Yin Yang Fitness

(Washington Post) - Yogis and gym rats, unite! You each have much to learn from each other, says Steve Ilg, author of "Total Body Transformation: A 3-Month Personal Fitness Prescription for a Strong, Lean Body and a Calmer Mind" (Hyperion Books, 2004).

The book details an intense melding of Western and Eastern fitness traditions: strength and cardio training from the West, and yoga, mind-body awareness and healthy eating from the East.

Ilg says the combination will leave you stronger, calmer and more mentally focused. It could change your whole concept of fitness.

The program may seem hard-core, but there is much to admire here. The basics of Ilg's approach can apply to any almost anyone who is patient and willing to commit 45 minutes daily to physical workouts, plus time and attention for frequent self-checks on body position, balance and diet as you go through your day.

Charging that "there is no purity, rhythm or harmony to the standard bench press. You just crush the weight," Ilg espouses a less-is-more approach to weight training: "A wholistic athlete will take 40-pound dumbbells and make them feel like a 340-pound bench press," he says, mainly by isolating weaker muscles and working them instead of letting the shoulders take the load.

Weight lifting and cardio, Ilg says, suffocate soft tissues and tighten muscles.

"Without doing yoga to expand and elongate our hard-earned musculature, the muscles actually atrophy due to poor nutrient transfer," he writes. Conversely, he writes, yogis who lack muscle fiber from strength training can suffer injuries.

The Total Body Transformation program balances periods of muscle building with muscle lengthening, intense training with recovery periods, aerobic exercise with anaerobic, all complemented by a whole-foods diet, which he spells out in detail.

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