May 16, 2023 • 25 mins
The Value in Understanding Your Body | The Asana Academy Podcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So over my 10 plus years inbusiness now I've never been one
to shy away from controversy.
Or I've never been afraid.
To say what I feel like thetruth is, or if it's right in
front of me or it's right.
It's something that's glaringlyobvious.
I'm happy to point it out, evenif it pisses people off, even if
(00:20):
it ruffles feathers.
In a way or it's things thatpeople don't really want to
hear.
A while back I wrote an article.
How to beat it was called how tobe smart in a world of dumb yoga
teachers.
And as I was growing.
My following, I ran ads to thatspecific article and.
(00:43):
That one article.
Generated, you would think.
So many.
So much controversy and the waypeople would respond to it.
W what they would write on thecomments.
And how they would, they wouldbe angry, they would get yoga.
Teachers would get angry.
(01:03):
And people would get angry and.
There was also a lot of peoplewho agreed right.
There was also a lot of peoplewho agreed with that statement
and we're like, yeah, Yogateachers have to be better.
They can't just do.
They can't just do 200 hours oftraining and expect to.
You don't know everything thereis to know about yoga teachers.
(01:25):
So I kept doing it.
I kept doing it and I realized.
That the angrier people getabout a statement you make or
something you say, the morelikely it is to be true.
The more likely it is.
To be true because only someone.
Only someone that.
Is defensive about something.
(01:47):
Would want to lash out or wouldwant to make sure their voice.
Was hurt.
And.
I found that to be an epiphanyin my business.
I'm probably, I would say thatI'm more interested.
I should say I'm equally asinterested in the business side
as I am the actual teachingside.
That's one of the reasons whyI've been able to grow my
(02:08):
businesses because I studybusiness as much as I.
Study my craft, because Irealized that both of those two
are important, but my pointbeing is that.
I had an epiphany.
I realized that the things thatare most valuable to people are
ultimately the things thatpeople have a reaction to.
(02:30):
People get angry.
People get upset.
If it's not strong enough toelicit an emotional reaction.
From any group of people, it'salso not strong enough.
It's also not something that'sworth turning into a product.
It's not something that's worthbuilding a business around.
It's not worth.
It's not worth spending time onit, because if there's no.
(02:53):
If there's no attack, if peoplearen't.
If there's no attention onsomething, I should say nothing
ever grows.
And if there's no controversy oryou don't make a statement that
strong enough for people toactually get upset or get angry
about, it's also not worth it,right?
Because you have to polarize,you have to be polarizing in the
way you say things and it's.
(03:14):
Attention is the.
Attention is the currency of theinternet.
And it's one of the things thatI, that I teach.
My business students.
How do you get noticed?
In see a sea of millions andmillions of people going online,
yoga teachers, especially likeyou, can't be afraid to make
your statement.
And so I will always tell themfor any kind of marketing for
(03:37):
any kind of message or for anykind of advertising that you're
trying to get out there.
You have to imagine that you'vegot a megaphone and there's a
hundred people sitting on thefence.
And once you finish saying whatyou want to say, what your
message is, what your truth is,what, whatever that is, you want
to say.
(03:57):
By the end of it, those 100people on the fence should be
off of it.
And it doesn't matter what sideof the fence they go on.
It's either one side or theother.
They could love what you say orthey could hate what you could
say, but that's irrelevant.
Because.
Business is all about gettingpeople to take action.
They may like you, they may notlike you.
And, Saying, I don't like yousaying, I disagree getting
(04:20):
angry.
That's also an action.
And that's how, You've got abusiness that's growing.
Are you getting people to takeaction?
The direction that they move in,doesn't matter.
And I found over the years, too,that.
I enjoy teaching.
I enjoy I genuinely enjoy.
Educating people, but educatingthem.
(04:41):
Too, so that they actually useit, not just to give more theory
and not just to give.
More fluff, which there's tonsof that now on, on the internet,
but to actually get people totake action, I'd like to change
people's lives, which is why Idon't like just selling online
courses.
I like coaching people.
I like giving them educationcombined with direction.
(05:03):
And most importantly, I likeeducating people in a way, which
they haven't been educatedbefore.
Like I enjoy teaching thingsthat.
Are outside of the box or I'dlike to teach things from a
different perspective.
And that's something I reallyenjoy doing, but.
In order to find my audiencesomething really interesting.
(05:24):
I found like I've been.
I sent out this, I sent out thissurvey to build a new functional
anatomy project and I'm doingresearch on it to figure out.
The best way to go about it andto find the things that people
truly want.
But as I've been going back, Ifind that.
I do put a lot of educationalcontent out there.
(05:47):
I find that a lot of people aredrawn to me and they follow me.
For my opinion.
On things.
I think over the years as youevolve in business.
And now that I've built up abigger following, I think when
you start and your audience issmaller, you don't.
Have you don't really have avoice and nobody really paid
your.
Nobody really pays.
(06:08):
Attention to what you have tosay too much, nor do they value
it.
But after you put out enough,Good content.
You've educated.
People get to know your message.
People get to understand.
What it is you stand for and howyou can teach people and how you
can actually help them.
They start to pay attention toyour opinion, your like your
opinion starts to matter.
