Costa Rican Yogi: A Journey of Faith, Vision, and Dynamic Yoga Wisdom with Yogi Aaron

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  0:04  
Hello, and welcome to Your Health Moment podcast. I'm your host Max Sturdivant better known as Dr. Fitness. On this podcast, I want to give you the tools to start, continue and never give up on your journey towards health. Now, whether you struggle with your weight, eating the right food, hydration, exercise, or even time management, you're in the right place, and I'm here for you. Now let's dive right into this episode. 

Welcome to Your Health Moment... you know who I am, I'm Dr. Fitness. But today, I don't want to waste time on me we have such an exciting guest, we have Yogi Aaron, and Yogi Aaron is one of the most sought-after yoga teachers today, Yogi Aaron is trailblazing a new path in the world of yoga, known for his unorthodox perspectives on stretching and flexibility. And how both to to do it without harming yourself. So if you want to improve what you're doing with your flexibility, you think, oh my God, but yoga for me is pain, or I'm injuring myself, well, then you have not had the right yoga teacher, he has created the revolutionary approach to yoga. It's called applied yoga anatomy and muscle activation. Now, most of you who listened to me I have a really good understanding of what what muscle activation is. But listen to how Yogi Aaron pairs muscle activation was applied yoga anatomy. It's fascinating. And so we're gonna hear a lot about that today. And he's going to share with us what's new, what's next. And even what's now. So without further ado, welcome, our favorite yogi, Yogi. Aaron,

Yogi Aaron  2:02  
Can I have you introduce me every single day as I wake up?

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  2:08  
Definitely excited.

Yogi Aaron  2:09  
I love your enthusiasm. Thank you so much. My spirit actually just, you know, elevated, like many levels up. So thank you.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  2:21  
That's a huge compliment. Because you come into the room with your spirit automatically elevated. I mean, it's no, it's clear that you really walk the talk, think when it comes to the peace of mind what you're doing with just sharing and sharing with other people what your practice is, and really doing it from a place of love. And that just comes right through.

Yogi Aaron  2:43  
Thank you. Yeah, I definitely 100% 1,000% passionate about what I teach and what I do and, and I feel very passionate about supporting people who want to be supported to live their best life. And because I've lived my best life, I continue. And I always think why can't everybody else live like this? So

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  3:10  
what gets a guy born in Canada to become a yogi expert, travel around the world, build a giant yoga center down in Costa Rica, you know, launch a really cool, naked yoga program in New York City. And, I mean, what was the what facilitated this for you?

Yogi Aaron  3:36  
Yeah, that's a really good question. I when I wrote my autobiography, I it was actually a really great therapy section session for me personally, and to, you know, it took me a long time to write it because I kept on getting personally stuck, especially when I was talking about my earlier years, because it made me reflect a lot on how did I get to where I am right now? Like, what were the the doorways that I walked through? And, you know, one of them, I really owe to my mother. I was raised in a very Pentecostal Christian community, which, looking back I realized was actually a pivotal moment in my life, which set the foundation for everything I know, that's kind of weird, but in some ways, to some listeners, but for me, there was just such a feeling of community and fellowship and warps. And so I carried that into my 20s. I carried that into my 30s when I moved to New York and started this men's naked yoga group, it was really about community. That's what it was really about bringing, bringing men together, especially gay men, at that time, and remember, that was you know, that was 2001 I came in just before 911 happened, and then 911 happened. And then our community provided this really safe space for people to be together. And then I took that and created a community in Costa Rica. So that was one thing. And I think this but the second thing was my mother. So my mother really got us into the church, of course, but then by the time I turned around 11, she started taking a more new age, approach to life, which is dramatically different, you know, going from spinning, hostile, going, and speaking in tongues to waving crystals around. But, but one of the things that my mother got into, which I think a lot of your listeners can relate to, is getting into vision boards, you know, you know, where you have like a vision map, or a vision board, you put your dreams on there, and she got me doing this, by the time I was 1314 years old. And that time I was 14, my parents had divorced, and my dad moved to the north of Canada. And when I say North, I'm a North. Up in the Northwest Territories, it's like very close to the Arctic. And there's and yeah, polar bears were snowing to hang out where we were black bears, you know. And so, but it was a place called Hay River. And it was like, just the, just the butthole of the world. And I remember being there thinking, Oh, my God, life has got to be better. And so my mother had gotten me into these vision boards. And the most funniest thing was so as around 14 At the time, but one of the things that was very clearly on my vision board was a Caribbean beach, you know, just just a beautiful white sand beach with a turquoise background. And of course, you know, I was thinking to myself, God, I would love to live here. And Gosh, darn it, by the time I was 27, I had a job working in the Caribbean as a yoga as a not a yoga as a scuba diving instructor. And I was living about 50 meters from the water on that beach. So I Be careful what you focus your mind on because it will manifest.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  7:27  
Wow, point number one lesson. Definitely. chart a course for yourself. Yeah, because if you chart that course, and you stick to it, yeah, it would manifest for yourself. It's kinda like, what is it the secret? Almost?

