Mike Capuzzi:
Welcome to the Author Factor Podcast, where we break down exactly how smart business owners and corporate leaders leverage the powerful advantage of being a published book author. I'm your host, Mike Capuzzi, and you're in the right place if you want profitable nonfiction book writing tips. Welcome back to another episode of the Author Factor podcast. My guest today is one of the most sought after teachers today. Yogi Aran is trailblazing a new path in the world of yoga. Known for his unorthodox perspectives on stretching and flexibility, and how both can cause more harm than good, his teachings aim to help as many people as possible live a pain free life so they can realize yoga's true intentions. His latest book, stop stretching, which is a great title, is the book for anyone who wants to restore balance to their body through yoga and begin their pain free journey. Yogi Aron, welcome to the show.

Yogi Aaron:
Thank you. And I've been waiting to come on this show for 5 months, so thank you for

Mike Capuzzi:
having me on. Well, thank you for being you're right. We had I had a a to, unfortunately, reschedule with you a couple months back. But

Yogi Aaron:
Yeah. It's all good.

Mike Capuzzi:
Yeah. Well, I appreciate it. As I was mentioning to you before we hit the record button, you're my first guest who's coming from Costa Rica. So very cool. And you're my first yogi teacher, so that's very cool. My sister will love this episode because she's very much into yoga. So I'll have to make sure we share The. But

Yogi Aaron:
hopefully, she won't be upset with me afterwards.

Mike Capuzzi:
Oh, well, that that little bit of contrarian, that's good. That's good. So, Aaron, I just barely touched on all the cool things you've done because you've done some pretty cool things. So can you share a little bit about your background, and what you're doing today?

Yogi Aaron:
Yeah. Sure. I got into yoga when I was 18. That journey kinda took me into starting to teach yoga in New York. It's kind of a journey to get there, but I took class with this one teacher named Brian Kest who laid the the inspiration for me to become a teacher. And I saw how much Brian seamlessly wove, you know, this idea of of yoga and life together into the yoga postures. And that just really inspired me and and made me hungry to understand this science a little bit more and what you know, how to marry it. And so that brought me to New York.

Yogi Aaron:
I opened up a yoga studio, met my business partner, started leading yoga retreats, and we found this beautiful place in Costa Rica, which we lovingly call Bluosa Yoga Retreat and Spa, and that's where I've been ever since.

Mike Capuzzi:
Very cool. So do people travel? I mean, are they traveling from, like, the States and Europe and such to come visit you?

Yogi Aaron:
Yeah. Absolutely. People come from all over the The, and majority of our clients come from the United States, but a lot of them also come from Canada. We get all kinds of people from Germany, France, England, all over Europe, and then, of course, around the world. We've even had somebody come from New Zealand. We've had actually a few people, come from New Zealand, so that's been great.

Mike Capuzzi:
Very interesting. So now before we jump in and start talking about stop stretching, which again I think is a great title for very it's very thought provoking. But before we do that, there was something I read in your bio. I was checking out your website, and I thought it was very interesting. So I have to ask you in real time. Tell me more about was it Nude Yoga? You started you started something years ago. Correct?

Yogi Aaron:
Yes. Yeah. When I I mean, that's Mike a long story, and I know that we're tight on time. So Just

Mike Capuzzi:
give me the the short for you.

Yogi Aaron:
Story is that I wanted to teach men, and simultaneously, I had and still have. I love nakedness. I love going to nude beaches. I love I grew up in a boarding school, so I was used to, you know, The sort of being around other men and, in going on canoe trips for 3 weeks in the outdoors and not worrying about what you're wearing. And so I thought, wouldn't it be really cool to start a naked yoga class? And I kind of started it on a lark. It was sort of Mike, let's see what happens. You know, it'll probably last 6 months, and then it'll Mike, and it ended up becoming this worldwide sensation. And part of the reason for that is because it created the safe space for men to come and just be themselves and not worry about, like, things and also as a way for men to come and explore their bodies.

