“Daniel,” people frequently ask, “how do you manage to stay strong enough to lift people they way you do when you travel around by yourself so much?”

My response to them? Yoga.

However, not all yoga is chanting and tantric energy. To me, Yoga is mindful movement. It is an elegant dance between body, breath, alignment, and gravity. By no means am I the most graceful yogi out there, nor the strongest. True strength and flexibility is not measured only by physical prowess or capacity, but sensitive discipline and commitment.

This five minute flow is an example of my daily practice, and is meant to repeated at least three times,. It covers a great deal of the basics of torso and core strength including:

–push-ups
–downward dog push-ups
–hollow body rocks
–V-Ups
–Tripod Presses (tuck, straddle, pike)
–Press Walks
–Press Jacks
–Smiling
–Sweating
–Bumpin’ Jams (“Southside Deep” by Trippy Turtle)

I have been known to add more dynamic leg work to this flow, such as squats, pistols, and rock climbers (to appease the cross-training devil on my left shoulder) and Warrior 2 & 3 leg presses (which satisfy the harmonium-playing yoga angel on my right). To each their own, I’m told.

Relentlessly pursuing a practice like this daily not only provides a solid foundation of strength for me to perform Herculean feats of AcroYoga, but supported a successful press-up handstand practice. Stay tuned after the credits for a poorly-hidden Easter egg.

Looking to take your AcroYoga practice to the next level? Start hitting up a bunch of these exercises before reaching out to me and taking one of my next workshops. I’m all over the place (globally) and will make you a better AcroYogi.

For more information, check out my website. It’s pretty easy to find it 😉

Oh, and if you’re the type of person who only does CrossFit and thinks yoga is for wimps… consider yourself called out. Let’s get together and bang out some wide-grip pull ups, run 1000 meters, and then hold a handstand for a minute before doing 5 rounds of Surya Namaskar B. I’m always up for a challenge.

Enjoy, in joy!