(06:30):
And so over the years I found,especially in growing and
bringing new people into myworld.
I'm more like an opinion list,right?
Like I can say something, I canhave a take on something.
People can disagree with it.
People can love what I say.
It doesn't matter.
It really doesn't matter.
As long as.
If I'm saying something it'sstrong enough.
To either be loved or for peopleto disagree with her, for people
(06:52):
to hate me.
I don't really care which one.
But that's ultimately the goalof business.
And one of my first businessmentors actually taught me this.
He's you got to learn to be morecontroversial.
You've got to learn to rufflepeople's feathers a little bit
more.
And you have to learn to saythings in a way which is
polarizing because polarizingmessages is what creates fans.
(07:13):
Polarizing messages is whatcreates buyers and people raving
to buy products.
So that's always stuck in theback of my head.
I can be.
And I try not to do this is Ican be a very logical cut and
dry kind of person.
But.
Yeah, people like to beentertained as much as they like
to be educated and.
(07:35):
And even more.
So today I find people on theinternet.
I prefer.
Entertainment, can they beentertained?
Now the reason I'm the reasonI'm bringing all of this up is
because.
Reading through all of thesesurveys.
And again, if you haven't.
If you haven't listened to thelast episode or you aren't on my
(07:56):
email list, you can go to myemail
list@wwwdottheaustinacademy.com.
I don't really, I don't rarely.
I rarely, I don't really, Ishould say I rarely build new
products, but when I do, I liketo be sure they're research and
I like to be sure it's somethingthat people actually want.
And.
And what's great about this ispeople have asked me to build a
(08:18):
product around functionalanatomy for.
Years and one of the things I'vealways I, one of the things I've
always.
Said no to it is because mystance has been, if there is no
specific outcome, That peoplewant.
There is not really a reason tobuy because people don't buy
products.
They buy outcomes.
(08:39):
They want outcomes and they wantthings that will genuinely make
their life better.
Like I said in the last episode,Learning.
Learning the way learning likenames of muscles learning.
The, all the Latin terms yeah,that's nice to know, but that
doesn't matter.
(08:59):
But that really doesn't matter.
And for some reason that seemsto be like a very yoga industry
related things where yogateachers like to use big words.
And they like to use like thecomplex Latin, that the complex,
like Latin term for everything,because yeah, it makes them.
They want to sound smart, right?
It makes them sound smart.
But when you're in the businessof teaching, You are not in the
(09:21):
business of speaking in a way,which people don't understand.
You're in a way you're in thebusiness of speaking in a way
people do understand you.
So you're trying to connect withthem, right?
And the way you connect withsomeone or a group or people is
the way you say things.
That's it's funny because goingthrough surveys, like yoga
(09:42):
teachers have this.
Th they really have this It'slike this air of arrogance,
which is, if I teach or if I amin front of people, I want to
make sure that I know all thesebig words.
I want to use all these bigwords.
I want to be able to demonstratehow smart I actually am.
And I, it's funny.
(10:03):
And I bring this up because.
That's exactly what people don'tneed.
That's exactly.
That's exactly what studentsdon't need in that they aren't
trying to.
You're not going there toimpress your students, right?
You're not showing up andteaching a yoga class to impress
(10:25):
your students.
You're showing up to transfersome knowledge to them.
And ironically, the bigger yourvocabulary and the smarter you
get, the harder it is to connectto those said students.
I find it funny that there's.
There's still people out there,yoga teachers in specifically
that are so hell bent on wantingto learn those things.
(10:46):
Like they feel like that isvaluable.
And for me, that's not somethingI'm, that's not something I'm
ever interested in doing.
That's not anything I've everbeen interested in because these
are things where if you want toknow the name, you can look it
up.
You can look it up.
You can learn the name, but whatyou should be in the business of
doing is transferring.
You're speaking in a way whichhelps to transfer knowledge to
(11:08):
someone else.
So that side of anatomy.
Is not it's something that's notvery beneficial.
In fact, I wish that thoughtwould die.
I wish that, that I wish thatmindset of, Hey, as long as I
know all the Latin names, and aslong as I know.
All of the fancy terms, then I'mgoing to be a great yoga teacher
(11:30):
because that doesn't make you agreat yoga teacher that just
makes it harder for you toconnect to your students.
And, I take a lot of classes asa student.
I like to go in.
I always like to get a feel forthe pulse of what's going on
with the yoga industry.
And I find that's one thingthat's never changed.
And.
And a lot of the time it's thenewer, the teacher, the bigger
words they use, because it's, ifthey're trying to prove
(11:52):
something to somebody now, Sothat's what I'm really against,
right?
Like that is just somethingwhere, okay.
You go to school, you can go toschool, you can take anatomy
classes, which no, which I'vedone by the way I've taken.
I've taken college anatomyclasses and college kinesiology
classes.
(12:12):
Those classes are, Some of theleast useful classes in the long
run because everything thatyou're learning is basically in
a textbook.
But where you get the, where thereal knowledge comes from.
In things is.
Action.
It's actually acting, it's doingthings and learning like experi
(12:34):
there's no substitute forexperience.
And that's where anatomy becomesreally valuable in that.
The more, you.
Start to experience firsthand.
The way the body works.
And the more that you start to.
Understand the connectionsbetween.