Yogi Aaron  7:44  
Yeah, and Max, I want to just kind of enunciate that point. Because I think a lot of people think like, you know, oh, I just have to look at this vision board. And you know, it's going to happen. But that's not completely true. Like, when I looked at the vision board, it was a prompt for me to go within myself and go, I don't know how I'm going to get here. But this is going to manifest I have complete faith in it. And faith is, is a huge part that doesn't get a lot of press, but it's a very important step in any spiritual tradition, we see that, you know, Christ talked about faith, we see it, you know, Buddha talked about faith to some degree. Definitely. Muhammad talked about faith. And then of course, in the yoga tradition, faith comes up like very quickly. And without faith, we can't accomplish anything. So the general teaching in yoga, the yoga tradition is the bigger your faith, the bigger your life. And I want to just kind of preface that because I don't want people thinking, they just have to look at something and it's going to happen, it's like you've got to go in their imagination literally translates to images brought into action. So how do we bring those images into action in our life, and part of that is, you bring the image into you, and you feel that image becoming manifest in every cell of your body. And I believe what starts to happen is that we move at an unconscious level to manifest those things somehow.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  9:24  
Yeah, I share that belief. I really do. Yeah. Seeing it helps us to actually believe it. And that's why I love about vision boards. Yeah,

Yogi Aaron  9:35  
absolutely.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  9:39  
So would the recommendation be people create vision boards? Absolutely.

Yogi Aaron  9:44  
I mean, it's this this idea of vision boards comes from the tantric yoga tradition, really, which is where you put your mind, you'll end up there someday. So it's a very airy, you know, having a vision board is a very potent ritual. And it's, it's something for you to kind of focus and concentrate on, there's so many things that are pulling at our attention, you know, some of us are worried about making sure our kids show up to soccer practice on time, some of us are, you know, consumed by making sure you know, all the bills are paid or taking care of our daily responsibilities. But, and so our mind gets, you know, distracted for lack of better words, from, from life's purpose, often. And so having a vision board, you know, if you put up things there that are in alignment with the calling of your heart, it takes you back to that place over and over again. Absolutely, it's worked for me, I can't even tell you when I was 16. Another very quick story. But when I was 16 years old, I was like really wanting to make some money. So what 16 year old doesn't want to make money. So I wanted to find a summer job. And so I put up, you know, on my vision board, $3,000. And so I kind of just went in to the recesses of my heart and my mind, I was like very focused on it at 16. And I ended up getting a job as a tree planter that summer, and actually made more than that. So we don't ever discount the power of, of, you know, thinking about or planning what we want to focus on, because we will manifest it.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  11:44  
That's fantastic. Wow, I mean, that's such a huge message to give people. So I hope everyone embraces it. And remember, if you didn't get it, this time, you can listen to this podcast, or you could read the show notes, because it's got to be there. You know, that's what that's what's happening. When it comes to people that you coach and work with, what's that ideal person like who gravitates to you who gets the most out of what you have to offer as a practitioner, I