Yogi Aaron:
There's not a lot of places where we can really feel into our bodies unless you're Mike a wrestler or something like that. So this is a this was a great way to create a safe space for men to come. And what was born out of that was this incredible sense of community, which inspired me then to open up Bluosa.

Mike Capuzzi:
Very interesting. Well, I apologize for, quote, making you put some clothes on today. But

Yogi Aaron:
It's all good. I'm the naked closed yogi.

Mike Capuzzi:
That's okay. So I wanna talk about stop stretching. And before we do, I I I'm interested in hearing a little bit more about your unorthodox approach because I I I I was telling you, I just interviewed a chiropractor who who had a very similar background. He took a very unorthodox unorthodox approach to chiropractic, and he wrote a book about it. So I'd love to hear your thoughts because I think when you have a different type of strategy than what the norm is, it's a great reason why you should publish a book, in my opinion.

Yogi Aaron:
Absolutely. I mean, you know, The I've always been sort of a trailblazer and rule breaker. I never thought that I would write a book called Stop Stretching. In fact, I was a huge stretching advocate. I got into yoga because my body was tight. And to make a very long story short, the following 25 years following me starting to do yoga ended up being, you know, many years of chronic debilitating, pain, which is a whole story in and of itself. And that journey led me 25 years later, to end up in the emergency room of a hospital with an orthopedic surgeon telling me that I was gonna need a spinal fusion in my lower back. And that kind of made me question everything that I thought I knew, and it kind of led me into studying muscle activation technique, which was created by Greg Roskopf.

Yogi Aaron:
And he's got some great books out there for your listeners who wanna learn more about that. But one of the things that I saw very quickly was that in the muscle activation world, there was nobody really translating this into yoga. And so that's that was one thing. But the other thing was, if I didn't understand about my body and I didn't really understand what was going on, then I felt like other teachers didn't. And that was really the seed of why I wrote this book was to to arm yoga teachers and fitness instructors, because a lot of fitness instructors don't understand basic muscle function. They think they do. You know? Their solution to everything is let's just pump more weight. But that's not really that's not functional.

Yogi Aaron:
So a lot of what I do is functional. And so I got into writing this just as a way to arm yoga teachers, but also arm people such as you who are walking into a yoga class. If you read this book, you're gonna know and I I'm not being glib here. You're gonna know a 1000% Mike, and I'm gonna say that one more time, a 1000% more than any yoga teacher you go and study with. Because in the 25 years that I took yoga and had all of these chronic pain before I ended up in the emergency room, not one teacher ever said to me, Yogi Aron, you're having problems because your hip flexors aren't working Capuzzi. And so the muscle tightness is a result of your body trying to protect itself, and so you should never stretch. And nobody ever said that to Mike. And so I I wanna just arm people with as much knowledge.

Yogi Aaron:
Now, I your listeners can't see a copy of this book unless they go and look at it, but it's a cartoon of me on the beach with my dogs. And so I put a really important title on there, but I also wanted to make it fun and accessible. And that's the other side of it. Like, anatomy should be fun and accessible. And so that's that's what I present to people.

Mike Capuzzi:
I love it, Aaron. When I saw the cover, I chuckled because it just it reeks of personality, which, you know, so much of, you know, books don't. They're very professional or whatever you wanna call it. For your target market or for people who are interested in that, like, it it will instantly connect. It's a very Yeah. Just a neat little, design that you did. Again, before we get into the book because I'm gonna ask you to share some tips and details so that encourage our listeners to go check it out. So in a lot of respects, I should read this book, and I I I'm gonna probably try to promise myself I will, not just glance through it.

Mike Capuzzi:
My sister, who I was mentioning, who's very much into yoga, has been trying to to encourage me for years. You know, I'm in my latter part of my fifties. I sit a lot, of course. And even right now, I'm just like, oh, I'm feeling a little tight. I just went for a walk. I still feel a little tight. And she's always like, Mike, start yoga. Start yoga.

