Much of my work is in bridging yoga, or what yoga is at its core, with fitness and coaching clients. Ultimately, Yoga is about paying attention. Do you pay attention to what you’re doing when you dance? Then, how much do you notice? Do you notice the subtle differences from hip to hip, from twisting left to twisting right? Do you notice elation and frustration, sensation, pain, and lightness?

Yoga is not about the asana. To paraphrase David Nelson of Yoga Garden San Francisco: asana is one part of hatha yoga, which is but one part of a full and integral system of yoga. Do not try to categorize yoga.

And please, do not try to turn off your mind.

Turning off the mind, as an act, simply does not work all that well. Instead, consider your experience of those moments of awe and beauty when someone you love catches your eye. That’s yoga. Feeling. Connecting. Yoga on the mat is a small, small part of the bigger practice of paying attention and loving all of life. For many, it is the gateway into an experiential understanding of connectedness. A yogic practice, or process, can start by being service-oriented, people-oriented, or body-oriented as in a modern yoga class or a class based on Yogic Conditioning or Yogic Warrior Conditioning.  (see www.epicworkout.com).

Regarding your physical practice, consider this: I help people stop trying to fit their minds and bodies into classes and fitness routines, and rather, to take ownership of your body, your practice (and in many ways, your life) by starting with you, your intentions and attentions, and design your program from the inside out. What that depends on, depends on you.

@ The Sports Club/LA San Francisco

The Sports Club/LA San Francisco, the city’s premier club, is offing three specialty classes in April. All are open to SCLA members and non-members. Take one, two, or all three!
747 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94043 (google map)

Tune In/Tune Up: Set yourself up for the most success.

Discover and use an effective process for preparing your joints and musculature to reap the most benefit from your exercise and yoga practice. We’ll use familiar techniques in new and fascinating ways to get more out of exercise. This class includes an active and mindful workout for all yogis and fitness enthusiasts.

Monday, April 13
5:30-6:30pm
Studio 2

Genius in Action: Place yourself at the center of your transformation.

Harness the energy of the group plus your own internal focus and learning to get more out of your training, practice, and life. We’ll use familiar techniques in new and fascinating ways to get more out of exercise. This class includes an active and mindful workout for all yogis and fitness enthusiasts.

Monday, April 20
5:30-6:30pm
Studio 2

Edge into Action: Create effortlessness and efficiency in challenging exercise.

Learn to ride the balance between effort and ease to recover more fully while you make faster progress in strength, flexibility and cardiovascular endurance. We’ll use familiar techniques in new and fascinating ways to get more out of exercise. This class includes an active and mindful workout for all yogis and fitness enthusiasts.

Monday, April 27
5:30-6:30pm
Studio 2

A Few Words on Fitness

With Epic and Yogic Warrior Conditioning, you take exercise vertical with depth and meaning, inquiry and transformation. Yet the fitness world is also changing horizontally, meaning that the techniques, methods and processes are being rearranged, improved, and evolved. Despite the idea that there new rules, I suggest instead that we are returning to the essence of our lives with new distinctions. Where are we going? What needs to be included in today’s fitness program, exercise plan, or yoga practice?

Mobility and Movement Preparation: There are techniques and methods that dramatically surpass ’stretching’ to optimally prepare your body for the movement you choose to train. Flip your mind and Tune In / Tune Up before your training, yoga asana and even meditation.

Corrective Exercise: Injuries of all shapes and size come as a consequence of our lifestyles and training patterns. More of the same is rarely the path out of pain, while noticing your experience often is. You can make the body resilient through intentional, purposeful movement that has the power to improve the way your body works at a deeper level.

Speed, power and elasticity: Remember that power has to do with time, and is not the same is strength. Consider power and strength with speed. Power is lost faster than strength, as easily demonstrated by a long-time yogi returning to a high-impact kickboxing class. Yet for all populations, there is the need for the ability to move and react quickly, and power is critical for getting through life effortlessly.

