Yoga has made memore aware of my body, both itsstrengths and itsweaknesses. It’s alsomade me really awareof my limits and hasmade me want to keepworking at yoga so Ican move past those limits.

Leah

Mark

talesoftransfor

I feel at easein my body, like ayoung man. I don’tthink there’s anything I can’t do right now.

theYoga Journal makeovers part 11

The small photos on these pages show Mark, Leah, and Edith at the beginning of the makeover.

Edith

I have a new bodynow. I’m not going togo back to my stifferbody or running in a robotic way, nomatter what.

Find out what happened when three everyday people turned to yoga to change their lives.

In the February 2007 issue of Yoga Journal, we introduced

Mark, Leah, and Edith, three people who stepped up

to take part in an experiment. All three wanted to make

a major change in their life. Mark hoped to heal a long-

standing knee injury; Leah struggled with high blood

pressure and extra pounds; and Edith, a triathlete, wanted

to improve her performance without pushing herself to

extremes. Each had

previously done little

or no yoga but was

willing to put the

practice to the test. ❡ For six months, each of them

attended private weekly sessions with Jason Crandell, a

Yoga Journal staff teacher, the San Francisco Bay Club’s

yoga program director, and (full disclosure) my partner.

They also went to group classes and did home practice

sequences that Crandell prescribed. ❡ Mark, Leah,

and Edith stuck it out through many ups and downs;

they showed up on days when they were exhausted, sore,

and overwhelmed. The results, a testament to their

dedication, are surprising and uplifting—and a reminder

that yoga is not a quick fix.

mation

Turn the page to see how yogamade a difference for them.

by Andrea Ferretti photography by Debra McClinton

9 6 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M A U G U S T 2 0 0 7

AFTER SIX MONTHS andmore than 100 yoga sessions,it’s almost hard to recognizeMark Webb, the lawyer whobegan the makeover with an aching, injured knee. Forstarters, he’s dropped threesizes and whittled four inchesoff his waist, and he no longerlimps. Webb doesn’t just looklike a new man—he feels likeone, too. “I could lose another10 pounds if I wanted to be anunderwear model,” he quips.“What’s more important is that I feel like a young man.I’m not bound by life’s restric-tions. I’ve never said that be-fore. I’m completely free.”

Without a doubt, Webb hasyoga fever. For several months,he’s been practicing five to six times per week—mostly in classes—in addition to hislongtime daily zazen medita-tion. He’s gained mobility andreduced inflammation in hisknee, which has made him

more confident about itsstrength and resilience. A fewweeks ago, Crandell turnedWebb toward a mirror to look at his progress in Vira-bhadrasana II (Warrior II).“Before, my leg was at a 45-degree angle,” Webb says.“Now it can go to 90 degrees.”

That Webb had to be re-minded of his improvementspeaks volumes about his cur-rent state of mind. The bene-fits he’s received from yoga goso far beyond healing his kneethat he rarely thinks about theinjury. “The knee is no longeran issue. It’s not chronic any-more,” he says with a wave ofhis hand. “It’s no longer stop-ping me from doing anything.”

A few months into themakeover, while Webb was ona yoga retreat, he discoveredAyurveda, India’s first form ofmedicine. When he returnedhome, he sought out Jay Apte,founder of the Ayurveda Institute of America in FosterCity, California. Apte recom-mended a six-day pancha-karma, or Ayurvedic cleansing,to detoxify Webb’s system andreduce the inflammation in hisjoints that she suspected wascontributing to his knee pain.

Webb’s prescribed routineincluded daily two-hour body-

work sessions with herbal oils,his yoga program, and a diet of only a traditional mung dahldish, kitchari. He followed the routine to the letter andcredits it with prompting himto change his diet: He stoppeddrinking alcohol, eating sweets,and eating late at night. “Nowmy eating is no longer anavenue for filling up what’smissing,” he says.

