Torn Biceps, Inflamed Spirit

Appearing like many other important Teachings and Inspirations...

on DL SUBSCRIPTION FORMAT!


In Tune With the Tribal Spirit of Sacred Sweat and Stillness since 1982...

DIRECT LINES: the Tribal Newspaper of WHOLISTIC FITNESS!

HP Yoga teams up with Northern Arizona Yoga Center!

Fall not fall in love with another person as much as falling in love with the strength of their Practice. For, inevitably, it boils down to the strength of Personal Practice that keeps all Relationships loving ones.
- coach ilg

Bhahadrasana, Snow Canyon, Utah. ilg archvies

Steve Ilg's HIGH PERFORMANCE YOGA unites with the new

Northern Arizona Yoga Center

***
Namaste Noble Warriors!
It is with Ten Thousand Dharma Smiles that i announce my teaming up with Northern Arizona Yoga Center - under new ownership by the great crew over at Vertical Relief Climbing Gym!!!

I can't wait to Serve you heaping, helping dosages of the renown, "Sacred Sweat and Spirit," of HP Yoga within a new, beautiful "Practice Cave" in downtown Flag!

So visit and bookmark the Northern Arizona Yoga Center link above. Check out ALL THE GREAT TEACHERS and CLASSES and come on out to share the Sacred Sweat! We are just getting our feet under us, so make some tracks past the tracks and do YOGA!

See you on the mat,


coach ilg

*** Class Descriptions:

HP YOGA! Now on Tuesdays AND Thursdays @ 5:30 - 7:00 pm

Tuesday Evenings With Coach: Lovingly guided and as dharmically potent as they come! Each class stashes all sorts of powerful self- cultivation arrows into your spiritual quiver! Trust in the class that has produced world class athletes and empowered yogis of all styles for a quarter century! All abilities welcome!

Thursday Evenings with Coach: PROP TILL YOU DROP, BABY! Oh, oh! Coach is on the loose with this incredible, acclaimed, and exclusive strength training/asana hybrid class! You'll never know just how miraculous and joyful are your natural healing and empowerment capacities until you enjoy the, "Mother of all workouts on the Mother Road!" I am terribly stoked to share with you this class that has produced podiums for all calibers of athletes and empowers all yogic styles! Fun and Focused we go! Oh, and don't forget to bring a sweat towel!

...and, yes! my Beloved Ananda (Joy) is anticipating her return to Teaching on Sunday mornings at the new Studio after the first of the year! That would make THREE HP Yoga opportunities per week for you!

TRAIN with COACH during the Week and SOAR on your WEEKENDS!

Understanding The Dharma Path of WF and Metaphysical Trataka

"Do not go by revelation; do not go by tradition; do not go by hearsay; do not go on the authority of sacred texts; do not go on the grounds of pure logics; do not go by a view that seems rational; do not go along with a considered view because you agree with it; do not go along on the ground that the person is competent; do not go along (thinking) because the recluse is our teacher.

'When you know yourself: These things are unwholesome,these things are blameworthy; these things are censured by the wise; and when undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill? abandon them...

When you know for yourselves: 'These are wholesome; these things are not blameworthy; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness', having undertaken them, abide in them."

- The Buddha Sakyamuni


***

For beginning practitioners and individuals with a more general interest in Wholistic Fitness, I've created several ways - most of which are extremely affordable when compared to the cliquish tendencies inherent to my field - which impart the powerful, transformative philosophy, meditation and specific WF practices. The most captivating aspect of WF lies in its user-friendly approach; you do not need to live anywhere near me to receive what i feel is the most effective, joyful Path of Spiritual Awakening while using Personal Fitness as the Vehicle.

For those individuals ready to delve deeper into WF practice and are ready to have a more 'full-time' experience, i offer the world's original Online Personal Fitness Training System. The intimacy of Online Training reflects my allegiance to teach Yoga in the Ancient Traditional Manner; Teacher/Student. One on One. Along with the availability of both Phone and Online Consultations, facilities for both short-term and long-term Study exist at a world-class level.

For the future dharma teachers who wish to become 'certified' i periodically offer support and training in a cyber-monastic environment. To Teach WF is a very Steep Path and reCertification through the trials of life itself even Steeper. The first steps require several years of WF Study and the sincere aspirant needs to hold a Personal Training Certificate and a Level One Certificate to teach my own High Performance Yoga. Such Steep travel is appropriate for those who aspire to be future dharma teachers through WF.

COMING SOON:
WHAT - PRECISELY - IS DHARMA?

photo; "Trataka" one of the many WF Meditations assigned to Online Students. Trataka was and remains a fundamental sport performance technique i use to develop ekagraha; or one-pointed meditation. in fact, my Trataka history came into priceless value yesterday as i ran to the 12,633' summit of Doko Oosliid in 1 hour and 34 minutes with a round-trip of 2 hours and 42 minutes. I had to use Ekagraha to keep mind focused while spending, get this; 1 hour, 31 minutes at a Heart Rate OVER Zone 3! i burned 2,624 calories and ended with a 166 average HR. WF is no joke because WF is a reflection of authentic Mountain Yoga; developing to our highest capacities ALL of our physiologic systems, not just one or two. Trataka in WF thus takes on metaphysical implication as we learn to keep our minds One Pointed in daily life.

My Most Revealing Entry EVER!?

