Yoga with Weights:Baptiste Method™ is a System of Personal Development for Mind, Body, & Spirit
•Sherri Baptiste
Author of:
"Yoga with Weights for Dummies"•
"Baptiste grew up in a pioneering yoga-health-physical culture practicing family headed by her father, Walt Baptiste, also a former Mr. America, who regularly used the conscious muscle control techiques like that found in yoga training and his breathing awareness when he worked out with weights." - Tulsa World

Yoga with Weights:Baptiste Method™
"Yoga has neither a beginning nor an end, but it is permanent and based on universal principles that appeal to us on every level, mentally, physically and spiritually...Sherri Baptiste

PRESS: "YOGA WITH WEIGHTS" & Sherri Baptiste

Yoga with Weights -Tulsa World (Final Home Edition), Page D1 of Family, Living

LEIGH WOOSLEY World Scene Writer
09/29/2005 (Steel Yoga)


New form of yoga includes weight training

With all of its deep knee-bending poses, yoga is a great workout for the legs. To give the arms more work, some instructors are adding the use of hand weights to the ancient practice.

Anthony Carillo calls the form of yoga he developed -- and hopes to spread across the country -- Iron Yoga, which also is the title of his instructional book and DVD. Carillo, an Ironman triathlete, is teaching iron yoga at gyms close to his home in New York City. He's also in the process of developing a course to train other instructors.

"The whole practice of strength training with weights is mind and muscle, and yoga is about mind, body and spirit," Carillo said in a phone conversation from New York. "This whole idea of iron yoga recognizes that synergy and brings it together."

Iron yoga basically adds arm movements with weights to traditional yoga poses -- standing poses are the foundation of iron yoga. For example, he incorporates a bicep curl into the Warrior 2 pose, where normally the arms would just be held straight out while the legs go into a deep sideways lunge.

Carillo doesn't add weights to every pose, but when he does, he calls for arm movements that are slow, controlled and matched with the breath, as is the case in normal yoga. Because of this and the fact that only light weights -- 2 to 5 pounds -- should be used, the risk of injury is low, Carillo said.

"With the controlled movement, you are keeping continuous tension," he said.

Sarah Brown, a certified fitness and trained yoga instructor, uses a medicine ball instead of weights when she teaches yoga at the Hillcrest Fitness Center. However, she said the "use of free weights has a lot of pros for strength because you can work on all planes of motion."

"The biggest mistake that people make (when using free weights) is choosing a weight that's too heavy," Brown said. "And then they're not focusing on form. They're throwing their weight into the movement."

Carillo isn't the only one riding the trend. The popular "For Dummies" book series is releasing in December "Yoga With Weights for Dummies," written by Sherri Baptiste, a longtime yoga instructor and founder of Baptiste Power of Yoga™ from Marin County, Calif., where she operates the Baptiste Power of Yoga studio, retreats, workshops and teachers training programs.

Baptiste said in an e-mail to the Tulsa World that the proper alignment, breathing and consciousness that accompany yoga with weights "actually help prevent injuries. Each exercise has specific alignment principals, and is practiced slowly. You’re taught to listen to your breathing for any telltale signs that you are pushing too hard or hurting yourself." "The whole goal in yoga-with-weights exercise is to get in touch with what works best for you, not just while doing an exercise, but also in every area of your life," she said.

Baptiste grew up in a pioneering yoga-health-physical culture practicing family headed by her father, Walt Baptiste, also a former Mr. America, who regularly used the conscious muscle control techiques found in yoga training and breath awareness when he worked out with weights.

"The first dumbbells were wooden, and the system of exercise using weight first came out of India as did yoga; it's all yoga," Baptiste said. "So when it comes to combining a breath-based practice with a bit of weight while I'm in a yoga posture, it's natural for me, especially having a lifetime of this under my belt. It’s about adding a little bit of weight skillfully at the right time and in the right places to maximize the potential of your yoga practice, or simply that exercise”.