Eating more mindfully isnot the only change that Webbexperienced. Feeling healthierhas made him happier. He’salso noticed that yoga hasgiven him more equanimity.“When I try cases now, I don’tfeel so heated, so aggressive,”he says. “I just present my side,and I’m done. It comes from a more detached place.”

Feeling more at ease in hisbody has helped him engagewith the world around him.After a messy divorce, Webbhas started dating again. Hesold the office building he’downed for 20 years and boughta condo—his first real homesince the divorce. “This is theguts of the story for me,” hesays. “I feel unstuck. Guy startsout working on his knee, andyou talk to him six monthslater, and it’s like, what knee,you know? What knee? That’swhere the juice is.”

9 6 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M A U G U S T 2 0 0 7

MARK WEBB 59 Trial lawyer in injury cases

GOALS

stop walking with a limp

reduce constantknee pain

improve range ofmotion in knee

RESULTS

is no longer limping

has no knee pain during everydayactivities

lost 30 pounds

WEEKLY PROGRAM

one private session

three to six group classes

occasional home practice

lightens upMark’sstory

a lawyer

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When Crandell began hiswork with Webb, he tried to“take the knee out of theequation,” he says. Hetaught poses that wouldn’tagitate the knee, then askedWebb to pay attention tohow the rest of his bodyfelt. “I would ask him, ‘Howdo your shoulders feel?Where is your breath mov-ing?’” Crandell says. Thishelped to shift Webb’s focusfrom his knee and madehim feel more vital in therest of his body.

teacher’s notes

kneeling lunges. “It wouldbe preposterous to say thatwe completely fixed theknee,” Crandell says. Thedifference now is that Webbhas less physical and emo-tional pain. Judging by howfar Webb has come, Cran-dell predicts that this is onlythe beginning of his trans-formation. “He’s on a path,”Crandell says. “I don’t seeanything getting in his way anymore.”

When Crandell did begin towork on the knee, he didn’tdo it directly, but zeroed in on the joints above andbelow it—the hips andankles. For the most part,that meant having Webb doposes to open the groins,outer hips, and fronts of thethighs. Crandell emphasizedbearing weight evenly onthe feet in standing posesso that they would becomestable, flexible platforms.

Yoga hasn’t completelyhealed Webb’s knee. Thereare poses he will probablynever be able to do withoutmodification, like squats or

Six monthsinto themakeover,Mark Webb’screaky leftknee (seephoto at left)no longerbothers him.

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9 8 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M A U G U S T 2 0 0 7

WHEN YOU TALK to LeahCastella, you can practicallysee her neurons firing as sheanswers a question. Her drive,intelligence, and wit havebrought her success as a law-yer, a busy social life, and a longlist of causes for which she vol-unteers. But in the past fewyears, Castella has felt some ofthe ill effects of being in over-drive. She began the makeoverwith a desire to gain some con-trol over her life, specificallyher weight, blood pressure, and often-racing mind.

Castella’s goals were big: todrop several dress sizes and to

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lower her blood pressure natu-rally, since medication was alooming threat. But after acouple of months, she realizedthat trying to lose a lot ofweight in a fixed period of timefor the whole world to see—along with her other ambitiousgoals—was stressing her out.So she began to focus primarilyon learning yoga. “I’ve learnedthat becoming healthier is along-term process,” she says.“Trying to get extreme changesin six months seemed antitheti-cal to the process of yoga.”

Through Crandell’s carefulinstruction and her own dili-gence, Castella began to feelhow small, subtle connectionsbetween her body, mind, andbreath could produce radicalresults. “I’m realizing that littlethings make a big difference,”she says. “If you put your footon the ground the right way,you can feel that reverberatethrough your whole body.” As a result, Castella has noticedsignificant changes in herblood pressure. On a typicalday, it drops about 25 pointsafter her home yoga sessions,which she attributes to 30 minutes of Ujjayi Pranayama(Victorious Breath), in whichyou breathe deeply and evenlythrough your nose. She’s alsograteful for the way yoga calms

her mind. “I’ve always wantedto meditate, but I’m such a frenetic person that I’ve foundit difficult to still my body so I can still my mind,” she says.“With yoga, I can be active butcan focus on the movement in a meditative way.”

