciplined Yoga; it seems sometimes like we take one step Up the Path and slither 3 Steps back…our progress seems glacier slow sometimes.

That is just the Way i want it.

Slow and Deep. MultiDisciplined Deep. here is why:

in this Path of WF, it is the energetic development of the wholistic self that matters most.
i have Taught you that the WF Warrior develops the Gross fitness, then the Refined, and finally the Subtle.

take the Vayu’s, for instance. Vayu’s, as you know from reading DL, are Energy Currents that distribute the Pran.
Vayu’s are only as strong as what comes before them.
what creates Vayu Fitness?
Cardio fitness.
so, if you consider yourself a yogin, yet if you ain’t out there gettin’ it done in Cardio, then you are no different than those Bodybuilders that just train their Biceps and Chest yet walk around on stick legs, too scared to do the heavy squats to build up their leg muscles. Basically; you’ve fallen for the trap that says, “Oh, well, i do Yoga so i don’t have to do Cardio.”

Oh really? Uh…okay, whateva…good luck in the ENDURANCE REALM of the Bardo!

let’s take another aspect of the Subtle Anatomy; the Nadis. you know about Nadis from reading DL, as well. Nadis are the subtle anatomic vessels which carry the Pran systemically via Pranayama. The Nadis carry the power for the engine of Enlightenment. Weak Nadis = Weak Yoga.
what strengthens Nadis?
well, Nadis are the spiritually mature Nerve Vessels.
so, first the yogin must train for Nerve (Neural) Fitness before thinking about significant Nadic Fitness for Kundalini Awakening.
How do you develop Neural Fitness?
duh…the GYM, baby!
that is right; to develop symmetrical, balanced muscles within each bodypart is the yogin’s FIRST BASE!
if your muscles are out of balance, then so too is your Neural Fitness…so if you start taking like “Kundalini Yoga” classes
while your FIRST BASE (your muscles) are not yet balanced, full, and capable of conducting Neural Energy…then, trust me…
you DO NOT want to be fucking around with the Kundalini!

it’s sad how many ‘yogis’ and “Teachers of Yoga” are so quick to teach the Subtle and Refined Physiology and Anatomy exercises while ignoring FIRST BASE: their Neural/Muscular/Cardio Physiology and Anatomy!

Yoga is, after all, bodybuilding.
From my observances, many of today’s ‘yogis’ would do well to spend the next decade or so prioritizing the symmetry, proportion, and balance of their lean neuromuscular system and bring their Cardio Fitness into a higher Priority as well. after attaining this “First Base” of energetic development within their physical body, then return to a deep asana practice with a more deep fiber balance. their minds would have matured greatly during the Samkalpa required to attain a “First Base Body.”
Remember the first of the two goals of Hatha Yoga;
to build the body wholistically so that by age 75 you are able to meditate voraciously for Enlightenment.
make no doubt; Yoga is bodybuilding.

When seeking a Yoga Teacher,
make sure their Muscular and Cardio physiologic and anatomical realms are at least in the same ballpark as their asana fitness. If this is not the case, then they have yet to know by Direct Experience how to SAFELY and PROGRESSIVELY lead you toward a BALANCED AWAKENING of the Divine Force within you.

First Base, baby. First Base.

Om So Ti,

coach ilg, the endless beginner

***
PHOTOs:
#1; coach in a floating padmasana; dorit theis photography
#2; just turning the pedals over on a steep climb near LA; wayne williams photography
#3; Frank Zane, a Mr. Olympian from the seventies who trained wholistically and whose symmetry and balanced aesthetic look captured my own ideals.