Core Training: Ab crunches are definitely out, and functional core work is in as we focus on training a body to respond and be active in the world. Whether the lessons come from athletics, martial arts, somatics or yoga, the truth about core is the same.

Resistance Training: A foundational aspect of every practice, we need to focus on function, linked system strength and real world strength. Isolated strength is an illusion, and the key is to practice with appropriate frequency. Strength is about full body connection and coordination towards a purpose. Strength comes from within, and should be trained with the end in mind.

Metabolic Training: Evolutionary cardio - Intensity vs volume is the name of the game, so the the ability to do higher levels of work and maintain output over time will take you where you want to go. Riding the edge of effort and ease will get you there faster.

Recovery & Regeneration: No matter your training modality or the features of your practice, recovery and nourishment - physical and emotional - is a must. This can be done at the gym, on the mat, or at home, and should not be ignored.

Thanks to Alwyn Cosgrove, who framed these concepts, then adapted by Epic Workout for a yogic perspective on exercise and transformation.

The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) conference recently debuted in San Francisco, where I now reside, and revealed countless new fitness innovations to fitness professionals from all over the world. As the fitness and exercise world evolves, it is increasingly popular and critical to include expanded conceptions of wellness, holistic thinking, and mind-body programs. While this is needed and necessary for all types of teachers and trainers, I want to suggest that for the most part, this evolution is happening horizontally.

By horizontal, I refer to the span and variation of techniques and modalities. Vertical, in contrast, means depth or meaning. Every technique is expressed at some level of depth, and every vertical idea has to be expressed through some form. The changes happening in the fitness industry seem to be more horizontal (sell more technological solutions to basic health challenges) than vertical (make exercise more meaningful). Exercise programming is entirely horizontal and considers muscles, bones, neurons and energy systems. Your trainer shuffles around different techniques to change your body, for example. Mind-body programming is actually vertical and considers meaning, psychology, self and love. Your teacher uses poses or movement to get you to go inside you.

To make this more specific, fitness clubs and trainers are embracing yoga and other mind-body programs, but mostly just the surface features. Do this pose, take this breath, focus on this body area. While taking up conscious movement is a welcome change, it seems sometimes that these methods are used for their appeal rather than the results they deliver. This is viewed as a problem, for some. I argue it is ultimately not a problem. Though the depth work comes from the level of engagement and inquiry and awareness needed for transformation, some does slip in at other times. My own research suggests in a new way that yoga (and all body-mind) works, and that the real body-mind ‘connection’ can affect change. In other words, even if a mind-body or conscious practice is engaged in for entirely superficial reason (watch the judgment!), deep change can occur.

In the final analysis as a teacher, trainer, mover and shaker, I say this: do what calls to you and what fills you up. Do it with all your heart, all your passion, and all your commitment. Now go move, learn, heal, and transform!

Yogic Warrior Conditioning® is category of conscious movement or mind-body/body-mind practices that starts with you. Flipping a class experience on its head, you are the center and your health, fitness, meditation, movement goals are the tools we use. It’s about power and strength both internally and externally. It’s about making exercise more than exercise, and taking yoga off the mat.

Yogic Warrior Conditioning® is a comprehensive health and fitness system combining Yoga, Functional Training, Conditioning and Restorative Techniques in a way that creates usable strength, develops effortless movement, and deepens awareness of body, mind and spirit.

It’s mindful approach to natural movement and strong focus on awareness and creativity transform our tissues and nervous system to create a balance between improved health & fitness, reduced stress, and enhanced coordination & clarity.

Yogic Warrior Conditioning® makes exercise more than exercise, and helps launch one’s yoga practice off the mat.

Fitness has many levels. Do we address them all with each training session? With our entire movement practice? The mainstream fitness industry address many sides of fitness, and at Epic, we’re interested in going even deeper. Let’s briefly look at the Four Faces, or Perspectives, of physical fitness.

