All right, here we won. Welcome to Tales of Recovery. Thank you for joining us. We have Andre Harris here, the Misfit Yogi Super Yoga Teacher joining us. This is our first video, official video recording in the studio. We had one with Gloria a couple of days ago, but we didn't go on camera. So thank you. Thank you for watching. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for sharing.
I, you know, I was just telling Andre how I think he's the best yoga teacher or one of the best yoga teachers in San Diego.
But it's just different kinds of i guess caminos de la yoga no different journeys absolutely i love ashtanga i love rocket and i love the way you teach it because i'm by no ways yet it's not in my practice yet like able to do some of the stuff that you guys do but i like going to class where i'm challenged and also where i'm able to if i'm not going to do it i do what andre calls called watchasana.
Absolutely. Where you just watch and you just chill. But I have seen, you know, if I stay consistent, little by little, you advance. And if you don't, I just like to go and breathe. I love the way, the frequency of your voice, the tone, the way how you open up claws with the chants. And most of all, I really like the community that you've built. Misfit yogis, you know, it's like a family. So maybe we can start with that, like how you started Misfit Yogis or how you got into yoga.
And I know that a lot of people are always telling me like, oh, but I'm injured or this hurts. I can't do that. So I also want to talk about your injuries and the spine surgery you had and how you can keep... The body moving if you, you know, or at least how you recovered from that. Yeah. So welcome, André. Thank you for having me, Chris. It's good to be here.
I'll say, I'll start by saying that movement is the medicine in one way or another, whether it doesn't have to be handstands or anything, but if you don't use it, you lose it. I feel like even if you take a couple of days off, you notice a difference in your body. And so definitely all about movement, whatever that looks like, modifying. And so to kind of piggyback on what you were saying, I would say my job is easy because I just hold space.
I just open the doors. Everybody comes in and whether that your intention changes day to day, what you come to practice for, whatever your purpose, your reason for it is an important. And my job is to just be there for you to be there for everybody else and allow them to be authentic in whatever way they'd like to express themselves. And you definitely transmit that. I have never felt like, oh no, I'm going to get judged or I oh, I can't do this handstand by myself.
You know, it's a very safe space. I'm glad to hear that. It really is. I'm not to confuse that with my, absolutely my intention is to challenge my students, to encourage them, to push them in a safe way.
Definitely, I want to promote them and promote progress to encourage them to go deeper and further, of course, mindfully in a way that at this point, 10 years into teaching, I think I have the discernment to kind of tell, even day-to-day with students, It's like, oh, they look a little bit tired or they need to take it easier or whatnot. And so I'm not perfect. And so I can be wrong at certain times. But I definitely feel like something that I'm able to do is tap into people's unknown potential.
Most often they don't know that they think they can do it, but it's not that they can't. They just don't know they can. And so with a little bit of help and assists, an adjustment, a little bit of a nudge, you find yourself progressing quite quickly. Not that it's a race or anything, but you'll find yourself doing more and more the more you practice. Yeah, I've had that experience where like, oh no, here it comes to do an adjustment. And I'm freaking out. You're like, respira, breathe. And I do.
And it's like, oh, I actually can do that. Absolutely. Yeah. For me, and I really like the way that you said movement is the medicine. Because I can show up to class and take it super chill or do the challenges. But as long as I'm showing up, it's, I think Mario posted today. Okay. He said, either I went to yoga and I'm great, or don't talk to me because
I didn't show up. I mean, that's how important it is to be, like, you know, just the movement and the breath and having a place where I can show up and actually feel satisfied with the class. So, namaste for that. Thank you. Absolutely. I hope this doesn't get too off topic, but I mean, something that, like, I think people either...
Expectations is a thing where in all aspects of life but i think people sometimes come to yoga maybe sometimes expecting some sort of maybe spiritual journey or spiritual awakening or something and that is totally possible through the asana but what i offer is asana and that is one limb of the eight limb path of yoga but i definitely emphasize and focus that's what i do for a living is the asana portion and so i don't have a meditation practice i like most people
will struggle to quiet the mind or just even sit still. And so I find that a challenging invigorating practice is what gets me into that meditative state that the movement, the breathing has me completely present.
And where again, I can't sit down and meditate, I feel very meditative as I'm moving through these 90 minute practices, Saturday, two hour practice, and it goes by with a blink of an eye, because we're just completely honed in focused, and being as present as possible and so kind of just share that idea that like it's meant like this movement is physically medicine but also mentally medicine where it allows you to kind of.
Be present and tune out everything and then also just physically posture strength all of the above you already know all the physical benefits of yoga yeah no thanks for saying that because yeah Yeah, it is true. I figured out down the road that after an hour and a half of yoga, I can actually sit and meditate. Sure. Because the body's already now been moved and tired. But yes, during the class, it's funny because Julio will ask me, like, you know, why do you love it so much?
And to me, it's really a practice of when I lock in and you have to because you're paying attention and you're moving. There's like so many times where I'm like, oh, shit, they're up again. Like, I'm out. And she'll ask, and I'm out, and all of that. Because it is very... Not all teachers always count the breaths, right? So when you count the breath, it's like uno, dos. I just focus on the breath, focus on the breath.
And so, yeah, I'm glad you say that because it is, for anybody who's listening to this who doesn't do yoga because you think it's, I know, I can't. It is a really good pathway to focus on the breath and on the body. And that is what you just said right now is the, in my opinion, the way to start a meditation practice, the way to calm the mind. Can we at least start a practice, calming of the body, calming of the mind?
What is that line? You know, going back to shout out to Hanu, I mean, he was my first yoga teacher, and he's who I trained with too, so talk about paying our respects and everything to all the good yoga instructors in the San Diego area and just in history.
Yeah, so quieting the mind, stillness through the body. but so i think what you're unawarely kind of bringing up is that i think part of what i'm hearing from you is that what you kind of also like about my classes but it's not specifically my classes is the system and the format the structure of ashtanga and rakhi are that unlike a vinyasa class which i teach vinyasa this isn't to speak poorly or down against vinyasa vinyasa which is kind of taken whether they know it or not like it all
started with the stanga when it comes to the flows the first practice that incorporated the sun salutes it was the first class that really created the flow because other methods of yoga were very much. Stagnant where we hold and we do this pose and then we stop and we're going to do this pose next and there was no flow between it so the vinyasa flow kind of came from the stanga method rocket And really vinyasa after in that order, whether people know it or not.
