If somebody asks me if I do yoga, I’m going to have to say no, I play yoga! This seemed to be one-of-many emerging themes from my recent ten day, 100 hour, yoga teacher training course.

Eoin Finn, our teacher and mentor, had a mission to turn our group of fourteen students in to “the best freaking yoga teachers in the world.” I hope he gives us a lifetime to complete that task because as he himself states, “To be a good yoga teacher, you need to understand anatomy as well as an orthopedic surgeon, be able to grasp philosophy like a university professor and become aware of the human soul like a priest.” Good thing we have another 100 hours of training coming up in September!

So what’s this yoga thing all about for me, why would I want to teach and share the experience with others? By the time I was twenty-five, and after ten years of bodily abuse on the bike, my back, wrists and shoulders had chronic pains, five years of yoga practice later, my body feels more balanced and better than ever. But I have to acknowledge that yoga can be more dangerous than mountain biking depending on the style you choose and attitude you take. Some yoga postures can torque the joints, even if you’re an expert; Eoin shared stories of older yogis that have completely worn out joints. Not good!  So an important myth to understand is that just because you’re doing yoga doesn’t mean it’s good for you. A clear goal of our teacher training was to structure a class that promotes well-being and longevity.

My wife reminded a friend of ours today that yoga is not about flexibility, saying you’re too stiff to do yoga is like saying you’re too thirsty to have a glass of water. Another concern people have is that yoga is too much like a religion; now I have been to some yoga classes where it feels like you’re taking an oath with some strange chant, maybe those are the fundamentalist yogis; of course they have their place and that’s all good, but the kind of practice that Eoin Finn preaches is an ever-evolving style for the western lifestyle, inviting to all, no new age nonsense.

One of the guest speakers we had, Mark Finch, was an expert in structural integration, that tied in to our required reading of the book Somatics. He quite effectively helped us to visually spot problem areas in body alignment; for example, he said to look not at the over extended low back, but instead at the thorax and pelvis so as to give points of reference. He applied this knowledge to yoga postures giving us a better understanding of common alignment issues.

Over the last few years, I have been on a roller coaster ride trying to educate myself about climate change. My egoic emotions on the topic have stabilized, and I am cautiously optimistic. I was so glad to see that Eoin included a seminar with Bernie Clark (the Al Gore of the yoga world) as part of the curriculum. His presentation, titled “Yoga for Our Planet”, was very well done. He emphasized following the three Big Easy’s:

1. Mindful Consuming (diet, travel, buying)
2. Mindful Voting (incredibly important)
3. Communicating Mindfully (speak up!)

I was particularly glad he acknowledged the important role our democracy can play when we actually exercise its power.

One of Eoin Finn’s hero’s is Joseph Campbell; so he shared a documentary titled “The Power of Myth”. One of the statements Campbell said struck me, especially after listening to Bernie the night before, “What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted with talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is to say goodbye to the swift pony and then hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.” (my italics). But the one reflection I had after this documentary and Bernies speech was the importance of acknowledging all perspectives, and the integral ecology slogan sums that up nicely-”things are getting worse, things are getting better, and everything is already perfect.”

One of my favorite musicians, Xavier Rudd, attempts to describe the experience of playing live as a circular cycle of energy that comes out from the audience in to him and out through his music right back to the audience and out again, a positive feedback loop of sorts. Eoin expressed a similar feeling when teaching a good flow class, and I can relate to a degree during my trials shows. The offering of the musician, or yoga teacher, or bike performer has to be authentic in order to trigger the right kind of energy or state from the group of people involved, otherwise there is no magic.

A challenge our culture faces is that we have a hard time listening to feedback from our bodies. We would much sooner push past our limits to fuel our ego rather than listen to our bodies’ somatic wisdom. This mindset of focus on the external world goes well beyond the origin of yoga injuries, the major challenges our world faces is in part due to the ignorance of this first-person person guidance, this basic wisdom from within. Sure yoga brings incredible fitness, strength, and balance to the body, but those are just side benefits, the entire yoga practice of moving through poses is simply a preparation for savasana, corpse pose, the death of the practice, which is a rare opportunity in our fast lives to just simply be, breaking for just a moment, the identification and attachment to our thoughts, allowing a connection with our true selves to form.

