Ever wondered what it would be like to roll out a yoga mat on your lunch break and check in with your body? Today’s show was recorded at Triangle Manufacturing, a company that encourages just that.

My friend and former guest Larry Milburn was brought in to start a yoga program at this medical device manufacturing firm, and today he introduces us to two company leaders who made it happen: CEO Dax Stohlmeyer and VP of Finance Jeff Simon.

In a way, Triangle is the perfect case study for yoga in the workplace because their team includes both people who are on their feet all day doing physical work, as well as people who work mostly seated at desks.

As you’ll learn in this episode, both types of employees crave movement. And both have experienced profound benefits from these twice-weekly sessions with Larry. Triangle’s yoga program contributes to a “culture of wellness,” and it’s an example other companies would be wise to consider.

The guys also talk about:

• How and why the company brought in Larry to teach yoga

• What yoga has done for workplace camaraderie

• Dax’s experience with yoga as a former professional football player

• Jeff’s experience as a newcomer to yoga

• How yoga and mindfulness make Dax a better leader

Casey McBride is a longtime yoga practitioner and teacher who specializes in working with men and young male athletes.

She joins us to talk about how she found her way to that niche; common themes she sees among yoga-curious men; using props; and how yoga helps her athletes gain strength and avoid (and recover from) injuries.

Casey also talks about:

• The “underground revolution” of young athletes using yoga to gain strength and mobility

• Her advice for guys just starting out with yoga

• Why your ego is the enemy of a great yoga practice

• Why physical therapy alone often doesn’t do the job

• The meaning of her mantra “do just enough” and how that mindset helps her students stay healthy

We’ve heard from a lot of guys about how yoga has helped ease their back pain, work through stress, or improve their relationships.

Today’s episode has those elements, but it’s also something else entirely: the story of Darnell “Moe” Washington, a former gang member who found yoga while serving a sentence of 35 years to life in prison.

It’s the third and final episode in our Prison Yoga Project series, and it’s one of the most powerful conversations we’ve had on the show.

You’ll learn how Moe connected with former GTY guest James Fox while at San Quentin; the mental and physical capabilities he developed through his practice; and how yoga and mindfulness helped him gain his freedom and prepare for the rest of his life.

James Fox is the Founding Director of the Prison Yoga Project, which he started in San Quentin and grew to 17 states and beyond.

In part one of a three-part series on prison yoga, James tells Derek about the program's origins (he started in a single juvenile detention center); the unique challenges and opportunities involved; and the story of a participant whose rehabilitation and parole was inextricably linked with the yoga practice he learned while behind bars.

James also talks about:

• How yoga helped him get over back pain from running

• How Prison Yoga Project scaled through word of mouth, teacher training, and their book

• How men and women in prison tend to react to first trying yoga

• The trauma-informed approach they've developed

• The role yoga played in a parole hearing for a participant serving a life sentence

Friend of the show Johnny Gillespie joins Derek to talk about the men's yoga retreat he's hosting in February, called “The Way of the Empowered Man."

Johnny is a certified meditation and yoga teacher and the founder of Empowered Wellness Studio. He's also run about 30 retreats in his career.

Johnny and Derek talk about:

• The value of retreats and why there aren't many yoga retreats for men

• The activities and schedule at a yoga retreat

• How yoga can complement weightlifting and other fitness regimens rather than replacing them

• The concept of the "Empowered Man"

• The Kripalu Yoga Center in Western Massachusetts, where Johnny's retreat will be held

In this episode, Derek talks yoga with two of the most impactful college lacrosse players to emerge from upstate New York in the 1990s: his former teammate and good friend, Todd Burnham – a two-time All-American and 1993 National Champion at Hobart College; and Casey Powell, a four-time All-American and 1995 National Champion at Syracuse University.

