“A Flat Spine: High Performance Yoga™ for Cyclists”

Let’s forget about all the cycling equipment and expensive tweaks you’ve purchased over the past, say 3 years. Let’s trade ALL of it for something that is endlessly more vital to your enjoyment, performance, and spiritual transformation through cycling: a flat spine while riding. Oh, like you have something MORE important to work on over the winter than getting a flatter back, more open, powerful hips, and a stronger core?

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The Imogene '10 Chronicles, Part 3: Toeing The Start Lines = Yoga. The WF Sacred Sport Pilgrmage "Bucket List"

click pics to deepen the chi hits...





"Toeing The Start Line," has long been a catch phrase of mine.

Here is why.

Doing what is required to simply Toe The Start Line of a race (or of a performance) is tantamount to cultivating the Warrior qualities which the Ancient Enlightened Ones advised as key for success on the spiritual journey; steadfast practice (Abhyasa), Faith (Shraddha), determination (sankalpa), and mental collectedness (sama-dhana).

At a deeper, perhaps largely unconscious level among athletes, the desire to Toe The Start Line reflects our ancient Warrior lives and symbolizes our inherent desire to become liberated through intensity of training pain and sweat.

We now live in a very diluted age of Yogic integrity where "Yoga for Athletes" is being taught by dancers, and 'Pilates' teachers' and many other overly limber studio yogis who themselves have never even done what it takes to consistently Toe The Start Lines of races; let alone match the ultra-endurance, high-concussion, and varied physiologic diversity which you'll find throughout my Racing Bio which informs to a large degree the success and Transmission of the WF Path.

Yoga means "Wholistic Practice,"
and as such, a yogi must never push away any aspect from his or her understanding of what Yoga includes. Not one area of our physiologic capacities should ever be considered 'not important' to our yogic fitness.

Toeing the Start Lines of sport (and life) prepare the yogi for our ultimate Start Line; our Bardo Entry which is also the Start Line for cashing in our just how deeply we chose to train for the ultimate podium of the Human "Race"....Enlightenment.

Why do you think They call us the Human "Race"?
Life is a competition; it's a competition in it's truest sense which means, "to arise from within." As you peruse my Race Results, i think you'll find a refreshing, inspiring example of a 'broken back' athlete who keeps toeing the Start Lines in order to Practice what i teach; genuine yoga; genuine wholeness.

That is important to me...as i Trust it is to you, as well.

***
GET OUT AND DO:

TOEING THE WF TRADITIONAL SACRED SPORT PILGRIMAGES
aka:
The "Bucket List" as a WF Yogi

here are the Traditional Three Sacred Sweat Pilgrimages of Wholistic Fitness®; each one should be on your "Bucket List"...guided training and intensives are available for each:

Spring:
The Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, Durango Colorado. Each Memorial Day Weekend. Beginning WF Yogis can just do the Bicycle Tour, Intermediates should do the Road Race, while the Highest WF Aspirants need to do the Omnium. The salient event is the 50-mile Road Race over two 10,000+' mountain passes...often in snowy/rainy weather!

Autumn:
The Imogene Pass Run, Ouray to Telluride, Colorado. Always the second weekend in September. 17 miles; 10 up, 7 down. High point is 13,114' at the famous Imogene Pass.

Winter:
The Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon, Grants, New Mexico. President's Day Weekend (usually the third weekend in February). A four-sport Pilgrimage to the 11,311' sacred summit of Tsidool (Mt. Taylor) and back. Ironman Champion and WF Devotee, Fit Kit of Canada, checked this one off his WF Bucket List last year saying, "That made Ironman's feel like a sprint!"

i Trust i'll see you on these Start Lines, My Mighty Limb'd Yogis!


- coach steve ilg

photos by Ananda:
1) ilg takes a Pre-Start bow to YOU for your inspiration to get New Daddy Ilg here!
The real spiritual victories are already scored by just Toeing The Start Line!

2) the Imogene Pass Run Start Line; Ouray, Colorado.

3) The Gun goes off!

HP Yogi JVS...and his final Hum Saah! before IPR!

HP Yogi JVS; he's on the MAP Aminos, he's been flawless in consistently taking my HP Yoga classes at The Hub...he's lost bucketloads of weight, and this Saturday, he toes the Start Line of one of America's most intensely sacred mountain yogic pilgrimages available to any yogi worthy of the name; the Imogene Pass Run. He writes me tonight...

***

Mother Hen Ilg,
Resting comfortably in my recovery compression tights tonight. I'm glad I went to HP PROP tonight, it was my final "hum saah" before IPR.

