WWE.com: Trish Stratus speaks out on Stratusphere Yoga
Photo: Arsenik Studios Inc.
By Zach Linder & Joey Styles
Stratusphere Yoga is a new way to approach yoga for both men and women, designed by record seven-time Women's Champion Trish Stratus. And now, for the first time ever, Trish's yoga kit and revolutionary FitGloves are available on WWEShop.com. Get your sweat on with Trish in her yoga routine that pairs muscle-activating compound exercises with a yoga pose that helps you get your Zen on! WWE.com recently sat down with the recently inducted WWE Hall of Famer to get the skinny on the inside story behind Stratusphere Yoga.
WWE.COM: When did you start doing yoga?
TRISH STRATUS: I had been told I was experiencing degenerative disc damage, and when I got squished by Viscera in the ring in 2005, that's when the damage caught up with me. I was put out of action and diagnosed with a herniated disc. The doctors said I had to have surgery, but I knew there had to be another way to fix it. I did some physical therapy, which did not work. And then I found yoga. Yoga reversed the damage, allowed me to come back and finish out my career. Yoga has been in my life ever since.
WWE.COM: How many years were you doing yoga while still competing as a WWE Diva?
TRISH: About a year and a half or so. It was the best that I'd ever been in my career. My recovery time was better, I performed better in the ring and I was more agile. After I got yoga in my life, I realized you don't have to feel like crap every day after you have a match. It was something that not only physically let me feel better and have better matches, but also more importantly, let me manage the crazy 300 days a year on the road schedule. The WWE schedule suddenly became more manageable after yoga was in my life.
WWE.COM: When did you develop Stratusphere Yoga?
TRISH: When I retired in 2006, I delved into yoga, practiced all over the world in different studios and styles with different teachers. In 2010 I was asked to do my first movie, "Bounty Hunters" in a role as a kick-ass bounty hunter. She was a Krav Maga fighter, but I had a skinny yoga body and had lost my buff Diva body. I started training at the dojo to learn Krav Maga and my body was killing me. I had to bulk up a little bit, but I didn't want to abandon my yoga. I started integrating strength training movements and basic calisthenics into my yoga program. All of a sudden, my muscles were coming out, my "yoga booty" was coming out and my body was changing. I started showing it to my teachers and students and Stratusphere Yoga was born. I pair strength training movements with yoga poses. So you're strengthening your muscles but also getting the yoga benefit.
WWE.COM: How long is a Stratusphere Yoga workout?
TRISH: Most traditional yoga workouts are 60 to 90 minutes. But I broke Stratusphere Yoga into five 10-minute sections. Each section is geared toward a certain muscle group, like I used to do weight training for wrestling. You can do the sections of the muscle groups that you want to concentrate on, or you can do the whole 50-minute workout that targets every single muscle group.
WWE.COM: Is that what differentiates Stratusphere Yoga from regular yoga? People have a misconception about yoga that it's just stretching and meditating.
TRISH: I tell people that yoga helps me as an athlete by tweaking traditional yoga to be more functional yoga training for an athletic body. That's what Stratusphere Yoga does. It helps me rock the gun show (flexes biceps) and be a functional athlete. I took the basic philosophies of yoga, but modernized them and turned yoga into a kick-butt workout that can be used to condition your body. I had the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Argonauts into my studio, and that's when I started to see an influx of guys coming in to do yoga.
WWE.COM: How do you help a man get past the notion of not only doing yoga, but also Trish Stratus' yoga, instead of doing a "manlier" workout?
TRISH: You've gotta check your ego at the door. Once you do that, you need to be open-minded to do yoga. Then people see how surprised they are to be so challenged. There's no other workout that literally targets every single muscle in your body but also gives you an energized calmness. I designed this specifically for athletes, so it's different than what most people expect from yoga. And if you don't like it, at least you get to watch me do it and get some Stratusfaction for an hour.
source:http://www.wwe.com/inside/stratusphere-yoga-interview-26115557
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