And so vinyasa is adapted to what it is now to become significantly more inviting, accessible, kind of marketable. And where what I'm hearing from you is you like the structure of ashtanga and rakhi because it's predictable, it's consistent, we hold things for five breaths, so it's easier to focus on your breathing.
Unlike we're in vinyasa where again this isn't a bad thing but sometimes when you're moving through these postures there's less emphasis on the breath or you're moving so fast that the breath is completely lost or on it is out of control and that serves this purpose too it was my gateway like i said i did vinyasa before i did anything else and so and so but what i'm hearing from you is that you actually like the structure of ashtanga and i think there's so many benefits to having a structure
where ashtanga is very disciplined and strict which is off-putting to a lot of people. And the set sequence was also off-putting to a lot of people because they want variety, they want things to switch and change up. And so rocket is that beautiful. And again, we could probably have a whole podcast on just rocket, but I mean, rocket yoga is influence inspired by Ashtanga.
Takes the same poses from the Ashtanga sequences, but then allows freedom because in Ashtanga, you have to do things a certain way. And in Rocket, you have the options to either modify or what I think people are more attracted to or is amplified. You can add binds, you can add balances, you can add inversions. And that's what I think most people, including yourself, gravitate towards, this progressive aspect of it.
And you told us in the Rocket teacher training, I had no idea of how Rake was developed because this Ashtanga guy was trying to teach the Grateful Dead guys, right? Absolutely. So Larry Schultz is the founder of the Rake. He was a traditional Ashtangi. He himself was already like talk about we'll get to misfit yogis, but talk about a misfit yogi in himself before our time. You know, he was kind of that rebellious Ashtangi at that time who questioned
Patabi and was like, hey, why do we do it this way? Or, hey, why can't I do this? And you don't question Patabi, you just do what he says. And that's Patabi Joyce is the, well, not founder, but he's kind of the one who, the shtanga. Well, he got it from his teacher, Krishnamacharya, where you don't have to go down that rabbit hole. But are those guys all from India? Correct. So, Larry Schultz is American. But what about Patan? Patabi Joyce is India and his, and I mean, really...
All modern yoga like the head of like the yoga family tree would be krishnamacharya and so it all goes to that and stems down to patabi and then like you know i'm down that line now too if you go down that lineage and so and so he was already on this idea of bending the rules misfit yogis and kind of tweaking it and so he's living in the united states teaching ashtanga and kind of finding that he's not having a lot of success i think because again it's It's not an easy practice.
It's not easy for people to get their feet behind their head or to bind a Maruchiasana D. And so he's seeing that these people are struggling and then people are probably not coming back to class because it's too hard or for whatever reason. And then long story short, he and the, and the, and the phone books or the ads like back with however used to advertise back in the day. And so he somehow he had an ad in the phone books or something.
Thing. And then the Grateful Dead call him up and like, hey, we want to learn yoga. So he travels with them and he's their personal yoga instructor on a couple of tours. And so he's teaching them traditional Ashtanga and that obviously wasn't working out very well. And so he developed this method, the Raka, that gave options to modify kind of the option to go further when in Ashtanga you have to proficiently perform the posture before you're given the next posture.
And so So it just completely broke the hierarchy of that idea of having to do it this way, but still took the postures. And so then... And the five breaths in each part. Oh, yeah. So no, yeah. A lot of, besides the poses, like again, the structure or the sequences were the same and they just kind of tweaked the structure and allowing a little bit of freedom and then adding music even as an option as well. And... One of the, when he was doing this, they were kind of just experimenting, I think.
And then it started to kind of take off in its own way, no pun intended. And they, Larry's like, hey, what are we going to call this new kind of format? And I forget which member, Bob Weir, I'm not really familiar with the band itself. I can't say that. I listen to their music. But he was like, we're going to call it The Rocket. And Larry's like, why? And he said, because it gets you there faster. and there's interpretation to why that is.
But I think a lot of us resonate with the idea of progression, that it helps you kind of progress faster. And it is a fast-paced class, so I think it works on a lot of levels. Yeah, well, it does. I mean, there's so many poses in the Stange that I don't even think I'm ever going to do. But a rocket is a puede. Absolutely. So you can go back and forth. So I have two questions. One, well, like, I know that it seems like there's a science behind the structure of Ashtanga.
Okay. And do you know anything about that? You know, what I think is told in history, storybooks and whatnot, is that, again, Krishnamacharya had a yoga school in India. And he had, like, three main students, Patabi, Joyce, Iyengar, and Desikashar was his son. And so they all kind of, and Krishnamacharya customized a practice specifically for each of these people. So, and again, maybe I'm not probably getting some details wrong, but he customized the practice perfectly.
According to what their needs were so i was very much under the impression that i anger was like on the verge of death or something like very unhealthy and needed a very modified practice which is why the anger practice is very kind of slow very focused on alignment not that we're not focused on alignment on our stanga but like that's where there's a lot of props and a lot of modifications and i anger and again it's not flowy it's just we hold this pose we do this pose next pose and so he
so that was for him and i don't i'm not very i think des kachars practice more of a hatha practice which again is just pretty similar to anger i think and so for whatever reason patabi needed this invigorating challenging practice and so des kachar basically prescribed these sequences to each of these people and this is and so that's why patabi wasn't necessarily the creator or inventor of Ashtanga, but that was the sequences he was taught by.
And because it was taught to him that way, he taught it to Americans who didn't necessarily need it that way. But he also, before Americans started going there, my understanding was that it was kind of taught to the military school boys. And so this practice was designed for these young, teenage, healthy, strong military Indian boys who had long limbs that combined easy, that were flexible, that were able to get their feet behind their head and everything.
And so this was tailor-made and kind of prescribed to these people, these kind of bodies, these kind of people.
And so I don't really don't know the history of how word gets to the states and people start going to practice with them but they do and it starts to spread pretty rapidly after a couple of these Americans came practice with them and then brought it back and I mean all over the world obviously like Asia South America or everywhere not just the United States but wherever you go if it's traditional ashtanga it will be consistent it will be exactly the same anywhere you go which
is a pretty beautiful thing, too. Yeah, yeah. And one example, and this is why I wanted to ask you that question, is because I can show up to Ashtanga, or even Rocket, because there's a lot of the, I'm talking about the sun salutations, the stretching on, you know, I forgot what it's called. It's been a while since I did yoga teacher training, but they have lateral stretches or bilateral, whatever.
