In my most recent session, Scott once again burned the herb moxa around my knees in order to create warmth and stimulation without the use of so many needles. Let me tell you, this stuff is GREAT. I was able to feel the heat (which is gentle, not scalding) and the relief deeply and quickly.

Looking back on my choice to incorporate acupuncture into my health and healing routine, I can safely say that it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. As I said in my first post, this is not a one-time fix. This is a course of treatment that takes time and patience. You must listen to your body and make sure that you are doing the other proper things during your daily life to make sure that the treatments last. Just like any type of lifestyle change, diet and exercise are key to a full transformation. I am still interested to know how many of you have recently added something to your daily routine that is really improving your quality of life. Please feel free to share your stories or ask any questions about my experience with acupuncture below.

The moving cup involves taking only one of those suction cups and lubricating the bottom of it so that it might be smoothly rubbed up and down either side of my spinal cord. After three or four passes on both sides he would anchor the moving cup and apply the fixed cups as he had done in previous treatments. This process feels great. As the cup is run up and down my back, I can feel the injured area begin to crack and release. I never realized just how protected by tension that whole region was. Again, I was left to lie on the table for a few minutes while my cups worked their magic.

It was then time to roll over so that treatment on my knees could begin. Or so I thought. Scott did place the appropriate needles in my knees and placed the heat lamps around me, but now he was getting in this deep tissue massage that I mentioned earlier. I have to say that this was most unexpected, but effective. Taking the tips of his fingers on both hands, Scott dug his hands deep in my psoas muscles like a dog digging in the back yard. As this muscle group runs north and south along the front of the body just under the rib cage, the correct method for releasing tension is to rub east to west. It almost felt as if the muscle was being drug over the bone. I did make it a point to ask if this had a name and the only response I got was “stripping.” As I said, it was painful at first, but subsequent treatments would be less and less painful.

As Scott was about to leave the room to give me the opportunity to rest and let the treatment in my knees take deeper effect, he noticed that I was sniffling and dealing with a runny nose. He looked at a few places on my head with a furrowed brow said to me, “I’m going to shove some needles in your face.” Before I continue, it’s worth mentioning that the friendship that Scott and I share is one that allows us to speak VERY bluntly to each other—almost sarcastically at times—but I know he would NEVER be that blunt to another patient. Before I knew what was happening I had 10 well-placed needles jammed into various places in and around my eyes, nose, and jawbone. I’ll tell you what, within seconds of the first two placements, I was able to breathe freely and easily. I think I’m done with taking pills to get rid of my sinus headaches from now on.

It is amazing what happens to your body when true healing is ready to take place. It is almost as if the “protected” areas that we all live with in some way are ready to give up and ask for help. If we are willing to listen and deal with the pain that sometimes goes along with the healing process, the results are well worth waiting for. In my next post, I’ll take a deeper look on the methods used to treat my knees and one final look back on my last six sessions. I’m very interested in your stories of transformation and healing. Please feel free to share any revelations you might have had in the comments section below. Remember, healing does not have to be physical.

A few months ago, I got word that a good friend of mine was back in the area. This gentleman and I were and still are very close, but I had helped him move to New Mexico several years ago where he was accepted to medical school. His field of study: acupuncture and traditional Asian medicine.

Today, Scott R. Smith is one of the leading practitioners of this art form in the United States. His articles and writings have been published in journals all over the country. He is set to have a new book published this coming March, and he happens to live 10 minutes from my house! Reaching out to him for treatment was a no brainer. I booked my first treatment with my old friend and things have been going very well ever since.

Scott explained to me that this type of treatment was not a one-time fix. Much like any other discipline that I’m involved with, if I wanted to see results, I was going to have to be treated more than once. I had no problem with this. My next few posts, in fact, will deal with the different dynamics of each treatment as they’ve all affected me in different ways. The first session was about getting to know what I needed help recovering from. He asked me about how I had originally hurt my back. We talked about why I felt that I needed treatment for my knees. My diet, sleep habits, and daily physical routine would also play major roles in how my body would respond to what was going to happen. I could tell right away that if I stuck with it, this was going to make a big difference.

After about 30 minutes of Q & A with Scott, it was determined that because I’m active for a living, maintain a good diet (for the most part), and practice as much yoga as I do, that I’d feel results faster than most. The next order of business was literally and figuratively on the table. It was time to be on the business end of needles and cups. Lying face down on the table, the first thing I felt was a quick pinch in my neck. The next was in and around the shoulders. At last, he had reached my back. All in all, I was stuck with 31 needles from head to toe. The pain was minimal and quickly went away. I was left to lie there and relax while the areas were stimulated by four heat lamps placed around the edge of the table. (For those of you wondering, yes, I totally fell asleep!)