Mike Capuzzi:
And she got me some stuff. She got me some blocks and straps, and I haven't started yoga. So can you share, Aaron, before we start maybe it's part of the book, but I and then the stretching part is very important. I I wanna hear more about that. But, like, how do you encourage folks who aren't necessarily coming and seeking you out but ought to be?

Yogi Aaron:
How do I encourage people to start doing this? It's you know, one of the things all I can speak to is what motivates me. And so I got into yoga originally because I thought that stretching was the key to unlocking a better self. And so a lot of people get into that because they feel like yoga is going to keep them young. And when I say yoga, I mean stretching, and that it's gonna keep you healthy. And so there's a lot of truth to that statement, but the and the truth part is, like, the positive effects on your nervous system. I think that you and I can both agree that most people are living in a flight fight or flight state in their lives. Mike, a lot of people are really stressed out. And so what yoga does is it helps us to restore back into that natural state of being.

Yogi Aaron:
I call it the rest and digest state, that creative state, that state where we tap into the universe of limitless possibilities. From a physiological standpoint, and this is what drives me to do, you know, all the practices I teach in this book, is that I always think, what is my 80 year old self telling me right now? And so my 80 year old self is actually thanking me and and for, you know, working to keep my muscles working properly. And that's what I would say to you or someone like you. It's like, what do you how do you imagine yourself when you're 80? Because it's not gonna be where where you're at right now, unless you start doing some work. And, you know, the truth is is that it doesn't take that much work. Like you mentioned, you went for a joyful walk. That's something that you enjoy. Do more of that.

Yogi Aaron:
For to do these exercises in my book, I mean, even if you took 8 minutes a day, you know, that cumulative effect of 8 minutes a day is going to really have a dramatic effect. I had a guy yesterday message me who's a good friend of mine. He's living in Germany. Ironically, he's a Costa Rican living in Germany, but he's like, Aaron, I have a herniated disc l 4, l 5. I'm in a tremendous amount of sciatic pain. Send him the link to my my, you know, opt in, and I said, just choose your pain path. In that pain path is this pose called, Superman pose, where you lift up and you hold it. And there's a little secret into muscle activation, so he did that.

Yogi Aaron:
He messaged me Factor. He goes, I can't believe the pain is gone. Even I was shocked, by the way. I was like, oh my god. You did that pose and you feel good. Like, but it works. This stuff works. And when we improve the function of our muscles in our body, the joints are supported and the result is stability.

Yogi Aaron:
When the joints aren't supported when the when the muscles aren't working to support the joints, the result is stress and the result of stress is inflammation. So if you want less inflammation, less pain in your life, do more Ayama practices. Stop stretching. Start activating.

Mike Capuzzi:
I mean, Aaron, this I'm so this is why I wanted to speak with you because I'm just you know, like, right now, this is just a conversation between you and me. I'm so interested in this because I've in the last 4 years, I've really dialed in, got my eating much better, I've lost weight, Sure. Walking every day. I need to kick in a little more resistance training. I keep saying to myself, I gotta be stretching more. Mike I I should wake up. I know I should be stretching more because I I can feel, you know, again, late fifties. I and I know you're there's The little exercise of, like, looking forward.

Mike Capuzzi:
That's a great little exercise. But so let's talk about your book because your book is gonna help me and others. You know, when you say stop stretching, what are you really telling us? What are you telling me to do?

Yogi Aaron:
Stop stretching has a few double entendres. It literally means, though, stop stretching, but it also means, like, let's stop focusing yoga on stretching. We look to yoga teachers and we see so many yoga teachers, you know, showing off. I'm gonna use the word showing off their flexibility. And, you know, I could go down a rabbit hole talking about that. For for the purpose of time, come back to The intention is also literally to stop stretching. So when we when we pull a muscle, passively pull a muscle so I'm gonna use an example of, like, if you bring your head to the side and you're pressing 1 ear to the shoulder, that's active. You're actively pressing that ear to the shoulder.

