THE RESULTS ARE IN ALLURE: PROGRESSIVE POWER YOGA IS THE TOP PROGRAM FOR WEIGHT LOSS AND BODY FAT REDUCTION

Los Angeles, April 22, 2007 – Mark Blanchard and Progressive Power Yoga is prominently featured in the May issue of Allure Magazine, out on newsstands nationwide today. The cover story features five top celebrity trainers as they work with five different candidates to achieve a total body transformation, over a six-week course. Mark Blanchard, one of the five featured trainers and only yoga instructor worked with Jessica to introduce a workout regimen consisting primarily of 90-minute Progressive Power Yoga sessions five times a week coupled with a sensible diet. “That was it – no homework, no hiking, no jogging. Which is not to suggest it was easy as unrolling a sticky mat,” states the magazine article.

The results? After just six weeks, the mother of two went from 163 pounds to 148 pounds and dropped an impressive 12% in body fat, surpassing the results of the other four candidates whose routines included weights, crunches, machines, and cardio. “This should prove once and for all that yoga is not just about sitting cross-legged on pastel mats with your eyes closed,” says Blanchard. “Progressive Power Yoga is a serious intense exercise routine that burns fat and calories and can transform a body from head to toe.” Mark worked diligently with Jessica through one-on-one sessions, classes at this studio, and through his DVDs when schedules were conflicted.

“I sweat more in yoga [with Mark] than I used to running five miles,” Jessica was quoted saying in Allure. “I feel stronger, my stomach is flatter, and my arms and butt are toned. My back pain is gone, my mood is improved, and I have a sense of calm.”

About Progressive Power Yoga:

Yoga is no longer about sitting cross-legged and meditating -- Mark Blanchard's Progressive Power Yoga will change your entire perception of this practice of exercise. It is an upbeat, cardio, make-you-sweat workout that consists of high energy, flowing poses and postures combined with core training, balance poses, and deep stretches. This complete mind/body regimen will have you burning calories, increasing energy, decreasing stress, enhancing your immune system, and sculpting muscles.

Practitioners of Progressive Power Yoga can expect to break a sweat, release some toxins, and burn up to 800 calories during the 90 minute session. There are no potentially threatening “levels” or use of props and music in Mark Blanchard’s practice. "Regardless of how trendy these accoutrements have become, there were no stereos or straps when yoga was created over 5,000 years ago," says Mark Blanchard. "I encourage students to simply work at their own level, do the best they can personally do, and welcome the joy from within. There's no attitude in our studios. We come only to practice and to feel calm and in balance with the world around us."

An introduction to this form of yoga will literally bend your misconceptions and physique into an indomitable, healthy, stronger, and better you.

Progressive Power Yoga is expanding!

First of all, I would like to apologize for not updating this blog in awhile. Although we are well into the New Year, I would like to wish you all a spectacular year filled with love and joy.

2007 looks to be a very promising year. After a rough bout of various illnesses, my family is thankfully healthy and happy. My boy Shane just had his first birthday and I’m just amazed at how the girls’ (Rowan and Carmen) personality comes through everyday. They continue to be the light of my life along with their mother.

There are many things I need to catch you up on, as well as many things that are on the horizon. First of all, I would like to thank Pop Branaman and Ray Monte for their talented work giving my studio in Studio City a magnificent facelift. It looks beautiful!

I would like to announce the opening of the first satellite Progressive Power Yoga Studio in Kansas City this coming April. I am thrilled to be partnering up with one of my favorite people, and devoted practitioner of Progressive Power Yoga, Gretchen Robinson. I am off to Kansas City in a week to work with the instructors at the new studio and will also appear on the popular morning show “Kansas City Live” while I am in town. The new Mark Blanchard’s Progressive Power Yoga Studio is going to introduce a surprisingly upbeat, heart-pounding form of yoga to the community there. I think that we will blow them away, and I intend to teach at the studio and lead weekend workshops there several times a year.

Our next remote studio will open later this year in San Francisco. There, I am partnering up with another one of my favorite yogis, Michelle Lotta.

I am ecstatic to be a part of the new Lifetime series, My Workout (powered by PodFitness), which began airing in January of this year. The show airs Monday-Friday at 7:30 AM EST/PST, with rotating trainers. My cool-down portions are on TV every Monday and Wednesday and I am very pleased to be a part of the My Workout/ PodFitness team.

Check out www.podfitness.com if you are not familiar with this new venture – it is a state-of-the-art fitness system that builds custom audio workouts based on a person’s individual fitness profile, and let’s you download them to your iPod or MP3 player. Late last year I was approached by them to become one of their “World Class Celebrity Trainers.”

Additionally, portions of my DVD series, The Sedona Experience will begin airing on Exercise TV next month. The most rewarding part about all of this is that I will now have a greater opportunity to introduce Progressive Power Yoga to so many new people across the United States and allow them to reap its vast benefits.