DEWA METTA now appearing in the Couples Cave

in the WF SanghaLounge

for the FIRST TIME EVER
read about:
• The Spiritual Lineage of WF
• The Om So Ti of Dewachen, my baby daughter.
• The syncronicity filled nomenclature of Dewachen
• YOUR Well Wishes (Metta Missives) to Dewa from our Worldwide Sangha!

i've never ever felt so stationed in my life to release and Share this information, this Treasure, with my Sangha.

may your Practice be empowered by this Temple Sharing exclusively for DL Subscribers and WF Online Students...just enter the WF SanghaLounge and jog over to the WF COUPLESHIP CAVE and enjoy...



Om So Ti,

your loving coach

photos:
1) Dewa's hand, Ananda's WF Blessed Mala. by coach.
2) Who woulda thunk it? America's Outdoor Athlete, turned Daddy Warrior. Dewa's first stroller walk taken just the other day. by Ananda.

WF Temple Notice

Noble Sangha,

it has just come to my attention that some of you are having difficulties ordering on the PRO SHOP...

ilg is on it like a HeartSpace is all over Peace...

?

well, you know what i mean;
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRACTICE OF PATIENCE and all-Ways let me know about such things,
or ANYthing for that matter!

more soon,
el coache

Yoga Nation

The Outdoor Journey

Brea(d)th of Fire; Portal of Pain

"I cannot pretend I always practice bodhichitta,
but it does give me tremendous inspiration.
Deep inside me,
I realize how beneficial it is.
That is all."
- Dalai Lama

***
Bodhi = Awake
chitta = consciousness

the term, Bodhchitta is generally translated as, "Awakened Heart."

most of the Spiritual Fitness Warriors attracted to Wholistic Fitness
come to this Path
with Bodhichitta
at one Level or another.

my SvaDuty is to keep Awakening
my Student's already Awakened Heart.

***

This DL is for my LA Sangha.
when i lived in LA,
i too experienced the raging fever of Shiva
in the form of wildfires.

air so acrid,
training on my bike would be impossible for a week or longer.

a small price to pay
relative to the FireFighters fatigue,
the wild animals, their adrenalin level matched only by their Zone 4 Heart Rates;
desperate to escape the flames
wondering where their children,
their mate
might be...

ilg teaches often of Bardo
- how unthinkably fast life can change -
to many of our ears
my BardoSpeak may sound like fiction that we do not need to worry about
- there so much to worry about these days -

however, in the calm of our Practice,
when enough years wear away our arrogant edges,
memories of our countless...

PLEASE DO NOT MISS THIS IMPORTANT TEACHING!

Subscribe to the Dharma Light...Subscribe to DL and
keep your Practice Polished
and your Soul Nourished...

***
photos:
1) AP photo of my Cherished Santa Monica Mountains burning. Those mountains kept the Heart and Soul of this mountain yogi alive during my decade in that great city.

2) (unpictured here) performing the Ai Imawa posture; HOLDING UP MOON at La Ventana, New Mexico. I am facing Tsidool; Mt. Tayor, the site of the Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon

Welcome To WF Online Studies; New Student KAI!!!!

"I want to connect the different strands of fitness and spirituality that have been running through my life for many years into one "wholistic fitness." - Kai Hammerstein, of Columbus, Ohio.

Kai will be our newest WF Online Rookie Student. His studies begin November 1st. Already demonstrating his sincerity, Kai has ordered his Blessed Mala and other spiritual weaponry from the WF Pro Shop, including the HP Yoga Basic Strength DVD. Kai might well be one of the most 'ripe' new students i've seen enter our humble, powerful Temple in some time. He has been a competitive runner for 15 years with about 6 marathons under his belt. He also strength trains and is an avid Hatha Yogi. He has formal Zen training, is a Certified Personal Trainer (AFAA), and, to top it all off, Kai is a professor of philosophy at Ohio State University. How much Fun and Focus do you think i am gonna have with this Noble Warrior of the Inner Directed Workout? He wrote me this morning and you can just feel his excitement for formal Online Studies. i'll be first to warn all Rookies however; "Pace yourself!...this is a STEEP and LONG Path!" We wish New Student Kai Godspeed in his travels with us and may he reach Enlightenment In This Lifetime to help all of us Higher!

***

"Hi Steve,
Even before your emails the Blessed Mala had arrived yesterday. On the wings of a dove...Thank you for the fall leaves and needles from your garden that protected the beads so gently. I placed all of them in a large red Japanese lacquer bowl which is sitting on a low table in the living room now. Inside and outside merge. I will go ahead with the traditional Buddhist mala ritual in which the mantra is chanted for an entire 108 loop for 40 days so that it can become truly my own. Your blessings are at work...

I'm really psyched about the training. What's the next step? Should I mail you a check? Where to?

Messy workout-day today. I was scheduled for legs at the gym but will skip that for the climbing clinic this afternoon. I'll throw in some extra leg work on Saturday to make up for it. Or I'll do the workout later today in case the clinic turns out to be mellow.

Pouring rain. The earth takes it all back in. Be well on this fall day.

Kai

***
WF Blessed Malas, HP Yoga DVDs, and YOUR Application To Study WF Online are all available plus so much more at the WF Pro Shop!

Dewa Breaks the auspicious 40 Day Mark; Vayus coming online and SunDays turn into SpaDays...

The 40-Day barrier for an infant is big stuff in the Yogic Tradition.

Mostly, this is due to the shift from subsisting entirely from the Pran of Mom's placenta then breast milk. After Day 40, the PranaVayus - the inner currents of Life Force which i have Taught much about in this forum - have transmigrated. When meditating with your baby in your arms, an easy example exists within the myriad expressions which sweep across a baby's face. Ranging from utter sadness to profound bliss within a flicker of a moment, such emotive panoply only happens due to one of the five major Prana Vayus coming online; in the example of facial expressions, it is Udana - the Upward Directive Pranic Current. Other Vayus - there are ten - are responsible for blinking, bleching, coughing, hic cups, etc. the Yogi trained in such Pranic Awareness can observe and adapt parenting skills commensurate to the baby's vayus.