Yogi Aaron:
Well, what is bringing that ear to the shoulder? It's the muscles on that side of the neck. Those muscles need to shorten in order for your head to laterally bend, for your ear to come to your shoulder. Now if I bring my opposite hand to my head and pull that ear or press that ear to the shoulder, now I am passively using like, I'm using an external force to create a range of motion to make the opposite side of the neck longer, those muscles longer, that is going to have a negative effect on the neuromuscular response. And the one of the ways that I could say this is that you are literally turning off all the muscles in your neck. All the muscles in your neck will lose their ability to contract and contract on demand. They will lose their ability to actually stabilize the joints of your neck. So if you wanna walk around with the body of muscles that are turned off, keep stretching. If you wanna stay weak in your life, keep stretching.

Yogi Aaron:
But what you wanna do so let's come back to that example. I'm pressing my right ear to my right shoulder. Now I'm actually engaging the muscles of the side that I'm bending into. Does that make sense?

Mike Capuzzi:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yogi Aaron:
I mean, you because you can see me, of course, and and a lot of your listeners can't. So I hope they can understand that idea. But what you wanna do is always remember muscles move bones. And in order for muscles to move bones, they have to shorten. So you were saying earlier, like, you have tightness in your body. That tightness is a response to other muscles not working, to the muscles not working. Now what we're talking about when we say muscles aren't working, what do we mean is, like, there's there's that lack of connection between the brain and the muscles. That neuromuscular connection is not working.

Yogi Aaron:
Guess what happens? Muscle tightness disappears. In fact, I use muscle tightness in my own body as a gauge to know that something is going on, and I need to get to, work on myself for that.

Mike Capuzzi:
Very interesting. Very interesting. So does that mean, Aaron, that if I if someone's listening to this and again, they're not This is new to them, what you're sharing.

Yogi Aaron:
Yes.

Mike Capuzzi:
Do I have to come to go to Costa Rica to do this? Or it's Mike, does your book help me I can do it in my home? Like, what what is required? Do I have to go to a yoga studio, etcetera?

Yogi Aaron:
Yeah. Great question. I mean, there's a lot of intentions in writing my book, Stop Stretching, a new yogic approach to master your body and live pain free, and part of that intention was recognizing that people can't, you know, necessarily, for whatever reason, come to Costa Rica and study with me. So I created the book. I wrote the book as a way as a complete an entire manual for people to access and be able to be able to basically solve their own pain problems. I go through I obviously don't go through all 600 muscles of the body. I go through a lot of the major muscles. So we look at hip flexors.

Yogi Aaron:
For example, we talk about 4 major hip flexors. I talk about the hip extensors. We talk about 3 of the major hip flexors. And so, basically, what I do is I go through each category of muscles. We say, this is why this category is important. For example, spinal erectors. Like, a lot of people don't even know what spinal erectors are or why extensors are important. So we talk about extensors help you to sit properly.

Yogi Aaron:
They help you to keep your spine erect. They also hold your spine in place. So if you have pain in your spine, like my friend from Germany, he immediately went and did Superman pose, got all the muscles of his back working probably for the first time in, like, 10 years. And he felt better after because the muscles were supporting the joints of his body. So this book basically breaks down, like, the major muscles and how to get them working and why it's important to get them working.

Mike Capuzzi:
Just out of curiosity, do you have some sort of offering for people who don't travel to Costa Rica, like a a video course? Or do you have something like that that's also available?

Yogi Aaron:
Yeah. I mean, I have a YouTube channel chock full of a lot of videos. So the intention is, like, get the book, read it, but also do use a lot of the supplementary material. I've also created a a YAMA I call it an YAMA. YAMA stands for applied Jog Anatomy and Muscle Activation. So I've created an IYAMA certification course that people can also do in conjunction with this book. And especially for fitness teachers or yoga teachers, if you really wanna uplevel yourself and make a tremendous difference in in your relationship with what you do with your clients, get the book. That's all I can say is get the book because you're gonna your your knowledge will exponentially, increase.

Mike Capuzzi:
And, Aaron, this is your 3rd book, I believe. Correct?

