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PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEBRA MCCLINTON

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M 8 1

We’re often asked bypeople skeptical of

yoga, “Can it really help me [lose weight,get fit, heal an injury]?” Of course, wealways say yoga can do all that and more.So we decided to put our money whereour mouth is and give three novices a yogamakeover. No, we won’t be putting themin the best booty-boosting yoga pants orapplying the newest to-die-for vegan min-eral makeup. We’re talking about a soul-transforming makeover: one that willintroduce the participants to yoga while

addressing an issue that’s affecting theirquality of life.

After putting out a call for volunteers,we found three brave souls who fit thebill. They are Leah Castella, a lawyer whowants to lose weight; Edith Chan, atriathlete who wants to prevent injuriesand burnout; and Mark Webb, a lawyerwith a knee injury.

We’re mindful that these makeoversare not just in the service of “fixing” theparticipants. Sure, we want to help ouryoga newbies reach their goals, but we’realso wondering how the practice willtransform their lives. Will it changeMark’s relationship to pain or assuageLeah’s body-image issues? Will it helpEdith stay relaxed and present as she pre-pares for her first Ironman race? Is yogatruly transformative the way those of uswho are already on board believe it is?

To ensure the best possible experiencefor our newbies, we needed to find a greatteacher: someone who enjoys workingwith beginners and who can tailor a yogapractice to meet an individual’s needs—someone confident, skillful, and nurtur-ing. We also wanted someone gentleand encouraging but capable of dishingout tough love during those momentswhen a participant’s commitment wouldinevitably wane.

It didn’t take us long to come up withthe right teacher, Jason Crandell. He’sassisted Rodney Yee for years; he teachesat yoga conferences and studios aroundthe country; and he directs the yoga pro-gram at the San Francisco Bay Club, thecity’s premier athletic club, which boastsan 11,000-square-foot Mind & BodyCenter for yoga and Pilates. But impres-sive résumé aside, Jason Crandell hasbeen one of our staff teachers for the pastfive years. He has managed our some-times injured bodies and addled minds

with gentle aplomb, so we were certainhe had the necessary skills. We also knewthat his straightforward, no-nonsenseapproach was balanced by sensitivity andcompassion for each student. Whetherhe’s teaching a group of four or a packedconference room of 75, he has a gift forcatering to the needs of each person with-out losing track of the big picture.

Crandell is particularly interested inworking with yoga newcomers individu-ally. “People express their needs moreclearly and honestly in a one-on-one set-ting than they would in a public class,” hesays. “We’ll be able to isolate variablesand have a much more accurate sense ofwhat’s going on with them than we wouldin a public class.” Crandell is even moreeager to introduce Leah, Edith, and Markto the practice of yoga. “I hope that thisprogram touches them all in ways theywouldn’t have foreseen,” he says, “andthat the yoga practice becomes a neces-sary part of their days, giving them timefor quiet reflection and insight.”

In six months, we’ll report back to youon the progress that our three intrepidyoga tenderfoots have made. In themeantime, they will be blogging abouttheir ups and downs weekly on our web-site. You can observe their evolution byvisiting yogajournalblogs.com.

We enlisted the help of San Francisco BayClub yoga director Jason Crandell to pre-scribe a personalized regimen for each.Will it change their lives? BY ANDREA FERRETTI

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8 2 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7

GOALS

go from size 18 to size 14

lower blood pressure

feel more fit

WEEKLY PROGRAM

one private session

one public class

three 30- to 45-minutehome practices

LEAH CASTELLA 33 Lawyer

AS SHE LEANS IN to tell her story, hazeleyes wide, hands waving expressively, alaugh tumbling out at regular intervals, it’sclear that Leah Castella has a lot of energy.“Energy has never really been a problemfor me,” she says. “I’m a bit of a freneticperson.” This deep well of energy has ledto success. During seven years of toilinglate nights and weekends at a corporatelaw firm in San Francisco—a workload shedownplays—she’s also racked up an inspir-ing amount of volunteer work that focuseson teens. In addition to coaching a mock-trial team at a local high school, she’s cre-ated a summer debate camp for youngwomen, and she organizes a program thatmatches teens with lawyer mentors.