First however, ALWAYS COMES OUR OWN PRACTICE!

Like all rookie dads, i've had to adjust my sadhana (spiritual practices). Certain arrows that usually lie hidden in my quiver, like my indoor spinning bike, are now integrated into my sadhana, allowing me to keep Dewa's electronic monitor nearby and affording Super Rookie Amma Ananda some well deserved rest. There is ALWAYS a way to keep our Practice strong if our Will is strong and our motivation sincere. Above; several hours after my Early Morning Ritual, i created a chunk of time for practice. Spinning while watching a taped recording of the recent Giro de Lombardi, i astrally hooked myself up the rear wheel of World Champion Paulo Bettini and matched all the climbs and breaks during the 1.25 hour recording, averaging a 150 average Heart Rate, burning 961 calories, and peaking my heart rate at 180. then, i dismounted, slapped on my running shoes and put in 40 minutes at an average heart rate of 162, reaching a peak HR of 183 and burning another 587 calories. Running among the chilled wind of an autumn maturing, i needed only to mix the image of Dewa within my Mantra-powered footfalls and into an Inner Heaven i ran.


No amma or abba (mom or dad) can be Clear, Strong, and Capably Conscious with their child unless their personal sadhana remain firm. Sure, your sadhana might need to adapt to the often sleepless nights and continual nurturing, however, your Teacher will always adjust your sadhana to meet your lifestyle changes. That is what i am doing with Ananda's sadhana; trimming it to precisely what she is capable during this period.

After my workout, i continued my sadhana by easing into what Ananda and i now call Dewa SpaDay...

READ THE ENTIRE FEATURE ON CONSCIOUS PARENTING AND HOW TO KEEP YOUR OWN PRACTICE STRONG DURING TIME-CHALLENGED PERIODS OF YOUR LIFE!....AND MORE ADORABLE PHOTOS OF DEWA!

ONLY ON DL SUBSCRIPTION FORMAT

Temple Gong! Submit your pic for my Website Gallery

Most Cherished and Noble Sangha of Those Who Sweat and Sit Still,

in case you have yet to notice, nearly each week WholisticFitness.com
has been being upgraded; new products in my Pro Shop, revamped graphics,
more efficient navigation,etc.

Like a forest mountain, the WF Gallery is beginning to emerge through the thickets of the Wholistic Fitness jungle! i want YOU there! the Gallery is being divided right now into:

Coach's pics
Student's pics
WF Lifestyle pics

my Intent is to invite the thousands of web surfers to stop for a moment and drop into the CHIdom of WF! and YOU, my students - both formal and informal - are obviously what brings the CHI to this incredible and largely misunderstood Path of Transformational Fitness.

Soooooooo,
over the next few weeks (of course, i will be rewarding the warriors who show up first to the Start Line!), please submit a jpg and a profile of yourself using the following templates. you are encouraged to submit for both Student and Lifestyle sections.

Yes, of COURSE 'inDirect Lines' fans are encouraged to Sumbit!

A special WF gift will be given to every Warrior appearing on my Gallery by the end of 2007. Limited to 12 in each Section; so BE FAST! I'll refreshing the Gallery each year.

STUDENT PIC TEMPLATE - select, copy, and paste to an email. delete all words in between the parenthesis, keep all boldfaced fonts and other symbols:

*{photo/action or casual}

*{caption/photo credit of your photo}

* {name} (if i have given you a WF Tribal Nickname; please include that as a 'middle' name, i.e; John 'Hakado Ru' Kuhlman. you can, if desired, describe what your Tribal name means)

* {choose one: Grandfather Warrior, Grandmother Warrioress, Father Warrior, Mother Warrioress, Solo Warrior}

* {Path status; Formal (Online or Private) Student, Informal Student, Fan, Friend, or Sunrider} (If you have earned a Master, or Warrior Student Inka from me in the past, please list; i'll be reviewing my Inka rolls in 2008)

* {Path devotion; how many months or years have you 'danced along' the WF Path; informally and/or otherwise)

* {date of birth}

* {residence}

* {occupation}

* My Strongest WF Discipline is: {choose either; Strength, Cardio, Yoga, Meditation, or Nutritional (means; Ahara Jaya or Mastery of Food)

* My Strongest WF Lifestyle Principle is: {choose either; Breath & Posture, Mindfulness, Appropriate Action, or Practice}

* My most challenging aspect of WF is:

* Thus far, my Highest Realization stemming from my Practice of WF has been:

* {ending note - examples can be a Thank You to Coach or the Temple, your Mantra or a quote, your DreamSpeak, what you'd like others to know about WF, what you love about WF, etc.}

* {contact if desired; your website or email)

WF LIFESTYLE PIC TEMPLATE - select, copy, and paste to an email. delete all words in between the parenthesis, keep all boldfaced fonts and other symbols:

* {photo of you doing ANYTHING relating to ANY of the WF Disciplines (Strength Training, Cardio, Yoga, Meditation, or Nutrition) OR ANY of the Lifestyle Principles; examples; cardio commuting, doing a HouseHold Practice such as Neti, brushing teeth in a yogi squat, sweeping or washing dishes with Non-Dominant Hand, hanging out with your family, this is WIDE OPEN for your creativity! show the conventional fitness world just how deeply we integrate our notion of personal fitness into our lifestyle!}

* {caption and photo credit your submitted photo}

* {name} (if i have given you a WF Tribal Nickname; please include that as a 'middle' name, i.e; John 'Hakado Ru' Kuhlman. you can, if desired, describe what your Tribal name means)

* {choose one: Grandfather Warrior, Grandmother Warrioress, Father Warrior, Mother Warrioress, Solo Warrior}

* {Path status; Formal (Online or Private) Student, Informal Student, Fan, Friend, or Sunrider} (If you have earned a Master, or Warrior Student Inka from me in the past, please list; i'll be reviewing my Inka rolls in 2008)

* {Path devotion; how many months or years have you 'danced along' the WF Path; informally and/or otherwise)

* {contact if desired; your website or email)

WF Warrior Crespo Gets Podium at Furnace Creek 508!