First Face of Fitness

We are motivated by feelings, emotions, self image and enthusiasm. Any physical activity we practice serves to bring you enjoyment, emotions, and experiences ranging from brutal or challenging to refreshing and wonderful. Relative to this perspective, why do you exercise?

Second Face of Fitness

We are motivated by the science and story of how our body’s biology, chemistry, function, strength, power, and capacity. We think about muscles, fat, weight, range of motion, and other external factors. Relative to this perspective, why do you exercise?

Third Face of Fitness

We are motivated by the interplay between the body’s systems, or the relationships between, for example, two fighters, members of a team, teams in competition, and so on. The rules of the game, the systems we follow, the protocols we experiment with and results we achieve are all very important. Relative to this perspective, why do you exercise?

Fourth Face of Fitness

We are motivated by the commaraderie of teamwork, the thrill of competition, the shared community of a yoga class. How the relationships feel and the meaning they provide are crucial to us.Relative to this perspective, why do you exercise?

Now that you’ve looked into the faces of fitness and gained a new understanding that there is more to exercise than exercise, what will you do next?

Alex Iglecia will be co-instructing with his wife and yoga teacher, Beth Iglecia, a new group class at the Prospector club of the Silver Mountain Sports Club in Park City, Utah.

Download the class flyer [pdf]

This class first focuses on strength, movement and awareness based on The Epic Workout in its first half, and is followed by a Yin Yoga session in its second. A perfect balance of action and calm, strength and recovery, muscles and joints, body and mind, From Yang to Yin promises to be a phenomenal contribution to the active communities in and around Park City.

From Yang to Yin

Wednesdays at 10-11:30am
Co-Instructed by Alex and Beth Iglecia

With Alex: tune up to extreme strength and function with your body as your base, using breath to recover faster from challenging conditioning intervals.

With Beth: strengthen the joints themselves with calming, meditative yet challenging Yin yoga, building a stronger, more mobile and healthier you from deep within.

Designed to shift your fitness foundation to a higher plane.
Suitable for all levels, offering infinite progressions.

Drop-ins are welcome. The Silver Mountain Sports Club has non-member punch cards just for classes, so there is no reason not to come! Contact us for any questions.

Download the class flyer [pdf]

EPIC FOUNDER, PERSONAL TRAINER, AND BODYLIFE SPECIALIST WITH PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE IN STRENGTH, MOVEMENT, AND MEDITATION

Download Alex iglecia’s Epic Information Sheet

Alex has worked with people across the US through workshops and private clients and has developed specialty programs for diverse audiences. The Epic Workout is a passionate contribution to people of all walks of life who want life to work for them, and brings the yoga mindset with all its strengths into the field of exercise, conditioning, and living arts.

Alex Iglecia, personal trainer, lifelong learner and founder of The Epic Workout, integrates a diverse background in leading edge personal training, kettlebells, meditation, conscious evolution, pragmatic self defense training, yoga and more.  Whether you are looking for a new edge in your training, functional and mindful post-rehab work, or the 28-day Epic Challenge, Alex can help you get there in your best way possible.  Alex brings intentionality, heart and an integral view into the fields of exercise, conditioning, and living arts, and can make a difference for you no matter your background, skills, strengths and purpose.

The Epic Workout is available for national and international workshops, conferences, and continuing education. Alex Iglecia is available in Park City and Salt Lake City for committed personal training.

Download Alex iglecia’s Epic Information Sheet

We are thrilled to announce that Epic is now available in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. There is something special happening here with many conscious people and businesses thriving and offering great and creative services. We will be offering a number of ongoing Epic Workouts each week and look forward to working with the Park City’s and Salt Lake City’s leaders in yoga, fitness, and adventure. If you are a coach, trainer, yogi, teacher, mover, dancer, gymnast, trekker, climber, runner, or any other kind of life-enthusiast, we would love to hear from you.