Wholistic Fitness

Namaste Noble Fitness Warriors!

off to spend the day shooting the STRENGTH TRAINING photos with Wayne Williams

www.waynewilliamsstudio.com

i’m feeling pretty fit for an old (41 this week) dude (considering my profession of being a personal fitness trainer in LA!) and i know Wayne’s work will make me look even fitter! time to bring the CHI! wish me luck! man, i hope this new book helps some folks, because it’s been a work of love, let me tell you!

here is some recent Tribal Firetalk…enjoy your Practice today and in some small way today, be brave.

love,

coach ilg

�������

Dear Coach Ilg –

My husband has been doing your program for about two months now, and he looks fantastic! After the first month on the program you gave him, I

noticed a dramatic change. He’s also setting personal records with his

running and biking.

– Michelle, Pasadena, CA

��

Hanging in the Canyons with Teacher Haku Hatsuiku

date: September 28th – October 4th

where: Coyote Gulch and Escalante Canyon, Southeastern Utah

what: a mellow backpack trip including Wholistic Fitness Disciplines

In cooperation with Rainbow Expeditions II

Contact Teacher Sheader (jomanjitrain@earthlink.net) or go directly to www.rainbow2.com for more information and registration.

���

WF Tribal Link:

www.organicathlete.com

click on “musa sapientum” at the top.

���

Dear Coach Ilg –

The past 8 weeks since my surgery has been an intensive journey into rediscovering and recalibrating my core.

In so many ways I was forced to ‘get back to the basics’ of wholistic fitness. It is a beautiful thing that I can draw strength and inspiration from such a meaningful path. You continue to inspire me from afar, and as such, I am eternally grateful for your presence in my life.

I am confident of your life’s work and the inevitable contribution I can make to it. You remain an integral part of my life as both a friend and mentor. We will have a chance to connect soon, and to that end I am certain.

“ART IS ANYTHING PEOPLE DO WITH DISTINCTION”——-LOUIS DUDEK

LIVE WELL AND STAY REAL——-ALWAYS AND ETERNALLY—————PANTHER

����

“The less time i spend thinking about time

the more of it i seem to have.” – ilg

���

I really value the effort Coach Ilg puts into updating Daily Meditations. I was thinking about this as I realized the difficulty (I have chosen) in completing a simple weekly cycle summation!

Student L

���

COACHING DIALOGUE:

Dear Teacher

Old Dead Legs: Lower Body Thursday + Green Tara yoga Friday + Interval

Saturday + EEE-GAD / Cardio Sunday left my legs feeling like twin blocks

of granite!

� pre Cambrian granite i suppose? as in, ‘exfoliating’ granite?!

😉

good job.

it’s funny. so many yoga-specific yogis think they have to just do yoga postures deeper and deeper to find their ‘edge.’ hec, all they got to is bring their edge up to them by hammering a hard leg workout in the gym or do intervals! sure, they wouldn’t be able to be supple in the poses, but if yoga is all about exploring the edge and breathing into it…why not learn how to bring the edge CLOSER, instead of further? come, train Legs! do Intervals! get your body really “well trained” THEN breathe into the very available edge!

RE: Really struggled doing the leg extension staccatos yesterday,

due to overall fatigue. I also found I struggled mightily on the squat /

leg extension supersets to keep my breathing under control – I was a

huffing and puffing fool!

� you go Warrior! show those gym rats some WF CHI!!!!!!!!

RE:

Leg Raise technique: I have been meaning to ask this since week 1. What

is your optimal technique for doing raises?

� well, “optimal” would translate into “most noble” and that would mean a ladder of nobility for leg raises:

1) One Arm Hanging Leg Raises (from a pull up bar)

2) Two Arm Hanging Leg Raises (from a pull up bar)

3) “AbOriginal” Hanging Raises (from a pull up bar with arms looped through the AbOriginal straps)

4) Suspended Leg Raises (from an apparatus with forearms resting on pads)

5) Lying Leg Raises (on floor or atop a flat bench)

the primary determiner for what makes a Leg Raise “noble” is control from the center. in #1, it’s a fight just to hold onto the bar overhead, let alone lift your legs up and down without swinging. this demands tremendous concentration and midsection strength. #5 sees the assistive musculature completely supported, and thus, is the novice movement of this group.