Todd Burnham is an expert litigator, entrepreneur, author, and leadership coach who is a founding partner of Burnham Law – an elite litigation firm in Colorado with a team of top-rated experienced associates and paralegals focusing on family law, civil litigation, personal injury, and many other services for those in need in the states of Colorado and Wyoming. In 2022, Todd published his best-selling book Comeback: Epic Rebound Strategies for Business or Personal Adversity, a guide on transforming trauma into triumph through his breakthrough findings and unique insight into six easy-to-execute tactics that have helped countless individuals rebound from adversity more powerful than before.

Casey Powell is considered one of the best to ever play the sport of lacrosse and has spent his professional career traveling the world playing, teaching, and helping spread the game. After Syracuse, Powell became a globally-recognized athlete, playing 15 seasons professionally in the MLL and NLL, and was selected to play on four US National Teams – captaining Team USA in 2006, 2011, and in 2015. He is a member of the Upstate Lacrosse (NY) and the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and the owner/director of CP Lacrosse which runs camps, clinics, and tournaments nationally. Along with his brothers Ryan and Michael, Casey is a founding partner of Powell Lacrosse.

Highlights from over forty interviews, this episode is a great companion listen for any new or seasoned practitioner with offerings ranging from how yoga has helped overcome back issues to real break-through experiences on a deeper, personal level. If you have any doubts about your practice and are looking for some reminders on why you found yoga, pop this string of hard-earned wisdom on your favorite Bluetooth speaker and roll out the mat.

A top athlete all his life, participating in varsity sports, long-distance races, triathlons, crossfit and cycling, Dave Johnson first experienced yoga in 2013 while vacationing in Tulum, Mexico at an outdoor palapa at the beach and felt a connection and awareness in his body that he had never experienced before – and by the time that first savasana ended he was hooked. When he got home, he found free online classes on YouTube and started practicing in his garage. Not long afterward, Dave and his wife Marisa each completed the 500-hour teacher certification and eventually studio owners themselves in Albuquerque where they’ve cultivated a community around their hot yoga experience at SWEAT Yoga Studio.

Geoffrey Roniger has been leading yoga classes for over twenty years and is the founder of Freret Street Yoga in New Orleans and Yoga Unbound, a hybrid studio model offering online, studio, and private training classes and instruction. He has apprenticed with globally renowned teachers Richard Rosen and Rodney Yee and completed the advanced studies program at Piedmont Yoga Studio. During his teaching career, Roniger provided on-site instruction and developed corporate wellness programs for various companies including Salesforce.com, Amyris Biotechnologies, Beverly Prior Architects, Juice Design, and Urban Revision. After volunteering for the Urban Zen Foundation at both their V-Day and the Special Olympics events, in 2012 he was appointed to Urban Zen Foundation’s faculty for the Integrative Therapy Program in New York. Geoffrey Roniger has been featured in Yoga Journal as well as in a Gaiam video, Yoga Now.

Dr. Loren Fishman is a physiatrist with a private practice in Manhattan and he is also a professor at Columbia University Medical School where he teaches Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine. He discovered yoga in the 1970s while reading a copy of BKS Iyengar’s Light on Yoga in India and was so inspired he traveled to meet the author who ultimately inspired him to learn and use yoga to help heal people. Since then Loren has become a world-recognized pioneer in the treatment of low back pain, piriformis syndrome, osteoporosis, rotator cuff tear, and other conditions. He has authored or edited over 96 academic articles and has written many books about yoga and medical conditions. But most importantly, in all his years of experience, research, and medical practice, he hasn’t found anything that compares to the healing powers of yoga.

Today’s conversation is with twenty-year yoga practitioner Knight Kiplinger, an economic journalist who is Editor Emeritus of the Kiplinger financial media company in Washington, D.C., publishers of business forecasts and personal finance advice – known for the weekly Kiplinger Letter, monthly Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine and daily Kiplinger.com. Kiplinger was CEO and publisher until the sale of the company in 2019 to Dennis Publishing of London, England, and today he is CEO of Outlook, Inc., a family real estate investment company. He is one of America’s most respected economic journalists and business forecasters. Over his long career, Knight was a guest on every major news network, including CNN, NPR, and C-SPAN, with appearances on The Today Show, Marketplace, CBS This Morning, Wall Street Week, and The Larry King Show. In his writings, speeches, and media appearances, he cuts through the complexity of financial subjects with clarity and foresight.