No me acuerdo como se dice. but all of the ways that you stretch your body and then twist this way, twist that way, if I have any injury, if there's any soreness, if there's anything weird with my body, it's all gone after I do those sequences. If I take it easy, no metasco, and I go into myself. But I'm old enough to know where I'm like, okay, today's going to be a slow day. Today I can push. But you know what I'm saying? Like there's twists of.
That's fair. You don't give yourself enough credit. You're incredibly strong and have very intelligent, strong, beautiful practice. To answer your kind of question a little bit more, or to kind of, that was a little bit of background, I should say. So to answer your question, I think it was very mindfully put together, where when you really dissect it entirely, when you look at a sun salutation, each movement has a specific breath.
So Krishnamacharya, unless someone like that might go further down, even that lineage, like it's our lineage starts with Krishnamacharya. And who knows where it came from before that, whether he created it or not, I'm not sure. I would imagine not, it probably goes back even much further.
And so but modern wise that's what we think so then whether it was very mindfully put together sinking breath to movement when you're holding a posture ujjayi breaths in and out the nose with the idea of tristana is this idea of bandhas pranayama breathing and drishti which is focus gaze so between the three of those things you hone in your focus the idea of eliminating distractions and with bandhas alignment kind of focused and then breathing pranayama is naturally the breath and so.
When you're holding poses, it's just natural breathing. You're just breathing in and out your nose. And in the Shetanga rocket method, it's a five count. Whether you actually breathe five times or not, some people breathe a little bit faster, slower. In general, it's probably pretty natural for people to get five breaths, depending how fast the person's counting. So when you're moving, and so this is going to answer your question, is that I finally I'm going to get to answering your question.
So when you're moving, there's a specific breath to the movement. So, there is a wrong and right way to breathe when you're moving. And so, there's no right, and I say that because there's no really right or wrong way. When you're holding a pose, you're just breathing. But when you're lowering down through chaturanga, it's an exhale. It would be improper if you're inhaling as you're lowering down. But it's also very counterintuitive for the body to be doing that.
So like, for example, if on an inhale, you reach your arms up, it's very unnatural to reach your arms up on an exhale. And so really, yeah, no, go ahead and do it. So inhale, and then exhale, exhale your arms up, it feels weird. And so, that's kind of the general rule of thumb is that anything up is an inhale, anything coming down is an exhale.
So, what you were talking about kind of body movements, rocket specifically, when you watch Larry Schultz's interviews, talks about that he, like more than Ashtanga, it's completely focused on the spine, which spine flexes, it folds, it extends, backbends, and then it rotates, twisting, and then yes, you have your lateral stretches. And so it's all designed around the movements of the spine.
And so where Nestler started, I'm not sure, but it was very mindfully put together that they learned that sinking the breath properly to the way that you're moving, really wakes up the nervous system. Gets the body warmed up to move into these deeper asana postures so that by the time you're going into our lunges, as we're going into even things deeper, like Hanumanasana splits and stuff, the body, and I mean, that really resonates with me because I am not a flexible person.
Whatever you say on this podcast, the truth is I'm not flexible. And so over, and it's through moving through the sun salutations, moving through these sequences. And so again, we start with our triangles, our revolved triangles, our lunges, our twisted lunges. So you're seeing how you start in an open position. And as the body gets more open, you start to move into the twisting position.
And by the time we start to get to like, I would say the peak of the practices is like seated poses and back bends, because that's when it starts to get really deep. The body's ready for those kinds of postures. And so hopefully that kind of answers your question. It was very mindfully put together to sync breathing with moving.
And again, there's a very specific way way to do that because otherwise you are kind of breaking the entire structure and system and it again wakes up the nervous system and warms up the body to prepare it and i'm glad it works for you that you feel like a that the medicine works and you feel much better afterward i don't always feel the same i still always kind of have aches and pains after practice but maybe i'm not listening to my body i don't think that's the practice's fault i mean i think
it's it's also such a good workout it's like going to work out going running going to play basketball there's there might be some soreness but all all in all together i always i notice like some of the stretches and the twist and i a lot of times i visualize my spinal cord just moving this way moving that way like i get in there and i just imagine god i wouldn't be doing this if all i do is sit in the desk all day or just walk around straight okay the body needs these
movements just like yours you know rinsing i don't know i'm one of the reasons i get so excited about this is because Because I see so many people struggling with disease and anxiety and depression. And if you just go to, just moving the spine this way, moving the spine that way, resetting the nervous system. It gets you in these states of, besides getting into shape and being strong. At this time in my life, I just want to be strong. I just want to be able to get up.
And if I fall, and also balance. Like I noticed from yoga, and I tell you, my dad's 88 years old. Well, he was. He just died in December. But. My condolences. Yeah, thank you. One of the things that I would notice is, and he used to be super athletic, moving, always going to the gym. You know, I took him to yoga here and there, but he stopped around maybe like 10 years ago, 15 years ago. He's like, yeah, como que se cansó, whatever.
For whatever reason, I would notice and I'd be like, if he would go to yoga, and he was pretty, pretty decent, but he had a hard time, like I said, getting up from the floor, right? Or bending. Now he could bend down and tie his shoes, but I noticed, right, and I practiced this. And so this is for all of us that are getting older and then might have the privilege to live to 88.
When you practice yoga, when I tie my shoe, I think, okay, let's see if I can just lift my foot up and tie it here instead of having to bend over. And I noticed these are some of the things that you get to practice when you're doing these balancing poses. So it's not just a circus, Because it's like a purpose for the way you're going to live your life. No, it's all about quality. Like, you definitely increase the quality of your life by doing this.
And that crosses my mind all the time. It's like, because I have injuries, I think, between. Oh, we got to talk about your injuries. And so, I mean, the list is super long, but we can and we will. And it's never ending. Okay, we're good, we're good. And so, you know, yeah, for the future.