My summer training has been an amazing adventure. Thank you for all of your support and guidance to get me to the start line this Saturday. I'll keep the Sunrider herb system in mind as an option for my well being.

See you in Ouray.

as you instructed, I will "run with love."

Mighty Nervous Mountain Yogi

JVS

photo by ilg; Mountain Yogi JVS getting it done weeks ago on the famed, Jones Creek Trail; early prep for IPR.

Listening To September

us Wholistic Fitness® yogis are easy to spot in September; we can't resist crankin' a Crane Posture on a sun-baked rock while out running...photo of ilg by Ananda during yesterday's Wholistic Strollercise® with my girls.

It’s early September...a blissful 30 day crush of utter perfection
when the sattvic wave of summer begins to shrivel like forlorn leather. Leaves turn. Bow hunters creep the high country. Seasonal urgency begins to express itself in myriad and ever changing ways; arm warmers on the Club Rides, night lights on the commuter bicycles, and the gentle shock of wet coldness as i trod barefoot through the grass, fetching the morning newspaper. Calli Tea feels really, really appropriate now.

I know its early September when Grandfather Sun makes His grand entrance over Missionary instead of Raider Ridge as He begins His glorious arc. The Native yogis of our land - Turtle Island - lived by solar and lunar expression. It's what Hatha Yoga means: Ha = Sun, Tha - Moon, Yoga = Union. A human life is orchestrated by the Dance of Sun and Moon. At least we used to. We should now. That is Yoga. Go backpacking for several days during September; you'll understand more about Hatha Yoga than any Nag Champa incensed studio or hot yoga teacher could ever pray to impart.

Dewachen in traditional yogi garb (butt ass naked) checks out a Smooth Green Snake (Opheodrys vernalis) yesterday on the banks of the Sacred Animas beside the WF Temple H(om)e. photo by ilg...click to enlarge.

In September
the Sacred Animas floats a sexy mist above her dwindling volume. The mist - anciently born - dances before my riparian home like bardo smoke sucking the Ancient Ones from etheral slumber. Indeed, these morning mists and the humidity they deliver are a sanctified Blessing apart from the Sage which perfumes these rocky heights.

In September,
i find myself restraining a deeply rooted nostalgia for each Kale pulled, every Tomato plucked. Such backyard harvest need not a bar code to determine its due date but telegraph their maturity by a sheer and natural appearance to those Who Listen. In each garden lies a zendo waiting for the temple gong of nurturing.

September is
the precious month where every sentient being grows in some unsullied way.
Seedy plants and bundled up morning cold
snaps all of us up here from summer's sweet stickiness.
Time to get the wood for winter.
Get the fenders on the commuter bikes.
Place the ski wax orders, now.

After thirty-eight summers at 6,512' or more above sea-level, let feeble ilg tell you, when September arrives; you listen.

You listen
to the ultra sweet sounds of morning as you pour the locally made "Southwest Blend" into the bird feeders. Within moments Grosbeaks, Kinglets, Phoebes, and Finches dance their privately known hierarchy among the Siberian Elm branches. And what a dance is it is! Durango sees 310 wild birds as seasonal or yearly residents. The entire state of Minnesota only fetches 312 by comparison. Careful, though, on the birdseed, i reMind myself each treasured morning...birdseed attracts Bears which have found my yard to be a Preferred Pooping Place. Might be the Black Walnut tree. Regardless, too much birdseed and the Bears will raid like Norwegians the feeders, then the trash, and then - like the woman up the valley - your very own kitchen.

What else does ilg listen to during these jeweled days of September?

ilg listens
to the soundless sound of a Smooth Green Snake slivering her slow way from the 40-degree night into the wall of early morning light along the banks of the Mother Animas.

ilg listens to every morsel of sunshine bouncing off the Gamble Oak and Juniper and even the Driftwood, floating....floating. i centered my entire Shavasana meditation tonight to my yoga students based upon Driftwood floating upon the Mother Animas.

By sheer Listening?

Listening, my friend along the Path, turns to love unadulterated by societal convention.

Listening transforms.
Listening invites Insight.
Insight welcomes Empowerment.
Empowerment = Enlightenment.
so,
as the only two words to the Wholistic Fitness® bible states:
"Just Listen."

And especially; coach ilg wants thee to listen to September as humble gardens everywhere spew out incomprehensible amounts of food that Yogi Jesus would applaud. IT'S A MIRACLE!