Yogi Aaron  12:19  
tend to attract people. If I look back at all my students, and I think it's part I have to say, like, I attract this, because I think I put it out there, that if it's going to be it's up to me, that I'm 100% accountable for my life. And once in a while I have a student, when I say student, I mean somebody that comes into my teacher training or pops into my class, who doesn't hold that paradigm, which is fine. You know, I'm not saying that this is the best or right paradigm to have in life. It's just one that I have. And they quickly, you know, dissolve into the ether again. But I think that people I come into everything that I teach with, I am 100% accountable for my life. And this is, you know, I always present it when I do it as a teaching, I was presented as a faith based position. Again, it's not a you know, some people might think it's a truth or want to say it's a truth. But for me, it's a faith based position. And but it's one that works. And it's one that engenders results very quickly, but it also gets rid of the fluff. It puts us all on the same even playing field to some degree saying this is my life up into this point. Now what am I going to do about it, and no matter where we come into it, you know, everybody comes in at different points in their journey, but it is kind of an equalizer and it opens up the space for all of us to and for me, especially because this is my practice, to always ask the question, How am I going to respond in life? And so that's, that's the kind of people that I tend to attract people that want to make. I don't know if I can say this word, but make shit happen.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  14:21  
Oh, no, that's amazing. Okay. Oh, yeah, you definitely can. I mean, the net puts it right out there. And I was thinking you were gonna use a much more eloquent word. There's no better way to say clean, you're ready to make shit happen. Yeah, I'm the guy for you for that reason. Yeah. Because I love what you're saying. You do have to have take personal ownership of where you are and what you're doing at some point. I believe it's a truism to you know, so I'm with you on that. So taking 100% ownership. I don't know if you know like any Treatment Program. If you're like going to AAA programs, one of the first things that you have to do is own that you have a problem. Yeah. Because there's nothing anyone can do to support you until you make that step that I've been able to watch. Because I've, you know, observed over the years of practice as well, until someone goes embraces that they have the power to change it and what's going on. They're playing a role. Yeah.

Yogi Aaron  15:27  
Well, we often forget to that we have we had the power to create our own mess. So we had the power to get out of our own mess.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  15:40  
I'm stealing that one. Yeah. Yeah, get the power to make this mess. Next time someone's asking for money. Haha, that's my line. Yeah. I love it. That's fantastic. And so someone who wants to make shit happen is a really good candidate. Now what kind of shit? Are we talking about? Talking about? Now listen. If you want to make shit happen, you need to meet with Yogi Aaron. Now Yogi airde is gonna tell you what kind of shit you want to make happen, that most people really meet with him about what's what's the type of shit that brings people in your life,

Yogi Aaron  16:30  
or you're killing me here. I, I am not. I don't play the role in telling people what to do I play a role. And you know, the most powerful part of yoga practice, which is not doesn't get a lot of press is that we're doing this practice ultimately, to get still. And it's in that stillness, that the magic happens. And I know that sounds so glib to so many people, because so many people are running around in life. You know, trying to grab something, you know, so many of us are proverbial Tigers chasing our tails in life. And it's, it's in the stillness that we hear our past, you know, Mother Teresa said, a beautiful quote, or a beautiful thing. She said, God speaks and the heart listens. And so you know, the divine, if you want to call it divine, if you want to call it spirit, if you want to call it the source, if you want to call it our own soul. But it speaks to us in the sound of, of stillness and the sound of nothing. You know, in in the yoga tradition, we say the sound or the heart is nada, and Ada, which, like in Spanish, it's nothing, you know, it's the sound of nothingness. On a hunt that translates is unstruck sound. So it's the sound of of that hasn't been struct, it's the sound of nothing. And what I often find, especially when people come to Costa Rica and do my teacher training, immersions, which are 14 days and 28 days, that when they come and do these immersions they all come with questions, and a lot of them are like, you know, you promised us the answers Yogi hour. And so I expect answers at the end of the 14 days, but

