Spiritual Gangster represents a lifestyle that vibrates at a high frequency. We are making this lifestyle accessible to the masses through our product line and what we represent. We encourage awareness, choosing happiness, creating abundance and manifesting the life you want to live.Vibrating at this frequency, Spiritual Gangster carries out our vision by giving back to our community and others throughout the globe through charitable donations, fundraisers, programs and workshops. You are invited to join us.



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YOGA JOURNAL Interview: Music Man
Hip-hop yogi Ian Lopatin talks about Bikram, the beat, and making yoga more American.
By Diane Anderson

When he was a kid Ian Lopatin watched his mom host neighborhood yoga gatherings. As an adult he worked as an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles, had a life-changing encounter with Bikram Choudhury, and opened At One Yoga Studios, in both Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona. He now teaches his hip-hop-influenced yoga around the country and is launching an oxymoronic line of yoga lifestyle togs called Spiritual Gangster.

So, you were exposed to yoga at a young age? When I was four or five, our massage therapist would come to teach yoga classes, and the whole block would show up for yoga. I thought my mom was crazy. I didn't have a regular yoga practice growing up. After finishing law school in California, I was stressed and running a lot. I went to Yoga Works, and Sean Corne got me addicted. My mom gave me a book on yoga. And, strangely enough, Bikram Choudhury sat next to me on a plane. He changed my life. I practiced with him daily in Westwood, California. One thing led to another.

How would you describe the At One style? It's a fun, athletic experience with music, and we blow up people's misconceptions about what yoga is. A big aspect of our success is the community-based element of everything we do—we host kirtans, events with food, and discussions about environmental issues.

Yoga and music are portals that help people experience breakthroughs. I use music to get everyone on the same energetic page. People start moving like a school of fish. Steve Ross taught me how to make music integral and how to sequence asana to it. It's fun and helps people move more deeply into their own experience. We tap into this energy and get yoga out to the masses. There's this amazing information in the yoga system that needs to be packaged so that it's relevant to high-stress Americans. I use a lot of hip-hop. For standing sequences, it has a primal beat that everyone can catch: It's a simple one-two. Think of old Michael Jackson songs or what Justin Timberlake is doing these days. Even just the stiffest white person in the room can move to it.

Aren't some of the lyrics unyogic? In the beginning I picked high-vibration lyrics. But, truthfully, most people don't listen to the lyrics. I used to worry about the words, but now I realize if it has a great beat, it works. People who are offended probably need to get jolted out of their comfort zone.

What's Spiritual Gangster? I'm working with my girlfriend, Vanessa Lee, to create a line of high-vibration lifestyle clothing called Spiritual Gangster. Yogis generally care about the environment and come together for causes we believe in. The name means we're a gang of spiritual people who want to make a difference. Our t-shirts have messages like "Grateful," "Meditate," and "Love Your Mother," and a lot of the shirts are organic or recycled. We donate 10 percent of profits to sustainability projects, like planting trees, and to social causes, like the Cambodian Children's Fund and Seane Corn's foundation, Off the Mat, Into the World.

3 ways to convince your stubborn man to give yoga a try

If you love yoga but have a hard time "dragging" your boyfriend or husband to class, it might just work to tell him that NFL Pro Bowler Brian Jennings attributes the practice to saving his career. Proof be told, Jennings (who is the long snapper for the SF 49ers) took his first yoga class on a date and ever since has been hooked. Following are three reasons why he loves the ancient practice (something you might want to share with your stubborn significant other)

1. Yoga is a positive way to spend time and energy.

Rather than sitting on the couch watching tv or playing video games Jennings preferred to spend his free time in a more productive way. He found that yoga not only improved his health but caused a mental shift that enhanced his entire well being.

2. Yoga helps the body recovery from injuries and prevent injuries

Prior to doing yoga, Jennings suffered a nagging right shoulder that he just couldn't seem to cure. After countless physical therapy sessions and doctors appointments he finally saw improvement once he started yoga. Today his shoulder is healthy, strong and mobile attributing yoga to keeping his body healthy and injury-free.