What's going on, the more youcan reveal.
(12:57):
Relay that more naturally toyour students.
The more that you can naturallygo and you can say, look, I can
see the way somebody's moving.
Based on the way somebody'smoving.
These are the deficiencies.
That they have in their body.
And there's an empowering sideto it.
When you understand the way thebody works and the way the body
moves.
(13:17):
Not just the names, the fancynames, but the empowering part
of understanding anatomy is whenyou can actually use it to heal
your body, when you can use itto better your life.
You can use it to preventinjuries.
You can use it to see faultymovement patterns in people.
You can use it to build yourselfstronger, build your clients,
build your students stronger.
(13:38):
You can use it.
To identify weak spots inyourself.
It's all around.
It's all around a verybeneficial thing.
When you start to learn thoseconnections right of the way
those pieces put together, andthen it becomes.
Things become a lot less.
Muddy so to speak, because ifyou've ever had a back injury or
(14:00):
something and you've ever triedgoing to.
The doctor or.
And then you've tried physicaltherapy and then you've tried
all these other, you've gone tothe chiropractor.
You've gone through all thesethings and they're all very
quick to point out the fact thatyeah, you've got a back injury,
but.
(14:20):
Then none of them ever fullyaddressed the reason why your
back was injured to begin with.
I'm just assuming that this is,I'm just assuming that this is
not like.
An injury that you sustainedfrom sports or being active,
just chronic pain.
That's built up.
Over the years, right?
The industry, the healingindustry is very reactive.
It's less proactive and it'svery reactive because typically
(14:44):
being reactive is where themoney's at.
Which is, you've got a backpain, you've got a back.
Discomfort, I don't know if it'sin your spine, if it's in your
muscle, if it's in your nervesor where it is.
But.
We can treat it.
Like we can treat you.
But if you never trulyunderstand where it comes from
or what's causing it.
(15:06):
Then you're going to be on thatsame hamster wheel.
You will be on that same chronicpain hamster wheel.
Which is.
I'm always injured.
I don't know why I'm always inpain.
That's where anatomy is reallyvaluable.
So last year I spent.
A month.
In Argentina.
And, we went hiking through.
(15:28):
Patagonia.
We actually went all the waysouth.
We went as far south.
And Argentina is you can go.
In fact, we were looking out atthe very tip it's a town called
And we were looking out at thevery tip of an Arctic, like we
were that close.
Like we were.
We were all the way south andlooking across it's actually
(15:49):
really fascinating.
One of the things like anArctic, it gets very cold by the
way, even in the summertime, wewere.
We were there like in atransitory period, we were there
like in the spring, as it wastransitioning from winter to
summer.
And even then we were so closeto Antarctica.
That it was like every 10 milessouth.
(16:09):
You go from the port in newschwa.
Down to Antarctica, thetemperature drops like another
10 degrees.
So every mile you go.
The temperature drops anotherdegree.
And then by the time you get toAntarctica, it's like minus.
Minus 50 degrees, or minus 60degrees and that's Fahrenheit,
not Celsius.
So that's really cold.
Now my point being is that.
(16:31):
My point being is I was liftinga suitcase and I was really
annoyed with myself because,sometimes.
Injuries happen when you'repaying attention, the least.
We had a, it was like a, we hada 1:00 AM flight and it was from
winnows RAs down to all the waydown to schwa.
So I'm exhausted in the morningwe get there, it's four 30 in
(16:53):
the morning or something.
And I.
I like haphazardly.
There's a reason why I'm tellingyou this whole story is.
I like haphazardly from theside, reach over with my arm to
grab.
Suitcase off the belt, we'recollecting our luggage.
And the second I did it.
The second I did it.
I knew that it clicked in myhead immediately that I did not
(17:14):
lift that suitcase and ananatomically correct way
whatsoever.
And I just injured my shoulder.
Lifting that suitcase.
And I knew it immediately.
And.
It bothered me to an extent,because the biggest battle.
Th the biggest battle that youface again against yourself and
your body is awareness.
It's the more aware you are, theless likely you are to be
(17:36):
injured.
In fact, injuries typicallyhappen when you have lapses in
awareness or you check out,which is exactly what I did.
Now.
Long story short, I don't need.
Luckily, I've seen enoughshoulder injuries and I've
worked with enough people toreally understand what's going
on with the shoulder andincluding myself.
(17:57):
So I don't need a milliondifferent opinions on what's
wrong with my shoulder.
I can diagnose it already by.
Just certain movements, right?
You can move your arm indifferent ways and different
ranges of motion.
You can see what works and whatdoesn't.
So that's, that's a very.
That's a very Physical therapykind of thing, which is.
A version of it, where you'relooking and moving your body in
different ways to understand.
(18:17):
But anyway, long story short,it's that.
It's not that injuries are nevergoing to happen.
Even if you understand the waythe body works, but it's having
the confidence.
To truly understand and get tothe bottom of it.
So that you can heal things.
And that's where.
That's where the functionalityreally comes from.
(18:38):
Which is, yeah.
When you understand youranatomy, you can build strength.
You can.
Overcome a lot of weaknesses inyour body.
But you can really confidently.
He'll injuries, right?
You can heal them.
And you can go and you can sayto yourself now I understand.