But the thought of people who don't do yoga is just like, man, I don't know how they function because like a couple of days without it or right now, really the state of my life that I'm in right now is that I'm in dad mode right now with a three-year-old and a one-year-old, which means my practice is definitely not as, well, no, it's a priority when I have the time, but I don't have as much time to practice.
And so I absolutely feel it and the thought of people who don't do it at all just can't even fathom that I just feel like I would imagine it's kind of miserable but I won't speak for them and that mentally and physically it's definitely, it's my medicine Yeah, it is and so for somebody who's been injured I mean actually.
Everyone's different but maybe we can just talk about your recovery from because I know you had spinal cord, spinal cord like stuff you had surgery right so i had a microdiscectomy for years probably starting in high school i had lower back pain and it was pretty nagging it's pretty consistent or constant i should say and it was for years and so my wife is active duty was active duty military and just recently got out of the military to focus on being a mama and so that means
we We traveled a lot and that'll probably tie in a little bit to my story that, and so we're bouncing around town to town with the military. So I'm going to all these military facilities for my medical care and they're prescribing me pain meds to take and they don't, again, right naturally and they didn't do anything.
And I, the pain did never went away and it started progressively getting worse to the point where I was now starting to travel down my leg kind of really, it felt like something thing was stabbing my left butt cheek all the time like it was really intense kind of nerve pain going into my glute into my hamstring and that's what became the issue at a certain point going down the line after years of lower back pain I was starting to
get really intense nerve pain going down the leg that was not going away so the back pain was tolerable but the nerve pain wasn't and I could no longer fourfold I couldn't lift my leg probably a couple inches in front of me without the pain shooting down and it really was debilitating i like stopped everything i couldn't do yoga anymore and so and of course going through kind of modern western medicine with pains and meds and
stuff i did acupuncture i did chiropractor massage and we tried everything of course you want to avoid surgery at all costs but it was the right thing for me i'm glad i did it micro discectomy so i didn't have any fusions or any kind of what's a micro so they go so i had a bulging disc L five S one. So that's what was, so it was compressing the nerve in the lower back.
Was radiating and shooting the pain down the left leg. And so when the bulging, the disc was sticking out and compressing on the nerves, a microdiscectomy just goes in and shaves off the nerve or the bulging disc so that it's no longer. Yeah. So thankfully it wasn't super, I mean, I do have a little scar, but it was super invasive where they didn't have to fuse my spine together. They didn't have to add any kind of metal or anything to my body.
It was still a one-year recovery after that day that I got the surgery.
And for the first six months, couldn't twist couldn't fold couldn't lift anything over like five ten pounds and so and actually i'm gaining a lot of weight during this time too were you already practicing yoga when this happened this was yes i had already been teaching and practicing probably let's see from 2013 my goodness i can't get my 2010 like seven years and so i was seven years in and i mean if If you're going down that rabbit hole,
2010 or 2013, excuse me, I do my teacher training with Hano here in San Diego. Immediately after a month of finishing my teacher training, I moved to Northern Virginia, which is right outside of Washington, D.C., which is prior to moving away from San Diego. All I knew was vinyasa and a very Chula Vista yoga style, which is, again, that Hano, really flowy, creative sequencing. and seeing. I get over to the west or the east coast over in DC and I'm hearing a lot about
Ashtanga. I'm hearing a lot about Rakhi. And if you know Hanu, practice with Hanu, there's a reverence to him. There's like almost a sacred approach to the practice where there's nothing kind of gentle, sacred about Rakhi, you know? And so even the name was off-putting to me. I couldn't like, I was like, that's not what I associated with yoga at the time. Need a break? Okay, hold on, guys. We're going to pause for one second. Okay, everyone, we're back. We just had to pause a little because...
Video and upgrading and all this stuff. Thank you, Pa. So you were saying how Jano had this style of like super sacred and reverence and you get to the East Coast and rocket, you're like, this isn't very... Yeah, it's not what I associated. It looks like the inspectors here. Oh, the inspectors. Okay, we're back, everyone. Thank you for your patience. Que este, así es, aquí es. Still in recovery, there's always something happening.
So we were talking about how you got to the East Coast and you realized, well vinyasa training the hana was just like you know vinyasa and now there's rocket and now there's a stanga because i do want to talk about how you got to yoga which we spoke about while we were on pause here about through your mom so shout out to mom but so you're doing the rocket or you're so i was the name was off-putting my impression understanding of it was that it was advanced advanced,
which misinterpretation can be. But for people who are interested in the rocket, don't let that kind of defer you to or discourage you from trying it out. By all means, it absolutely is challenging. There's no doubt about that. But it doesn't have to be advanced. And it just takes the right mindset, I think, more than anything. So your ego aside, or however you want to look at it, and as long as you don't get caught up in what you see, there are going to be a lot of strong practitioners
doing advanced postures, but you can take it at whatever rate it was. You can do vachasana. You can do vachasana. You can modify. The entire rocket was developed on that premise, this idea of making the shtanga practice more accessible. So my understanding was advanced. It was called rocket. It all seemed weird to me because I was still fairly new to yoga, even after completing teacher training, having only exposure to vinyasa. And.
So I had, it took convincing of a couple of friends who practice Rocket, who were like, you need to come check it out. This is the practice you need, whether you know it or not, you're going to like it a lot, come through. And sure enough, this is kind of a statement for everybody is that like, my mindset was that I needed to be advanced. I actually was determined to learn and have hands-on in my practice before going to Rocket.
So I did, I designated a lot lot of time for like a month or so, where prior to that, I had headstand, I had pinche, but I did not have handstand in my practice. And so I was going down in my basement every day for like a month and tuck jumping, kicking up until I started to hold it longer and longer to the point that I was able to hold a handstand. So I didn't have formal training in handstand either. That was my handstand journey was just repetition. Yeah, just consistency and repetition.
And so I learned to do handstand because i was like okay i can't go to rocket until i do handstand but that's just because you that was me that that was exactly what i was getting to do not think that way had i had i've gone to rocket sooner i would have probably done handstand sooner and it's neither here nor there it's not important but you do not need to be able to do a handstand you don't have to do headstand forearms and to do rocket and so that was me in my head building
it up to be like Like I need to be able to, which is not absolutely the case at all. You progress by going to rocket. Again, had I gone to rocket sooner, probably would have been doing handstand sooner. And so not looking back now, but don't be silly. Like just come and do what you can. And just a quick input here. The inversions help the blood flow to your brain. The inversions are also very, besides, you know, that you're strong and it looks cool. It's some challenge for the body
that we get to be in during this human journey. it does do something for. There's a lot of beautiful physical benefits from doing immersions, right? No, absolutely. I think, I mean, just the blood going to the head, endorphins, adrenaline, it just makes you feel good. Like you said, it looks cool, feels good. And that's funny you mentioned that because that brings up kind of part of what was off-putting to me about the rocket was, I think, something about the approach before I went to rocket.