To eat local in the ilg h(om)e?

Step outside and just say, "Please, Garden."

We've got seven weeks until the first hard freeze.

Maybe six.

Those of you that have been following ilg's tracks all these decades know that Autumn tis my most powerful time of year; tis the season of Imogene Pass Race (coming up in 3 days, 20 hours!!!), of roller skiing, and my love affair with falling leaves upon frozen singletrack way up high.

In this elegy
for another awesome summer,
ilg bows to you.
and to Yours.
Endlessly i bow along this head-shaking miracle of existence upon this absolutely implausible plane(t).

that is all.

go out and breathe
September pran.


yogi ilg

from camping to getting clobbered on the Club Ride...another Durango weekend...

"What stories,
what 'mental tapes'
are you attached to
that destroys your serenity?"

- coach steve ilg - camping rumination



click on pics to enlarge the chi hit

yesterday, way up high on the Colorado Trail near Molas Pass; i'm trying to teach Dewa how to look like Clint Eastwood in this pic by Ananda because, "It's a good way to scare off bears," i tell her. Yes, Dewa is eating a SUNRIDER Herb; SUNBAR..a staple of our camping diet!

my boobs are NOT that flat (yet)! love the baby-carrier but it does nothing to enhance my pectoral magnitude. gotta give up for my two girls; camping in the high country is not easy; especially with a nearly 3-year old. however, my two girls are champs even sitting out a thunderstorm at 10, 740' and temps nearing freezing. some speak of providing "higher education"...to abba ilg, however, this is my style of providing a HIGHER EDUCATION to our chi-ld...especially when they are young and assimilate pranic and natural beauty and power so easily and deeply.


***

so, after hauling my Rinpoche Dewachen around in the high country and a basically sleepless night in the tent, i show up this morning for what was supposed to be a A/B/C Club Ride of 80ks with 35% of the terrain being on dirt/gravel roads.

Fine, i think to myself, there are 171 members of the Durango Wheel Club and surely, in the peak riding season, there will be enough B or C riders that i can hang with...

i time trial (new daddies are ALWAYS time trialing to make it to any start line) over to the Durango Sports Club parking lot and there huddling like ducks over their bikes are only 7 riders; 3 are pro and the rest are all A riders.

great...
instead of A/B/C
it's gonna be A-and-me

and that, my Noble Warriors of Wholeness; spells H-U-R-T in case you are poor in understanding the pain of elite cycling.

i was lucky and i mean L-U-C-K-Y to hang with this Squad Of Two Wheeling Specialists of Supreme Torture until 41-kilometers at which point i foolishly took a pull with my new HP PROP WORKOUT student, Michael C which buried my actual Heart Rate in the vicinity of 200bpm and my Perceived Effort in the vicinity of triple hell-and-then-some.

photo: Kristin (left) and Peanut Butter & Co/Twenty-12 teammate Coryn Rivera

there are fewer more inspirational cyclists than Kristin McGrath, (the photo of Kristin in this link is taken at The Hub; the Practice Cave for HP Yoga in Durango!) a pro road cyclist and native Durangatang whose recovery from a brutal crash courtesy of a stop-sign running truck is incredible (click the above Kristin link to be inspired!). Kristen's recovery miracle is like mine in the sense that yoga played a huge part. Kristin has done yoga, 'since i can remember,' she told me today. she also told me that everyone keeps telling her that she should come take my class but, get this, "It sounds like it is too hard." Geez. well, KG promptly put in a pro-level attack at kilometer 46 using her titanium femur on these minor rollers for three miles before a final 6-mile dirt stretch that put your feeble coach into a tizzy...

"that's okay," i told myself as the seven cyclists hammered away from me like a mirage in time-elapse, "i'll follow their tracks in the dirt so i can find my way home."

you'd think a Durango homey like ilg would know these roads by now.evidently , you have no idea of the massive amounts of dirt roads which spiderweb the rural countryside around Durango.

so, like a forlorn Tracker on a scant trail, i nitpicked my aerobic way through the pinon and ponderosa county roads until i came upon EB, one of the elite 7 and my neighbor;
"EEEEB!," i said gleefully for seeing a familiar face,"you didn't need to wait up for me!"

