In case you missed it, the Rampant Discourse staff announced a Fitness Dare to challenge ourselves to get more physically fit in 2020. One component of my plan is to work on some exercises inspired by Bruce Lee. The other part is to incorporate the yoga program developed by multiple time WWE Champion Diamond Dallas Page, called, coincidentally enough, DDP Yoga.
DDP created DDP Yoga after he ruptured his L4 and L5 spinal discs. The system was originally called YRG Fitness System (YRG is “Yoga for Regular Guys”). Prior to his injury, Dallas avoided yoga. But the extent of the damage to his back limited the amount of weight training he could do. So he decided to finally give yoga a shot. He didn’t stop with just yoga, though.
DDP Yoga combines four main components:
- Yoga
- Traditional fitness
- Sports therapy
- Dynamic resistance
Yoga, traditional fitness, and sport therapy are likely well known and shouldn’t need much explanation. Dynamic resistance was something unfamiliar to me prior to learning DDP. As the DDP Yoga FAQ says, “dynamic resistance uses counteracting muscles to continuously resist your movement. In simple terms, it’s like flexing all of your muscles as you move from one position to another.” So you use your own body and muscles as natural resistance rather than traditional weights. This puts much less stress on your body while generating enough force to build and tone muscle.
The core moves of DDP Yoga are called the Diamond Dozen. You can see a poster of the 13 moves. The thirteenth move is “Safety Zone”, which is used to bring down your heart rate. Each of the moves is based on a traditional yoga move or position, but DDP gives each one a unique name. You can find a fantasic breakdown and description of each move in the Diamond Dozen on this instructor’s blog.
The Diamond Dozen moves are combined into various routines. The basic routines are “Energy!” and “Fat Burner.” Moving up in intensity is “Red Hot Core” and “Below the Belt.” For the more advanced there’s the “Diamond Cutter.” You can get DVDs with all the workouts (I have the Max Pack) or pay for them streaming on demand. You can also subscribe to the DDP Yoga Now App, which includes way more than just the workout videos.
To help guide you, the program provides three schedules to progress through the workouts. You can choose Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced. Each schedule is 13 weeks, which aligns with the Rampant Discourse Fitness Dare’s 90 day duration.
I am going to follow the Beginner workout schedule. Even though I have some experience with the Diamond Dozen moves and the Energy routine, I want to leave room for the Bruce Lee exercises. I have faith in DDP Yoga but I like the focused traditional exercises inspired by Bruce Lee.
Two components of DDP Yoga that I have ignored (and plan to continue to ignore) are diet and heart rate monitoring. I acknowledge following the non-GMO, gluten free diet might help, I just honestly don’t want to change what I eat that much. As for heart rate monitoring, I feel like I can do a good enough job keeping myself in the proper zone. I’m also not as concerned with weight loss so not burning fat as efficiently as possible doesn’t matter much to me. I don’t want to stress my heart more than necessary, but I don’t think that will be a concern until the most advanced workouts.
Now it’s time to stop talking about doing DDP Yoga and start doing DDP Yoga.
BANG!
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