Ella, a writer on our creative team, caught up with global yogi Chris Chavez at his home in Istanbul, Turkey, to ask him more about a phrase he shared during a recent community class in Vancouver which inspired our team and turned into a Yoga Journal ad.

When our graphic designer Steph and I attended Chris Chavez’s packed class at the Vancouver Convention Centre, we weren’t thinking about creating a Yoga Journal ad. I was amazed with Chris’ ability to make a 400-person class feel like a private lesson with 399 of my closest friends, and Steph is still laughing as we watch the video now.

Q: Steph and I couldn’t stop laughing during your class. Don’t you think that yoga should be…serious?

A: I find that the quickest path to a student’s heart is through laughter. If the yoga is working I don’t think we need to take ourselves so seriously.

Q: What does it mean when you say ‘the yoga is working’?

A: If the yoga is working, our heart should be open and we should be less stuck in our head. We should be able to appreciate the diversity of expression in others. I guess that becomes the practice off the mat!

Q: As you joked and called out your many students by name, it became clear how important the relationship between teacher and student is. Can you tell us more?

A: Ultimately, you should be able to find a teacher that you can relate to. If you cannot relate to a teacher, what are you going to learn from them?

Q: Now the million-dollar question: Who is James?

A: James is a longtime student who has trained with me to be a teacher. He teaches yoga in prisons and he is a massive guy, really big and strong. When he comes to practice I like to connect with him because he is such a light spirit and such a big man.

During Handstand, I looked across the room and saw this big mountain of man hurling his legs up into space. If he didn’t keep it tight he was going to take like five people out around him. In that moment my words came out like that because they had to. When I teach, my main job is to get out of the way. I purposely don’t filter what I say because I want it to come from the soul.  (Editor’s note: James made it up into handstand without taking anybody out.)

Q: How do you feel about your words being immortalized in our ad and potentially being taken out of context?

A: Yoga teachers are sometimes put on this pedestal where we’re supposed to be a certain way and not say certain things. I don’t believe that the expression of the spirit has to be so serious. I can say some crazy stuff, but in there is genuine love for the students that I serve and my ultimate goal is to inspire them to access their own spirit. And by the way, pole dancers are some of the most awesome yogis I know!

Practice along with a video of Chris’ Vancouver class (and find his handstand instruction between 29:50 and 33:15).

When one of our writers, Ella, isn't making magic happen with her words you can almost always count on finding her on her bike. GranFondos, spin class, road biking - if it involves two wheels Ella's there. We caught up with her to learn a bit more about her cycling habits and more specifically, why she loves hitting the studio to cross-train for cyclocross. 

My main sport is cyclocross. I happen to think that ‘cross is the soggiest, silliest, smelliest (and some would say toughest) form of bike racing that exists. It involves sprinting around a circular obstacle course in the mud and rain, keeping your speed up while dismounting from your bike to jump over logs and run up hills with the bike thrown over your shoulder (and trying not to throw up). Basically, super fun. My teammates (the fellows especially) pride themselves on their toughness and have a great time poking fun at each other when someone does something deemed un-tough.

tough guys have secrets too

One of the things deemed un-tough? Spinning (obviously they’ve never tried it before because it ain’t no cake walk). The first time I ran into a teammate at spin class, he darted his eyes to make sure I was alone, then sidled up to me and whispered, “Please don’t tell anyone you saw me here. I’m, uh, secret training.”

Why the secrecy? Aside from the fact that these tough guys didn’t want it to be known that they enjoyed Top 40’s, spinning as cross-training for bike racing makes you fit. And fitness makes you fast. “Fast Patty” wanted to get secretly fitter during our off-season so his competitors wouldn’t know he was putting in a little extra-extra. He was going to take his competitors by surprise and win some races during the upcoming season.

2 reasons why ella loves spinning for cyclocross:

1. target zone training
If you already use a heart-rate monitor and do zone training, you know that having control over your heart rate for an hour allows you to maximize your workout. As opposed to a “regular” ride of 2-4 hours where your heart rate is all over the board, during spin class it’s possible to target specific zones and stay there, allowing you to get more out of one hour on a spin bike than during an hour outdoors on a road bike (plus, the music is great).

2. convenience equals consistency
Another benefit of spin class as cross-training is that you can ride more than you might normally during the winter. Waking up at 5am to get in a solid 2-hour ride (in the dark, cold, rain) before work can be a challenge in itself. Hitting up a spin class at a studio after work with colleagues requires much less motivation. Convenience equals consistency and consistency in training means a kickass you.

Oh and for the record, Fast Patty, the friend I saw at spin class? He killed it that race season.

This past weekend, thousands of cyclists took to the Sea to Sky Highway here in Vancouver to ride the third annual Whistler GranFondo. We’re talking about a 120K, mostly uphill climb. One of our writers, Ella, rose to the challenge and shared the ten things she was thinking about between moments of telling her legs to “shut up”.

10 things i was thinking during the whistler granfondo

Our internal dialogue while we’re pushing our bodies to its limits can often be quite hilarious. What are some of the crazy things you’ve caught yourself saying?