Why Yoga Part 3 of 4: Intense Workout
July 9, 2009 by dr. lam · 12 Comments
I remember bringing a very fit friend of mine to yoga for the first time who is a self-proclaimed fitness fanatic. She said, “I hope this is real cardio.” I said, “Well, let’s see.” She finished the entire 1.5 hours (better than I did the first time) and said, “Wow, that was a workout.” Another friend that I brought (who is also intensely fit) declared, “This routine should be designed for only the military.” I brought another friend from Austin on Monday night who posted on her Facebook that she believes all other forms of yoga are for sissies after she tried the yoga I attend. Now, not all yoga is the same. I believe that some light stretching exercises can be good for some, but I crave intensity. I want it to tone my body, strengthen my muscles in ways that cardio and weights cannot accomplish, i.e., longer, leaner isometrically-toned body. I want a challenge for my cardio workout and also for testing me to advance in my poses.
The yoga that I attend is Suze Curtis’ Power Dynamic Yoga Plus (as if the word power was not enough she needed all the adjectives she could muster to differentiate this workout) in Addison, Texas. It is an hour and a half to 2 hours in 92 degree heated room. Trust me that this can be worse than Bikram because of the intensity of the constant flow of her movements and poses. It is intensely difficult. I love the challenge of trying to improve, a practice that I know will require years of effort to perfect.
Emina asked me if I was so fit why couldn’t I hold my poses so long, which after 4 months I am getting much better at it. I returned to her that if I took her to a spin class and had her go through 2 straight hours with me that it would not be easy for her. Our body gets used to certain prescribed movements and our heart gets lazy by focusing on the same redundant routines. What is great with yoga is that the routine constantly changes and there is such a huge room for advancing in your poses. I am at the bottom of the barrel for level 1 right now but love the idea that I can advance to level 2 someday and 3, etc. Given these constraints, I still believe very much that intense high-speed cardio (I do step and spin) are great ways to challenge your body in other ways like weights and swimming (both of which I do too). Whenever we get too comfortable in life, we should shake it up a bit. Yoga does that. Well, that is something I am concluding with as a subject tomorrow.
The Vision Thing Part 2 of 3: Getting to Why?
November 18, 2008 by dr. lam · Leave a Comment
Many of our businesses are predicated on the what and the how. What are we producing? What is it that the consumer wants? How do we improve things? How do we make the consumer happier? Let’s take a look at the real core issue: Why. I was listening to Simon Sinek last year at an EO event who talked about getting to why (more about that tomorrow as well). The why is why we are doing what we are doing.
I had a spa event a few weeks ago where a lady said what really bothered her were a few fine lines on her upper lip. No one in the room could see what she was talking about, and she asked me, “Dr. Lam, would you mind if I just came to you to fill these lines and nothing else?” I said, “No, that is fine. However if you continue to do that over the next 3 years, you are wasting my talent and I am wasting your money.” That being said, MOST women come to me solely to fill those fine lines because that is what they are programmed to think ages them. Obviously, if I have done what it takes to get you where I think you should be then we can fill those lines. That is fine with me to see you and to educate you but I do not roll out of bed to fill a line. I get out of bed for an entirely other reason…
What is my why? It is in a nutshell “to take care of people and to transform lives”. Audacious? perhaps but it is something that is driven into my staff’s brains. The why is not just the reason that I get out of bed, it is the reason that all my staff get out of bed too. Yes, they come for a paycheck no doubt. However, they come because of the difference they know we are making every day.
If any of them look at what I do as trivial, then they will not stay with me oftentimes not because I am going to fire them but because they are going to fire themselves. They can’t survive in a culture that is dedicated to relentlessly addressing our core why. Stephanie, who works as my MA, left her last job because they had no why. Their why was to gouge and steal from the customer. She has seen what our why is every day. She sees that I turn away as many customers’ desires as I accept. I fundamentally cannot and will not waste your money. I really love what I do until I bleed. However, my staff does too. We are here every day impassioned by YOU.
Remember that as much as you choose me as a surgeon, I choose you as a patient. This is a marriage of sorts. If you are principally negative and micro-managing. If you are here to do something that fundamentally is a waste of your money, you should not be my patient and I should not be your physician. Am I taking risks with this website? Absolutely, I am NOT all things to all people. I have defined my vision and my patients who are attracted to it come and stay. Those who are not, do not. They leave or don’t stay and I am more than happy about that. Same with my staff. Those who cannot share my vision at a fundamental level don’t last. Are they wrong? Am I wrong? No. No one is wrong. The fit is just not right.
Do you know what your why is? Why do you get of bed every day? Why do you go to work every day? Is it just for a paycheck? Is it to punch in the time clock and leave so that you can party with friends? Fundamentally beyond the what and the how lies the why. That is the core of any vision.