This, I understand how this isaffecting my body and I
understand what it is because ofwhat goes on.
(19:00):
But now I also understand likeother things, right?
Like anatomy.
Isn't just about like functionalanatomy also.
Isn't just about, Hey, how doesthis muscle move?
What does it do?
And what plane does it operatein?
It's also.
What kind of neurologicalpatterns do you?
My muscle does my brain createas a result of my muscles
(19:23):
moving.
And that's where you can reallygo down and you can learn a lot
is to say moving patterns,right?
And that's one of the things wedo in body breakthrough with
people learning presshandstands, is we, when we're
coaching them, we just, wesimply look at.
How they move.
And the movement patterns.
That they currently have.
And.
The reason the movement patternsare important is because they
(19:47):
reveal.
To they, they reveal.
To you where the deficienciesare in the body.
And when you start to seemovement related to deficiencies
in the muscle that's about asfunctional as you can get in
terms of anatomy.
Which is if I can ID.
If I can ID my weaknesses basedon the movement gives clues.
(20:08):
The movement gives clues to helpID the weaknesses in your body.
That's the fastest way tochange.
And that's always been myapproach to that's.
Why me personally be personally,I've always seen anatomy
valuable is because.
My background is in engineering,so I like to look at things I
like to.
(20:29):
Go back.
And I like to look at the body.
More.
So through the lens of anengineer.
And understand almost reverseengineer the way the body works.
So you can understand, andthat's always yielded the best
results, right?
There's never been.
Whenever people say it's funny,like when it comes to.
(20:50):
Press handstands or any of thelifts yeah.
People want to learn how to dothem and it's fun to do them.
But whenever someone said gimmea series of drills to help do
it, or give me a series ofexercises that I should, that
you know, that I can.
Try it's they never really beenthat great, and case in point,
like you can go on.
(21:11):
YouTube and you can look updrills and things and whatnot,
and they're all over.
They're all over the internet.
Now.
It's all over the internet.
And the reality is if thosethings would have worked for
somebody, they would have foundthem and they would've worked
already, but they don't.
What do you do that meansactually learning.
The way your body works andeveryone is different.
(21:31):
That's why.
Taking the time to understandyour body so important.
And, going back and you can lookand you can say.
Yeah.
And this applies to everybody,not just the yoga teachers, I'll
dress yoga teachers here first,even though I've got.
All you know, I've got all sortsof different people now who
listen to this podcast, but.
I as a yoga teacher, like yourgoal.
(21:54):
Is to not learn poses.
It's not learn names, it's notlearn Latin.
It's not learning any of thesethings.
It's to learn bodies it's tolearn the way your body works
and to learn the way otherpeople's bodies works through
the lens.
Have, function and movementpatterns.
When you get those two things,you get the ball.
(22:15):
You start to get the way theywork.
So I think that's the importantthing like going through.
It's funny.
I love reading.
I.
It's like one of my favoritethings to do is just reading
people's opinions and reading.
What they say.
About things and how they viewthings, because oftentimes.
My viewpoint is not the same asother people's viewpoints.
(22:36):
And you start to see, there is awhole lot of other, there that
there is a whole lot of other.
Viewpoints out there, right?
There is a whole lot of other.
Ways people see things based offof their own experience and.
The one thing.
I do know the one thing where Ido see that is extremely
(22:56):
valuable as people who had beenin pain people who've had.
Any sorts of any kind of chronicpain or injuries, and it's been
it's perplexing to them.
Like they haven't been able tosolve it for years.
That's where the traditionalsystem is not going to fix it.
The traditional system is notgoing to help with your pain
because the reality is.
(23:18):
Again, same thing.
If the traditional systemworked, it would've worked for
you already, right?
It's not like you're going tomagically come up with some
solution.
At that point.
What you're doing is saying toyourself, I am going to, I need
to commit to learning the way mybody works.
And that's valuable, right?
That's where, when you trulyunderstand the way your body
(23:39):
works inside out.
That's when you can start tocreate.
A massive amount.
Of change and you can becomeempowered.
By having that knowledge.
Yeah, I think it's interesting,right?
I think it's interesting to readthrough.
People's opinions.
Read what they have to say.
I find it.
I find it so fascinating, but italso helps too.
(24:00):
It's how you create goodproducts is you get to a point
where you can really see.
Other opinions and you canlearn.
Decipher through what's valuableand what's not, and create
things that people actuallywant.
So I'm just looking at the time.
And I don't like to, I don'tlike these things to go any
longer than.
(24:20):
30 minutes and I'm gettingreally close to that mark.
So I'm going to leave it offthere.
This was valuable or you learnedsomething tagged me in a story
on Instagram, share it.
Let me know what you learned,how you applied it.
And again, if you do find thispodcast valuable, if you're
learning something from it,Share it take some time to share
it with someone else who youthink could benefit from it and
(24:41):
take some time to leave areview.
Their reviews are very helpful.
For growing this podcast morethan ever, the algorithm is even
more skewed towards reviewsthese days.
So if you could take some time.
To leave a review wherever youlisten to podcasts, whether
that's apple, Google, orSpotify, or anywhere else helps
to grow the shower.
(25:01):
So that's all I've got for youon today's show.
