Sunday, July 19, 2009

Yogi Squat of the Week

click pic to enlarge




YOGI SQUAT OF THE WEEK
goes to...





Dewachen Catherine Ilg
of Flagstaff, Arizona!


Dewa has been a lifelong (22 months) WF Student. she is very strong and powerful and possesses remarkable agility. i once read a study where 'they' tested several world class athletes and challenged them to simply mimic everything a toddler does. not one of them could hang. indeed, most of my Practice has been about doing just that; mimicking my daugther all day long and man, oh man, what a workout it is! i got this pic of Dewa near Echo Canyon Ampitheatre, New Mexico.

GOT A PIC OF YOU OR SOMEONE ELSE IN A YOGI SQUAT?! SEND IT IN and you might be eligible for a WF Gift!

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Saturday, July 18, 2009

08 Tour de France

coach is going off in the WF SanghaLounge about the craziness of this years "Tour"...
come on in and sound off!

and, as always, read and contribute to the amazingly informative, inspirational, and down right fun input in constant dance among the various disciplines, principles, techniques, teachings, and feelings about the WF Lifestyle from our worldwide Sangha!

get in there and chill!

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The Won Back Heart...

a unique Teaching from direct experience from coach on Asmita and the Gruntwork of Letting Go...

here is an excerpt:
i can still recall the deep potency of my final few mountain bike rides, runs, and climbs in New Mexico before i left into the great toxicity known as LA. phew. as i drove further west, out past the Navajo Land which i have come to know and love so deeply, tears. even chanting the Mantra was no emotional balm for the ilg which left behind the vast and haunting landscape of the Four Corners region. The sweat and stillness that i've lived each day here touches places within that i scarcely knew existed. I learned, from the decade spent in LA, how naive I can be. up until that drive into the unknown LA cauldron, i always thought that the spiritual journey was about cultivating fitness of body and mind strong enough to warrant the divinely guided amounts of kundalini ascension up sushumna (the spiritual spine). accustomed to practices and healing revolving upon the chakra system, nadic energy, and other forms of 'invisible fitness,' the degree to which my naivety about genuine chakra purifications never truly took root in my soul body until i watched each of my Sacred Peaks disappear into the long ripple of road behind me: my birth mountain; Dibé Ntsaa (Hesperus Peak, Colorado)...Tsoodzil (Mount Taylor, Arizona)...Dook'o'oosliid (San Francisco Peaks,Arizona).



on today's DL Subscription format with beautiful pictures; be there to be Here Now

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Friday, July 17, 2009

"...a much better sense of well-being and confidence.." Actual Student Q&A

an actual email from my Inbox today...name withheld for privacy's sake:





To Whom it May Concern:

Hello, my name is (name withheld) and I currently live in Vermont on break from attending college in New Hampshire. I picked up your "Total Body Transformation" book in the library a couple of months ago and am currently on my fourth week of the Cosmic Yang program.

I personally have found a much better sense of well-being and confidence since beginning this program. Because I am an athlete of many backgrounds (swimming, track and field, martial arts, and parkour to name a few), I have found that this has been very beneficial to me on many levels, particularly in terms of flexibility. I am going to order your book in a week or so as well as a couple of other products to help me along my Path, wherever it leads me.
My question refers to your WF Blessed Training Mala. Because I practice other soft arts (Tai Chi and am currently training to become a Reiki Master Teacher of the Usui Shiki Ryoho style), I was wondering about the energetic properties of this mala: I read that Coach Ilg is a certified Dharma Protector, but other than that I don't really know anything about the energetic properties and (most importantly) if they will interfere with not only my energy but of my reiki energy as well.

Is there anytime when I could possibly talk with Coach Ilg on this matter? My schedule is pretty flexible until August 30th (when I move back into school), but I would preferably like to talk before then. Personally I prefer phone (my number is ) but e-mail is ok too.

Regardless of whether I will purchase the mala or not, the program has been (and I hope continues) to be a wonderful experience. I have believed that being spiritually inclined means that you need to keep your physical body in shape as well; if you don't have respect for your physical body, how can you have respect for the spiritual lessons that you have and will learn?

Namaste!




READ COACH's SURPRISING RESPONSE ON TODAY's DL!

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Arjuna Program Q&A - ilg on the road

click on pics to enlarge...