And again intention approach there's no right or wrong prior to that was that like to me again I'm not a flex naturally flexible person over time I developed these more intermediate advanced awesome doesn't again if you ask me to do a splits right now I couldn't it would require me to move through an entire rocket practice and get to the point once we finally get to Hanuman asana again you said scientifically
like it's just structured to really open up the body prepare the body for the the deeper postures. And so that's the way it resonates in my body as well. I don't wake up and get into these poses. I warm up, I move through the system. And so before that, I remember thinking, absolutely, it's a system. And so looking back, I remember thinking when I'm in vinyasa that I'm struggling with these flexibility postures. I was kind of strong. I was young. I was weightlifting. I was a basketball player.
And so I remember being able to follow along with the movement the lunges made sense but anything that required more flexibility was challenging for me it wasn't natural to me and I remember thinking anytime I saw somebody and like at the time my bird of paradise was really advanced like oh man like that's fancy and I also started things like why are they doing that in my head I'm like like what physical benefits do you get from binding and extending your
leg or doing this and doing that and you know. And my ego, my mindset at the time was like, oh man, they're a tool, they're showing off, you know, that was the mindset at the time. And so basically, these people are telling me to go to rocket and what I'm understanding is like, it's just the whole practice, you're doing all these advanced postures and I'm like, that's just seems like you're just showing off at that point.
And what you're kind of touching on whether you know it or not about this idea of inversions is that that's considered an advanced asana and yoga being upside down headstand forearms and handstand is considered an advanced asana and you don't need any other reason to do these things other than it makes you feel good and like the the feeling that you get from doing these inversions the endorphins the adrenaline is you don't need anybody you don't need to worry about people judging you or anything
because again that was me at the time but like i've obviously changed a lot since then and that's what i do for a living is i do all of these you come to my class and again other vinyasa classes have this sometimes are structured around this idea of a peak pose where the whole class is building up to get into bird of paradise it's like man we do bird of paradise we do this we do that we do everything you know and optional where you can do a handstand or a pink shower.
No. And so, and, and, and it's just common. It's just normal in our classes, you know, in rock. And I mean, yes, with the misfits, but in rocket in general, that's the norm where again, that's why it is intimidating to some people who aren't used to that. Because again, maybe you do a headstand in another class, maybe. And so we just do them like it's normal. And it's a part of our normal practice than it is. Yeah. Yeah. So then, so yoga, yeah.
Wait, so then when you went to East Coast and you were like judging the rocket. Yeah, judging anybody who was better than me. I'm competitive. Yes, he is. I was a hater and we were haters at the time, you know, but it's just a different approach now. So, yeah, I obviously I'm here today as like my mission in life now is really focused almost exclusively on rocket. Yes, I teach Ashtanga. Yes, I teach vinyasa. But I'm also in a position where I lead rocket teacher trainings.
I am a Rocket teacher training facilitator now where I'm 500 hours certified in Rocket and I certify other people to teach Rocket. I saw the benefits. I felt the passion immediately. I was drawn to it to be like what I wanted to do. Like I was like, I like this rocket thing. And I was, I was doing it consistently a couple of times a week for a couple of years before I moved away from there, from Northern Virginia. And so obviously I got very hooked because it just promotes progress.
So in very little time, like I was just doing rocket a couple of times a week and the handstands only got stronger.
My flexibility only increased. and there's a you're drawn to that and you were drawn to progression and the progression is never ending like you can always add more and to this day and you just it's a lot it opens up doors that you didn't know and so rocket itself taps into this idea that like just if you do rocket with some regularity with once a week twice a week or more you're going to see increase in strength and flexibility like it's completely inevitable yes and so it's going
to happen and i felt that and so then and community is another big thing too and the rocket community was very supportive inviting similar to the misfit yogis i think the misfit yogis take it up to that family level but i am still in touch with some of those people that i practiced rocket with that long ago and so and so it was it was special it was cool and that specific teacher carson.
Carson Clay Calhoun he's definitely well known in the Instagram world if there was a Mount Rushmore of rocket teachers I say that there's no doubt that he would be on it he's just.
Knows his he works on his craft he knows this stuff so I was very fortunate to been able to practice with him and to this day I'm very inspired by the way he taught so the way I teach is very inspired by the way he taught and the way I practice I can credit a lot of my progression to practicing with him as well so then how is that how did you start misfit yogis oh man and so i think any yoga teacher full-time part-time well has it been in this position where they don't see eye
to eye with management with ownership and so i that's inevitable as well in any field but in yoga specifically it's very common where there's some sort of disagreement agreement. This one was. Somewhat of a nasty falling out at a studio that I was at. And so I was teaching at this specific studio in the San Diego area after moving back. So we finally, years after traveling around, I'm from Chula Vista, born and raised. My wife is in the military. We go to Northern Virginia.
We go to from East Coast back to West Coast, but Pacific Northwest to Seattle area. We lived in Tacoma for a couple of years. No rocket over there.
I practiced mainly ashtanga while I was there at the time. and so after our stunt there and after our tour there we end up back in san diego we're back at home base and now we're here for good raising a family and bought a home and we're not going anywhere anytime soon so yeah yeah it's good news good news for the misfits and so i'm at this one studio and i'm teaching they're pretty invested in the specific studio i was teaching there 10 times a week
i was the lead teacher trainer there for their 200 hour program and things were busy. I was very occupied there. I was very involved in the specific studio and at a certain point there was a falling out of disagreement and I had to remove myself from that place. It was no longer serving me the way I needed to be and so I decided to leave. And in the process I had a, again because of how involved I was and how embedded I was in that specific community.