Have a good rest of your day,and I'll talk to you soon.
So over my 10 plus years inbusiness now I've never been one
to shy away from controversy.
Or I've never been afraid.
To say what I feel like thetruth is, or if it's right in
front of me or it's right.
It's something that's glaringlyobvious.
I'm happy to point it out, evenif it pisses people off, even if
(00:20):
it ruffles feathers.
In a way or it's things thatpeople don't really want to
hear.
A while back I wrote an article.
How to beat it was called how tobe smart in a world of dumb yoga
teachers.
And as I was growing.
My following, I ran ads to thatspecific article and.
(00:43):
That one article.
Generated, you would think.
So many.
So much controversy and the waypeople would respond to it.
W what they would write on thecomments.
And how they would, they wouldbe angry, they would get yoga.
Teachers would get angry.
(01:03):
And people would get angry and.
There was also a lot of peoplewho agreed right.
There was also a lot of peoplewho agreed with that statement
and we're like, yeah, Yogateachers have to be better.
They can't just do.
They can't just do 200 hours oftraining and expect to.
You don't know everything thereis to know about yoga teachers.
(01:25):
So I kept doing it.
I kept doing it and I realized.
That the angrier people getabout a statement you make or
something you say, the morelikely it is to be true.
The more likely it is.
To be true because only someone.
Only someone that.
Is defensive about something.
(01:47):
Would want to lash out or wouldwant to make sure their voice.
Was hurt.
And.
I found that to be an epiphanyin my business.
I'm probably, I would say thatI'm more interested.
I should say I'm equally asinterested in the business side
as I am the actual teachingside.
That's one of the reasons whyI've been able to grow my
(02:08):
businesses because I studybusiness as much as I.
Study my craft, because Irealized that both of those two
are important, but my pointbeing is that.
I had an epiphany.
I realized that the things thatare most valuable to people are
ultimately the things thatpeople have a reaction to.
(02:30):
People get angry.
People get upset.
If it's not strong enough toelicit an emotional reaction.
From any group of people, it'salso not strong enough.
It's also not something that'sworth turning into a product.
It's not something that's worthbuilding a business around.
It's not worth.
It's not worth spending time onit, because if there's no.
(02:53):
If there's no attack, if peoplearen't.
If there's no attention onsomething, I should say nothing
ever grows.
And if there's no controversy oryou don't make a statement that
strong enough for people toactually get upset or get angry
about, it's also not worth it,right?
Because you have to polarize,you have to be polarizing in the
way you say things and it's.
(03:14):
Attention is the.
Attention is the currency of theinternet.
And it's one of the things thatI, that I teach.
My business students.
How do you get noticed?
In see a sea of millions andmillions of people going online,
yoga teachers, especially likeyou, can't be afraid to make
your statement.
And so I will always tell themfor any kind of marketing for
(03:37):
any kind of message or for anykind of advertising that you're
trying to get out there.
You have to imagine that you'vegot a megaphone and there's a
hundred people sitting on thefence.
And once you finish saying whatyou want to say, what your
message is, what your truth is,what, whatever that is, you want
to say.
(03:57):
By the end of it, those 100people on the fence should be
off of it.
And it doesn't matter what sideof the fence they go on.
It's either one side or theother.
They could love what you say orthey could hate what you could
say, but that's irrelevant.
Because.
Business is all about gettingpeople to take action.
They may like you, they may notlike you.
And, Saying, I don't like yousaying, I disagree getting
(04:20):
angry.
That's also an action.
And that's how, You've got abusiness that's growing.
Are you getting people to takeaction?
The direction that they move in,doesn't matter.
And I found over the years, too,that.
I enjoy teaching.
I enjoy I genuinely enjoy.
Educating people, but educatingthem.
(04:41):
Too, so that they actually useit, not just to give more theory
and not just to give.
More fluff, which there's tonsof that now on, on the internet,
but to actually get people totake action, I'd like to change
people's lives, which is why Idon't like just selling online
courses.
I like coaching people.
I like giving them educationcombined with direction.
(05:03):
And most importantly, I likeeducating people in a way, which
they haven't been educatedbefore.
Like I enjoy teaching thingsthat.
Are outside of the box or I'dlike to teach things from a
different perspective.
And that's something I reallyenjoy doing, but.
In order to find my audiencesomething really interesting.
(05:24):
I found like I've been.
I sent out this, I sent out thissurvey to build a new functional
anatomy project and I'm doingresearch on it to figure out.
The best way to go about it andto find the things that people
truly want.
But as I've been going back, Ifind that.
I do put a lot of educationalcontent out there.
(05:47):
I find that a lot of people aredrawn to me and they follow me.
For my opinion.
On things.
I think over the years as youevolve in business.
And now that I've built up abigger following, I think when
you start and your audience issmaller, you don't.
Have you don't really have avoice and nobody really paid
your.
Nobody really pays.
(06:08):
Attention to what you have tosay too much, nor do they value
it.
But after you put out enough,Good content.
You've educated.
People get to know your message.
People get to understand.
What it is you stand for and howyou can teach people and how you
can actually help them.
They start to pay attention toyour opinion, your like your
opinion starts to matter.
(06:30):
And so over the years I found,especially in growing and
bringing new people into myworld.