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  18:35  
New York because

Yogi Aaron  18:39  
we're New Yorkers on the go, New York Yankees. But what's really kind of comical to me is usually by around day three, I do a group check in and just just check in how everybody's doing it. So many times I've had people like say, Oh my God, I didn't think it was possible. But I've already received the answers to all my questions. Well, what am I doing, I'm not doing anything to be quite honest with you. What I do is I hold a space for people to be still you know, and that stillness is through the yoga practices. The stillness is through the morning practice that we do, which is a really potent practice. People really struggle some people, not everybody, but some people really struggle with it for the first few days. And then by the, after the first week, they start to chill out and then by the end, they're just so clean. It's like their mind has been completely washed out. It's fascinating to watch the process. I've seen it so many times and it still, you know, captures me but the other important ingredient is a blue, Osa and we actually do this as a general practice, not just during the teacher trainings is practice morning silence you know, there's no internet we turn the internet off doesn't come on until seven and 30. So people have to wake up, they can't talk to anybody, they have no internet. The only thing that those people have is either the cup of coffee or tea that they're holding. And then they get to go down and we'll go to any seat and watch the sunrise and listen to nature. And it's like in those moments is when people I see the most transformation happen because of that one practice. It's just, it blows me away. It continues to amaze me just in how taking a ritual of silence every day can be so life transforming and spiritually awakening,

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  20:44  
man, I'm loving it. No, I mean, I'm so on the page. Yeah. kindred spirit. Yeah, thank

Yogi Aaron  20:54  
you. I felt that the moment I saw your radiant face appear?

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  21:00  
Definitely. So if I want to go down to blue, Osa and do a 28 day or 14 day, what's the process? Like? What's the first steps? Well, the

Yogi Aaron  21:11  
way that I teach yoga, generally speaking, in this format, in a in a live format, I want to specify that because people can access me in all kinds of different ways. But when I teach these programs in a live format, in Costa Rica, it's usually not always but usually in a teacher training format. And the reason why is because the, it's just one of the best ways to learn in our tradition, there's three steps of learning, the first step is that you go and do the practice and do it over and over. Step two, the teacher teaches it to you. So the teacher comes back in and goes, Okay, this is what you should be doing. And this is the experience you are working towards cultivating. And then step three, is you go and teach it. And so even for people that are not going to teach in their life, because they're doing our training, there's so much teaching opportunity within the structure of our program. And what I find is that people really hold the information, I think that all your listeners probably have had some experience some point in their life when they've had to teach somebody a skill. And as soon as we teach that skill, it's kind of like, we start to peel back the layers, as we're endeavoring to teach it, but also that we hold on to it, it's something that we actually hold on to within us. And so once we teach something, we own it. So I just find that this is a really good process. So how to get there, just come and come down. And when I'm doing a training, and just sign up and do it, just do it. Okay. Jen, just do it just, they can find out about the trainings on my website, they can go to Blue osa.com, and see more about the trainings as well. Or just go to Yogi aaron.com. and message me, I'll be happy to help. Great

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  23:16  
and, and Yogi's information should be on the show notes, too. So when you go to the show notes of the show, Yogi Aaron's information will be there as well. Yogi, I just want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to do this, and invite people down to explore more about who they are, what they want to accomplish, what their life means for them, if they haven't had the opportunity to be still to really understand that stuff, and let the Spirit speak to them. And so part of the process, as Joe, you just mentioned, is being still so what a great opportunity to do that in beautiful Costa Rica. And you're still teaching in Are you still teaching in New York as well?

Yogi Aaron  24:07  
No, I closed down my studio in the end of 2010. And then I led my last yoga retreat in New York State in 2011. And, and then I yeah, I it's it's hard to have due to jealous children pulling at me all the time, meaning BluOS and my New York studios, so I had to let one of them go and let another custodian come in and take over my New York studio.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  24:43  
They get your work there was done. Yes. Yes. So besides blue, so what's next? What's next you have blue. OSA? Yes. What's next for the amazing, amazing Yogi Aaron? Well,