So far, Castella hasn’t hadany significant weight loss,perhaps because she and Cran-dell focused on a slow, detailedpractice. She’s preferred to do most of her yoga at home,rather than in classes as Cran-dell recommended. But shefeels prepared to take fast-paced classes if she chooses.Learning yoga has given her arefuge that she hopes can bethere the rest of her life. “I’mlearning patience,” she says. “I can be very hard on myself. I need to be kinder to myselfand realize that if I’m not going 100 percent all the time,it doesn’t mean I’m a failure.”

Asked if she’ll continue topractice, she delivers an em-phatic “Yes!” “It allows me to get to a meditative state,and the impact on my bloodpressure is really phenomenal.”She adds, “I really like the wayit makes me feel.”

moreLeah’sstory

less is

LEAH CASTELLA 33 Lawyer

By letting goof expecta-tions, LeahCastella(before themakeover,above, andafter, atright) wasable to movedeeper intothe poses.

GOALS

reduce bloodpressure

drop four dress sizes

feel more fit

RESULTS

has 25-point dropin blood pressureafter yoga

has greater bodyawareness

is able to calm hermind more readily

feels prepared to take vinyasaflow classes

WEEKLYPROGRAM

one private session

three to fourhome practicesessions

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teacher’s notes

Even now Castella findsgroup classes daunting.She strongly prefers privateones, because she feels it’s easier to ask questionsand go deeper into her own practice.

Sensing her apprehension,Crandell decided to giveCastella extremely detailedinstruction and to repeatcertain poses—SuryaNamaskar (Sun Salutation)and standing poses likeVirabhadrasana I (Warrior I),Trikonasana (Triangle Pose),and Parsvakonasana (SideAngle Pose)—in every ses-

across her body, making her poses steady and full of ease.

The transformation thatmost delighted Crandell isthat Castella now likesSavasana (Corpse Pose). “Itmeans she’s giving herself a break,” he says. “She’spulling herself off the high-heat burner and lettingthings cool down internally.”His hope for her? That shewill challenge herself byattending group classes,while maintaining her abilityto “push herself to her edgewithout going over the cliff.”

sion to make her feel com-fortable with them. “Themajor thing she feared wasbeing in a situation whereshe didn’t know what shewas supposed to do. Thatwas really agitating to her,”he says. “She didn’t demandenormous variety, but shewanted to understandsubtle things deeply.” Aftera few sessions, Crandellnoticed that Castella’sattention to detail was, inhis words, “exquisite.” “Shelikes yoga because sheunderstands how sophisti-cated the work is,” he says.“Her mind doesn’t checkout. It relaxes by focusingon what happens inside,which takes a lot of skill.”As a result, he says, herattention spreads evenly

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TRIATHLETE AND acupunctur-ist Edith Chan completed amarathon 10 days before we sitdown to talk. She looks, asalways, fit, bright-eyed, andraring to go as she explains thefirst benefit she’s noticed fromher consistent yoga practice: a faster recovery after races. “I feel like I could run a halfmarathon right now,” she mar-vels. “It’s so different from last year, when it took a monthbefore my aches and painswent away.” Chan has finishedtwo races since the makeoverbegan—an Olympic-distancetriathlon and a marathon—and has been grateful to have arestorative practice to help herthrough them. “I’m trainingfor my first Ironman [a long-distance triathlon], and thereis a huge volume of training

that goes into it. But when I’mheading into a session thatrequires a 100-mile bike ride ora three-hour run, I now knowto show up and just do the bestI can at that moment. Yogataught me that.”

Yoga has also helped herhone her athletic abilities.