I'm more like an opinion list,right?
Like I can say something, I canhave a take on something.
People can disagree with it.
People can love what I say.
It doesn't matter.
It really doesn't matter.
As long as.
If I'm saying something it'sstrong enough.
To either be loved or for peopleto disagree with her, for people
(06:52):
to hate me.
I don't really care which one.
But that's ultimately the goalof business.
And one of my first businessmentors actually taught me this.
He's you got to learn to be morecontroversial.
You've got to learn to rufflepeople's feathers a little bit
more.
And you have to learn to saythings in a way which is
polarizing because polarizingmessages is what creates fans.
(07:13):
Polarizing messages is whatcreates buyers and people raving
to buy products.
So that's always stuck in theback of my head.
I can be.
And I try not to do this is Ican be a very logical cut and
dry kind of person.
But.
Yeah, people like to beentertained as much as they like
to be educated and.
(07:35):
And even more.
So today I find people on theinternet.
I prefer.
Entertainment, can they beentertained?
Now the reason I'm the reasonI'm bringing all of this up is
because.
Reading through all of thesesurveys.
And again, if you haven't.
If you haven't listened to thelast episode or you aren't on my
(07:56):
email list, you can go to myemail
list@wwwdottheaustinacademy.com.
I don't really, I don't rarely.
I rarely, I don't really, Ishould say I rarely build new
products, but when I do, I liketo be sure they're research and
I like to be sure it's somethingthat people actually want.
And.
And what's great about this ispeople have asked me to build a
(08:18):
product around functionalanatomy for.
Years and one of the things I'vealways I, one of the things I've
always.
Said no to it is because mystance has been, if there is no
specific outcome, That peoplewant.
There is not really a reason tobuy because people don't buy
products.
They buy outcomes.
(08:39):
They want outcomes and they wantthings that will genuinely make
their life better.
Like I said in the last episode,Learning.
Learning the way learning likenames of muscles learning.
The, all the Latin terms yeah,that's nice to know, but that
doesn't matter.
(08:59):
But that really doesn't matter.
And for some reason that seemsto be like a very yoga industry
related things where yogateachers like to use big words.
And they like to use like thecomplex Latin, that the complex,
like Latin term for everything,because yeah, it makes them.
They want to sound smart, right?
It makes them sound smart.
But when you're in the businessof teaching, You are not in the
(09:21):
business of speaking in a way,which people don't understand.
You're in a way you're in thebusiness of speaking in a way
people do understand you.
So you're trying to connect withthem, right?
And the way you connect withsomeone or a group or people is
the way you say things.
That's it's funny because goingthrough surveys, like yoga
(09:42):
teachers have this.
Th they really have this It'slike this air of arrogance,
which is, if I teach or if I amin front of people, I want to
make sure that I know all thesebig words.
I want to use all these bigwords.
I want to be able to demonstratehow smart I actually am.
And I, it's funny.
(10:03):
And I bring this up because.
That's exactly what people don'tneed.
That's exactly.
That's exactly what studentsdon't need in that they aren't
trying to.
You're not going there toimpress your students, right?
You're not showing up andteaching a yoga class to impress
(10:25):
your students.
You're showing up to transfersome knowledge to them.
And ironically, the bigger yourvocabulary and the smarter you
get, the harder it is to connectto those said students.
I find it funny that there's.
There's still people out there,yoga teachers in specifically
that are so hell bent on wantingto learn those things.
(10:46):
Like they feel like that isvaluable.
And for me, that's not somethingI'm, that's not something I'm
ever interested in doing.
That's not anything I've everbeen interested in because these
are things where if you want toknow the name, you can look it
up.
You can look it up.
You can learn the name, but whatyou should be in the business of
doing is transferring.
You're speaking in a way whichhelps to transfer knowledge to
(11:08):
someone else.
So that side of anatomy.
Is not it's something that's notvery beneficial.
In fact, I wish that thoughtwould die.
I wish that, that I wish thatmindset of, Hey, as long as I
know all the Latin names, and aslong as I know.
All of the fancy terms, then I'mgoing to be a great yoga teacher
(11:30):
because that doesn't make you agreat yoga teacher that just
makes it harder for you toconnect to your students.
And, I take a lot of classes asa student.
I like to go in.
I always like to get a feel forthe pulse of what's going on
with the yoga industry.
And I find that's one thingthat's never changed.
And.
And a lot of the time it's thenewer, the teacher, the bigger
words they use, because it's, ifthey're trying to prove
(11:52):
something to somebody now, Sothat's what I'm really against,
right?
Like that is just somethingwhere, okay.
You go to school, you can go toschool, you can take anatomy
classes, which no, which I'vedone by the way I've taken.
I've taken college anatomyclasses and college kinesiology
classes.
(12:12):
Those classes are, Some of theleast useful classes in the long
run because everything thatyou're learning is basically in
a textbook.
But where you get the, where thereal knowledge comes from.
In things is.
Action.
It's actually acting, it's doingthings and learning like experi
(12:34):
there's no substitute forexperience.
And that's where anatomy becomesreally valuable in that.
The more, you.
Start to experience firsthand.
The way the body works.
And the more that you start to.
Understand the connectionsbetween.
What's going on, the more youcan reveal.