Dewa and injured daddy ilg the other day at the Pagosa Mineral Hot Springs. the Native name of my old h(om)etown - Pagosa - means, "Healing Waters" and after my high-speed mountain bike racing crash last Saturday, i truly put these collective pools of ancient healing hot springs to the test...and, they produced an incredible healing effect upon my road rash and deep bone contusions. though yogi squatting continually throughout the day alongside Dewa is painful, keeping my skin and repairing connective tissue moving through big range of functional movements is imperative to 100% healing. many athletes make the mistake of too little movement (cause it hurts) while healing. unless you move like a toddler while healing deep scrapes and bruises, the resultant connective fabric matures into a restrictive mal-aligned gross 'pile of fiber spaghetti.' gotta keep moving, no matter how much it hurts.

below, i take this traveling opportunity to address some important training variables which arise from a new Online Student who is giving the "Arjuna Ayama Program" a go. May this exchange below, help your own studies and practice. above photo by Ananda.

from my beloved roads and backroads of the Rio Grande Valley...

coach ilg

***




READ THE MULTI-DISCIPLINED FITNESS COACHING COUNSEL TO THIS NEW ONLINE STUDENT FROM COACH ONLY ON DL SUBSCRIPTION FORMAT!

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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Coach Wins Pagosa Duathlon! Crashing and Cranking



(note: photo may only appear for DL Subscribers)
Yup, pulled another "Ned Overend" outta my bag of tricks...winning the Pagosa Mountain Duathlon Full Course, teaching the young bucks a thing or two about wholeness and longevity! look closely at my right elbow...


Namaste Noble WF Sangha,

just wanted to let you all know that ilg is doing just great...sore (not 'well trained') but great. the rumor is true, i did manage to win overall the Pagosa Mountain Duathlon Full Course on Saturday and also managed to go down super hard on a big chainring gravel forest road at probably about 35mph. i thought i was in about 3rd place and had just gotten passed by this guy with sloppy posture and that pissed me off (i did not know that he was not in the solo divison)...so i was absolutely maching it and apparently hit a water erosion gully in the flat light of the ponderosa-shaded road...and next thing i knew, i was down. hard. i recall skidding for what seemed an eternity on my back and side, wondering to myself, "Wow, i wonder when i'm ever gonna come to a stop."

before that though, the very instant i hit the deck - and trust me, ilg has hit the deck probably harder than you, many more times than you - my first thought was one single word and an image to go with it:
"Dewa."

lemme tell ya, being a new daddy and still out there pushing my limits in such sports like mountain duathlon...when you do go down hard, your entire paradigm shifts. used to be just fine for me to crash...now? not so okay.

now, when you do go hard and hear your bones crushing, organs stretching, and skin ripping off you, the warrior has one single instant to choose one of two attitudes after a heart-stopping crash: you let it dismantle you,
or
you can let it empower you.

more on that a bit later...right now, i can't seem to post the great, gnarly pics of your coach's road rash - which is probably a good thing - and i've got a family to attend to as we continue our Southwest Walkabout.

just wanted you all to know ilg is just fine; in fact, i've got a ton of empowering teachings and pics to share with you DL Subscribers soon...including my Priority Practice For Ripped Off Skin And Ooozing Warrior Wounds. You might be surprised at how fast your ol' cat of a coach can:
1) crash hard and jump back up like a cat and STILL WIN OVERALL!
and
2) how fast i can still tell the Medics that, "No, i don't need stitches...i just need to do some yoga," and heal a ripped wound 500% overnight.


dat's why we all gotta git out there and toe those Start Lines in our life...be brave enough to push your limits against formidable opponents - physical and metaphysical...cuz that is the ONLY WAY to Learn the Teachings Of Intensity.

and when you and i take that Last Gasp, and are unable to Inhale again?

trust me, it's gonna be Intense.

so train your Awareness and Equanimity in the field of Yogic Intensity, which means of course, using that age-old maxim of WF, knowing that your
Highest Workout is Everywhere...
it's right here,
in the softness of your eyes while reading this,
the elegance of your posture,
the openness of thy hips,
and
the
kindness
which comes from thy lips...

Wishing your Practice all the Highest...

be back right here soon,
cuz,
coach loves you when you sweat and sit still..


head bowed,

your bruised chieftain from the top step of the podium

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Saturday, July 11, 2009

Coach reports from Pagosa Duathlon

Ilg goes down hard...

comes up big...

wins Pagosa Duathlon overall after high speed bike crash on course...

blood, guts & chi story coming up sometime...

thank you for your spiritual support!

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