Speaking of celebrities, we were asked to participate this year in the annual “Distinctive Assets Everybody Wins” at the Oscars Nominee Gift Bag. Who can better make use of yoga’s power to overcome stress and cultivate calmness than these busy celebrities? Stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Mark Wahlberg, Penelope Cruz, Will Smith, and Meryl Streep might not have walked home this year with the golden statue, but they did get the ultimate gift of wellness from Progressive Power Yoga, which they will hopefully embrace for a lifetime. Each of the nominees received 2 private sessions with me, classes at my studios, and a set of my Sedona Experience DVD’s.

I continue to devote every Wednesday to teaching yoga at Colfax Elementary School, where my daughter Rowan is attending. I started this program last November and it has been tremendously well-received. I can’t tell you how many parents have approached me to tell me how wonderful and beneficial yoga has been for their kids. The children (grades K-5) improve on their yoga with every week and seem to have really blossomed through this practice. Nothing gives me more joy than to see young children such as these take an early start on embracing the practice of yoga. This introduction will lay a foundation for a lifetime of wellness and healthy living.

And lastly, I recently started a new relationship with the American Heart Association. Last month I gave a speech and demonstration to a group of patients suffering from heart problems at UCLA Medical Center and I will be working more with them in the coming months. I will help them learn to incorporate yoga breathing into their lives and also teach them the basics of Progressive Power Yoga so that they can begin to strengthen their whole being. More on that soon!


Namaste,

Mark Blanchard

Family Yoga Practice

Hi Yoga friends! A lot has happened since I last jotted down the happenings of this East coast at heart but West coast residing yogi.

My younger daughter (Carmen) had a major renal surgery, and thanks to the wonders of modern medicine as well as the best surgeon in the world for pediatric urology, she is doing fine and will have no further kidney or bladder problems. My older daughter (Rowan, who just turned 5) has begun kindergarten and has already taken it into her own hands to teach a yoga class to her classmates (more on this subject later). Oh yeah, my mother had brain surgery to occlude an aneurysm in her left carotid artery. This was also a success. I have a 9 month old boy (Shane) as well, so my wife and I have been teaching like crazy while she raises three children and I do my best to help her.

What I'm getting at here is it's been non-stop for nearly four months now, and what has kept us all healthy and sane is our yoga practice. It is a bond that has become an essential part of my family’s growth and happiness: whether it be at home practicing together, at the studios in class, or just bringing the message of love and peace into our home in every breath.

Which brings me to the purpose of this blog, and that is to announce my plans to bring Progressive Power Yoga to as many places as I can around the states (as well as the globe) in the coming year. I am planning (or should I say my booking agent Gretchen is planning) quite a few workshops next year. At least 6 have been confirmed and we're planning on adding about 5 more, including a 4 day excursion to Rome in Late March. I haven't been traveling as much lately with the kids and all, but now it’s time and I'm looking forward to seeing all you beautiful yogis and yoginis real soon.

Keep an eye open on the website to see where and when I'll be in your neck of the woods.
By the way, if you haven't gotten my new series of yoga dvds, "The Sedona Experience," its high time you do, ‘cause it’s the perfect way to see what you’re in store for when I get to your town.

Another piece of interesting news is, on November 15th, at Colfax Elementary school in Valley Village, CA, I will be introducing yoga to all of the kids at the school as I donate a full yoga program as well as athletics. I'm sure my daughter will be a big help: she's so excited that her Dad will be teaching at her school. I must say I'm just as excited. Well, I gotta go now and teach a private, to pay for all of this.

Have a beautiful day and keep your practice strong.

Much Love and Namaste,

Mark Blanchard

I Love You

I begin this blog with a blanket statement: "I Love You". As a matter of fact, this is how I'm going to begin all my subsequent blogs from this day forward. This “I love you” goes out to each and every being on this earth with love in their heart. This “I love you” goes out to every plant, tree, ocean, mountain and sea. To everyone that has come before me and will come long after my bodily presence has passed. It extends well beyond our earthly existence to the farthest limits of the trillions and trillions of galaxies throughout existence. In short, it encompasses life.

Why is this going to be my policy? My answer is: I'm sorry I've taken this long to do something so simple and yet so essential.

The past few years have been filled with such hatred worldwide. It is amazing to me how we can continue to breathe at all: hatred of everything and for everyone. Americans hating each other cause one is a so called Republican and one is a so called Democrat. Hatred of Jews, well, just because they're Jews. Hatred of Arabs, well, because they're Arabs. Hatred of Africans by other Africans. Hatred of Arabs by other Arabs. Hatred, hatred, hatred. What causes all this hatred is simple: FEAR!!!

LOVE has no fear, so where on Earth is there room for fear?

Answer: THERE IS NO ROOM FOR FEAR!

How can we as a people begin to abolish fear? Well, we can start by taking one big Ujjayi breath and understand that this breath is shared by everyone on this planet, and is meant to continue existence. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed (by the way, proven by a Jew - Albert Einstein). "Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping. For only the hand of life can contain your hearts" (Khalil Gibran - Lebanese and Arab). Put this Arab and Jew together and what do you have? You have eternal love for all mankind. Because once you give love it is forever tangible, through the eons of time.

How then, can someone with such gifts as Mel Gibson hate the Jews? FEAR!