But when it comes to maintaining ahealthy, balanced life, her energy is a draw-back. For years she’s struggled to maintainher weight, alternately embracing work-outs and diet plans and then falling offthe wagon. “I’ve never been a person who’sgood at moderation,” she says. “So whenI embrace a workout plan, I’m crazy aboutit, and then when I let it go, I really let itgo.” Two years ago, she trained for andcompleted a triathlon with some friendsat work, but shortly after the race, herinterest waned. Likewise, she’s tried aplethora of diet plans—Atkins, the SouthBeach Diet, Weight Watchers—that haveonly left her confused and frustrated.“Let’s see. Do I eat fewer carbs of just soup,or not eat after four o’clock or before six?”she quips. But at 33, she’s getting serious.At a recent doctor’s visit, Castella dis-covered that she has high blood pressure;if she doesn’t lower it within a few months,she’ll have to go on medication.

Castella is aware that losing weight andkeeping it off will require more than a goodworkout—she needs to find a way to bal-ance her high-octane personality. She’srecently achieved that in her work life byleaving the stressful environment of cor-porate law and opting to work for a smallerfirm that is more aligned with her values.She hopes yoga will help her fine-tune therest of her life. “I’m interested in yogabecause it integrates physical and mentalhealth,” she says. “I need to find somethingthat balances me and teaches me toembrace moderation.”

Perhaps best of all, Leah believes thatyoga will help her enjoy her weight-lossendeavor. “I want to do something becauseI love it, not because I have to exercise outof obligation,” she says. “Yoga empowersyou to take care of yourself. It’s a way oflife instead of another obligation you haveto fulfill because your doctors or societysays you have to be thin.”

CRANDELL’S PLAN

In the beginning of his sessions with Leah,Crandell will focus on standing poses tohelp wake up her entire body. “Standingposes are incredibly efficient,” Crandellsays. “They build strength and endurance,they invigorate the entire body evenly, andthey’re empowering.” He adds that stand-ing poses will teach Leah whole-bodyawareness and will also provide an impor-tant blueprint for alignment that she canapply to all of her poses as she progresses.Crandell plans to do vigorous work withLeah, teaching her the basics of Sun Salu-tations so that she can eventually go tovinyasa flow classes on her own.

FOOD FOCUSIn addition to weekly yoga sessions,Castella will have regular meetingswith the director of nutrition at theSan Francisco Bay Club, JanetMcBride, R.D. Ironically, McBride oftenfinds that she needs to encouragepeople to eat more frequently. “I don’teliminate anything at first. I encour-age adding meals and adding morevegetables to each meal.” After theirinitial meeting, McBride determinedthat this is what she’ll focus on withLeah, who often forgets to eat orskips breakfast because her day is sohectic, and then overeats or craveshigh-fat foods later.

First and foremost, McBride willeducate Leah about the physiologicaleffects of the deprivation mentality.“When you skip a meal, your bloodsugar drops, which leads to a surge ofhunger, and you binge.” To get Leahout of the deprivation cycle, McBridewill help her create and maintain aschedule in which she eats everythree to four hours. McBride willencourage Leah to become the care-taker of her body, creating a smooth,comfortable rhythm instead of eatingwhenever her schedule allows.

Leah will need to raise her aware-ness so that she can sense whenshe’s hungry, McBride says. She adds,“Yoga will help Leah reconnect withher body and really feel it so she’sbetter able to get in touch with herhunger throughout the day.” McBridewill add to that awareness practicewhile dealing with two of Leah’s otherweight-loss obstacles: her love of dinner parties and her dependenceon eating out.

In the beginning, McBride will not ask Leah to eliminate those twoaspects of her life; instead, she’llteach Leah how to scrutinize menusand choose the most healthfuloptions. Leah will also rate her hungeron a scale of zero to five before shebegins every meal. “The No. 1 thing isto check in with your physical hungerbefore you mindlessly start eating,”McBride says. “If your hunger is at a four or five, then you’ll need somestrategies to get you through thenight.” Some tips include opting forwater first and saving the wine todrink with your meal (to avoid ablood-sugar high and crash); stayingaway from the bread and butter andordering a broth-based soup instead;and making sure half the plate is filledwith vegetables. “The goal is to buildconfidence,” McBride says. “Really,you can eat anything. It just dependson how much you eat and what’s dri-ving you to eat it.”

