Introduction

Cy-Yo is an evolutionary step in bringing the mind, body, and spirit together in a fitness workout. Cy-Yo is a one hour holistic cardio workout that helps bring all the aspects of our being into focus to achieve optimal physical and spiritual results. A Cy-Yo class begins with a 10 minute yoga flow focused on energizing the muscles, lubricating and warming the joint structures, and bringing awareness to the mind/body energy centers. Following the 10 minutes yoga warm up is a 40 minute indoor cycling class. During the cycling class particular attention is paid to our energy centers, our visualization techniques, and our breathing patterns. Releasing negative energy, detoxifying our bodies, and increasing our higher energy fields are key aspects in achieving optimal physical performance in this phase of the workout. A 10 minute yoga flow is done immediately following the cycling class in order to refocus our minds, calm our bodies, and create a positive energy flow in our bodies.

For years, Western culture has developed its exercise programs based on body mechanics, muscle structure, and cardio capacity. While Aerobic classes, Step classes, Spin classes, Tae-Bo classes, cross training regimes, and resistance training systems revolutionized our physical body development, it largely ignored the non-physical aspects of our being. Our bodies were becoming hard and lean, but our minds and spirits were being ignored.

In the early 1970s, yoga, the physical art of slow movement, deep stretches, and power breathing, began to appear in Western society. Energy centers, chakras, and breathing systems, which have been a part of Eastern fitness philosophy for hundreds of years, became part of the fitness vocabulary in the Unites States. Yet, there existed a void between the two fitness cultures.

Yoga, for all its benefits, such as deep muscle release and toning, joint flexibility, and spiritual enlightenment, was labeled as “stretching”. It was done by non-athletic people who couldn’t lift weights. It was for hippies, wimps, and tree-huggers. The stereotypical Western belief was that if you couldn’t lift weights or do a heavy cardio workout, then yoga was what you did for “exercise”. Yoga was for the non-athlete, the old and slow, the nerds, and the physical rejects.

In the US, resistance training and weight lifting were the best forms of training for our bodies. Charles Atlas showed us the benefits of weight lifting in his beach cartoons. We learned that in order to “get the girl” we needed muscle and force. Arnold Schwarzenegger revolutionized the art of weight lifting from a California beach oddity to a staple of fitness training. As we came to the realization that our muscles were huge, but we couldn’t run 100 feet without gasping for breath, the cardio revolution began.

Hitting the pavement at a record pace, the aerobic activity of jogging was born. Running and jogging swept Americans onto the sidewalks and roads around the country. Our bodies took so much compact force that our feet and knees began to hurt. “Orthopedic surgeon” became a common word in mainstream vernacular. After realizing that concrete and asphalt were too hard on our knees and hips, we moved back indoors to wooden floors and the aerobics class was born. The 45 minute cardio workout to popular music was the next step in physical fitness evolution.

The branches of aerobics spread like weeds in the fitness garden of America. Aerobics on a personal trampoline, aerobics that incorporated a step, aerobics that used small dumbbell weights, aerobics that used rubber bands, aerobics that used a 12-foot streamer on a wand, aerobics that used karate moves, aerobics that used kickboxing moves, and the to top it off, aerobics that used speeded up yoga moves.

After we did aerobics for a few years we realized our knees and hips were still sore and that maybe jumping up and down, and pounding away against gravity wasn’t the best idea for the joints and muscles. This lead to the development of the non-evasive, non-compact workouts such as indoor cycling, water aerobics, and cardio electric machines such as the Stairmaster and Cross Trainer. We had now satisfied our need to raise our heart rates and burn fat without pounding our hips and knees into the ground hundreds of times an hour. Life was good. We had it all figured out with our indoor, non-compact, cardio workouts. But there was still something missing, there had to be something more than just 45 minutes on the Stairmaster?

The growing underground of “The Yoga Hippies” weren’t just sitting around chanting either. They light their patchouli sticks and thought of new ways to stretch. New “Western” variations of yoga developed around the country during this time as well. Yoga in a 107 degree room developed, yoga with “power” moves developed, yoga with speeded-up movement developed, and yoga with super slow movement developed. No matter what the yoga people did, they were still doing yoga.

Where will the next evolutionary step take place? How can we bridge the divide that separates the spiritual, holistic side of yoga exercises with the cardio, heart-pounding workout of group exercise classes at gyms? What if we could take the renewing and rejuvenating aspects of yoga and combine it with an efficient, non-compact, cardio workout?

That might just be called Cy-Yo, or cycle/yoga.