Are you one of those individuals who never has time to workout? Or to put it bluntly – since I’m definitely not one for beating around the bush – are you one of those non-fitness types who thinks they have a legitimate “I have no time” reason for never working out?
If you are (with no judgment whatsoever folks), then here’s a little something for you:
My 5-minute, full-body, Yoga-based workout from Rich Tola’s Yoga Survival Guide that you can do while watching The Ellen Show. That’s right, a 5-minute workout you can easily muster during commercial breaks with Ellen DeGeneres. With a little dance warm-up to boot!
From beginners to seasoned yoginis who want to enhance their practice by learning the proper fundamentals of Yoga, my 2 1/2 hour video encyclopedia of 100 Yoga poses will do just that. Learn Yoga anywhere…with my 5-minute fun & effective lessons that were filmed throughout the streets of Hollywood in 2010 to benefit my charity, The Boulevard Zen Foundation, teaching Yoga to women and children living in domestic violence shelters.
Because who doesn’t have 5 minutes a day to respect themselves? Enjoy – R
Locations include Wall Street – near the Whitehall subway stop, Union Square, Bryant Park and Central Park, and of course, the 15-acre lush, green pasture best known as Sheep Meadow.
I’ll be posting NYC and local happenings to my Facebook and Twitter, so follow me and come on by!
And don’t forget your daily workout today…enjoy! – R
Thanks again to all those who bought my book, Simply Between Millions: From Wall Street to Hollywood. Post your comments below or on Facebook – love to hear them! And if you find yourself in San Francisco, you can buy a copy at Books Inc. in Opera Plaza, located at 601 Van Ness, and Browser Books in Pacific Heights, located at 2195 Fillmore St. With In-Store events coming in May!
You can also download the e-book on Kindle.com for $9.99
Here’s what readers are calling it thus far: enjoyable, inspiring, a great coast-to-coast read on a direct flight, fantastic, a real page-turner, and, wow, a well-written book with so many women. Well, what can I say, but there’s a really good chapter in there explaining the “cute-boy syndrome” and my retirement from “playing” aptly called, The Player Gets Played. And tons more stories that’ll humor you for a good 4 hours, or longer, if you get caught up on my multi-generational timeline of pictures – all 48 of them – from the early 1960′s to 2011.
So maybe you don’t want your 13-year old reading this, but if YOU do, you’ll learn something new about all sorts of places and things. Not to mention the plethora of businesses you’ll experience, including Wall Street and making movies. For sure you’ll be inspired to get up and try something new, or at least acknowledge that you could do something new, if you just believed in yourself and tried. Like a daily fitness program. Of course that’s in there too, in one of my favorite chapters, Self-Correct.
A portion of all sales is donated to my charity. Thanks for reading! Enjoy – R
COMING SOON! I just finished writing my memoirs, Simply Between Millions: From Wall Street to Hollywood, filled with 45 years of colorful and poignant stories about Sicilian funerals, Goombata Sal, the Jersey Shore, Wall Street, NYC strippers, lots of married women, Ivy League romances, Goth gals, bachelor parties, Interventions, my dot-com crash and burn, The Trump Organization, the real estate crash, sobriety, Hollywood “babes”, booty calls, auditions, transsexuals, sex-filled yoga retreats, making a film in two days and for $50,000, and my charity, The Boulevard Zen Foundation.
Today, I start the search for the right book publisher – hopefully I’ll have a release date soon, and a book tour to follow. Just like my other works, 10% of all sales go to the foundation.
As for the Fat Burn America Tour, we continue to seek corporate sponsorship, however challenging in a US recession. In the meantime, make sure you keep up with your daily fitness program, and enjoy the arrival of Autumn with our Hollywood Sneak Peek – R
Have you ever challenged yourself to change one thing? That is to say, to change one thing about yourself that you know would significantly benefit you in the long run. Something that you do – or don’t do – that when changed results in a positive outcome. For me it was Sardines. Yes, those small, saltwater, oily-rich, silvery soft-boned fish that feed exclusively on plankton, and therefore, do not concentrate mercury and contaminants as do other fish.