(12:57):
Relay that more naturally toyour students.
The more that you can naturallygo and you can say, look, I can
see the way somebody's moving.
Based on the way somebody'smoving.
These are the deficiencies.
That they have in their body.
And there's an empowering sideto it.
When you understand the way thebody works and the way the body
moves.
(13:17):
Not just the names, the fancynames, but the empowering part
of understanding anatomy is whenyou can actually use it to heal
your body, when you can use itto better your life.
You can use it to preventinjuries.
You can use it to see faultymovement patterns in people.
You can use it to build yourselfstronger, build your clients,
build your students stronger.
(13:38):
You can use it.
To identify weak spots inyourself.
It's all around.
It's all around a verybeneficial thing.
When you start to learn thoseconnections right of the way
those pieces put together, andthen it becomes.
Things become a lot less.
Muddy so to speak, because ifyou've ever had a back injury or
(14:00):
something and you've ever triedgoing to.
The doctor or.
And then you've tried physicaltherapy and then you've tried
all these other, you've gone tothe chiropractor.
You've gone through all thesethings and they're all very
quick to point out the fact thatyeah, you've got a back injury,
but.
(14:20):
Then none of them ever fullyaddressed the reason why your
back was injured to begin with.
I'm just assuming that this is,I'm just assuming that this is
not like.
An injury that you sustainedfrom sports or being active,
just chronic pain.
That's built up.
Over the years, right?
The industry, the healingindustry is very reactive.
It's less proactive and it'svery reactive because typically
(14:44):
being reactive is where themoney's at.
Which is, you've got a backpain, you've got a back.
Discomfort, I don't know if it'sin your spine, if it's in your
muscle, if it's in your nervesor where it is.
But.
We can treat it.
Like we can treat you.
But if you never trulyunderstand where it comes from
or what's causing it.
(15:06):
Then you're going to be on thatsame hamster wheel.
You will be on that same chronicpain hamster wheel.
Which is.
I'm always injured.
I don't know why I'm always inpain.
That's where anatomy is reallyvaluable.
So last year I spent.
A month.
In Argentina.
And, we went hiking through.
(15:28):
Patagonia.
We actually went all the waysouth.
We went as far south.
And Argentina is you can go.
In fact, we were looking out atthe very tip it's a town called
And we were looking out at thevery tip of an Arctic, like we
were that close.
Like we were.
We were all the way south andlooking across it's actually
(15:49):
really fascinating.
One of the things like anArctic, it gets very cold by the
way, even in the summertime, wewere.
We were there like in atransitory period, we were there
like in the spring, as it wastransitioning from winter to
summer.
And even then we were so closeto Antarctica.
That it was like every 10 milessouth.
(16:09):
You go from the port in newschwa.
Down to Antarctica, thetemperature drops like another
10 degrees.
So every mile you go.
The temperature drops anotherdegree.
And then by the time you get toAntarctica, it's like minus.
Minus 50 degrees, or minus 60degrees and that's Fahrenheit,
not Celsius.
So that's really cold.
Now my point being is that.
(16:31):
My point being is I was liftinga suitcase and I was really
annoyed with myself because,sometimes.
Injuries happen when you'repaying attention, the least.
We had a, it was like a, we hada 1:00 AM flight and it was from
winnows RAs down to all the waydown to schwa.
So I'm exhausted in the morningwe get there, it's four 30 in
(16:53):
the morning or something.
And I.
I like haphazardly.
There's a reason why I'm tellingyou this whole story is.
I like haphazardly from theside, reach over with my arm to
grab.
Suitcase off the belt, we'recollecting our luggage.
And the second I did it.
The second I did it.
I knew that it clicked in myhead immediately that I did not
(17:14):
lift that suitcase and ananatomically correct way
whatsoever.
And I just injured my shoulder.
Lifting that suitcase.
And I knew it immediately.
And.
It bothered me to an extent,because the biggest battle.
Th the biggest battle that youface again against yourself and
your body is awareness.
It's the more aware you are, theless likely you are to be
(17:36):
injured.
In fact, injuries typicallyhappen when you have lapses in
awareness or you check out,which is exactly what I did.
Now.
Long story short, I don't need.
Luckily, I've seen enoughshoulder injuries and I've
worked with enough people toreally understand what's going
on with the shoulder andincluding myself.
(17:57):
So I don't need a milliondifferent opinions on what's
wrong with my shoulder.
I can diagnose it already by.
Just certain movements, right?
You can move your arm indifferent ways and different
ranges of motion.
You can see what works and whatdoesn't.
So that's, that's a very.
That's a very Physical therapykind of thing, which is.
A version of it, where you'relooking and moving your body in
different ways to understand.
(18:17):
But anyway, long story short,it's that.
It's not that injuries are nevergoing to happen.
Even if you understand the waythe body works, but it's having
the confidence.
To truly understand and get tothe bottom of it.
So that you can heal things.
And that's where.
That's where the functionalityreally comes from.
(18:38):
Which is, yeah.
When you understand youranatomy, you can build strength.
You can.
Overcome a lot of weaknesses inyour body.
But you can really confidently.
He'll injuries, right?
You can heal them.
And you can go and you can sayto yourself now I understand.
