Steve,
I really appreciate the effort you put into your book, "Total Body Transformation". It is well-balanced, informative, and very insightful. However, I have a couple quick questions I was hoping you could answer:
1) I am a practicing zen buddhist who tries to practice simplicity and renunciation as much as possible. Because I don't spend alot, it is almost impossible for me to fork out the money required for a gym membership in the city. I also move around and travel alot, which makes functional, portable exercises very important to me. Is it possible to do strength training using bodyweight exercises or inexpensive substitutes that anyone can afford? I am a reformed long-distance runner who is trying to incorporate yoga and martial arts into my routine to balance myself out and its hard to stretch the dollar between a dojo/studio/gym.
2) As a long-distance runner, as long as I am diligent with yoga and cross-training, can I run 5-6 days during the week? What kind of mileage is too much?
Thanks for your time and keep up the good work!
Peace,
Patrick
P.S I read "Run to 100" and Roy Wallack mentioned that you had a new yoga book coming out. Any information on that?
COACH REPLIES:
Namaste Kalyana Mitra!
first, thank you for your Metta. and, remember, TBT is just the tip of the WF iceberg. i wrote it for mainstream awareness, which, well...let's just say, that if you were an Online Student of WF, you'd see just how basic TBT is when it comes to a Wholistic Fitness lifestyle.
my answer to your first question is easy.
click right here and order a HP PROP WORKOUT DVD.
DVD Section of the WF Tribal Pro Shop
having said that, taking at least 3 months out of your Practice Year to crank the Iron Temple Chi in a real gym is invaluable for any spiritual fitness warrior. it's only 3-months out of your year to follow the Green Tara into Cosmic Yang into Frugal Realm, yet the deep mental,physical, and spiritual fiber gained from those three months makes it a yearly pilgrimage NOT to be missed. ilg has it from very High Sources that even Shakyamuni would have endorsed such an approach to personal tapas.
here, i want you to read something from one of my Master Students of WF from just today...listen, just LISTEN to the Dharma in this WF-trained Warrior and then you tell me that you don't need a gym:
"In other news, I started going through the Green Tara Program again this week. It feels good to be back in the gym. My ego keeps noticing how “lame” this gym is compared to the fancy one {i used to train at}. Then, of course, I mindfully enter the movement at hand and no-thing matters except what I’m experiencing. The weights are just the catalyst, and it could be a rock in a field instead of a dumbbell in a gym for all I care in that moment. While in the past my understanding of your coaching phrase, “my workout is everywhere” was that any activity can become a WF practice (a narrowing/focusing of experience due to mindfulness), my insight today is that when you really start to internalize this way of experiencing the world it has the opposite affect too: your workouts in the gym take on an EXPANSIVENESS that connects them to the rest of your life/world. BOOM. Transpersonal fitness, baby! Gym? What gym? Old rusty dumbbell? What dumbbell? When I “get it” like this, there’s a non-dual merging into the moment that, well, transcends all that stuff."
you don't hear this type of talk coming from any other personal fitness path...around here, however, it's common.
as for question two; the answer is, 'it depends.'
i mean, are you a competitive runner?
if so, when you enter a race, do you really want to gain the top step of the podium?
what is your diet like? have you mastered the deep cellular nutrition required to be a Wholistic Fitness yogi, capable of podiums in physiologic diversity?
what's your Connective Tissue health and stability like?
injury history?
sure, you can run 7 days a week and still do asana, zazen, and strength train, yet to what degree? i've pushed the wholistic performance envelope longer and further than probably anyone on the planet, yet, i'd need much more information to help you.
as the Buddha said, "The art of life is balance."
so, depending upon your INTENT behind your practices, it really depends upon subjective variables.
cyclic training is key, i can tell you that much. your Training Year must mimic the natural rhythms of nature; winter, spring, summer, and autumn all dance and delight our senses with various intensities and volumes.
so too, should your Practices.
this question would require an Online or Phone consultation, both of which are available in the WF Tribal Pro Shop.
May this complimentary answer somehow be of assistance to your Sacred Sweat...
in gassho,
coach ilg
ps; Roy and i are collaborating on "Age Reversing Yoga For Athletes" as we speak...er, as i write this. whatever.
