Yoga for Regular Guys: The Best Damn Workout on the Planet!

little problems before they turned into big ones. If these wrestlers just kept their bodies more finely tuned, like a NASCAR racer, they could be bouncing around in the squared circle long past their prime. I also know of some professional athletes who use some or all of the following healthy lifestyle tips, along with a serious yoga training program, and they’ve managed to beat the odds and prolong their careers way beyond expectation.

ICE vs.HEAT
    How many times have you had an ache, pain, or injury and wondered whether you should use ice or heat on it? How many conflicting stories have you gotten from medical doctors, emergency room nurses, trainers, parents, or friends about the best post-training regimen? Is it ice only? Heat only? Ice for 15 minutes and then heat for 15 minutes? Moist heat or heating pad? Those questions are about as compelling as “What kind of mattress and pillow should I buy?” “Do you have a condom?” and “Hey, what’s for dinner?”
    Well, guys, don’t worry, because we’re here to give you all the best of our experience and expertise regarding this very confusing subject.
    Icing Your Body

    If you’re an athlete, icing your body may be the most important habit you can adopt. The preventative maintenance starts by icing when you don’t think you have to, like right after a hard workout or big game. This ritual can keep you from injuries
before
they happen and keep the swelling down, allowing your body to stay strong.
    Fact: The NBA will not let any of its young players leave the arena until they have iced their knees, and some of these kids are only eighteen years old. Why? Because millions of dollars are wrapped up in these kids, and the NBA needs to protect its investments for them to pay off. The older players already understand that icing reduces swelling, which in turn reduces pain and injury.
    Like most things in this world, icing is a pain in the ass, and it’s hard to get yourselfto do it unless you absolutely have to; but then again, if it was easy everyone would be doing it. It’s
hard
, but it’s the
hard
that makes it
great
. Most therapists say you should ice for 20 minutes, leave it off for 20, and then repeat. I personally will keep the ice on for 30 minutes or longer; then I switch to another area of my body. I call it the roaming ice bag.
    When I first entered the world of professional wrestling, I was the first wrestler to ever ice my body. Believe it or not—the Boys (as we wrestlers call ourselves) would laugh and make jokes about me wrapping myself with ice bags. Stone Cold Steve Austin always had something to say to bust my balls (that SOB was always busting my balls—all in good fun). I remember one time Steve insisted that I strap a couple of Coors Lights to my ice bags to keep his beer cold.
    YOGA-DOC SAYS …
    You need to understand a little about inflammation to figure out whether you need to ice or heat an area of pain or injury. Inflammation is a natural, defensive response to tissue damage from an injury, such as an ankle sprain, or an intense physical activity that causes tissue stress but not injury, such as a baseball pitcher throwing one hundred pitches in a game, or anyone who works out hard and feels really stiff the next day or two. Inflammation has five major signs and symptoms: redness, pain, heat, swelling, and loss of function of the injured area. If you have at least one or two of these, then you should
not
use heat. In fact, you should probably use ice 99 percent of the time—unless you have had frostbite in the area of pain.
    Ice treatment, or cryotherapy, is the best natural anti-inflammatory on the planet. It helps reduce heat, swelling, and pain without causing damage to your liver, kidneys, or stomach, like most over-the-counter and prescription non-steroidal anti-inflammatories will do. Cryotherapy is also one of the best ways to keep your body from getting stiff and sore after vigorous exercise. Have you ever noticed a baseball pitcher with an ice pack on his shoulder or elbow immediately after a game? This decreases post-exercise recovery time so the athlete can come back and compete as soon as possible with minimal soreness.
    Many people ask, “Why shouldn’t I use heat on an injured area if it feels so good?” It’s true that heat feels good initially, but heat therapy, whether moist or electric, won’t pump that inflammation out of your muscles or joints. In fact, heat increases circulation and might cause more