"As a 508 veteran I sought you out for advice and your training plan was exactly what I needed to get not only my body but my mind in the right place to tackle what is billed as ‘The Toughest 48 Hours in Sport’…… 508 miles with 35,000 feet of climbing."

steve ilg's WHOLISTIC FITNESS; STICKING THE LIGHT WHERE IT CAN SHINE, since 1982!

Fill out YOUR Application To Study today at the Pro Shop!


***

Coach,

Just wanted the thank you for the help w/ the 508 training program you put together for me. Though I couldn't bat 1.000 in executing every workout, the ones I did I put 100% into. THe dividends paid off this weekend.

one phrase reverberated thru my head throughout, especially on the climbs..."Don't add drama, add more breath".

Our team finished 2nd in Men's 4X Relay but the FINISHING was the accomplishment. The desert winds are beautiful, a little less so when blowing in your face on a 10 mile climb :) In the middle of my climb out of Death Valley I was greeted by the crescent moon and Venus at the summit....spiritual relief for sure.

thanks again.

head bowed (with sore neck)

Roberto Crespo


READ THE DL EXCLUSIVE STORY ONLY ON DL SUBSCRIPTION FORMAT and see some GREAT PHOTOS FROM ROBERTO's FANTASTIC RACE!

Of Our Practical Spiritual Fitness

as a yogi - one who seeks Union over separation,
struggle comes often in attempting to
live by Direct Experience instead of second-handed
opinions and 'book knowledge.' Of the relative Truth which
visits my feeble Awareness, extraction of Truth from the eon-fashioned
veils of my ignorance, is a Herculean task each amazing day. a task
in which i take supreme and constant delight. of my attempt to remain
spiritually connected to the enormous exquisiteness
of Lila* each day, there is one opinion to which ilg remains firmly of:

For those of us who sincerely
Practice a dharmic life - a life devoted toward cultivation of virtue/Truth - we must do so while serving society.

Here, let me save you from more of my chronic and feeble floundering in dharmic expression. i'll hand you over to one of the most tapped in, wily, rascally, tough, and super kind cats still hanging out on our plane(t) for our self-realization assistance, Tenzin Gyatso also known among a few of us as The Dalai Lama...

DO NOT MISS THIS PRICELESS TEACHING FOR YOUR PRACTICE!!!

join the thousands of Dharma Arrows launched each day from the humble,
powerful Temple beneath the Sacred Peak;

SUBSCRIBE TODAY, OH NOBLE WARRIOR!!!

photo 1) His Holiness by Elton Mello

HP Yoga; Doing Wonders

Hi Coach,

I just have to let you know that last night's HP Yoga Practice
did wonders for me both physically and emotionally.
My reoccuring back pain is gone again, and I slept
like a rock last night. And, even better, I am
happier today than I have been in weeks! Yay! I
don't know what it is - during my hiatus I did your
DVD and I went to a class at Ravenstar and they didn't
even come close!

take care!
Valerie

THE OUTDOOR JOURNEY INTERVIEWS COACH ON MEDITATION

click here and
May your Practice Be Empowered...


THE OUTDOOR JOURNEY INTERVIEW WITH COACH ON MEDITATION

HP Yoga; Committed to developing Strength before Suppleness

"HP Yoga, a sub-discipline of Wholistic Fitness, will never produce suppleness before creating the functional strength to protect it and make it a useful tool toward Enlightenment."
- coach ilg in padmahamasana captured by famed photographer, www.doritthies.com

Surprisingly enough, more and more Seekers are finding their Way to the Wholistic Fitness Temple through the Path of one of my Five Fitness Disciplines; High Performance Yoga®. I say 'surprisingly' because back in 1985, my publishers did not even allow me to use the term Yoga in my book, THE OUTDOOR ATHLETE! They said that the term 'yoga' would scare too many athletes away.

i admit my personal command of the 600+ yoga postures (known as 'asana') is nowhere near the caliber or grace of many 'studio' yogis. To this day, i'll come into the studio to teach my yoga class tight and acidic from hammering a 70-mile bike ride or hard squat session in the gym. So what?! My comparative lack of 'studio yogi' suppleness despairs me not in the least. For just being niftily hyperflexible is not what yoga is about. Too many 'studio yogis' create lax ligaments and tendons from overstretching, suffering from the same egoic malaise as the bodybuilders whom they often poke fun at for their muscle-bound armor. Often, studio yogis are scared to do a mountain trail run with me for fear of twisting their overly limp ankles! Remember, "yoga" means "union"! Each of our physiologic systems should be in Balance with each other; strength, endurance, and suppleness!

Based on such an honoring of the genuine notion of Yoga; i created High Performance Yoga or simply "HP Yoga." Throughout the 1980's, using direct experience gleaned from many yoga Teachers of the East, i snync'd that wisdom with my training in Western Sport Physiology. i find it very 'non-yogic' to attempt to squish, twist, and smash a North American into an South Indian physical practice. We, in the West, do not grow up in our formative years sitting for hours in Lotus Posture. Nor is our constitution - skeletal, physiologic, psychologic - anywhere near the ballpark of a South Indian.