Named after Sardinia, the Italian island where large schools of these fish were once found, sardines are: 1) rich in Protein – which provides us with amino acids to create new proteins, 2) one of the most concentrated sources of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA – which have been found to lower triglycerides and cholesterol levels, 3) an excellent source of vitamin B-12 – which promotes cardiovascular well-being, 4) incredibly concentrated in vitamin D – which plays an essential role in bone health since it helps to increase the absorption of calcium, 5) a very good source of Phosphorus – a mineral that is important for strengthening bones, 6) a very good source of Selenium – a mineral with powerful antioxidant activity whose dietary intake has been associated with reduced risk of cancer, and 7) relatively inexpensive, low in calories and have a long storage life. Except for the fact that sardines contain naturally occurring substances called purines – which too much purines in the body can lead to an excess accumulation of uric acid, and thus, can lead to gout or kidney stones – they’re excellent for you!
So why is it that prior to this week I wouldn’t go near sardines? Because when I tried them as a youngster, I hated them. Or at least I hated them at that particular time in my life. So when my father told me he eats canned sardines regularly to help combat his cancer, I thought why not change one thing about myself and start eating sardines. No matter my pre-conceived notion that I hated them, I purchased a few cans and dove right in. Now sardines are a regular part of my diet. Quite frankly, I like them more than any other of my previously consumed canned aquatic vertebrates, like tuna and salmon.
Whether it be sardines or a daily fitness program, change one thing that will better your life today and in the long run. Just because you think you don’t like something, doesn’t mean you can’t change your way of thinking. Especially with my 5 Minute Fat Burning Workouts. They’re so short, simple and easy to follow, that anyone with a computer or smart phone can do them in the same amount of time it takes to eat a can of sardines! Here’s a 5 minute workout from my 100 day web series: #94 – Leg Stretches. Enjoy – R
The Boulevard Zen Foundation teaches the benefits of yoga to women and children living in domestic violence shelters. That’s why we’re going on the FAT BURN AMERICA TOUR: 100 CITIES in 100 DAYS, to inspire Everyone to workout with us Everyday for 100 straight days at historic sites in all 50 states! And to help The Boulevard Zen Foundation raise funds to teach women and children survivors of domestic violence, Everywhere.
And you don’t have to take a yoga class to get these benefits. Keep it simple and practice a little each day. And here’s me teaching the women and children living at the domestic violence shelter in San Diego. Enjoy and don’t forget to get your workout in! – Rich
If you’re a GQ reader like me, you probably read the August issue with Mila Kunis on the cover. On page 32, there’s a brief article by Mark Byrne called “Rewriting the Book on Yoga”, with a 15 minute yoga workout as prescribed by a studio owner in NYC. Unfortunately, I cringed when I reviewed the workout that includes three twisting and forward bending poses, the last of which is an advanced pose.
But before I add my two cents, let me state my fitness and yoga qualifications: I’m 48 years old, 5’7″ and weigh 150 pounds. My body fat is less than 9% and most people think I’m 33. I’ve worked out in fitness centers every day for the past 32 years totaling more than 12,000 hours. I’ve practiced yoga every day for the past six years totaling more than 2,000 hours. An accomplished student/athlete through college, I’m also a Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Cycling Instructor, and 200-hour Certified Yoga Teacher. I’ve taught more than 15,000 yoga students of all levels in the past five years, from the ages 3 to 93. I’ve created more than 15 hours of instructional yoga videos in the past two years, including a Yoga Survival Guide detailing more than 100 poses.
I currently teach yoga to women and children living in domestic violence shelters, who had zero experience with fitness and yoga before I got there. I have neck, low back, shoulder and wrist issues, and have been injured three times since I started practicing yoga – all from bad teachers. Thus, my very precise teaching style is designed to minimize injury to any body part, especially the neck and low back. Finally, I’ve practiced yoga mostly in New York City and Los Angeles, the yoga meccas of the United States, and have taken classes with the “so-called” best teachers in the world. 90% of which are women.
