Yoga students invest hours on functional flexibility, strength, and mobility, but the moment they leave the studio, most lace up restrictive footwear. Modern shoes squish your toes, damage your arches, and contribute to dysfunctional movement patterns leading to chronic pain and injury upstream including: knee pain, back and hip pain.

The solution? You need to learn about minimal shoes. On this week’s Yoga Talk Show, Lucas meets with Steve Perna of Lems Shoes, a niche manufacturer and innovator in the minimal footwear scene to learn about the why and the how behind this type of shoe.

Steve Perna is one of the early team members at Boulder, Colorado-based Lems Shoes, and currently heads up wholesale distribution. Lems Shows was founded in 2011 and creates YOGABODY-recommended active, office, and casual footwear.
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Listen & Learn:

• What the terms “zero drop” and a “wide toe box” mean, and why you should insist on them in your shoes
• Why you might need to transition into minimal footwear starting with just a couple hours of use per day
• Why it’s normal to experience some foot pain during your transition to minimal
• Why your walking and running gate might feel goofy at first

Nutritional Tip of the Week:

• How much salt is too much?

Links & References from the Show:

• Lems Shoes

Got Questions?

• Write to us podcast@yogabody.com

Thanks to our sponsor:

• Green Me Up! Super Green Drink Mix

This formula will naturally give your drink or smoothie a sweet taste without the sugar! Check out our ingredients, they're awesome. All-natural, zero-calorie stevia in just the right amount gives this super mineral-dense powder it's flavor.

For superfoods, we've got you covered with spirulina, barley grass juice extract, acerola, maca, chlorella, mesquite, rice bran, kelp, and stevia (for natural sweetness). Mix with water, blend with fruit, or stir into a green-chia gel, either way it tastes amazing!

You might think of yoga and the military as polar opposites, but the rigor of military training and a dedicated yoga practice actually have a lot in common. According to former Seal Commander, Mark Divine, the Seals training is a type of yoga training itself. As a former Seal, a lifelong student of Martial Arts, and an accomplished yoga student, Mark has created a warrior-based style of yoga he calls, Kokoro Yoga, whose principals he’ll share with you on this week’s show.

Mark Divine is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon best-selling author of five books including Kokoro Yoga: Maximize Your Human Potential and Develop the Spirit of a Warrior--the SEALfit Way. Mark finished as the #1 trainee of his SEAL BUDS class, served 9 years on active duty, and completed 11 years as a Reserve Seal retiring as Commander in 2011.
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Listen & Learn:

• Why you need to “embrace the suck” of practice to get benefits
• How yoga can (and should) be adapted to your personal needs that change as you age
• Why personal practice can appeal to more masculine-oriented people
• The strengths and weaknesses of Ashtanga Yoga
• Why recovery and rest can be the most-challenging to learn

Nutritional Tip of the Week:

• What is the best sweetener to keep in the kitchen?

Links & References from the Show:

• SEALfit

Got Questions?

• Write to us podcast@yogabody.com

Thanks to our sponsor:

• Hurts So Good Massage Balls

Hurts So Good Massage Balls allow you to release tension, break up sliding surface dysfunctions, and improve circulation in and around your muscles and tendons, ligaments, and fascia. In our modern lives, our movement patterns tend to be very habitual. We sit, stand, drive, and walk; but we often lack the dynamic range of motion that our bodies are designed for.

And the result? You end up stiff and sore…

I’m a huge fan of all types of bodywork including massage, acupuncture, and chiropractic care; but realistically, this is not something you can do every day or even every week. Due financial and time limitations, most people can only meet one-on-one with a body worker a few times per year, and that’s rarely enough to really affect change.

The solution? Self-massage.

We spend a third of our lives asleep, but most people treat sleep and dream states like second rate citizens of consciousness, always given the back seat to waking states. On this week’s Yoga Talk Show, you’ll learn how yoga and mindful sleep go hand-in-hand, and why serious yoga students should learn to zonk out like a pro.

Andrew Holecek is an author, spiritual teacher, and humanitarian. As a long-time student of Buddhism that he teaches with a contemporary perspective – blending the ancient wisdom of the East with modern knowledge from the West.

He is the author of three books, The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy, Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Perspective, and Dream Yoga: The Tibetan Path of Awakening Through Lucid Dreaming.
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Listen & Learn:

• How your diurnal practices (waking state) set the stage for good or poor sleep
• Why you need to develop a lucid relationship to your waking consciousness before you’ll be able to consistently lucid dream
• How to appreciate and nurture hypnagogic (just before sleep) and hypnopompic (just before waking) states
• How napping can be a great way to induce lucid dreams
• How to Have Wake Induced Lucid Dreams (WILDs)
• How “dreamlets” of 10 seconds or also very powerful
• Best practices for sleep hygiene: stone-cold sober, clean, empty belly, mindful/meditation/prayer/gratitude practice, darkroom, no screen time, lie on right side (sleeping lion mudra, same as Buddha death), galantamine supplement
• Why serious yoga students need to be careful not to become a “state junkie” hopping from one peak state experience to the next

Nutritional Tip of the Week:

• Do we need to take supplements?

Links & References from the Show:

• Andrew Holecek

Got Questions?

Write to us podcast@yogabody.com

Thanks to our sponsor:

• New Year's Yoga Retreat in Barcelona

Your Best Year Ever!

This is a total immersion yoga retreat set in Barcelona. Your days will be filled with yoga practice, nutrition lectures, breathing workshops, posture clinics and outdoor adventures; and you’ll also have plenty of time each day to explore the beautiful city of Barcelona on your own or with your fellow students.

Dr. Sarah Ellis Duvall is a physiotherapist specializing in core work, pelvic floor, functional movement, and injury prevention and healing. A former division I athlete, Dr. Duvall has been working with athletes, moms, office works and everyone in-between to help them find balance and heal their bodies.

If you ask anyone who is into health and fitness, core strength is usually top on their list of priorities. But what is core strength, anyway? Is that six-pack abs? Does it mean you can do 300 crunches? On this week’s Yoga Talk Show, you’ll meet physiotherapist, Dr. Sarah Ellis Duvall, who will demystify core strength and help you understand many of the nagging conditions that result from a week and imbalanced core.

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Listen & Learn:

• Why head and chin position is foundational for proper posture which leads to core strength and stability
• Why pelvic floor tone is a follower not a leader, meaning you need to sort out your movement patterns to best affect change
• Why tight and weak are usually the enemy while flexible and strong are usually the treatment
• Why we must have basic, functional fitness capacity such as the ability to do a push-up, pull-up, and squat
• Why Kegals and Mula Bandha can be the wrong choice for some people

Nutritional Tip of the Week:

• Soy Sauce

Links & References from the Show:

• Core Exercise Solutions

Got Questions?

• Write to us podcast@yogabody.com

Thanks to our sponsor:

• New Year's Yoga Retreat in Barcelona

Your Best Year Ever!

This is a total immersion yoga retreat set in Barcelona. Your days will be filled with yoga practice, nutrition lectures, breathing workshops, posture clinics and outdoor adventures; and you’ll also have plenty of time each day to explore the beautiful city of Barcelona on your own or with your fellow students.