Yogi Aaron  24:57  
as you said in my intro, So I teach a Yama which is applied yoga anatomy and muscle activation. And I'll do the Reader's Digest, but feel free to ask me any questions or pick at it, or if I talk too much, just tell me that we have to wrap this up. Because, as you can see, I could talk a lot, but it's what I just see, both in the fitness world, and also, especially in the yoga world is just such a blatant ignorance of physical function of, of, of, of basic muscle function. And, and I'm when I say that I'm really reflecting a lot as well on my own ignorance in the past. And, you know, this belief that stretching is really good for you. And that journey after 25 years landed me in an emergency room with an orthopedic surgeon telling me I might need a spinal fusion at the age of 45. And, you know, like many Yoga people, and I would even say fitness people to some degree, but especially Yoga people, they go there to yoga, to fix their back problems to fix the pain in their hips, those are usually the two biggest pain points, but there's also neck and shoulders and knees. And so their belief is, well, I need to stretch it out. And they're actually disabling themselves even more so. And there's a whole, you know, reason why the short answer is that when you stretch, you make your nerves less sensitive. And so that communication system between the central nervous system and the muscles becomes weaker, not stronger. And so that's it in a nutshell, one, when actually, when fitness trainer put it, I think, a really good way when he said that the force output of the muscle is completely gone. And, and there's I can test it, I I've tested it, I've tested muscle strength before and after stretching. And then of course, you know, the experts, there's been a few, quite a few studies done on this, and even with athletes in their prime, and when I say prime, I mean 18 year olds, 19 year olds 2021 2223. These people when they stretch, they found that their muscles shut down for 30 minutes to 90 minutes. And so we need to flip the script on this stretching business and and start to improve muscle function. And how we do that is through muscle activation. And so that's what I'm really passionate about. I'm sharing it. People when they go to my website, this is me shamelessly plugging myself, they go to my website, they can get into a free seven day pain free series, which takes people on a very simple tour of their body over seven days and shows them how to activate the major muscles that are in those muscle systems. On the end, also, I've just launched am launching launched a course on a Yama training, a Yama certification training, that gives people takes people on a complete journey of their bodies, and how to get their body back to optimal muscular functioning health.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  28:31  
Fantastic, you know, you know, I started as a trainer, and that was always huge. I mean, part of the protocol for us has always been no static stretches before strength training, you know, a ver anytime that you have to activate and use the muscles. So if you're running, it's always dynamic stretches. Yes. So that's been a protocol for wellness and trainers probably at least the last 10 years. Yeah. So I would have never in a million years thought I would hear a yoga instructor you know, presenting that information so wow, this it's definitely groundbreaking. Yeah,

Yogi Aaron  29:12  
it is. And it's you know, about 30 to 50% of Yoga people that hear me think I'm you know, the devil incarnate crazy. And well a lot of people get very, you know, stuck in their story. And I and I have a lot of empathy for it, by the way because it took me even before I ended up in the hospital, I had heard and written in read articles about this and and had experienced it to some degree myself. There was a few light bulb moments that happened that really pushed me into this path. One of them is obviously ending up in the hospital and realizing that I probably wasn't on the right Path.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  30:03  
It's exciting, though, because I think it's you're opening a window to, to yoga, you know that it's going to broaden the audience. In my opinion, I think our people will be interested in yoga, because they'll see. I don't know when I got to learn more about the process. But yeah. Is there more dynamic stretch movements involved? Or? Yeah,

Yogi Aaron  30:31  
so I think it's important just to state like, I think I mentioned before, I'm really passionate about helping people manifest and live their life purpose. And I believe that one of the big steps, not the only step, but one of the big steps is to becoming more confident and more stable in my body. And that confidence and stability and strength, helps me leads me to living my best pain free life. And so a big part of this is helping people to get pain free, and or stay pain free. And, you know, one of the reasons why it took me a while to make that switch, or flip the script, in my mind, if you will, is because so many yoga teachers are stuck, myself included before Not now, of course, because now I'm enlightened. But But