This, I understand how this isaffecting my body and I
understand what it is because ofwhat goes on.
(19:00):
But now I also understand likeother things, right?
Like anatomy.
Isn't just about like functionalanatomy also.
Isn't just about, Hey, how doesthis muscle move?
What does it do?
And what plane does it operatein?
It's also.
What kind of neurologicalpatterns do you?
My muscle does my brain createas a result of my muscles
(19:23):
moving.
And that's where you can reallygo down and you can learn a lot
is to say moving patterns,right?
And that's one of the things wedo in body breakthrough with
people learning presshandstands, is we, when we're
coaching them, we just, wesimply look at.
How they move.
And the movement patterns.
That they currently have.
And.
The reason the movement patternsare important is because they
(19:47):
reveal.
To they, they reveal.
To you where the deficienciesare in the body.
And when you start to seemovement related to deficiencies
in the muscle that's about asfunctional as you can get in
terms of anatomy.
Which is if I can ID.
If I can ID my weaknesses basedon the movement gives clues.
(20:08):
The movement gives clues to helpID the weaknesses in your body.
That's the fastest way tochange.
And that's always been myapproach to that's.
Why me personally be personally,I've always seen anatomy
valuable is because.
My background is in engineering,so I like to look at things I
like to.
(20:29):
Go back.
And I like to look at the body.
More.
So through the lens of anengineer.
And understand almost reverseengineer the way the body works.
So you can understand, andthat's always yielded the best
results, right?
There's never been.
Whenever people say it's funny,like when it comes to.
(20:50):
Press handstands or any of thelifts yeah.
People want to learn how to dothem and it's fun to do them.
But whenever someone said gimmea series of drills to help do
it, or give me a series ofexercises that I should, that
you know, that I can.
Try it's they never really beenthat great, and case in point,
like you can go on.
(21:11):
YouTube and you can look updrills and things and whatnot,
and they're all over.
They're all over the internet.
Now.
It's all over the internet.
And the reality is if thosethings would have worked for
somebody, they would have foundthem and they would've worked
already, but they don't.
What do you do that meansactually learning.
The way your body works andeveryone is different.
(21:31):
That's why.
Taking the time to understandyour body so important.
And, going back and you can lookand you can say.
Yeah.
And this applies to everybody,not just the yoga teachers, I'll
dress yoga teachers here first,even though I've got.
All you know, I've got all sortsof different people now who
listen to this podcast, but.
I as a yoga teacher, like yourgoal.
(21:54):
Is to not learn poses.
It's not learn names, it's notlearn Latin.
It's not learning any of thesethings.
It's to learn bodies it's tolearn the way your body works
and to learn the way otherpeople's bodies works through
the lens.
Have, function and movementpatterns.
When you get those two things,you get the ball.
(22:15):
You start to get the way theywork.
So I think that's the importantthing like going through.
It's funny.
I love reading.
I.
It's like one of my favoritethings to do is just reading
people's opinions and reading.
What they say.
About things and how they viewthings, because oftentimes.
My viewpoint is not the same asother people's viewpoints.
(22:36):
And you start to see, there is awhole lot of other, there that
there is a whole lot of other.
Viewpoints out there, right?
There is a whole lot of other.
Ways people see things based offof their own experience and.
The one thing.
I do know the one thing where Ido see that is extremely
(22:56):
valuable as people who had beenin pain people who've had.
Any sorts of any kind of chronicpain or injuries, and it's been
it's perplexing to them.
Like they haven't been able tosolve it for years.
That's where the traditionalsystem is not going to fix it.
The traditional system is notgoing to help with your pain
because the reality is.
(23:18):
Again, same thing.
If the traditional systemworked, it would've worked for
you already, right?
It's not like you're going tomagically come up with some
solution.
At that point.
What you're doing is saying toyourself, I am going to, I need
to commit to learning the way mybody works.
And that's valuable, right?
That's where, when you trulyunderstand the way your body
(23:39):
works inside out.
That's when you can start tocreate.
A massive amount.
Of change and you can becomeempowered.
By having that knowledge.
Yeah, I think it's interesting,right?
I think it's interesting to readthrough.
People's opinions.
Read what they have to say.
I find it.
I find it so fascinating, but italso helps too.
(24:00):
It's how you create goodproducts is you get to a point
where you can really see.
Other opinions and you canlearn.
Decipher through what's valuableand what's not, and create
things that people actuallywant.
So I'm just looking at the time.
And I don't like to, I don'tlike these things to go any
longer than.
(24:20):
30 minutes and I'm gettingreally close to that mark.
So I'm going to leave it offthere.
This was valuable or you learnedsomething tagged me in a story
on Instagram, share it.
Let me know what you learned,how you applied it.
And again, if you do find thispodcast valuable, if you're
learning something from it,Share it take some time to share
it with someone else who youthink could benefit from it and
(24:41):
take some time to leave areview.
Their reviews are very helpful.
For growing this podcast morethan ever, the algorithm is even
more skewed towards reviewsthese days.
So if you could take some time.
To leave a review wherever youlisten to podcasts, whether
that's apple, Google, orSpotify, or anywhere else helps
to grow the shower.
(25:01):
So that's all I've got for youon today's show.
Have a good rest of your day,and I'll talk to you soon.
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