A lot of the students were upset. They were bummed out. They almost exclusively practiced with me, even though they attended that studio. And they're like, hey, so what's the next, what's going to happen? I'm like, you tell me, like, I have no idea. Like, this is all really fresh. I have no idea what I'm going to do. I might go teach here. I might go teach there. I really don't know.
And so they took it upon themselves. It's like, all right, hey like let's go ahead and San Diego is a great place to do this let's have class in my backyard and so I was like okay cool and so I started that way and and so people we started backyard hopping one day it would be at this backyard another day would be at this backyard it would be in this garage and literally we're all in a group chat and so all of those students followed me to,
like just kind of teach wherever I was teaching and so we're bouncing around and literally on a group chat. We're going to be here today, here today, there on Saturday. And I mean, you were kind of actually in part of the mix where I was teaching like at a... My first class with you was in someone's garage at Apple East. Yeah. And so it was a garage and then on other days I'd be at this bar studio and then another place like at another like dance studio.
And so it was like that for a while. Anyways, we're... And what comes to my mind is, if you ever watched growing up the Claymation cartoon, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, growing up, did you ever watch it? There was, exactly. And so, there's that, but then there's also the Island of Misfit Toys, which is the island that had all these toys that didn't have kids to play with them. So we were the yogis that didn't have a studio to practice.
So then literally that's like, visually, that's what I pictured. Like we're the Misfit Yogis. And then once we start get to kind of the theme of the brand, I don't listen to the band, the Misfits, kind of somewhat aware that it's like probably kind of grungy, heavy metal kind of music. But I was very familiar with their branding, with their logo. And so admittedly, I did take their kind of font because, yeah, like I just liked the whole idea of the grungy approach.
And so then that also tied into the whole kind of the skeletons, you know. And so I really took off with that. I really like that too. I see that. I appreciate this. I feel very much at home.
And so that's kind of how, that's the, that's a little bit of the inspiration behind the name was, that's what was kind of growing on through my mind is that we were these little misfit yogis that didn't have anywhere to go and, and then took off with the kind of skeleton theme and the grungy theme with the font and everything.
And so it works on a lot more on a couple other levels and that resonate with me specifically and with others, and I think the community specifically, but then our slogan is honoring the lineage, bending the rules. This idea that Ashtanga is the lineage, and Ashtanga, again, it all starts there, so we honor that, but then bending the rules is Rakhi. Rakhi was this idea of taking the lineage and just... Breaking, bending where yogis kind of play on words and bending the rules.
And so, so again, I kind of touched on how Larry Schultz, the founder of the rocket was kind of a rebel or a misfit and his, and his own way. And so that tied in really, it just worked on a lot of levels for me. And so, so there's a lot of significance behind the name because people are just like, oh, that's cool. I'm like, it's cool, but there's actually a lot more to it. And so, So, whether people know it or not, it's a very kind of special thing to me.
And I think another thing just to kind of touch on is that what you've mentioned too about like coming and doing watch us. And it doesn't have to be perfect. Like we just take everybody and accept them exactly the way they are. We want you to be authentic. We want you to come and be yourself. And I think that's the community isn't large in quantity, but the quality is as high as it gets. And so yes the level practitioner intermediate advanced but just quality humans that are.
Caring understanding supportive you feel embraced you feel welcomed as soon as you walk through the doors and i mean and so now we have doors now we didn't always have doors and so that's only six weeks in the making the studio has only been open for six weeks and and it's great by the way thank you yeah yeah and so that all happened because that wasn't a falling out but you know have control over these external things that i was teaching at tages which was great that i the arrangement was
good i was happy there although everything happens for a reason as cliche as that sounds i mean this is exactly what i'm supposed to see that this home suit is exactly the right thing for me and for my my family and for my community and i couldn't be happier but But it was obviously pretty devastating when they closed their doors with hardly any notice and I didn't know what to do. And so shout out to wifey, like she's more of the risk taker in the relationship and more creative than I am.
And because I really was like, oh, man, I'm going to have to find some sort of nine to five job with the thought of that making was just miserable because I've been doing this and this is what I'm passionate about. And we looked into trying to open a studio and it just wasn't in the means it wasn't meant to be.
And so she's like she without hesitation she's like we're gonna convert our garage into your yoga studio and i'm like sure you know like i was like but no not even it was more like sure like brushing her off like yeah that's that's just not gonna happen and here we are now and so she was really supportive super determined again she's my rock i mean without her like really.
Like i said none of this would be even happening and so and in the meantime the three-month month construction process, you came and you took some living room yoga classes. So that was a vibe and that was cool in itself. It served its purpose, but that had its own. Cons and downfalls because I have a lot of animals, dogs, cats. And so deep cleaning the floors every day, kicking my family out during class. It was this whole thing. And so it was a vibe though. People enjoyed it. I enjoyed it.
And, but it's good to have my own space now too. And so, but to say that, like when we opened the doors, everybody's welcoming is like, that's all very fresh and very new.
So I'm super happy and fortunate to be in a position where I have doors to open because before that, well, the, the history of the Misfit Yokes is we didn't have a home and we finally do so it's pretty cool it's great the studio i mean i love walking in at first i thought i'll just go once in a while because it's far but then i started to go to the living room ones and then i came back and i was like no this studio is is fire you just walk in you can already smell the calisthenics plus honestly
there's no 6 a.m classes anywhere i mean there are but not not your classes not rocket not estanga and yeah the studio feels like I mean, it's super cool, wooden floors, that brick wall, the logo up there, Misfit Yogi's honoring their lineage, blending the rules, el cuartito para la entrada, the incense. Yeah, and a really super fun welcoming teacher. I love it. I'm glad to hear that. Congratulations. I think it's great. And for so many years, I've been telling people, we got to do village ways,
old school. You know, people are thinking corporations or big government or somebody else is going to do the thing. No way. Small business in your own home. People, you guys got to come out and check it out if you're in San Diego, for real. Please do. I support local small businesses like I really completely on. They're taking over everything, all the corporations. And so it makes it really hard for us all, those little people trying to just make ends meet.
And like, I think to touch on that more, you know, like just all the little touches, which just come natural to me in a way, like this idea of bringing people together is just something that. Somewhat comes organically to me. I just enjoy it and just something simple, you know, and I actually took that from Carson too after class, the whole fist bump thing.