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  31:29  
before

Yogi Aaron  31:31  
that, I, by the way, for your listeners who don't know me, I'm completely making fun of myself. So please don't take that seriously. That's me making fun because we get we develop so much ego about ourselves, I think it's important to poke fun at ourselves and our egos, so we don't become, you know, big headed. But I part of my problem was like, how am I going to teach yoga if I'm not teaching stretching? And so that was the big part that I had to flip the script on, in my mind is like, how do I do that. So when I'm teaching a yoga class, there are some kind of quote unquote, muscle activation practices that we do, I'll give you an example. One of them could be bridge pose, bridge pose, which is a very common pose, it's not a different, anything special. But the way I cue it a little bit differently, but one of the cues is that when you come up, you really, of course, are coming up as high as you can, you're, you're creating hip extension, which means that you're now engaging your glutes and your lower back muscles. Quick, a little point, Max, because I tested this the other day on somebody, which blew me away. But the QL also get strengthened in Bridge, because I tested it. And when somebody did bridge, I went and tested the force output of the QL. And it was like rock solid. So I was like, this bridge pose does a lot of different things. But the main one is hip extension. So you come up, hold it six seconds, do it six times. So Bridge is a common pose that we see in a lot of yoga postures. Another one is, is locus pose, sometimes called Superman pose, where you lift your chest up, and your legs up. And so it from a muscle activation perspective, we're going to hold that six seconds and do it six times. And by doing that, we're now starting to activate all the muscles in the lower back, especially the long justness. And to some degree, the multifidus. Great, great, great pose. And so some of your listeners might be going well, that just sounds like a strengthening exercise. And yeah, it definitely is going to strengthen the muscles and tonify them. But what we're really doing is dynamically, not passively dynamically bringing the muscles to a shortened state, holding it for six seconds. And that starts to stimulate the nerve endings, the getting technical now the intrafusal muscle fibers, which then sends a message to the nervous system, the central nervous system and the fomer form of gamma motor neuron co activation, and that starts to reinforce this communication loop, which increases the proprioception that happens between the nervous system and the muscles. So there's 100% accountability, because the student is going to their own range of motion in these two exercises. And you're also reinforcing this communication line when you stretch. If you're going to passively stretch those muscles. It's like taking a pair of gardening shears and cutting that line between the brain and the muscle. So it actually desensitizes that the brain doesn't know where those muscles are in space. And those muscles do not have the ability to contract and contract on demand. When I'm teaching other postures, say for example, Triangle Pose, which is a very common pose. As most teachers would cue it, like bring your arms out to the sides extend and bring the hand reaching to the floor, right. So now there's no accountability, you're kind of going into a range of motion that your body has no business going into. So the way I like cue a pose like that is just take that option out, for people to bring the hand to the floor, I might set it up by having people cross the arms and then coming to the side. Now they're using their lateral obliques in the side that they're bending into, to completely engage. And then sometimes I'll just have them stay there, or sometimes I'll have them bring the upper hand up, instead of the lower hand to down because if they bring the lower hand down, they bring it to the floor ultimately. So it's just cueing poses a little bit differently, so that we're taking any kind of stretching, quote, unquote, out of it.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  35:53  
Oh, that's fantastic. I love it. And the tape to do this, but we are running out of time. I had a great time with this conversation. Thank you. And seriously, if you're taking yoga now, I would recommend that you maybe mentioned some of this to your yoga instructor, because they may not be informed on some of the newer applications and thought process that's going in the yoga area. Yeah. And since a yogi Aaron is on the cutting edge, he might be the one to help convince them that, you know, making some minor changes to what they're doing in their practice could be really helpful to the people they serve. So without further ado, you'll hear and would you like to take one minute and it mentioned anything that we may have overlooked,

Yogi Aaron  36:51  
I would just encourage people to go to yogiaaron.com I have a ton of free content. You know, they can dabble into whatever they want to dabble into, you know, and just kind of really explore all that is yoga, and I've got so much content out there. So, please, you know, learn about your body. And just remember that you deserve to live your best pain free life.

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  37:18  
Nice. Hey, thank you very much. And thank you for listening to this episode of Your Health Moment. 

Thank you for listening to this episode of Your Health Moment podcast. If you enjoyed what you've heard, you can visit our website, yourhealthpain-freemoment.com for past episodes, show notes, and all the resources that we mentioned on the show. Feel free to connect with me on social media to send me a DM and let me know what your thoughts are about the episodes that you've been listening to. And don't be shy about requesting any other show topics that you might like to explore.

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