Chan hadn’t expectedto gain speed, becauseshe cut her training

time to allow for four days ofyoga per week, but she waspleasantly surprised when shebeat her previous marathontime by five minutes. And shewas downright elated duringthe triathlon when, for thefirst time, she felt at ease in herleast favorite sport, swimming.At the halfway point of theswim, she looked at her watchand was shocked to find shewas close to hitting a personalrecord. “There was so muchless effort,” she says. “It wasincredible. It’s a good sign for a longer-distance race.”

How does she explain thesegains when her intense aerobictraining had decreased? Chancredits yoga with improvingthe mechanics of her swim-ming stroke and her runninggait. She goes to two classes a week, double what was pre-scribed, and says the alignmentshe learned helps her to findthe line of energy from her

hips to her fingertips. “I finallyunderstand what it means toswim from my core,” she says.She felt only minor aches inher back during the cyclingportion of the triathlon. Ahome practice sequence thatfocused on side bending andhip opening unlocked tensionand loosened up old scar tissue.

Chan is thrilled by the dra-matic changes she’s seen. “Ican’t believe what my body cando,” she says. But she’s equallyexcited that yoga is teachingher to do less and just be. Thelesson came to her one daywhile she and Crandell workedon pranayama (breathing tech-niques). She could breathe intoher upper chest and lower bellybut struggled to find the areain between. She grew increas-ingly frustrated and finallygave up—and that’s when thebreath flooded the area. “I had to let go to get optimalresults,” she says. Now, whenshe eases up during her work-outs, she enjoys them more.“Workouts are not a chore inmy quest for performance butan opportunity for fun and discovery, like my yoga prac-tice,” she says. “I’m a little less of a brute, a little moregraceful in my approach.”

While Chan imagined yogamight change her physically,she hadn’t anticipated how itwould affect the rest of her life. She ticks off the exampleseagerly: She became a vege-tarian because “it just feltgood,” and she lost five poundswithout trying. She’s alsosleeping better, has fewer PMSsymptoms, and is relating toher patients differently. “Yogapractice opens my eyes to newways of approaching daily life,

continued on page 143

slowerEdith’sstory

makes faster

EDITH CHAN 30 Licensed acupuncturist

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GOALS

prevent burnoutfrom overtraining

improve lungcapacity andendurance

be free of backpain while cycling

RESULTS

improvedendurance andbreathing abilitywhile exercising

shorter recoverytime after races

reduced painwhile cycling

improved swimming and running biomechanics

lost five pounds,grew one and ahalf centimeters

WEEKLY PROGRAM

one private session

two home practices

two group classes

teacher’s notes

Crandell introduced restora-tive poses and breathworkearly on in his sessions withChan, then gradually incor-porated more vigorouswork. He found that stand-ing poses—a challenge formost people—were rela-tively easy for her becauseshe has such a powerfullower body. But anythingthat required arm strengthwas a different story. “Herupper body is significantlyweaker,” he says. “Sinceswimming was one of herweaknesses, we worked to

establish strength and stability in her core, arms,shoulders, and chest.” Theypracticed poses such asHandstand, Pincha May-urasana (Forearm Balance),and Headstand as well asBakasana (Crane Pose) and Parsva Bakasana (SideCrane Pose). Crandell saw a dramatic improvementover time; for example, henoticed that Chan hasdeveloped a clearer senseof where her body is inspace—which could helpexplain her improved run-ning gait. “She feels whereshe is at any given time better now than she did before,” he says.

Edith Chan began the makeover (see photo at left) fit but stiff. Increasing her flexibility andbuilding upper-body strength has given her a whole new perspective on what she can do.

T A L E S O F T R A N S F O R M A T I O N

from making mindful choices at a grocerystore, to sweet interactions with peopleon the street, to the way I create treatmentplans for my patients,” she says. “Day byday, I’m finding a more peaceful way ofbeing within my sport and deriving a wholenew level of enjoyment from it.”