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M 8 3

Fresh Start Leah’s Story

AFTER HER FIRST TRIATHLON nine yearsago, Edith Chan was hooked. “I fell pas-sionately in love with it,” she says. Chan’senthusiasm snowballed, and despite thegrueling 80-hour weeks she worked as asoftware engineer, she began traveling andcompeting twice a month, eventually rac-ing for Team USA around the world andwinning several national championships.Like so many other devotees of the sport,she pushed herself hard and obsessed overbreaking her personal records and gettingup on the podium after each race. Soonshe began to lose sight of why she lovedthe sport in the first place—the camara-derie, the mix of athletic disciplines, and

the outdoors. Instead of resting and cele-brating after a stellar race, Chan foundherself overtraining, burning out, and thensinking low after a lackluster performance.“All the focus on going faster and winningmore races started to take the fun away,”Chan says. “Deep down I knew there hadto be a better way.”

That better way came in the form ofChinese medicine, which Chan beganstudying about five years ago. After learn-ing that the fundamental principle of Chi-nese medicine is maintaining a balancebetween yin and yang, stress and recov-ery, work and rest, she began to apply thephilosophy to her sport and training. “I

understand now just how much my ath-letic longevity and sports performancedepend on a balanced approach to mytraining and lifestyle,” she says.

But old habits die hard. Although Chanhas scaled back (this year she will do threeraces instead of 10 or 12), she will competein two races over the course of this make-over—an Olympic-distance triathlon anda marathon—to prepare for a race thatshe’s never done before, an Ironman triath-lon. To give an idea of scale: An Olympic-level triathlon takes under three hours,while an Ironman—a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile marathonrun—takes a full day.

In preparing for this major race, Chanhopes that yoga will help her put into prac-tice what she already knows. “My hope isthat yoga will teach me to slow down andremove my competitive ego so that I canbetter pay attention to and respect earlysigns of overtraining, illness, or injury,” shesays. Although there’s no guarantee thatyoga will improve her running, biking, orswimming speeds, Chan believes it couldcontribute to a faster overall time in a longevent like an Ironman. As she points out,“Every up and down, every injury an ath-lete experiences, is magnified tenfold inan Ironman.” Chan might improve thebiomechanics of her swimming stroke bybecoming more flexible or heal the lowerback injury that flares up while she cycles.In an Ironman, these improvements couldmake a difference of hours, not just min-utes. “And because fitness gains comefrom cycles of training and recovery, notrecovering enough could have big conse-quences in any of the races I do.”

8 4 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7

No Pain,Big Gain Edith’s Story

CRANDELL’S PLAN

Chan’s vigorous training schedule includes two days per week of swimming, two daysof long runs, and a day each of interval running and interval spinning. Crandell’s taskis to balance her desire for strong physical work by teaching her how to rest. “I wantto provide stability after Edith’s intense workouts by refreshing and rejuvenating herbody, nerves, and mind.” Chan will spend time in restorative poses like Viparita Karani(Legs-up-the-Wall Pose) for part of every session they have together.

His practice regimen for Chan will also regularly include standing poses and back-bends to help reverse the contraction in her shoulders, abdomen, and spine that shehas from the running and cycling. “Backbends will help balance that contraction andreduce tension in those areas,” Crandell says. “They will also help open up the diaphragm,lungs, and chest so that we can open up her breathing channels and apparatus.”

Crandell will focus in large part on opening the diaphragm and improving Chan’slung capacity to see if that will increase her speed. He plans to spend half of every prac-tice session with her doing basic pranayama, or breathing, techniques.

And finally, Chan will undergo “before and after” laboratory testing with RobertoQuintana, a professor of exercise physiology at the California State University at Sacra-mento. Quintana will perform a dynamic lung function test to measure how effectivelyEdith is able to inhale and exhale. He’ll also test Edith’s lactate threshold, which mea-sures the point at which exercise switches from steady, sustainable aerobic mode to anonsustainable anaerobic mode. Essentially, it will show whether yoga affects Edith’sendurance and ability to work more efficiently.