"Aw," he shrugged my statement off in friendliness common to my homefolk, "those guys were going way too fast for me anyway." we rode side by side in the dirt, chatting about important issues; like recent crashes, animals, and how fast the summer sped by.

then, we came upon Kristin who had rear-flatted on her mega-fast machine. she was being assisted by Eric and Dale. Dale started to talk about this hilarious internet comic titled; "Honey, Can I Ride My Bike Today? it is hilarious; click on it. anyway, it was kinda fun watching a pro figure out how to replace a tube when the valve stem of all our spare tubes was too short for her fancy deep rims. they figured out a way though. pros always figure out a way. it's their job.

not mine.

mine? is to inspire YOU
to get out and DO...
even if you are the last one in the peleton,
the one waaay off the back...
because you and i have a podium different than most;
it's called Wholeness.
and to practice Wholeness requires attacking our weaknesses
instead of ignoring them.
and that
to me
and to the Ancient Masters of Yoga...of Unity...of Wholeness
is what matters most
in the long run.

so get out and do the do
and get to know the real You.

head bowed,
ilg

"...walking on air..." HP Yoga heals Student SL...

"The tightness will not resolve by itself.
The pains, the aches, the lack of equanimity...
those are all beacons streaming from our Inner Lighthouse.
Feeble ilg says, Just Do The Practice
and Begin Again and Again, and Endlessly Again to
breathe into and release that which is restricting us.
Don't ignore the Inner Lighthouse! Honor your Inner Light!"
- coach ilg
'the broken back yogi'

Dear Coach,
Thank you so much for class last night.
Thank you so much, Im hungry for more yoga!
I felt like my body floating on the Pacific Ocean
with bluest of the bluest pearls all around me!
How does that happen? .. u have to let go ......... :

I felt like I was walking on air after class
and I felt like I lost 10 pounds,
I was definately more limber!
My friend and I walked for 2 hours after your class.
I even missed my chiropractor appt
that I am usually early for
because my neck is so stiff
that it is in need of readjustment twice a week.
And I usually sleep less than the required 8 hours
and so tired all the time,
but I slept more than 8 hours last night.
I think I love yoga now.
I cant wait for Monday evening.
I even dreamed i could kiss the clouds last night!

HP Yogini Student SL
durango
8*10

Photo: Summits come in all shapes, sizes, and metaphors
for all of us! Dewachen summits a boulder during a hike
up the Engineer Pass Trail yesterday. photo by Joy. click to enlarge.

Same As All-Ways; Open Hips + Endurance + Strength = Elite Elusive Yoga...

Steve Ilg is the...

same as all-ways;
stunned by how difficult it is for me to keep opening my hips while cranking consistent cardio volumes and intensities, especially peak running...how cOMe so few seem enraptured with this High Endeavor?

i mean; we now have a WHOLE LOT of "yoga stars" preaching about the Kundalini, Sushumna, Mula Bandha...yet...ilg wonders, how cOMe all these fabulous "Yoga Masters" just stay addicted to studio asana instead of finding and cultivating and 'mastering' yoga within ALL physiologic capacities of their treasured bodies?

if SAFE Enlightenment, or Chakra Balancing, Mula Bandha, Sushumna Engagement, or Kundalini Arising is to be attained,
is not cOMmon sense to steadfastly master ALL the capacities of the body across the physiologic spectrum?

i mean, does anyone ever study any more the intensities of the Bardo?

will simply being a 'gumby' really gonna matter in the incomprehensible endurance and strength intensities and shock waves immediately encountered upon our Last Gasp?


head bowed,
the feeblest yogi ever

photo; a hairy chested ilg in a high wind attempt at Cosmic Dancer Posture or Natrajasana as caught by Marc Romanelli near Los Alamos, NM

Only Two Questions in each M(om)ent...

"There are only ever two questions in
each moment;
am i grasping or am i concentrating? "

- steve ilg, 1/18/05
founder/High Performance Yoga®



photo; ilg in 2005 in his home 2 blocks from his Ventura Boulevard HP YOGA STUDIO in Tarzana, California.

***

TIME TO CRANK TO YOUR OWN HIGHEST WHOLENESS with HP Yoga® at
THE HUB!


remember:
for those of you who are unable to crank the
live HP CHI with us in Durango?
click here
for my DVD Weaponary for your ascent into the CHI!

suggested quivers:
• Beginning Warrior Quiver: Joy's QUICKFIX DVD
• Intermediate Warrior Quiver: HP Yoga Basic Strength + EMR
• Advanced Warrior Quiver: HP PROP WORKOUT + EMR + KINLANI FLOW




HP YOGA® is an intradiscipline of steve ilg's WHOLISTIC FITNESS® Personal Training Path since 1982

Not Your Typical "Studio Yoga"...