3. Yoga is a way to connect with other people

Annoyed with too much social networking? Since starting yoga four years ago, Jennings has become a certified yoga teacher, teaching classes during the off season at At One Yoga in Phoenix, Arizona. Having made fantastic relationships in his training program and in and around the yoga studio, he says yoga is a great place to connect whether with friends or future like-minded business associates.

Brian Jennings is one of a rising number Spiritual Gangster people around the nation making spirit the guiding light.

Doesn't "Gangster" have a negative connotation? Anyhow I love Yoga!
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[Edited 1/22/09 5:04am]

LleeLlee said:

Did you read the article or visit the site? He explains the concept.

Why Yoga Works

http://www.sunstoneyoga.c...fault.aspx

For those of us who have an existing yoga practice, whether yoga works rarely enters our mind, because the fact that yoga works is a matter of experience. Yet, it is a worthwhile question both for practitioners and those steeped in traditional forms of exercise or considering a yoga practice. Yoga works on the body, mind and emotions in positive, life-changing ways. Many people will enter a yoga room with the goal of becoming slimmer, or changing their physical abilities in some manner, and months later find they are not only physically changed, but their lives have changed. These life changes will have occurred solely through practicing yoga postures.

Starting with weight loss, let’s look at why yoga works successfully as a path to fitness.

Muscles metabolize calories when they are stimulated. One pound of muscle metabolizes 35 – 50 calories every 24 hours. However, the more muscle used, the greater the stimulation, and in turn the more calories required. In running, you use approximately 25% of the body’s muscles. That 25% is only put through about 15% of its range of motion. That is: 15% X 25% = 3.75% of the body’s muscle cells being stimulated by running. Calories are burned because of the duration and repetition of that exercise.

In contrast, a typical yoga practice uses the muscle’s full range of motion, and the muscle is almost completely stimulated. With practice, a yogi or yogini is contracting, stretching and putting resistance on a large percentage of the body’s muscles, through nearly 100% of their range of motion. Therefore, the typical yoga practice is a more efficient use of muscle tissue and higher caloric expenditure results.

Intense forms of yoga, such as hot yoga, work to stimulate the cardiovascular system in the same way. The more muscle cells involved in the activity, the more oxygen required, and in turn the greater the effectiveness of the exercise. In general, oxygen consumption over time depends on 4 things:
Muscle mass involved in the exercise;
Percentage of muscle cells involved in the exercise, or the range of motion the muscle mass is put through;
The number of times the muscle must make the movement;
The resistance on the muscles during the movement.
Increase any one of these elements, and the time required to get the same cardiovascular result is decreased.

Continuing with the example of running, if you run up a hill you get very out of breath. Running uphill forces the legs through a greater range of motion with more resistance, and the oxygen requirements skyrocket, meaning less time is required to get the same cardiovascular result as running on a flat surface. In a yoga practice, however, applying resistance to a high percentage of muscle mass through a high range of motion, you don’t need to keep your heart rate up for prolonged periods of time, because you use more oxygen in that time.

After exercise, the body continues to consume greater amounts of oxygen than before the exercise. This is called “excess post exercise oxygen consumption” (EPOC). It simply means your body is still working harder after you stop exercising, while it restores itself to its normal resting state. The duration of EPOC is proportional to the number of muscle cells used and the intensity of the exercise. Because of the high amount of stimulated muscle in yoga, the EPOC is high. Some styles of yoga, such as hot yoga, have an even greater EPOC, because of the increased heat and humidity of the yoga environment.

Beyond its effectiveness at calorie burning and cardiovascular exercise, the balance of strength, flexibility and concentration should not be overlooked in a yoga practice. Many athletes in high impact activities with high risk of injury must use strength and flexibility training as a separate component of practice to enhance their ability in their chosen sport, or to protect themselves from the effects of repetitive stress on the body. Running continues to provide an excellent example, because of the high impact of constant weight bearing on knee and ankle joints. While running is effective for cardiovascular development and leg strength, some runners find they get limited upper body strength and a decrease in flexibility. In time, this can lead to injury or discomfort.

