If anybody as recently as even last week would have told me I would be doing Yoga on a regular basis I probably would have asked them if they were smoking crack.

“You really should try Yoga, it will relax you and enable you to be more flexible for climbing the rock walls”, Trudy Amadeo told me.  Trudy is one of my supervisory peers at Coleman Country Day Camp, a 30 something hot, fit, yoga enthusiast who is now taking her courses to become a master teacher of the discipline.

In spite of my desire to spend more time with Trudy, this macho guy could not see himself doing wussy exercises….after all I run the Challenge Course at camp for 24 years, am the annual Jell-O Wrestling champ of the camp, and all I know about exercise is hitting the iron.

That all changed one night mid January upon viewing online The Wrestling Chatterbox Newsletter (my favorite wrestling sheet) and the site wrestlingfigs.com.  I viewed an ad for DDP’s  YRG (Yoga for Regular Guys) program and my brain got tweaked.

I actually know Dallas from his run with WCW, as I spent many a night on the road while I handled the affairs of Scott Putski when he worked for the company a few years ago.  It was pretty recently though, I believe this past summer that I met Page at a convention in Maryland, at which time he was talking about his “Inspirational DVD” and his Yoga stuff.  I immediately thought of my friend Trudy, her obsession with yoga, and if there were anyway I could get her involved in helping to market DDP’s new deal.  My mind always runs rampant with marketing ideas especially involved with wrestling and or bodybuilding, the two things I know and understand best in my life, second only to educating our young (I was a teacher and Assistant Principal in NYC schools for 32 years).

Further investigation shoed me DDP had 3 different YRG programs out, each tailored for certain profiles from the athlete to the overweight.  Now hitting home in the “just a little out of shape” middle category I got the chutzpah to order the program and tell myself I was committed to getting back into primo shape physically and mentally.

Voila, two days pass and not only does the YRG program arrive but a gift from Alan Ludloff, the President of YRG Workout, LLC was included in the form of the inspirational DVD.

Inspirational is putting it mildly………… Page personifies commitment to succeed and that was exactly what I needed to move forward and start YRG….which I did that same night after a stressful two periods of teaching in a private high school.  As soon as I began the noncontortionist movements copying Dallas and others on the video I felt the stress lifting and leaving……something I never would have believed in a zillion years.

Four days into the approximately 30 minute workouts I was huffing and puffing, actually getting a bit nervous at the ripe age of 57.  In 2002 I had to get an aortic valve replacement for my heart due to a bacterial infection I got in a hospital when I had a kidney stone.  The infection turned to something called endocarditis and I now have a pig’s valve.  Getting out of breath from yoga was a bit scary for me so the next thing I did was order, as suggested in the program, a heart rate monitor.  This excellent, sleek looking device arrived in two days and I have been using it ever since.  It was so simple to set up, sounds alarms when you reach your heart rate goal (high and low) and I wear it daily now instead of my fancy Guess watch. 

DDP has certainly reinvented the workout.  His YRG program features the ways any guy or gal increases flexibility, endurance,  and strength, gives one a great cardio workout, reduces stress which for most of us regular guys and gals is reason enough to begin thois program.

Page is unique in his approach to the yoga as he combines non weight lifting calisthenics, isokinetics (push and pull resistance), along with isometrics (continual resistance against objects) and of course appropriate breathing technique to increase your oxygen intake thus giving your bod that extra fuel it can use for all f the above.

I am attending an ACCT conference in Boston, Massachusetts this weekend.  The ACCT is the Association for Challenge Course Technology.  Their new standards include a national certification, which is something new for facilitators.  In spite of my having all my state certs I have to take these courses, both in class, written tests, and “hands on” in the freezing cold on a Ropes course high in the trees around 400 feet up.  I must honestly say that after now about a week into the YRG program, my stamina, endurance, strength, and most importantly for me my flexibility has vitally changed.  I am the butterfly that has broken free form its cocoon and I am sure I will pass my certs with flying colors.  Where two weeks ago after sitting at the computer for an hour or so it took me some moans and groans and shin splint pains to stand up.  Today the pains have mysteriously disappeared…………and I take no substances except YRG.  DDP has become my daily medicine for my mind and body.

This testimony to the YRG program is something I have written on my own free will.  However, I do get perks from “pushing DDP’s program.  Those perks are the ones that in my life today I cherish and money can not buy.  I have  the satisfaction of knowing that perhaps I have touched even just one person’s life, male or female, young or old, and inspired them to try this unique one of a kind program.

Diamond Dallas Page I truly salute you.  Matter of fact, my buddy Trudy is coming over after the weekend to check out the program and make sure I’m on the right page (pardon the pun).  Hey if YRG gets me Trudy too, the program is to die for !!!

Scott Epstein is a retired Assistant Principal from the NYC public school system, a Challenge Course High Ropes Supervisor, former editor in chief of Wrestling Training Illustrated magazine, fitness author, and talent booker of many wrestling Legends including Ivan Putski, Superstar Billy Graham, Tony Atlas, Brutus Beefcake, Bruno Sammartino, Missy Hyatt, Goldylocks, and many more too long to list.  You can reach Mr. Epstein at [email protected] and don’t forget to check out www.diamonddallaspage.com and order the program of YRG to suit your needs.  In my 35 years of fitness, bodybuilding, and wrestling writings I have NEVER endorsed any particular training regiment whether it be a Joe Weider, Dan Lurie, Steve Reeves (Hercules) or even Arnold program.  I have always written the way I’ve seen it, in spite of perhaps getting a pay day for the article.  A review of a course in training and fitness is just that…a review…statements of how it appears to the writer.  Most courses are repetitious and simply take the basics and slightly modufy so as not to be charged with plagiarism.  Lifting weights is lifting weights, only the sets and reps may change.  YRG is INIMITABLE, CREATIVE, RESOURCEFUL, and INSPIRING.  So is DDP.  Don’t miss this opportunity.  Personally, I’ve trained with them all in the gym.  Celebs including Jack LaLanne and Clint Eastwood.  I can’t compare to DDP’s YRG program.  Thanks Page, you’ve created a new man in me and I love every minute of it !