Carillo said that since his book and DVD came out this summer, people are becoming more and more interested in iron yoga, and requests for classes are increasing.

He first incorporated yoga into his triathlon training program almost five years ago, and one day while practicing yoga at home, he was feeling the workout in his legs but not in his arms. He spied a set of hand weights in the corner of the room, picked them up and used them in some yoga poses.

The result was a great workout that he dubbed iron yoga.

Iron yoga refers to the weights, Carillo said, but also to his passion for the Ironman triathlon, in which competitors swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles and run 26.2 miles. The 41-year-old has been teaching iron yoga in New York for more than two years but is not a certified trainer.

Carillo said he received certification as a sports yoga instructor from the National Endurance Sports Trainer Association and has done 40 hours of training with renowned yogi Rodney Yee. Carillo worked for 17 years as a certified public accountant before starting a fitness career three years ago.

Iron yoga should not replace one's regular yoga practice, he said, adding that iron yoga, especially the concentrated breathing that goes with it, has improved his athletic performance.

But some yoga purists have criticized modifications made to the 5,000-year-old practice. Iron yoga is one example of such a modification as is the popular yogalates, a fusion of yoga and pilates.

"Anytime there is a market for anything in fitness, people are going to come up with combinations of things," said Greg McCann, a local professional yoga instructor and certified trainer. "... It may not be a bad thing, but from a yoga purist standpoint, you start to lose some of the benefits of the practice by throwing in a lot of strength-training moves in between poses."

Baptiste doesn't feel the incorporation of weights sacrifices the richness of yoga practice.

"Yoga with weights will help you relax, breathe well," she said. "It renews your energy and keeps you feeling your best. For that reason, it benefits not only your mental and physical health, but also the quality of your work and daily life."

But not everyone will easily understand this evolution.

To some, "It's kind of the bastardization of yoga," said certified yoga instructor Jackie Fishell about American-made versions of yoga. Fishell teaches yoga at the University of Tulsa, at a Bixby health club and at the Center for Healing Arts.

"I think people are just trying to do something different, but I think if something isn't broken, don't fix it," she said.

Carillo has heard the argument.

"Some yoga purists are not going to believe in using any kind of props (like hand weights)," he said. "I'm certainly not looking to convert them over. If someone is willing to change and diversify then I think iron yoga is a great workout."


Principles

1. Connect mind with breath.

As with other forms of yoga, breath is the most basic principle of iron yoga, which uses the ujjayi breathing technique. Ujjayi is breathing through the nose until the belly expands and then exhaling through the nose. One ujjayi breath should take four to five seconds.

2. Connect mind-breath with muscle.

Legs and the core of the body are a person's foundation in iron yoga. Keep legs active and core engaged.

3. Connect mind-breath-muscle with movement.

The movement from one pose to the next, as well as all of the weight-training exercises, are always synchronized with the inhalation and exhalation.

4. Connect mind-breath-muscle with static contraction.

A static contraction, an advanced weight-training technique, means pushing or contracting your muscle against resistance and then holding that contraction for a few seconds.

for more information

Learn more about Sherri Baptiste, the Baptiste Power of Yoga studio and the soon-to-be released “Yoga with Weights for Dummies” at www.powerofyoga.com.

For more information on Anthony Carillo’s iron yoga method, visit www.ironyoga.com. His book and DVD are also available at Amazon.com.
Sherri Baptiste says: "Yoga has neither a beginning nor an end, but it is permanent and based on universal principles that appeal to us on every level, mentally, physically and spiritually. Yoga practiced with a little bit of weight (skillfully added in just the right place at the right time) is the next natural evolution in mindfull exercise".

Yoga with Weights:Baptiste Method™

Yoga with weights: Take years off your body

"Perform one set of the indicated reps of each pose three times a week, resting 48 hours between sessions. Add 30 minutes of your choice of heart-pumping cardio most days for an even trimmer, more toned physique in as little as one month".

From the April 2008 Self Magazine Issue


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