When you purchase a HP Yoga DVD or take one my yoga classes, or follow my sequences in my books, you can be assured that three decades of experience born from elite outdoor sport performance will never produce suppleness before the strength to protect it. And, if HP Yoga can get a rock stiff ultra distance runner like me to over come a broken back and go on to world class sport performances in several sports? You can dang well trust that HP Yoga is going to be YOUR best friend.

Of De Chardin meets De WF Chi!; a photo quote sequence

On Today's DL Subscription...

in the meanwhile,
carry this with your Practice today and may your Sweat be Sacred...


photos:
1) Father Sky. open photo.
2) "There are only, ever, two questions in each moment: Am i grasping or am i concentrating?" - coach ilg, LA, 1/18/05

The Grand Canyon; WF Style...

As seen through the sweat and eyes of WF Online Student and Professional Filmmaker, Daniel Sauve...




only on...




DL Subscription Format;

DON'T MISS THIS CHI HIT, THAT's FOR SURE!!!

WF Tribal Musician Dave Tate; "...a precious gem in a jewel case."

"I've been playing Dave's music in my yoga classes and at home for several years. Astonishingly exquisite, his voice seems as if it is continually tuned by the endlessness of eons. His musicality too, seems as sharply soothing and soaring as the patina plated sandstone spires of his southern Utah homeland. A 'Tate' album is is a precious gem in a jewel case. i bow to the beauty and poetic verve of David Tate!"
- coach steve ilg, ryt/uscf/cpt
creator/Wholistic Fitness and High Performance Yoga
author/TOTAL BODY TRANSFORMATION

visit David Tate's website and listen to samples at:

David Tate Music

Chi Hit From A World Champion

RJ; lovingly known as "Ragin RJ" among our Sangha for his fierce love-coaching and dedication to rid the nation of child obesity. RJ is a World Champion in the Race Across AMerica and one of my teammates in our Furnace Creek 508 championship in Death Valley, CA. i love it when RJ comes to my HP Yoga Classes when i return to LA now and then; he BRINGS THE CHI, BABY!

Read RJ's Chi Hit on today's DL and see his exquisite dharma photograph of his daughter exclusively for DL Readers; RJ was a pro photographer at one point in his life before devoting his Life to Serving Others through Fitness...

Race Day Sees A Rookie Dad's Mistake and...Miracle!

In Tibetan spiritual literature, there is a saying; "Embrace your ten thousand horrible demons and your ten thousand beautiful demons."

In other words; embrace and use it all.

On Saturday, i had a whole laundry list of perfectly fine excuses not to wake up in the freezing cold and run a 10k Mountain Race.

Certainly, anyone would understand a new daddy of a month old baby who just spent the last week in the Intensive Care Unit not doing some silly mountain running race.

A mountain running race is, to me however, as priceless and sacred a form of bettering myself than anything else on this amazing plane(t). Running in that silly mountain race is to me a church going, and who among us would think that going to church, especially after a supremely challenging week, is non-sense? Weird how some pass judgment on another's choice of worship. Why should praying in a pew be Higher than praying among pines? Why should an offering of money to a priest be considered Higher than the offering of sweat into Father Sky?

The very fact that i toed that Start Line yesterday makes this Race Report more meaningful to me than many of my World Championships.

i feel ilg growing in Ways and Layers that extend well, well beyond the paltry piecework of words and forms.

READ COACH's ENTIRE RACE REPORT CHOCK FULL OF DEEP TEACHINGS ALONG WITH HIS SURPRISING FINISH!!!

ONLY ON DL Subscription Format; DO NOT MISS IT!

Conscientious Kindness; The Go To Practice of WF

EXCERPTS FROM TODAYS INCREDIBLE TEACHING ON DL:

***
here is what does not matter:
regardless of how elegantly,
prolifically,
ferociously,
intelligently,
and sweatfully
i attempt to Teach and Transmit
a Path of Balanced Lifestyle Fitness,
seemingly,
most of us treat the engagement of such a Practice as almost fiction.


***

many of us are still hell bent on cluttering up our lives instead of simplifying our Precious Journey.

we must each question our Intent behind our addiction to so much busy-ness.


***

Do you know what i mean when i speak to you about Conscientious Kindness?

That phrase means;
Con = With
Science = Systematic Practice
Kindness = To Treat Others as "Kin"...Kin-dness; the quality of being friendly


i created WF as a Path of Karma Yoga to basically help my own lame self become a better, more whole Human Being during my time spent here. i knew that the Fitness Disciplines alone would not be enough to create a Kinder steve ilg. something had to be interwoven within my...


***

forget about the meditation cushion.

let the yoga mat wither.

watch the rust creep over your barbell set.

does not matter one weensie bit if you just do One Act toward preserving your Practice of WF:

Practice Being Kind.

***

In our Tradition there is a saying - a mantra; if Imparted to you by your Teacher.
It is designed to help the busy-addicted people;
"Man me Ram, hath me kam."

it means...

***

Dance not the line of your neurotic impulses to do,
Dance with the rhythmic line that monuments who you choose to be.


Om So Ti,
the mountain yogi

Dewa On Course To Come Home Today!

