Sunday 2/21 10:15am - 12:15pm
Equinox Fitness, Palo Alto
with Alex Iglecia

Are you a hero? Yes!
The Epic Workout’s body/mind approach advances your strength, flexibility and awareness through Functional Movement, Yoga, Primal Patterns and Breath work. For comprehensive body-mind development we need all of it. Stillness, movement, challenge, recovery. In this master class, you’ll fine tune how you breathe, how you are breathed, how you move, and what you can achieve.

Do you move athletically, with grace, power and strength? Yes!
This integral training develops core capacities in body and mind for conditioning, strength, optimal recovery and mobility. Go farther. Breathe deeper. Recover better. Whether you do fitness for fun, engage in yoga to connect the divine, or train to beat the pants off your competitors, The Epic Workout will fine tune and accelerate your journey.

In this experiential master class, come discover and redefine the power, flexibility and the deeper meaning exercise holds for you.

Fee: $25 members, $35 non-members
Rsvp with me or come to Equinox by 10am to sign up. Sure, you can bring a friend too.

While basic patterns of individuality and relationship, identity and mind exist throughout the animal world, the form, magnitude, intensity and novelty of those expressions are heightened in us. I don’t mean to imply that humans are the peak of evolution, because in a similar way, the same expressions latent in all life are heightened in other animals in ways unique to them.

The implications of seeing our species as just one of many but with novel expressions can be a big mindshift for some. Consider that every individual human is just like every other human but with novel expressions, and you’ll get it right away. Maybe this can help us understand our place in the world and the universe, some of the reasons for why we do what we do, and lead us to a dramatic grounding and feeling not only of wellbeing, but of inspiration. Watch the talk to the end:

Robert Sapolsky: The uniqueness of humans

I help people take control of their health and vitality through conscious movement. This small but important part of each of our lives allows us to cultivate and regenerate the energy with which we do our work and play our play. It’s my gift and my love of learning - what’s yours?

Watch the video, and explore your life.

Movement specialists know that movement patterns become embodied. That’s why some skills become so engrained we can hardly remember not knowing how to, say, drive a car while talking, chewing gum and fixing your hair in the mirror. (kids - don’t try this at home!)

Somatic Psychotherapists and yogis use this feature of  the brain (is there more?) to work through and with emotions, psychology, and spiritual development through the body.

From an integral point of view, I am also interested in where this research will take us into understanding the link between who I am (values, beliefs and worldviews) and how I move (in this case, with motor patterns).

I’ve been using foam rollers since 2002, when the Sports Club/LA in Boston was the first place I’d seen them. I was ending my career as a combat consultant, a self-defense specialist. Also, I’ve used tennis balls, knuckles, weights, fingers (and on the occasional stubborn tissue, pvc pipe and roller hockey balls, ouch!) These days, I prefer Yoga Tune Up Therapy balls.

The point is, and now the NY Times is telling the world about it in this article, that self-care is good for you, and cheap enough for the  masses!

Go get ‘em (at Power Systems, Perform Better, and your local Sports Authority…)

SELF Magazine has recently posted some major work using the Yoga Tune Up® Therapy Balls. Check it out:

SELF MAGAZINE Slideshow
SELF MAGAZINE Video

So if you’ve been invited, you know the special deal.

The Special Deal

The official registration fee is $45 for members and $55 for
nonmembers for this 2.5 hour workshop.
You can participate for free when your get three friends to register. This deal is directly through me - so contact me if you plan to do this.
(Use the savings and go out to dinner afterwards!)

TUNE UP YOUR TRAINING
IMPROVE YOUR RESULTS

Are you getting the results you want?
Are your sessions blissfully fun?
Are you free of pain?

Tune Up Hips, Shoulders, Spine, Neck, Feet & Hands Accelerate the benefits of yoga and training by identifying and strengthening ‘body blind spots’ - areas of the body that tend to get overused or underused and are typically the catalyst for pain and injury.

Consciously Condition Movements and Major Muscles Epic integrates a tri-focus on strength, movement, and awareness through mindful, functional exercise. Learn and practice adapting and progressing your exercise, improve your results, and take ownership of your development.

Restore and Renew Dive into conscious relaxation and stress reduction as you experience techniques to relieve tension, calm nerves, and set your body up to be fully refreshed and renewed.

Saturday, December 12th

Not that getting up early is all bad. I like it in fact. The quiet before sunrise is my favorite time of day. But when it really counts, I can get a little nervous about whether I’ll sleep in!

So here’s what worked for me today:

1. Go to sleep imagining a successful wake up.

2. Set three different alarms. At least three.

3. Get excited for all the good reasons you’re getting up, as well as your bigger dreams.

That’s what worked for me. In fact, I woke up five minutes before my alarm today…at 4:30…

What gets you up in the morning?

High Heels May Be at the Root of Certain Foot Ills, New Research Reveals

You can read their story here. The research, though modest in its claims, does provide a service if you’re not sure where that foot pain is coming from. Even if you’re a guy who doesn’t wear high heels, the truth is for all of us, if you’re wearing shoes, you will likely find some pain sooner or later throughout not only your feet, but your whole body!

The question, however, is not which shoe is best, but which shoe does the least damage? Dancers, yogis, martial artists and any new baby know that feet rule! They train in their feet as much as possible, and for them, shoes ONLY get in the way. (in the case that shoes are used for a structural advantage over feet, there is a consequence).

Shoes do too much good. They keep feet from really having to do the work. Imagine how good you’d be at your career if someone else insisted on doing half your work. No matter which way you cut it, a shoe is a at best a crutch and at worst a coffin.

Of course, shoes do provide protection from above (falling objects!) and below (tacks! ack!) So if were not going to live 24-7 in an environment free from constraint, in a situation that stimulates growth and learning of our incredible foot muscles and nervous system, then we must take special care of our favorite piggies. Here are five ways to maintain, and even train, those stubs of yours:

1. Rub them! Sit yourself down with your favorite evening beverage and go to town with your thumbs along every part of the bottom of the foot. Then the top of the foot. If you have time and extra love, go at those calves too.

2. Balance! So simple - stand on one foot. That’s right. When you get too good for your own good, wave that free foot around. Then your arms. Look left and right. Still balancing? Close one eye. Then the other.

3. Foot Circles! This will activate every muscle in, and attached t0, your foot. Lay on your back, lift one leg up at 90 degrees at the knee. Now circle that foot to its FULL degree slowly. Don’t miss any part of that cone you’re crafting in the air. Do 10 in each direction. When you get good, go all the way up to 30.

4. Side Raises! Now stand with your hands touching a wall or couch for balance. Do ten of each with a pause at the lift, at the highest height you can reach:

• Balance on heel and lift foot (dorsiflexion)
• Balance on toes and lift heel (plantarflexion)
• Balance on the outside edge, lift inside edge (inversion)
• Balance on the inside edge, lifting the outside edge (eversion)

5. Rub them some more!

Of course, there’s still yoga postures, running, walking, and more training to be done if you intend to use those feet for anything more looking great. These five keys will give you a standing chance against the evil power of the shoe.

6. BONUS: Sand. There’s nearly nothing better for your feet than mmm mmm warm sand.