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M 8 5

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GOALS

prevent burnout from overtraining

improve lung capacity

improve dynamic lung function and lactate-threshold heart rate

be pain free in her lowerback while cycling

WEEKLY PROGRAM

one private session with Crandell

one group class

two 45-minute home practices

EDITH CHAN 30 L icensed acupuncturist

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MARK WEBB 59 Trial lawyer in injury cases

GOALS

stop walking with a limp

reduce constant knee pain

improve the range of motion in his knee

WEEKLY PROGRAM

one private session with Crandell

three group classes per week

four 20-minute home practices

FOUR YEARS AGO, Mark Webb, then 55years old, went to his regular Bikram Yogaclass. He did the whole routine and leftthe class pain free. But the next day hisknee swelled dramatically. After it wasdrained several times, his doctor recom-mended surgery to repair the meniscus(the cartilaginous disk that acts as a shockabsorber for the knee joint). Webb agreed,but as he came out of surgery, he receivedbad news—the meniscus wasn’t just torn;it was completely worn down to the pointwhere he barely had any left.

Webb was stunned. “The guy who wassupposed to fix my meniscus told me, ‘Youdon’t have any meniscus.’ It was absurd,like a Marx Brothers movie,” he recalls.Completely disheartened, he even decidedto forgo physical therapy. “I didn’t reallytrust my doctor anymore,” he says. “All Iwanted to do was sulk.”

Webb took up rowing at his gym andmaintained his zazen meditation prac-tice, but the aching in his knee was alwaysthere. For the first year, it hurt as he got outof the car. It still plagues him as he walksup and down stairs, and he no longer takespleasure in long walks. Over the years, thepain has worn him down and affected hisvitality. But it took a major disappoint-ment in his work life for Webb to becomeaware of just how much pain he was in.

Here’s the terrific irony in Webb’s story:He’s spent the past 25 years as a successfullawyer practicing injury law. He is intenselydevoted to his work, often representinghurt cyclists, whom he sees as underdogsin a city filled with cars. But only after los-ing one of the biggest trials of his life didhe realize that he had to start tending to

himself the way he attends to his clients.Webb had worked on the trial for a fullyear. Losing it brought great disappoint-ment and financial loss, not to mentionhumiliation, since coverage of the caseappeared in national newspapers.

In the aftermath, Webb spent a fewmonths feeling depressed, until he becameinspired to make a major life change. “I’mgetting older, I don’t feel vibrant andstrong, and my knee is still a problem,” he says. “My health isn’t going to get bet-

ter unless something dramatic happens,and that’s why I’ve decided to reenter theworld of yoga.” When asked what he hopesto gain from this program, Webb says hewants to stop being dominated by the painand to increase his stamina and vitality.Being a longtime meditator, Webb hopesthat the spiritual aspect of yoga will helphim feel better, too. “When I first startedsitting, it helped get me back to that senseof freshness in life again. I hope that yogawill help me feel that way, too.”

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M 8 7

Heal Thyself Mark’s Story

CRANDELL’S PLAN

When Crandell met Webb for the first time, he immediately noticed that the lawyerwalked with a slight limp. “He wasn’t bearing much weight on his knee,” Crandellsays. “He also had a very limited range of motion and all sorts of discomfort.” But Cran-dell also noticed another pressing issue: Webb vocalized a strong need for a substan-tial change in his life. Because of this, Crandell is creating a program that both addressesthe knee pain and helps get the knee out of Webb’s way so that he can develop a full,satisfying yoga practice. “His arms, torso, and core are fine, yet he’s allowed them togo fairly dormant,” Crandell says. “I want to work with the knee, but I want to give hima complete yoga practice so that he’ll get the energy moving in his body and feel good.”

Crandell will work with Webb by practicing standing poses to create more strengthand mobility in the knee. He’ll use a chair or table to help support his weight. Webbwill also start out with seated chair twists, Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose)on a block, and a Supta Padangusthasana (Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose) series withthe bottom foot pressed against a wall and his toes pulled back. Crandell says that posi-tioning the bottom leg this way will encourage Webb to press through the foot, therebyteaching him proper alignment. Webb will get a thorough extension through the bot-tom leg and will strengthen it without bearing the weight that a comparable standingpose would introduce.

Finally, Crandell will create short sequences for Webb to do at home so that he canlearn to monitor the knee on his own. “If he notices inflammation, he can do Legs-up-the-Wall or take a few days off,” Crandell says. “But I want him to take the time to goinside and keep his practice consistent, without overdoing it on the knee.” ■

Andrea Ferretti is a senior editor at Yoga Journal. Read her personal story about coping with depres-sion, “Feel Happier Than You Ever Thought Possible,” online at yogajournal.com.