THANK YOU OH NOBLE SANGHA!

your collective intensity of concentration upon the Mantra was surely in part responsible for a sudden upshift of
vibrational health for Dewa!

after many tests, it appears as though a rare 'sliding hiatal hernia' may have accounted for Dewa's stoppage of breath two nights ago.

the Head Doctor - a very cool mountain biker/snowboarder - is confident that just treating this 'condition' with mechanical adjustments during and post feeding along with some sleeping adjustments will see the condition solve itself.

so, it appears that on my Precious Baby Daughter's first month birthday, our family will be h(om)e in the Temple again!

we will know more for sure in the early afternoon.

once i can get back to the office; my priorities of course will be to regain step with my Online Students before other business.

i cannot express how deeply i appreciate your Noble Effort at keeping the Sacred Mantra close; it meant everything!
i also thank you for not emailing and providing us some space as we nurse our baby back h(om)e!

during this little Journey, i wish to thank God for the SUNRIDER Herbs, BioBuilde, and the WF Early Morning Ritual. These WF Arrows have kept Ananda and myself absolutely strong, centered, and present with the draining dosages of having a newborn in the Intensive Care Unit.

head bowed,
heart opened wider than ever
to the preciousness of Human Incarnations...


keep your Practice cranked and DL should be back to flinging those treasured Dharma Arrows very soon...

Om Mani Padme Hung

coach

Dewa Admitted Into Hospital; Imparts Her First Big Shiva Teaching

First,
this is not a Temple Gong; no Red Alert.

Yet.

Second;
invoke WF Lifestyle Principle #1;Breath and Posture
Adjust your spine into her most elegant fashion that you have steadily enhanced during your Time with me. Elegance of posture is more than physical; it metaphysically grounds our minds that are usually too quick, too undisciplined to remain centered.

Now,
Take a deep, conscious, and grateful Breath.
Each breath is a miracle; the last 25 years i have been attempting to Teach all of you that, and the last 24 hours, my NewBorn Daughter has drilled that Teaching into myself and Joy like never, ever before.

Third;
please keep the Sacred Mantra close with mind until you hear further from me.

***
Two nights ago, during an extended feeding with Joy in the middle of the night, Dewa stopped breathing, turned as Blue As Krishna, and went Unconscious, slipping temporarily back into the Bardo Realm. Ananda, sleep deprived and exhausted, was now a lightening bolt of Fear; immediately and intuitively turned Dewa over and literally pounded the Prana back into my baby daughter who upchucked a volume of breast milk and then immediately fell fast asleep.

Ananda, understandably awash in tears and in a zombie like fashion, came to me at my now regular bivouac upon the living room couch. Only rookie parents could imagine the depth of our conversation and our hugs. Ananda had faced Shiva squarely in the eyes and handled with poise and perfected action what is surely the most frightening circumstance available in the entire Human Realm; seeing your own baby stop breathing and turn blue and pass out in your arms. i bow to my amazing Ananda; just like i wrote in DL yesterday; ALL of Ananda's training was brought to a peak M(om)ent of Testing in that intense situation and she Stepped Up like the Great Human Being she is!

At the pediatrics the next morning, the Head Doctor admitted Dewa directly into the Pediatrics Intensive Care Unit for observations. Stoppage of breath is not taken lightly with infants.

Flash forward through a lot of stressful terrain to this morning;
Dewa is still in a "gray zone," according to the Doctor. i am in direct contact with all the Doctors. Right now, Ananda and i have chosen the Middle Path out of several conservative and aggressive options provided to us; we will stay with Dewa in the Unit for another 24 hours. a spurious fever is awash among my beautiful baby. Joy and i chant beside Her ear as we watch for aberrations among the host of numbers blinking out to us from the imposing monitor looming over my Precious Lotus Eyed Baby Dewa.

May NONE of you see your own baby's tiny form hooked up to wires like a hard drive within an ICU bed for days of unknowing.


i must now return to the hospital.

More later.

Please keep the Mantra close and sincere.

i humbly express my apologies to my faithful Yoga Students for not being able to teach last night (special thanks to Kiara and Patki for your answer to my Wolf Howl)
and
especially deep apologies to my fiercely faithful Online Students of WF;
it is your loyalty to my Online Path which is the breath behind my ability to do what i attempt to do in the world while attempting to provide for my family;
thank you so much and i look forward to regaining the Work with you at the earliest possible opportunity.

Having signed up for the Advanced Course toward Enlightenment under the most Potent Teachers on the plane(t) three decades ago; i would NOT put it past my Teachers to
have me have to deal with the passing of my own baby.

Such an event is FAR from likely,
however,
if you could see my Little One now,
you would probably do what Ananda and i have been doing a lot of:
crying, appreciating, and loving, loving, loving.

Life is precious. Do not waste it on frivolity.

The Spiritual Journey is just that; spiritual.
It does not give one iota about your personal (egoic) cares.

From the deepest Dancing With Shiva since my mountaineering days,
i
bow
to
Thee;

Practice SUPER Strong Today for our family, okay?

Om Mani Padme Hung,

your loving protector and server of the Dharma through personal fitness

M(om) Stuff and How To Handle It

"There is a good reason why there is a whole lot of 'om' in the word, 'mom'!" - coach ilg. approaching now her first month of being a m(om) to an infant, my Beloved Ananda is shown above on the last day of shooting her Pre-Natal Yoga Video. Once you become a Conscious Parent, you realize that all of your Practice has led you toward being the best guardian of your child as you can be. However, nothing is guaranteed about parenthood or childhood.

Dear Coach,
What I'd like to work on is my relationship with my mother. I get so incredibly frustrated with her and I know that happens with all mom/child relationships but sometimes I cannot understand how we have the same blood. She is so unhealthy physically and mentally and is doing nothing about taking the steps to move in the healthy direction. All she does is complain about how she'll be happy when... you know this saying.