I can't take credit for that. I kind of took that from him, you know, because at this point we kind of all know each other, but before you're kind of all strangers and it's like, hey, you know what? Like you just kicked ass next to this person, fist bump, you know, after class. And then it became the group fist bump afterward and all those little touches.
It just brings people together and kind of actually gives me chills talking about it and thinking about it because you just don't get that other places. I mean, there's community in all the yoga studios. I can't take that away from them, but I am biased naturally. And I just, I think what we have is a little bit more unique. Special, closer, tight knit. And, and so all those little touches definitely, I think, cultivate and create what is Misfit Yogis and going back to the name too.
So it's not Misfit yogi it's not misfit yoga it's misfit yogis because it's a collective it's a community it's us it's not me it's not one thing and so that's also why it's plural and so no like it's kind of crazy to think about it like after like looking back and seeing how it's all unfolded the way it is and so it's very intentful very purposeful a lot of significance to it because again people are like oh that's a cool name i'm like yeah it's more than that it's a lot more than that and And,
you know, you're coming, you got a good 20, 30-minute drive to the studio to come practice. Worth every minute. And I have people, and like geographically, Solana Beach, Carlsbad, people are driving almost an hour specifically for what I'm offering. And again, it's, there's not really other people who offer it. But I think, again, it's unique. And people from Tijuana are really going out of their way for this specifically.
And I think there's just not as much of awareness of it, knowledge of it, education on it. In a way, I think not just me, but all Rocket.
Is there's this underground theme to it which also goes into that misfit thing where we don't want to be mainstream because it's not going to be ever a corporation it's not going to be that and so, this idea of keeping it somewhat underground where it's not mainstream is the movement and keeping it that way too where obviously a business needs to grow and people need to come but like at the same time i'm really not complacent but really happy and content where things are where if things grow
great but like it's really good the way it is now and that i think it loses a little bit of its kind of uniqueness and like it's less special once it becomes a completely mainstream and you see it with bands and music and stuff as soon as they kind of sell sell out you know like i'm not i'm i hope i never get to that point where i'm some sort of sellout and yeah and it also takes a lot more i mean it's hard for it to be so mainstream when it's so So specifically, it's like, okay,
we're going to do two of these, two of these, five of those. Or you can even make it up as you go. True. But yeah, but like the whole Rocket One, Rocket Two, Rocket Three sequences. Yeah, it's more specific. I remember, so this is a fun story. I went to Mexico City and I was like, oh, they teach Rocket here. And it was, creo que Blanco Yoga. So I showed up to Rocket. There's like 10 people waiting.
The teacher isn't there yet. and she comes in and you know yeah well of course rocket you can be a beginner you can try but but it's a little bit of it's kind of at least intermediate like you said sure i yeah she goes one by one asking people like little i don't know why she just didn't ask everybody at once but she was going one by one asking them like have you done rocket no my first time okay well do you have any injuries or this like giving the the instruction
the rundown the next person the a rundown have you done rocket have you done rocket she gets to me and she's like have you done rocket i'm like yeah i practiced in chile vista with andre oh you're good next yeah so yeah that's that's that's the only other place where i've where i've actually done it is in dfa with yeah or i forget if that was her name or not but might have been mariana um i don't know that's too funny i think at this point whether we're not huge or
anything or underground but maybe me specifically but then i think misfit yogis has a reputation for that.
For sure that's a goal and it's it's silly and funny because i call it her advances like maybe a little bit but no like we're just we're just chilling man we're just doing what we love to do we're having a good time doing it and so that's great that's i think no i think i remember you telling me that's funny and so definitely the rocket world at least amongst like teachers is pretty small so we all kind of know each other and so yeah anytime you're doing rocket training right because you're.
So there's a retreat. Do you want to tell us about your retreats and stuff? Absolutely. I tend to lead two to three retreats annually. And I'm biased. I tend to stick to Mexico. We'll see if I ever go. I'm like, I don't like the idea of traveling for 36 hours to get to Bali or something or India. And so we have it. So then Mexico is a beautiful country.
So you can't go wrong. And so usually La Paz, Puerto Vallarta, I'm looking at next year going into maybe Tepoztlan and some other cool places and changing it up because usually it's a beach area, but I'm thinking about going into the mountains next year. I'll go to Tepoztlan. I was going to go to your Tepoztlan one. And then... You know, it didn't work out for you. Yeah, it fell through, so you know. But so at the end of this month, I am headed to La Paz.
The first six days is a casual retreat where it's really well-rounded. I usually kick your butt in the morning with some sort of active practice, vinyasa, shtanga, rakhe. And then I have a really amazing shout out to my assistant, Holly, who helps me with all my admin work and is my partner in crime for the retreats. She is kind of the yin to me yang, where she kind of offers something a little bit more on the gentle side, recovery side, also does myofascial release.
And so, yeah, by the end of the retreat, it's really well balanced, I think. And we usually end with some sort of nice closing ceremony, cacao ceremony or something. And so usually ice baths involve some sort of excursion and the whole time is kind of community building as well. So by the end of the retreats, those groups get really tight knit as well. Yeah.
So first one's pretty casual. The following six days after that group checks out, we have another group coming in, which I'm really excited about, 50-hour rocket teacher training. Some of them training for the first time and others just adding to their rocket hours. And what's really kind of flattering and really a testament to what's happening here is that it is starting to spread. It is really exciting that I have people from all over the world coming to this retreat.
I have only, or training, I only have like four locals coming through, which I'm super grateful for, love them, and grateful that I'm not relying solely on locals because otherwise I'd only be four people. And so, I say that only for that reason. I love my locals and my people who practice with me regularly, but I have people coming from Washington State, Colorado, DC area.