Yogi Aaron:
Yeah. I've written a few books, a cookbook I just put out, recently. My very first book was autobiography of a naked yogi.

Mike Capuzzi:
I saw that. So you're you are a multi book author. You obviously have an amazing skill set that you are, you know, known for, and you've really dialed in over the years, which, you know, is obviously a great reason. Someone might be listening to The, and they have yet to write that first book. I'd love just to hear from your perspective of what it has meant to Yogi Aron to be a published book author. What does it what does it mean to you?

Yogi Aaron:
Well, first of all, I never thought I would be a published, book Author, so it's really hard for me to wrap my head around. Oh, I'm I've written a book. I've actually written a few books. So that's a really hard concept for me to, to kinda process. But my first book, I can just speak to like, I wrote it because it was more of me opining on my own life, like me reflecting on my own life and wanting to understand why things happen. I also felt like I had a story to share, and I really believe in the power of sharing stories. You know, Mark Victor Hansen, who wrote the book Chicken Soup for the Soul, I heard him once say that if you wanna help somebody heal, if you wanna make a connection, tell a story and obviously tell your own story. And and so stories are the way that we communicate, education, the way that we communicate history, the way that we pass knowledge down to each other.

Yogi Aaron:
You know, you look to Jesus, he gave a ton of stories. And and so we look to those stories to glean elements of truth so that we can, you know, become a better version of ourselves. So that inspired me for that reason. And then, of course, I wrote this book, Stop Stretching, as a way to kind of reach other people who were looking for ways to live a pain free life.

Mike Capuzzi:
Well, very good. And, I I do appreciate I know we just had a short amount of time, but we'll encourage our listeners. I would just think from The little bit I know, about yoga and the importance of what you're sharing, It's something I just know, you know, for whatever reason, I've resisted, but I'm now I'm gonna think about my 80 year old self. Thank you for that picture. And, whether I'm naked or not, we'll see. But regardless, I know how I wanna feel.

Yogi Aaron:
Well, you know, Mike, just really quickly, you know, I was listening the other day, and they're saying that we're gonna live. You and I have a very good chance of living to a 120. So think about how your 100 year old self is is lecturing you right now. Go do go activate your muscles, young man.

Mike Capuzzi:
You know what? Aaron, before we wrap up, I'll just share another I will share a story. So my father who's always taking care of himself, he's alive, he's 82, you know, he's always done, you know, the what he's exercising and eating right and all that. But he, you know, he had some he he fell. He had some injuries, and now he's unfortunately, physically, he's really debilitated. He went from walking 5, 6 miles a day to barely being able to walk now. And I just saw him a couple months, you know, 2 months ago, and he he was cautioning. He's Mike, you do not wanna end up like The. You know? And and, and the thing that he really didn't do was take care of his body the way you're describing that you should.

Mike Capuzzi:
So Aaron, how can our listeners, learn more about you? Tell us your YouTube channel and tell us the best place to get your book books.

Yogi Aaron:
Sure. Well, the best place to find me is yogi aaron dot com, which I hope you'll put in the show notes. My website, yogi aaron dot com, y o g a sorry, y o g I a a r o n. And, also, just search stop stretching. Go to Amazon, search stop stretching. I'm all over the Internet. So as soon as you plug in stop Stretching or Yogi Aron, you will come to find me.

Mike Capuzzi:
Very good. Well, Aron, I do appreciate your time. Get back to enjoying that beautiful, you know, weather Mike I see behind you. And, you know, thank you for your time today and sharing your wisdom.

Yogi Aaron:
Thank you so much for having me on. Like I said, I've been dying to come on your show for a while, so I appreciate it.

Mike Capuzzi:
Thank you, Aaron. Well, that wraps up another episode of the Author Factor Podcast. If you like what you heard, please rate and review us on Apple iTunes. Subscribe, tell a friend, and go grab the notes and extras at the Author dotcom. And to learn more about my unique short book publishing services, please check out bitesizebooks.com. See you next time.