RE: Suspended leg raises – slip sliding away: I am really struggling with the suspended leg raises.

� good. struggle keeps Practice novel.

RE: I don’t know if it is the pre-exhaustion in my upper

body or the fact that much of the padding has worn away from the armrests,

but I have a tough time just keeping my torso from sliding down the

machine. Are their specific technique points I should keep in mind?

� yes, the main technique is two fold:

1) deal with it, and

2) bring Mula Bandha

in other words, there must be an internal lifting up of the heaviness common to the pelvic bowl during such movements. of course, attaining these yogic internal locks such as Mula Bandha can take years, if not decades. so relax into the process and keep Practicing.

RE:

Premature exhalation: In (his book) LOY (Light On Yoga), Iyengar instructs to keep the duration of

exhalation and inhalation constant, saying something like “if you inhale

for 6-8 seconds, you should exhale for 6-8 seconds as well”. This brought

two questions to mind. First, should I be consciously counting the

duration of my inhales and exhales?

� if i have not instructed you to do so, you don’t need to.

Iyengar was speaking strictly in regard to Pranayama practice, not everyday life. you may count and thus attempt to equalize your breathing rhythm during meditation/pranayama, but don’t worry about it otherwise.

RE: I have been, but thought that might be placing my focus in the wrong place.

� see my above counsel.

RE: The second questions stems from

what I found through my counting. Doing the alternate nostril breathing,

my right nostril exhalation takes less time than the other three actions

(right side inhale, left side exhale and inhale). Do you have physicial

or metaphysicial insights into why this might be?

� yes, but i first i want you spell words correctly before worrying about things metaphysical. you had two misspells in your last sentence. focus. your workout is everywhere.

also, i just want to congratulate you on your Awareness of discovering this imbalanced breathing within you. one of the preliminary yogic goals is to equalize airflow between the nostrils.

just know that with every Alt. Nostril Breathing session you do, your entire body/mind is becoming more Balanced, more Whole.

RE: Are there techniques I

should be focusing on to correct it?

� just do the Practice. don’t overanalyze.

RE:

The Protein thing: Virtually everybody I talk to WF about inevitably asks

the question: “where are you getting protein from”? Much of that I

attribute to the Atkins influence, but re-reading the nutrition section in

the TWA brought the question back to mind. In that book, you talk at

length about the difficulty of getting adequate amino combinations in a

vegetarian-based diet, and advocate the use of protein supplementation. I

notice that in my training programs and in Direct Lines, you virtually

never mention supplements beyond the occasional PowerBar. Has your

thinking on supplements changed from when you wrote TWA to now?

� more like my “audience” has changed. thus, my counsel must change.

RE: Is it the

difference in your target audience – i.e. do competitive winter athletes

have different requirements than recreational fitness warriors?

� yes. competitive athletes place much more consistent and intense stress and imbalance on their bodies and minds then do fitness warriors. thus, my counsel in regard to protein must change. protein assimilation and use also changes categorically as does a person’s cellular clarity. since you are now my formal student and on on the SUNRIDER HERBS, i know much more about your nutritional integrity and can provide counsel to you different from what appears in my various books/published work.

RE: And finally (you knew this would get back to me eventually), is there anything I should do to ensure sufficient protein in my diet? I apologize if this sounds too “consultanty” – I am consciously working on keeping my analytic mind to the side in this work, and focus on just doing the practice, but sometimes the inner analyst creeps through.

� my instructions to you are for you to stop worrying about protein intake.

RE: Heading into the home stretch of this cycle with great energy for the week ahead. WF rocks!

� so you do too!

head bowed,

coach ilg, R.Y.T.

founder, WHOLISTIC FITNESS

www.wholisticfitness.com