Guatemala, Dominica, Costa Rica, Mexico City. And so, it's a really diverse group all really strong practitioners and it'll be five straight days of really intense practice really focusing on hands-on adjustments I would say that's something that I'm very comfortable with something that I specialize in something that separates me from other instructors is that my experience and my approach to hands-on adjustments is what kind of again makes it enhances the experience I think for practitioners
and including myself it keeps me really engaged, keeps me really motivated, inspired. And so I think it does the same for the students to enhance the experience, to like help them get into things that they didn't know they can get into. And then also so they know that I'm there and that I'm there to support them as well. And so the training will be, there'll be a lot of focus on that. So people get a lot of time practicing that and some practice teaching and definitely
some really strong and intense practices. Nice. Yeah. The hands-on adjustment is, I mean, you know, there's some teachers that are hands on and they just come and lay the hands there and you're like okay well that's nice whatever but the way you do it it's like i mean hana does this too but it's you just the twist i see you coming and i'm like oh here he comes here he comes but the release yeah first of all you realize the capacity that you have to do this you align you twist a little deeper
you're reminding me to breathe and then i always have this sense like okay after you're done the adjustment or solamente you're stretching more, you're twisting more, you leave and there's a sense of expansion, like, oh, you know, just this breath. I mean, I'm very much into... Really honoring and talking about my experience during these, during these classes, because I'm so aware of life and the body, maybe because I, I work a lot with people that are dying or helped my parents die.
But this aliveness that you feel after one of these twists or one of these adjustments is just like, there's, there's, there's a, there's a relief, there's an expansion, there's a gratitude. Sometimes there's like, holy shit, I can't believe I just did that. Of course, dude. But yeah, definitely shout out for your hands-on adjustments, for your professionalism, for the system of yoga that you're working in. I'm very grateful for that. Thank you. 100%. Good.
I enjoy it as well, and I enjoy the reaction, and I enjoy the outcome of it, and the joy that it brings all the practitioners. Oops. Uh-oh. Okay. So I'm going to add on here, of course, you have to follow you on Instagram at Misfit Yogis, but I'll put the links to that. And once we follow you, that's how everybody can find out about your retreats or whatever. Yeah. Absolutely. Mainly Instagram. The website's also in the bio as well. And so that's how you
kind of find out about any events or how to get to the studio. All right. And if you want to get some of this merch, because it's amazing. Amazing, the shirts, I should have worn mine. You wore it yesterday. Yeah, the stickers, let me put it here, yeah, I wore it yesterday. Yeah, so from basketball and sports. Oh, one more thing before we close is I want, I have to do a shout out for your mom because she's the one that took you to yoga. Right, absolutely. Playing Mar City Basketball, yeah?
Yeah, so no, without her, I'm not. So at the time, I'm a 16-year-old lifting weights, playing competitive basketball. My mom was avid and a regular practitioner at the time, Chula Vista Yoga Center. We could walk there from my home that I grew up in. and I never really processed, especially your teenager who knows what you're thinking about, but never processed that. She would come home from yoga, like sweaty and kind of talking about like how it's a good workout.
But in my head, you know, I'm just like yoga, like old ladies meditating, stretching, you know, I'm sure it's cool, but it's not for me. And too macho or whatever at the time. And it was a Saturday morning.
I'm pretty sure I'm trying to sleep in, you know as a teenager and like she literally drags me out of bed she's like you're coming to class with me and like there was a resistance for a while she's like you need to do yoga I'm like I'm okay thanks you know appreciate it but nah and there was a resistance for a long time I don't know she was compelled to drag me out of bed one day takes me to Chula Vista Yoga Center Hano it's
my very first yoga class ever and at the time at Chula it was 90 minute practices which is rad because it's not that way anymore. And really, Misfit Yogis is probably one of the only studios that offers 90-minute practices. Saturday is two hours. And on a regular basis, of course, I mean, we have some like the six games or one hour instead because people go to work. But anything else is usually at least 90 minutes or more.
Which is awesome, you know, because I mean, 60 minutes, you know, sometimes it's not even enough to get like warmed up or anything. And so anyways, I digress that. But so that so I'm going in as a teenager who's never done yoga before to a 90 minute vinyasa class. And at the time, there was nothing more challenging than that at the time. And so I show up, I'm probably wearing socks, too, you know, like, I'm not like, I'm like, get on my mat.
And I'm like, wearing my basketball shorts, and I'm wearing my socks. And I think at some point, I was like, you take your socks off. I'm like, all right. And so that's just how little I knew about yoga. And sure enough, here we are, and we're practicing. And the thing I took, the biggest thing I took away from it was, again, as a athlete, I have some sort of body awareness and consciousness to understand, like step your foot forward, bend your knee, come into a warrior pose.
Like I was able to do that. I did struggle with anything flexibility wise.
I was not flexible. So like anything that were like hamstrings were tight couldn't backbend very well but i was able to still follow the movements modify or whatever but the biggest thing i took away was that like we're in shavasana i definitely completely had like the shavasana experience where like i didn't even ring a bell at the time or something but he was waking us up and i was like i don't think i don't think i was i don't think i was asleep i don't think i was awake like well yeah
complete just like existing completely present it and just that's what I took away most from it I'm here today because of that like experience and honestly never experienced it ever since because after you kind of have that pinnacle sometimes you. Force it and try to recreate it, which you can, or like you have the expectation that that's what it's going to be like. And so I remember thinking that after my next yoga class, I'm like,
that wasn't the same, but anyways, it was still good. And I saw the benefits to it. So yeah, I'm here today because she dragged me out of class and shout out to Hanu, shout out to my mom. And I love basketball. I still play a couple of times a week, less now with the kiddos, but definitely a big fan of the sport, follow it on TV.
And your mom's at all, I mean, I see your mom at the studio all the time still practicing you know again she's been practicing longer than i have she didn't have any exposure to rocketer strong until i moved back and very receptive to it very ready for the challenge she was ready for it and so yeah i mean i mean she's a grandma now so she's older well i won't completely all sorts of ages in your in your dude i mean bob isn't shy that he's pushing close to 70 and he's
in there kicking ass and and i mean no like i'm not gonna put my mom on blast but she's getting up there too and we got a couple of gray hair folks and i mean it is what it is and they're out there and and that goes to show that like this this is a practice for everybody you can and i mean i they're arguably super humans they are pretty kind of miraculous humans they're pretty rad and so in there at times but and so it's really fun but it is yeah i agree and i
think it is for everybody to try out and as long as you have like an open mind there's no reason and why you can't and shouldn't be coming and checking it out. So, yeah. Good. Well, thank you, Andre. Absolutely, thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah. Well, I'll put all the links here on the podcast. Thank you, Andre. Thank you, Paula, for recording. This is our first video officially in the new studio. So thanks, everyone. Thank you, me, Pao.
And gracias, Andre. Jai. Jai. See you tomorrow, misfits. Yeah, sounds good.