LAB NOTES

At the beginning and the end of the make-over, Chan put yoga to the test at a physi-ology research laboratory at CaliforniaState University, Sacramento. During eachof her visits, physiology professor RobertoQuintana conducted tests while Chanwas at rest and then while she exercisedon a stationary bike and on a treadmill. Hewanted to see if six months of yoga wouldimprove her breathing mechanics or aero-bic conditioning.

Quintana created certain controls—heconducted the before and after tests at thesame time of day, in the same order—buthe couldn’t control everything. During theafter test, Quintana discovered that the

mild asthma he’d noticed in Chan’s firstset of tests had flared up.

At the end of the makeover, while shewas at rest, Chan didn’t perform well onthe lung volume tests, which measuredhow quickly she could get air in and out ofher lungs as well as her total lung capacity.Quintana attributes this to the asthma.Yet he was surprised to find that duringher after exercise test, there was a 30 per-cent increase in her ventilation efficiency.Chan has greatly improved her ability totake in more oxygen per breath, so themuscles that power her lungs don’t haveto work as hard, which could help her con-serve energy during a long race. “Themechanics of her breathing during exer-cise improved,” says Quintana, “whichmight be a result of the yoga.”

Chan didn’t improve on her “threshold”tests, which predict endurance. But shedid well on another endurance-related testthat measures how efficiently the bodyuses fat, rather than carbohydrates, dur-ing exercise. During long workouts, carbseventually run out, causing the athlete to

lose speed and power. Being better able totap into fat stores boosts endurance.

In the final after test, which measuredher perceived effort, Chan felt she had toexert 10 percent less effort to achieve thesame levels of exercise intensity. Quintanabelieves yoga may have helped Chan tomaintain a more steady, even mental statewhile exercising intensely. When an ath-lete gets anxious, the body releases stresshormones, such as adrenaline, which causeyou to breathe more shallowly and burnmore carbohydrate than fat. “Chan wasable to stay more relaxed during exercise,which probably improved her ventilationand metabolism,” he says.

Overall, he found the results promis-ing. “Her results were totally unexpectedconsidering she was training less vigor-ously and her asthma had kicked up,” hesays. “That’s a strong indicator that yogamay enhance exercise performance.” ■

Andrea Ferretti is a senior editor at Yoga Journal.She wishes to thank Mark, Leah, and Edith fortheir commitment.

A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M 1 4 3

continued from page 100

YOGA JOURNAL Issue 204 (ISSN 0191-0965),established in 1975, is published eight times a year (February, March,April, June,August, Septem-ber, October, December) by Cruz Bay Publishing,Inc., 475 Sansome Street, Suite 850, San Francisco,CA 94111, (415) 591-0555.Annual Subscription: U.S.$21.95; Canada $28.95; overseas $43.95. Singlecopies U.S. $4.99; Canada $6.99. Agreement num-ber 40032275 assigned by Canada Post.Mailing list:Occasionally, we make our subscriber list availableto carefully screened companies unless the sub-scriber advises us otherwise. Send all subscriptionmatters and notices of changes of address to:YogaJournal, P.O. Box 51151, Boulder, CO 80322-1151.E-mail the subscription customer service de-partment: yogajournal@neodata.com. Callsubscription customer service, Mon.–Fri.7 a.m.–10 p.m. CDT; Sat. 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m.CDT: (800) 600-YOGA or (303) 604-7435 from outside the United States. All issues ofYoga Journal are now available on microfiche fromProQuest, 300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48016.Copyright 2007 by Cruz Bay Publishing, Inc.All rightsreserved. No part of this publication may be repro-duced without written permission from the pub-lisher.Yoga Journal is not responsible for advertisingclaims. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Francisco,CA,and at additional mailing offices.POSTMASTER:Send address changes to YOGA JOURNAL, P.O. Box51151, Boulder, CO 80322-1151. The editorial con-tent of Yoga Journal should not be used as a sub-stitute for professional health care. Talk with yourdoctor before starting any new exercise regimen.