The next phase of the treatment for me was a process called cupping. For the first session he used a method known as “fixed cup.” This meant that six to eight small suction cups would be applied to my back and allowed to sit there in order to relieve muscle tension from the area. These cups would produce large red marks that indicate to Scott the level of toxicity in my spine. The idea is that the faster the marks go away, the better the circulation. After a good amount of time, there should not be any bruising at all.

I felt good after the first session, but didn’t experience anything too outstanding. It was not until subsequent treatments that the real benefits began to kick in. I’ll discuss those more in my next few posts. The important thing to note about this whole process is that in order for change to happen, it takes time. Most athletes today are so concerned with being able to get back into their routine as quickly as they can after an injury only to put themselves back in the same position of being hurt a few weeks later. They never actually break the cycle of failure. If you truly want to be able to perform at your best, you must take time to listen to your body. If you suffer even the smallest of injuries, then you can expect a large setback for as long as you ignore it. We should never be afraid to make changes to our practice to accommodate for such things. That is what really helps develop longer lasting strength.

Next time, I’m going to give you a deeper look into how acupuncture helped me with sinus pressure. Until then, please share below your stories about how holistic medicine has helped you.

I was doing some poking around on YouTube the other day (another guilty pleasure that gets me into more trouble than it’s worth), as I was looking for ideas on workout material. I wanted to see how the champs trained. I watched a great Manny Pacquiao highlight. Roger Gracie is always another good one. I even came across some P90X clips that gave me some great ideas. I decided to listen to an interview with UFC champion George St. Pierre, because he has one of the best coaching teams in the industry. Did you know that Mr. St. Pierre happens to be a die-hard McDonalds fan? One of his team members has to walk down the street with him and nearly drag him away from the golden arches weeks before a fight! Apparently he loves cheeseburgers and Coke. I was left slack-jawed staring at the monitor, shaking my head, as I watched this.

Jiu jitsu world champion Sergio Moraes came to Philadelphia for a seminar last year and showed some of the techniques he’d just made use of to beat the stacked competition in his division the week before. His class lasted about two hours and included many very advanced techniques and lots of sparring. What did he do after such a grueling workout? He headed straight over to Jim’s Steaks on South Street and ordered the biggest cheesesteak I’ve ever seen them make.

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois was also no stranger to this secret lifestyle. In a recent interview, Manju Jois (Pattabhi’s son) told his class a story about discovering his father passed out in his favorite chair covered in chocolate wrappers after consuming a far-too-large amount from his stash.

Lastly, I was sitting down this morning to sip some coffee and see what my Facebook family was up to when I came across a real doozy! A very well-connected friend of mine here in Philly posts photos of himself standing next to every famous person he can. This morning, I was shocked to see a photo of him standing next to none other than former WEC champ Urijah Faber. It’s worth mentioning here that I was very disappointed at his recent loss. As I looked a bit more closely at the photo, I could see that Faber has also fallen prey to the mighty Philly cheesesteak. There it was in his left hand, almost as if he was trying to hide it from the camera. Again, I sat shaking my head and asking why?

I think the amount of pressure placed on professional athletes, coaches, and teachers to look, eat, think, and move a certain way is absurd. I also think it’s hysterical that only a few of them have the strength to come right out and admit to the fact that they enjoy these greasy, sinful treats as much as the rest of us. You are the kind of champions that I admire. You work hard, train properly, set good examples of sportsmanship in the ring but, most importantly, you admit to your flaws. Staying humble is the best way to achieve success no matter what your field. It also makes the act of becoming a champion more accessible and attainable to your youngest fans and up-and-coming students.

I ask you to share your guilty pleasures with me. What do you reach for when you think no one is watching? What is that one thing that after a stressful day is just so tempting that it calls to you from afar? Let’s have some fun airing out the dirty laundry.