Coach:
i can help.
first, Shishya; Know This:
your mother is not your Mother.
your Soul chose her as a Vehicle, along with your biologic father.
you get frustrated with her, because you do not yet know your True Self.
the only way to work on your relationship with your mother is to work on your
relationship with your True Self. that is what you are i are doing in our Online Studies.

READ THE ENTIRE TEACHING ON TODAY's DIRECT LINES: The Most Valuable Training Partner For The Life and Empowerment Of Your Practice

Beauty and the Dharma?

"When fame really hit me was when Legends of the Fall was released three years after Thelma & Louise. You get no warning about what celebrity is or how to deal with it. It's sort of multitiered. The initial stage is feeling discombobulated and not up to the task. I didn't understand the incessant attention when I went outside, the way people completely focused on me. It made me feel uncomfortable.

"Then you start to see the fickleness of celebrity, that it isn't rooted in something of real value. There is this strange wanting by people to get next to you. It has nothing to do with you but with something they feel they are missing in themselves."
- Brad Pitt

NOW, READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AND SEE HOW COACH USES HIS DIRECT EXPERIENCE WITH CELEBRITES AND SPIRITUAL TEACHERS TO FURNISH AN AMAZING TEACHING!

Got The Hole Shot On Doko Oosliid...

a day after my ascent, Doko Oosliid (shown here to the right of Agassi Peak) had already shut the window of opportunity as She donned her winter clothes. when it comes to running high mountain peaks?

timing is everything.

like so much of this amazingly precious thing called; life!

May your Practice be as Sacred as a Spiral Dance up and down the Highest Peak,

the mountain yogi


*** DON'T MISS COACH's EXHILARATING ACCOUNT OF HIS RUNNING ASCENT OF THE HIGHEST PEAK OF ARIZONA; INCLUDES PHOTOS AND TEACHINGS FROM THE SPIRIT, ANIMAL, AND MOUNTAIN RUNNING WORLDS!

SUBSCRIBE TO DL AND EMPOWER YOUR PRACTICE WITH "THE WORLD'S FITTEST YOGI."

an ilg eighties sighting!

oh,
do your Sense of Humor a great favor...

don't miss this classic shot of coach in the eighties with his world-famous hairstyle...

"Don't Accept The Pain, Accept The Pran."

"Don't Accept The Pain, Accept The Pran."
- coach ilg


"Running blocks ankle chi.
Strength training blocks wrist chi.
However; without Running & Strength Training? = NO Chi!"
- coach ilg


Coming up soon ONLY for SUBSCRIBERS TO DL;
my exclusive mini-sequence called, "The Rockin' Moroccan" that destroys ignorance and brittleness within the pivotal ankles,feet, wrists, and finger joints. Nowhere are the intersections of our Consciousness more intense that at these Energy Vents. Those of you who have ever done grappling (or worse, have been taken out by a grappler) know precisely how quickly a grappler can dismantle ANY fighter! Well, without knowing and practicing an effective asana for opening and freeing and inviting suppleness and chi restoration to this Energy Vents, our bodies and minds quickly what in yoga is known as 'tamasic'...the cellular and vibrational lethargy that leads to tension and stress. Without opening and keeping open these Vents, runners sprain ankles and get horribly stiff. Without opening and keeping open these Vents, gym people are prone to shoulder impingements, lower back strain, and becoming 'muscle bound.'

you ready to Learn Again, Grasshopper?

go(o)d. then get signed up today for a DL Subscription! it's ONLY 10 dang dollars PER MONTH!

then sit close to "Svadhyaya Central"...otherwise known as DIRECT LINES!

May your Practice lead you to purify your Pain,

the mountain yogi


photo: here, i venture deep into the Pain in the top of my right foot and attempt to replace the Pain with Prana. this is the whole key of asana.

WF Triggers, "The Inner Work That Needs To Be Done"

Dear Coach Ilg,
I just ordered your book and expect to receive it in the mail next week. I look forward to learning about your program. Of all the fitness and health programs I have seen and read about, I believe that yours is the only one that mentions the Inner Work that needs to be done. I have always struggled to maintain a consistent work out, but it doesn't always happen. I have a suspicion that some Inner Work needs to be done.
Thanks for your information on your web site which motivated me to learn more. Congratulations on your new baby.
Aloha and I bow back to you from the top of an active volcano (Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii).
Nancy Reilly

***

Most Noble Yogini Nancy,

your 'suspicions' are right on Target...the Target of Enlightenment.

let me know when you are really, really ready to do that Inner Work.
i have a very effective Path for you...you might say, i've been waiting for you...
and i will continue to work on myself to be the best possible Teacher for you
when i hear your sincere Knock upon my humble Temple Door...

head bowed from the extinct volcano of Doko Oosliid,
coach ilg

*
photo by jill torrance of Doko Oosliid and the training roads surrounding the WF Temple

Wapiti cranks the poetic warrior dharma pen!

Noble Sangha,

"Wapiti" Ward just submitted a GORGEOUS poem in the SanghaLounge; please do yourself a favor and read it!

i TAF he put in the Current Events section for some reason; those poets...

love you all...falling off the grid...enjoy the Archives...

enjoy your Sweat and Stillness today!

i'm running the Peak! i'll send some Dharma Light from nearly 13,000'!!!!! YEAH BABY!!!!

om so ti,

the mountain yogi

Wednesday; Off The Grid and into the Eternal Witness

A heads up, especially for my Online Students;
i guess we are going to be out of electricity all day tomorrow (Wednesday)
(hey, it's still the wild west, you know)
so DL will be back on Thursday
and i have all SORTS of great new Teachings lined up;

also, thank you for all the kind words about the last few entries of DL...
i appreciate the Metta and love it when the diversity of WF shines through!

so, keep your contributions, pictures, and Metta coming and
i look forward to our continuing Journey...

i leave you with this which came through me tonight while teaching another
kickass HP Yoga Class here beneath the Sacred Peak:



PRACTICE FEARLESSNESS

our home is not our home.
our body is not our true self.
our family is not our family.
our car is not our vehicle.
our money is not our true Wealth.

we want the Spiritual Journey so long as it meets our..