Today’s guest is Robert Stern, an Assistant Professor of History and Legal Studies at Saint Thomas More University. While in his mid-thirties, Robert initially found yoga as a way to get through long winters as a graduate student. Yoga gave him physical benefits and also served as an outlet to deal with the stress of traveling to and from Cincinnati to Chicago while looking after his ailing father. Along the way, his appreciation for the physical practice grew into a focused interest in handstands. Robert found handstands sharpened his focus as the combination of mental and physical coordination forced him to be in the moment. In this episode, Robert shares more about how a handstand practice has helped him and how it might help you, too.

David Truesdale, a registered yoga teacher (RYT) and Certified Warriors at Ease teacher, is the founding board member of the Texas-based nonprofit Warrior Spirit Project. He serves others by sharing his passion for yoga and providing free trauma-informed yoga and iRest meditation to veterans and first responders in the great Dallas area. David grew up in a US Marine Corps family and spent over twenty-seven years with the Department of the Navy as a Special Agent with Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). As part of his NCIS duties, he was deployed to Iraq as a Counterintelligence team leader in 2004 and to Afghanistan in 2011-2012 as an Individual Augmentee to the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). David has received numerous awards and commendations, including the U.S. Navy Superior Civilian Service Award, the U.S. Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award, DoD Counterintelligence Team Award, and a Joint Civilian Service Commendation Award from CPA Administrator Paul Bremmer. David is a member of Save a Warrior (SAW) Cohort 063 and feels compelled to continue supporting U.S. military personnel whether they are still active duty or post service.

In his early twenties, Ryan Burnes carried a mindset of invincibility and bravado instead of the authentic version of himself that simmered beneath. He initially found yoga through the recommendation of a chiropractor to deal with back pain from years of pick-up hoops, but later, as he discovered the mind-body connection, the practice “found him” and offered the insight he was seeking into how he should be living his life.

Ten tips from Derek to jumpstart your practice and get yourself on the path to becoming a stronger, wiser, and more balanced self before you know it.

Derek Sabori got into yoga as means to recover and balance out his jujitsu training and got hooked by the physical practice and the intellectual challenges in pulling off an advanced inversion called parsva bakasana – more commonly known as side crow pose. Soon his passion and appreciation for the benefits of yoga lead him to found a yoga apparel company called Kozm and creating a killer pair of hemp, cotton, and lycra shorts that have become an instant hit.

With three decades as a high school physical education teacher combined with thirty years of service in the Navy and Army Reserve, Craig Shimel has amassed a ton of perspective and knowledge around life, community, service, and fitness. In the mid-1990s he helped pioneer the integration of functional movement and yoga in youth fitness after teaching himself simple sun salutations exercises by watching Rodney Yee’s beginner’s yoga VHS tapes in his living room.

Bolsters, blocks, belts, chairs, and even walls can safely offer support for weak muscles and unstable joints as practitioners navigate nagging injuries and challenging yoga poses (“asanas”). Combined with an experienced Iyengar teacher, the use of props can also help unlock a subtle, unexpected awareness within. Today’s guest is Andi Wirz, a friend and native of Switzerland who has been teaching the Iyengar method for twenty years and led classes at two of the most respected backcare studios in the country, Samamkaya and Yoga Union.

I met Tom Strachan during the high-flying dot-com boom days in the early 2000s while working for Akamai Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was his passion and dedication to yoga that inspired many of his colleagues to try yoga, and thankfully I was one of them. In our conversation, Tom shares how Bikram yoga helped him cope with his early days of sobriety and speaks to the many benefits of having an on-going practice as he enters his 50s.

Bryan Wymbs is a lawyer in North Carolina who got into yoga over fifteen years ago. He shares his experience taking his first class at a local gym and how the non-competitive practice of yoga helped provide balance in his life, particularly in managing stress and focusing on the moment.