"HP Yogis are not your typical 'studio yogis'...
we consider Lactic Acid
a Sacred and Vital Source of Deep Prana!"
- steve ilg
founder/High Performance Yoga®

click to enlarge the Chi Hit(L-R): HP Yoginis Linda, Lisa, and Amy.

not only did these Princesses of the Prana
crank up to "High Point" on the Colorado Trail above Durango,
but they also cranked out some pretty dang good Garaduasanas or 'Eagle Poses.'
taken in my backyard since chi-ldhood; San Juan National Forest, Junction Creek Canyon

***

TIME TO CRANK TO YOUR OWN HIGHEST WHOLENESS
with HP Yoga® at

THE HUB !

check out this week's Practice intensity below
and
if you can't join us in Durango?

be sure you have my

HP Yoga® Warrior Training Package...

the absolute ultimate in Wholistic Asana from Wholistic Fitness® since 1982:

• HP Yoga®; Basic Strength DVD
• HP Yoga®; PROP WORKOUT DVD
• HP Yoga® Teacher Joy's; QuickFix DVD

20% Discount if your order all three!

"why just work out
when really?
we need to wring it out!"
-steve ilg

HP Yoga® is an intradiscipline of steve ilg's Wholistic Fitness®

Egoic Interference subliminated by determination

"Never let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."
- John Wooden

HP Yogin, Brad Tafoya, of Durango honors Father Sky while rooted in honoring our beautiful Mother Earth beside Vallecito Creek above Durango last week. Yogi BT knows the value of doing some HP Sacred Sweat to help mitigate the compression inherent to several day backpack trips.

This week in "The Cave of Champions" is RESTORATIVE WEEK, including the utterly unique HP Prop® Restorative Class on Wednesday.

Stress Reduction: A Training Effect from WF

"Wholistic Fitness® reduces stress in our life
because we learn inner skills to adjust to 'problems' in a positive way.
What we used to see as 'problems'
become transformed into blessings; opportunities to Rise Higher!"
- steve ilg

HP Yogini Melissa Van Sant, owner of Rose Pedals in Durango, crankin' toward the summit of Jones Creek singletrack this morning; 2,375' in 4.8 miles of drop-dead beautiful singletrack to 9,580'. click to enlarge...the 'impressionist' quality of this pic is not via any PhotoShop antics; it's from my own sweat on my cell phone camera!

Melissa's daughter, Jennifer, an HP Yogini too, also cranked this run...6 months after giving birth! Jennifer knows how to suffer. She ran cross country under one of our nation's best cross-country coaches; Ron Keller of Durango.



Melissa's warrior husband, John? Yup, John's allegiance to HP Yoga is reversing all sorts of chronic pains from construction working...he cranked the "Hum SAH" HP CHI big time with us!

You Want Yoga? Better climb to the Summit: HP YOGA® a subdiscipline of Wholistic Fitness®

click to enlarge...

don't live in the Practice Nirvana of Durango?

bummer, dude

dat's ok...

click here for all the WF Training Weaponry you'll need to Rise Higher Than Ever:

WF Pro Shop

HP PROP WORKOUT taking (inner) flight among Durango's elite and not quite elite athletes!!!!

How much does ilg love the Noble HP Sangha?!?! you Durangotangs CRANKED the Sacred Sweat of HP Prop Workout in the Cave of Champions tonight!!! you inspire me sooo much! off the front as ever...

photo; ilg's torso radiant with the HP YOGA® chi after teaching another Blissed Out Sweatfest

Exercise Profile: Touching Far Away Things With Our Minds

click pic to enlarge the Teaching

Your WF Assignment Today:

"Be more concerned about making others feel good about themselves than making them feel good about us."
- John Maxwell

Dewachen Ilg demonstrating the precise Teaching and Transmission of the Ai Imawa Posture;
Touching Far Away Things With Our Minds

photo by abba ilg, sunday, 5*16*10 via camera phone. location; Junction Creek, see yesterday's iDL.

the greatest endeavor of your life

please do not republish without consent. thank you.

coach in MahaMudra by James Q Martin

now,
click HERE
for a tremendous asset to your own Practice of Meditation and Yoga...

***

Just as a writer learns the spontaneous freedom of expression only after years of often grueling study, and just as the simple grace of a dancer is achieved only with enormous, patient effort, so when you begin to understand where meditation will lead you, you will approach it as the greatest endeavor of your life, one that demands of you the deepest perseverance, enthusiasm, intelligence, and discipline. - Sogyal Rinpoche

Come Crank the HP Yoga® CHI; June 5th & 6th: Two Master Classes in Flagstaff!