DO NOT MISS THIS ENTIRE TEACHING and picture of Coach in Floating Padmasana...

Subscribe to the creator of all Online Fitness Training and the world's orginal Transpersonal Fitness Trainer TODAY!

***


photo 1; a poppy along the WF Temple H(om)e's front walkway catches coach's eye as, "i see her play witness to It All with such ineffable poise...ahhh...to live like a flower!"

Dewa Dharma; My Little Precious Jewel Reaches 21 Days Old

My Darling Dewachen,

in honor of your 21st Day of coming into this Formful UniVerse* and, to let you know that Amma and Abba ( mommy and daddy) are still ATTEMPTING to bring Non-Attachment (vairagya) to your absolutely ADORABLE form,
i Gift unto Thee on this Day of Days, an excerpt from a very famous book that many Awakened Adults read and re-read to keep our Practice of Non-Attachment at the forefront of our Consciousness.

The book is called...


OH, we hate to tell you, however, this might just be the MOST ADORABLE DL ever! DO NOT MISS THE ENTIRE TEACHING PLUS...and you CAN't BEAT THIS: more Dewa Pictures, including a sneak peak at the world's fittest Baby Glutes!

photo:
1) She's got me; Hook, Line, and Sinker. It is great Honor to take some of the mountaineering like stress from Joy and feed Dewa some of Joy's breast milk from a very fancy smancy bottle. I only wish i could lactate! Hey, maybe...oh well, anyway, much of my Stay-At-H(om)e Fatherhood practices have evolved into what i call; Dewa Sadhana! i Love it! i simply cannot imagine going away from Dewa for entire days to some 'office.' No way.

MONTHLY PRACTICE STATS; Summer of 2007

Most Noble Sangha,
okay, yesterday was the poetry,
today? the PAIN!

below are my Monthly Practice Stats for July, August, and September.

i always wondered how my Practice would uphold if i had a baby.
others made it seem like having a baby completely destroys Abhyasa (Steadfast Practice).
so far, Dewa has only deepened my Practice in sacred, impossible to describe ways.

ironically enough, eleven days after Dewa was born i attained my
Fourth Overall Podium in Four Different Sports in the calendar year of 2007.
That's not Age Group victories, youngsters, Overall Podiums:

• January - 3rd Place Overall USSSA Western Regional Snowshoe Championships
• February - 1st Place Overall; Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon
• March - 1st Place Overall; Topaten Nordic High Altitude Ski Championships (new Course Record)
• September - 3rd Place Overall; Flagstaff Marathon 10k

Clever, eh? Too bad such versatile fitness is overlooked by our Addicted to Sport Specificity world.
In fact, if my cycling season didn't suck so bad thanks to the ongoing asthma i gave myself at Topaten in March,
i maybe, just maybe could have squeaked out 5 Overall Podiums in 5 Different Sports in this calendar year.
i've pulled stunts like these throughout my life. i smile deeply when i recall when i once pulled off a Bodybuilding Podium and a 50k Mountain Running Race Podium; in the SAME MONTH! that is about as extreme a physiologic gap as a human athlete can bridge, at least in my opinion. so, yes, it feels very go(o)d to have had this banner year, my first such
one since my 10-year Dharma Mission in Los Angeles.

what makes my inner smile especially deep from this season of racing; is to have experienced and contributed to every step of the pre-natal, delivery, and post-natal Journey of my baby daughter during such a Wholistically Fit year. there was no trace of your typical obsessive/compulsive athlete in my season.

fact is; i love being a Wholistic Fitness athlete. i love being brave enough to let go of sport mastery to become a Beginner again in a new one throughout the year. i love being recognized as a cyclist by cyclists, a gym guy by gym guys, a skier by skiers, a climber by climbers, a yogi by yogis, a mountain runner by mountain runners...i like always showing up on their playing field and giving the Sport Specific addicts a run for their money. i only wish more of them would play the widespread (wholistic) game! it's lonely in a way, the Path of the WF athlete. however, the karmic, physiologic, emotive, and spiritual return on being a WF athlete instead of a Sport Specific athlete is far, far too much fun and merit-full to turn around walk downstream, along with the ego-strengthening current of the Discipline-Specific 'main-stream'. ilg prefers his little tributary of Wholistic Fitness and the body/mind symmetry and balance she imparts.

the slight dip in Cardio Hours during the month Dewa was born (September), is due to
getting off the bike -which requires longer training hours - and into mountain running and inline Ski Skate mode which mandate less training hours, something that helps a new daddy warrior!

So, may these foot-tracks inspire your own Abhyasa
and may your insights from Direct Experience of Sweat and Stillness empower your ageless life...

head bowed,
the consistent one


***

NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MIMIC THESE TRAINING VOLUMES ON MY VERY LIMITED CALORIC INTAKE!



SORRY: DUE TO HISTORY OF PEOPLE TRYING TO "KEEP UP" WITH MY TRAINING STATS AND LIMITED CALORIC INTAKE AND HURTING THEMSELVES,
MY MONTHLY PRACTICE STATS ARE ONLY AVAILABLE FOR DL SUBSCRIBERS