Yoga is one of few exercise practices that builds strength and flexibility to the whole body with minimal risk of injury or long-term physical damage. By moving in and out of the postures in a controlled manner and holding the pose over time, the yogi or yogini uses his or her own body weight as resistance. A recent study at the University of California at Davis found that 90 minutes of yoga practice 4 times a week over 8 weeks increased muscular strength up to 31%, muscular endurance up to 57%, and flexibility up to 188% in a group of healthy but previously sedentary college students. Proper practice of yoga works every part of your body equally, and doesn’t overwork the muscles, leading to better balance and alignment in the body and less chance of injury than other forms of traditional exercise. If the goal of exercise is increased physical benefits, the low impact, low risk aspects of a regular yoga practice inevitably mean the yoga practitioner can be confident his or her practice will continue to be regular.

Beyond its purely physical benefits, yoga increases your body awareness and helps decrease stress. The increase in awareness leads to better decisions about what to eat. If you have a regular yoga practice, you are less likely to eat something that is going to make your practice uncomfortable. Instead of fueling your body with lots of foods that digest slowly, the body begins to ask for lighter foods higher in nutrients. It is more comfortable to do yoga with less food in your system.

Also, by reducing stress, yoga reduces eating as a stress response. Comfort foods work, but they usually add unneeded or unwanted calories. Our stressful lives contribute to weight gain because stress increases the hormone cortisol. Cortisol stimulates eating, and encourages calories to be converted to fat. By decreasing stress, we decrease the amount of cortisol our bodies produce.

As awareness increases and stress decreases, yogis also understand that the latent energies of the body are released through the practice of asana. Right energy used begets more energy. As the body opens, aligns, and breath comes under control, we get the synergistic effects of yoga. In traditional forms of exercise like running or cycling, the beginner athlete will initially improve his or her performance by keeping the mind off what they are doing; in effect, distracting themselves from the hard work. But top athletes must be aware of and completely focused on every movement. In this way, they can perfect their breath and movement to conserve energy. But there is a monstrous gap between the two and bridging that gap takes tremendous training. By its very nature yoga requires awareness and attention to the smaller details from the very beginning. Your skill in yoga grows proportionally with this improved awareness. So achieving balance between strength, flexibility, and concentration is a self-mastery with unlimited benefits to the body and overall health of the practitioner.

Increased awareness is both cause and effect of the increased health benefits of a regular yoga practice. You may enter a yoga class for the physical benefits, and within a short time, find that you have received much more.

I enjoyed Amrit Yoga
http://www.amrityoga.com/

In our class, it was mainly couples. It was a lot of fun.

SCNDLS said:

I understand the concept, I think they are trying to reach out to an audience that wouldnt normally consider Yoga as a lifestyle choice. So in that way I guess it makes sense, but most people associate Yoga with inner peace and the word gangster doesn't conjure that up, but I understand its a marketing tool. I guess Im being pedanatic.


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[Edited 1/22/09 5:16am]

SCNDLS said:

When I hear some people say "they're going gangster" with something (i.e. a project, goals, etc.) they usually mean they are going "full force", sort of like a no excuses policy until they accomplish the goal they intend to achieve.

2elijah said:

Exactly! I like the thought of Yoga being more active/aggressive in its approach. That's why I prefer hot yoga vs. the more sedate versions, there's something for everybody.

2elijah said:

Thats not the definition of gangster, but each to their own. I think its just cynical marketing, but there you go.

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[Edited 1/22/09 9:11am]

wth is the gangster part about

oh, a gimmick

Funny how there always have to be some Negative Nellie mothafuckas in every bunch

Ottensen said:

I agree that "gangster" sets off alarm bells but there aint nothin betta than cuttin the Devil Kill Bill style