Yoga isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and it is just one key of many toward that leads to a healthy lifestyle.  I’m glad Eoin emphasized that yes, yoga can bring your body in to alignment, but too much of it can make you look stiff, and stiff people are boring, right So yes, go rip it up on your mountain bike, play some yoga, and then go laugh a little with the friends you make along the way.

Big thanks to Eoin and his blissology crew, and all the friends I made during course!

Peace y’All

Just wanted to share Al Gore’s latest vision of action for America. I’ll link you to an article from WorldChanging that reflects on his words. 

The speech below is certainly a worthwhile way to spend 30 minutes, it’s either that or another sit-com re-run. Check it out…

If you’re in a rush, here’s the short version…

In 2000, Carey Hart put it out there when he attempted the holey grail of FMX, the back flip; now it’s in every pro’s trickbook. Just a few short years ago Darren Berrecloth put it out there with some huge 360 drops; now it’s standard practice in any slopestyle comp. Audacious individuals are often the ones responsible for progression in alternative sport. Another example of this same concept would be Al Gore and his environmental activism; all the scientific data was there, but he put it out there that action must to be taken; David Suzuki in Canada is doing the same thing.

People like this start a trickle of action, then maybe a small stream depending on the importance or demand; and if the idea or trend is worthy, a raging river. Now of course we could get by with just a small trickle of people doing 360 drops, the hospitals couldn’t handle much more, but we do need a raging river of people being environmentally responsible. I guess my motive for this new series of articles on bicycle ecology is to help divert a few more of those random trickles of water in to a desperately needed raging river.

To get a little more scientific, Everett Rogers from Stanford did some extensive research on the diffusion of innovation (trends). First are the innovators, as mentioned above, then come the early adopters, which make up 15% of the population, they seek the new and have a higher tolerance for experimentation; this might be where you find the competitors of Hart and Barrecloth, or those following the recommendations of Gore or Suzuki. Then all of a sudden a bright idea will metastasize and spread rapidly through the next group called the early majority (35%). All those young groms sessioning the dirt jumps after school in hopes of being the next big name may be in this group. The next batch according to Rogers research, which spanned some 50 years and targeted over 500 major trends, is called the late adopters (35%). The remaining 15% are the laggards, they are off the back and tend to be on their own program. So just as good tricks spread rapidly through the population of capable riders, so will environmental responsibility for everyone, but I don’t think it has quite hit home for most people.

When I’m learning a new trick or technique, I have to practice it over and over and over. When I need to update or modify a technique, it takes even more effort and dedication. Is the reward worth it? The satisfaction of nailing a new move clean is amazing, totally worth all those failed attempts and practice. A large part of the solution to global warming will be like modifying an old trick, in other words we have to change our habits! Will the reward be worth the effort?

The mountain bike world seems full of coffee drinkers, am I right? Now I’m more of a tea guy although I do love a good java here and there, but anyway, I personally drink two cups of tea a day. One of my recent road trips lasted 75 days, so that’s about 150 cups that didn’t end up in a landfill because I managed to create a habit of bringing my re-usable mug with me. To help solidify this habit, I would often punish myself from caffeine if I forgot my to-go mug. A bit crazy yes, but it worked, caffeine is a strong motivator!

There seems to be disconnect between understanding a problem like global warming and actually acting on that knowledge, in future articles, I’ll explore this further. But for now,  consider this, it is said that if insects disappeared from our planet life would cease in five years, but if humans disappeared from this planet life would flourish in five years. Yes, we have some work to do. So can we put in the effort toward this critical goal of a sustainable world? Can we change our habits and inspire others to do the same? Can we put it out there? Well I have to agree with the charismatic words of Barack Obama, “Yes We Can!”

Stay tuned for future BikEcology articles on all sorts of green topics. Check out my blog at ryanleech.com for more.