As I arrived at my yoga teacher’s house for our Wednesday morning practice session, I did my usual thing…park the car, grab my bag from the back seat, sent my wife a text letting her know I had arrived safely, and knocked on the door. A few moments later, the door opened a bit more slowly than it usually does, and a very familiar yet unexpected face was on the other side. Relson Gracie himself was now inviting me in to sit and talk with him while my teacher had stepped out for a bit. To make a long story short, Relson and my teacher, Phil, have a long, very close family history together, and Phil is basically considered one of Relson’s own children. Relson happened to be passing through town on his way to teach a Jiu Jitsu class in Maryland and wanted to say hi to “his boy.”

Here I sat, waiting for a yoga lesson…in the presence of Jiu Jitsu royalty. I’ve gotten the chance to speak to Relson before and he knows who I am (even remembering me by name), so I was not scared. Unprepared was more the word. I always like to have a well-phrased question on hand for just such an occasion but, not having any idea that I was going to be given the chance to ask it, I was at a loss. This time I was in luck, as Relson did all the talking for me.

We sat for almost a half hour. He told me about the early days of his training at the hands of his father. He even showed me a DVD slideshow he had compiled of some his father’s accomplishments. How did he get this far? The message was simple: mastering the basics that his father taught him. He still teaches those same basics to all of his students in the hopes that not only will the family legacy be kept alive, but that those basics will help empower a younger generation of students.

Fast forward to a week later, and here I am back at my teacher’s home practicing in the sunroom. I am moving through my practice, and Phil begins to tell me that he has had much more success with some of the poses I am learning by breaking them up into their most basic pieces and then working them slowly. Now I KNOW that this is the best way to learn anything. So why is it that I am now falling victim to not listening to my own advice after so much time? I guess every one of us needs to be reminded from time to time: a simple but detailed practice is the most beneficial kind. You can not rush attention to detail and you will not get anything out of a martial arts practice, a yoga practice, a musical practice—a practice of any kind—without a complete control of the basic elements of your medium. Take time to appreciate the simple things about what you do and you’ll get much greater results.

So far, personally, I’m doing well on a number of levels. My yoga practice is really helping me to stay not only fit in a way I never thought I’d be, but also very centered and in touch with the feeling of my friends and family. I am in the midst of planning my first trip to Mysore, India, in order to study, and I could not be happier with the relief of pain in my back. My studio has seen many great developments in staff, students, and community outreach, and my diet has kept me feeling strong and alert.

I still feel that more growth needs to take place. I am yet to test for my fourth-degree black belt. (I had to pass up an opportunity to participate in the most recent black belt test due to lack of training time). The growth of the business has not gotten to where I’d like it to be, and I always feel that I could be staying in better contact with friends and family. But how do I do it all? Is that even an option?

This evening, I got a phone call from one of those people I wish I had stayed in better contact with—my mentor, who is responsible for having shaped the way I view my life and the people in it. Always thinking about progress, this man is such an inspiration. After only a few moments on the phone, he reminded me of just how important it is to be always moving forward with new ideas, reinventing some old ones, and connecting with meaningful people whenever we can. The conversation was so great that it prompted the question—again—how do you do it all? I guess the answer is going to be different for everyone. So let me ask you. How are you doing with meeting your goals for the year 2011? What are your successes as well as your failures? We need to learn from each other, so please share your tricks and tips.

Contained in the collection of interviews, you’ll find a vast amount of knowledge and experience from the world’s leading Ashtanga yoga practitioners as well as insight from personal friends of the Jois family from Guruji’s early days in Mysore. The interviews are long, but well worth the read.

Listening to the practitioners themselves, it was refreshing to hear of their struggles with the practice in the beginning. Here I am reading the words of the people I love to watch for form and technique—Tim Miller, Chuck Miller, David Swenson, and Lino Miele, just to name a few—only to find that their issues are the same as my own. The same poses that give me trouble gave them trouble as well, and they still have to work and practice on a daily basis in order to maintain a high level of proficiency.

The interviews with Pattabhi’s family and friends dealt more with the kind of devoted and disciplined man he was. From his youth and his studies with the great T. Krishnamacharya, to how he was able to deal with the death of his wife, it became obvious to me that Guruji possessed a natural ability to accept things as they came to him and to always care about and for those that were around him.

I recommend this book to anyone who has a teacher in their lives that has made a long-lasting impact on them. I recommend this book to any teacher who has students that admire them on any level. Sri K. Pattabhi Jois was the type of person that is very difficult to find in today’s fast-paced society. He was relaxed, enjoyed his life, and tried to honestly give of himself every day of his life. This book is a reflection of just how much an impact one person can make on so many people. Hats off to Guy Donahaye and Eddie Stern for a job well done.