That said, here’s why I disagree with the Byrne’s claim that GQ “found the best back-saving, workout-improving moves…” When it comes to anything twisting and forward bending while standing, you better move slowly and be super careful. Your stance is critical, which the caption doesn’t clearly emphasize. The caption also says “twist your head to look up”, which you should NEVER attempt without properly warming up the spine and preparing your body for such deep twists. Revolved triangle is a perfect example of this. A good teacher wouldn’t sequence this pose until at least halfway through the yoga class, because coming into this pose is AS IMPORTANT as the pose itself. So is coming back up to stand once you’ve been in the pose for any length of time. Here’s why: once your torso weight and your 10 pound head is down and over your forward leg, you’re balancing this weight over a tight triangular stance, making it quite difficult to manage. And since most men carry their weight in their torso and have tight hamstrings, coming into – or out of – this pose without bending your legs (like the picture shows), and without moving ridiculously slow, could lead to serious injury.
Thus, it’s not back-saving at all. It’s actually quite strenuous on your neck, low back and hamstrings. And requires ample core strength to control your torso as you’re folding forward at a 90 degree angle (if you keep your back straight like the picture – which is also very difficult). And although the directions state “you won’t be able to touch the floor right away – settle for your ankle”, very few men can even get to their ankle. Frankly, this is a very challenging pose for an advanced yogi, let alone anyone who’s never done it before. So take note and be VERY CAREFUL, especially when twisting and forward bending at the same time. And if you really want to experiment with this pose on your own, warm up and strengthen your core and abs first with my 5 Minute Fat Burning Workout #82 – Easy Abs. Enjoy & hope to see you on the FAT BURN TOUR! – Rich Tola
We’ll soon begin a 30,000 journey across America visiting all 50 states – 100 Cities in 100 Days – to raise money for my charity, The Boulevard Zen Foundation. We teach yoga to women and children living in domestic violence shelters. Ambitious? Yes. For a great cause? Yes. Impossible? Certainly not! I expect it to be life changing. For all of us, as well as all of you because we intend to EDUCATE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER and ENTERTAIN you with cool, trivia-filled workout videos from historical sites everywhere.
Here’s me teaching the women and children at the San Diego domestic violence shelter:
Here’s the Hollywood Sneak Peek Trailer for my Fat Burn America Tour. Enjoy! – R
“Holy expanding waistline Batman, America just keeps getting fatter”. Now if you’re a fan of the infamous Caped Crusader and read this morning’s newspaper, this is definitely something Robin would say. Because in today’s Los Angeles Times, a new report on our nation’s weight crisis – as prepared by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America Health – says “16 states are experiencing steep increases in adult obesity, and none has seen a downturn in the last four years”. So what’s up with that? With an obese population of 19.8%, Colorado is the ONLY state with an adult obesity rate below 20%. Furthermore, “adult obesity rates have doubled or nearly doubled in 17 states. Two decades ago, not a single state had an obesity rate above 15%. Now all states do.” But no worries folks…help is on the way! Soon my team will embark upon my FAT BURN AMERICA TOUR, visiting every state in America, 100 cities in 100 days, filming my fat burning workouts to promote daily fitness & yoga, and to raise much needed funds for my charity, The Boulevard Zen Foundation. As you know, we teach yoga to women and children living in domestic violence shelters. And since the report also states that “obesity remains a condition disproportionately affecting those with poor education and income, and closely tied to minority status”, it’s all the more reason to bring my FREE Fat Burning Workouts to the public. Our goal: to EDUCATE, EMPOWER, INSPIRE and ENTERTAIN. So get ready and get set with today’s 5 Minute Fat Burning Workout #94 – Leg Stretches. Enjoy and we’ll see you soon! – R