Come crank the world-acclaimed Wholistic Fitness® chi
via an immersion into Sacred Sweat
in Flagstaff as Ananda and i return to our old Sacred Cave:
NORTHERN ARIZONA YOGA CENTER
for a two-day festival of HP Yoga, including a PROP workout!

Mantra introduced to my Durango HP PROP Warriors...ripples make waves

"New Drew"...my zen calligraphy image of HP Yoga® is thrown in Amitabha Buddha red light against the wall of our WF Temple H(om)e Zendo in Durango, Colorado. The Prayer Flags seen in the upper right hand corner are from my treasured Kinlani Sangha.

"Mantra
is so that
we remember
to do
whatever it is that we are 'doing'
for Go(o)d.

For most of us who are spiritually inclined,
having a Blessed Mantra
is the most invaluable asset along our Inner Journey...that Journey
which leads us Higher.

Mantra is an eon-proven technique by the Enlightened Ones
which transforms the mundane into the miraculous.

Mantra is a technique for turning it over to Go(o)d.

Mantra proves there are no ordinary moments.

Japa Mantra with a Blessed Mala is the only Way to deepen the Transmission
of one's Teacher and his or her Lineage.

Mantra transforms a human doing into our true nature; a human BEING!"

that is all.

Blessings upon your Sweat and Stillness and all which falls between.

coach ilg

just back from teaching the first ever HP PROP WORKOUT in Durango, Colorado to a precious gathering 7 Warriors of Wholeness. of course, i gave them the Sacred Mantra as we shared that most treasured sacred sweat of HP PROP! Onward, Upward, and Endlessly Inward.

HP Yoga® Blooms Again; Regular Classes Begin Today in Durango!

HP YOGA®...Living Metta Through Sweat-a!

since 1983

"The Meet-and-Greet with Steve Ilg was very interesting! The guy is amazing, can't wait to get the practice started! So knowledgeable and passionate!"

- Chris, Durango

***

Most Precious Warriors Toward Wholeness...

it is my great honor to begin yet another Yoga Program at a world-class training facility...this time, in my own h(om)etown of Durango, Colorado!

Class begin this evening and May The Ancient Enlightened Ones smile at our bravery to work together on our weakness, lazy tendencies, and negative habits.

And may WE smile at the unsurpassed Joy available to each of us when we Wake Up to the realization that having incarnated in a country, in a time, and surrounded by like-minded souls where we have the luxury and the freedom to pursue our unique Paths Toward Enlightenment! Onward, Upward, and Endlessly Inward!!!

HP YOGA® baby!!!
Living Metta Through Sweat-a!

see you in the Practice Cave!

- coach steve ilg

class flyer click here:

hub%20flyer.jpg

PostCards From Durango; Spring, Stairs, and Family Sweat

click on pics to enlarge the Chi Transmission...all photos taken on Sunday by steve ilg unless noted otherwise. please ask before republishing, por favor...

Dibé Nitsaa overlooks the WF Temple H(om)e...my chi-ldhood Sacred Peak. Note the obvious 'yoni' manifested on this Sacred Peak of the North - strikingly similar to the Himalaya's most sacred peak, Mt. Kailash; the abode of the Lord of Yogis; Shiva.

i call these my "Stairs of Shiva," located a beautiful half kilometer from home, just across the Mother Animas. a former deer trail which leads up to Riverview Elementary School, these stairs are now my Stairway To Heaven...running stairs is the ideal cardio/skill enhancer during transition seasons when the trails are still too muddy to bike or run. In an upcoming WF DVD, i'll take you through my basic Stair Running Program...few other Cardio Disciplines lend themselves so naturally to Mantric Consciousness than does a Sess(hin) of Stair Running; insta-Zen!

i KNOW you don't want to miss the other 6 beautiful photos and accompanying Teachings!

Subscribe today to DL

and learn the WF Priorities of Ritual and Sacrifice...

Blessed be thy sweat,

Deep be thy stillness...

coach

After years...only HP Yoga® supports and nourishes "Athlete Body."

El Coache,

I really have found this to be true.

After practicing yoga of various styles for the past 15 years, HP yoga®

is the ONLY style which I have found to support and nourish my "athletes body".

I have never strained, pulled, tweaked or otherwise injured myself practicing HP Yoga®.

This has simply not been the case with other styles I have practiced.

head bowed,

humble student bg

sherman oaks, ca

photo; ilg in traditional chaturanga by wayne williams.