How can someone as misguided as Saddam Hussein massacre his own people? FEAR!

How can a multitude of terrorists strap bombs to themselves and walk into a mosque and blow up their brothers and sisters? FEAR!

How can the so called Hezbollah (Party of God) kill anything and anyone they can find? FEAR!

How can Man hate Man? FEAR!

What causes fear? Simply put, fear is judgment. Judgment is a simple lack of understanding and the lack of self awareness to accept that one does not understand everything. Nor is one supposed to.

Organized religion is the largest proponent of fear mankind has ever created. It is based on the concept of “my way is right and all else is wrong.” Apparently scripted by some deity who, although is omnipotent, all loving, and creator of everything, professes mass genocide of all that do not think as the leaders of these religions interpret these deities’ words. Thereby eventually killing everything and everyone, since there are thousands of religions and thousands of Gods all convinced that they’re right and all else is wrong, so let’s kill in the name of God.

FEAR!!!

Please people, now is the time to Love. Love everyone regardless of what they believe is the answer to existence. None of us know anyway, so how can we kill each other over such a mystery. Isn't mystery the spice of life? You can't tell me or anyone for that matter what's going to happen ten minutes from now, so why not live each moment for all that she's worth? And believe me, there's no price tag large enough to encompass a moment. They are all priceless. If you can do this (if you can live moment to moment) you can begin to abolish fear. So make it a point to share your courage by loving someone new today. Take a bold step and hug someone new. Not a day goes by that I don't hug someone different and God, does it feel good!

Namaste,

Mark Blanchard

Yoga and Pregnancy

Hello fellow yogis and yoginis. The past month has absolutely been a major shift for me in many ways. Let me start by telling you all about a wonderful discovery for me in my teaching and practice. As I have said many times, "change is the essence of our existence." This is what makes this past month so beautiful. I was in savasana about a month ago, and during my meditation it occurred to me that my three young children all had one thing in common. And I'm not talking genetics here. I am speaking of my wife however. The common thread is her yoga practice throughout all three pregnancies and the both of us introducing them to our yoga practices as infants. All three of our children seem to have been born with an understanding for the practice: the youngest (our first boy) at five months.

I know what you’re all thinking: "Oh, he's just saying this cause they're his kids.” Honestly, this has nothing to do with it. Yes, I'm a proud daddy, no doubt, but in this case the accolades go to yoga and my wife for continuing her beautiful practice throughout her pregnancies. I mean, how else can you explain that my two daughters (two and a half and four and a half, respectively) actually ask if they can go to class with me? Not only go but actually practice what I'm teaching. My younger one focuses for about 15 minutes while the four year old does most of the class, sometimes going around the room and encouraging others by letting them know how well they’re doing. My five month old boy laughs and laughs every time he watches his sisters do some poses at home and he rolls around doing happy baby pose every time he sees them practicing.

What's most special to me about this is how absolutely kind and thoughtful my children are. They are always concerned for others and already have a desire to help mankind. Not a day goes by when Rowan (my oldest) doesn't ask me what she can do to help some one she feels is in need of something, her sister Carmen right behind in her plight. Shane (the five month old boy) hasn't quite got to solving world peace, but give him time. He's been the happiest baby of all and he spent the first month of his life in and out of the hospital recovering from a serious staph infection he got from the same hospital. I should also mention that Carmen was born with one of her ureter tubes too large at the opening to her bladder and has been going through quite a battle herself, with uti's and kidney infections. She had a procedure about 2 months ago to correct it. We'll know in a week or two if it worked. Let's hope so. However, through it all she has been an angel and keeps letting us know it’s going to be alright and not to worry. Somehow her wisdom has kept us calm.

Anyway, the good news for all of you out there is that if any of you are pregnant or thinking of getting pregnant, my wife and I have made a new DVD called Progressive Power Yoga for Pregnancy. It is a direct result of my wife's first two pregnancies, while the third is the one she's experiencing while we were making the DVD. She's practicing in the video with her ob/gyn who is 36 weeks pregnant herself and a first time ever student at 12 weeks. All three have had their babies and all three had beautiful experiences with their respective pregnancies. My wife has had all of our children without medication and she is my hero for sure. I was right there in the hospital room for all three, and even got to deliver Carmen myself cause of a power outage in our doctor's elevator, but that's another story altogether. Anyway, I hope you all get to experience the joys of parenthood someday and if you are now or will be pregnant any time soon, I hope our new DVD brings you joy in every day of your pregnancy. This goes for all you dads out there as well, as you too can benefit from this DVD.

I also want to mention the opening of my newest yoga studio in Brentwood, CA. It is absolutely beautiful and has a special boutique art gallery called "The Illuminarium" as a part of it (the brainchild of my business partner Brian). It houses some truly unique, exquisite and unexpected items from some very special artists. Lucky for you guys, everything in the studio is for sale. Yippee! I'm looking forward to seeing all my Westside students back in class, as well as meeting many more new ones.

And finally, I would like to thank all you long time students and video students for your support. You have made all my growth in yoga businesses possible and I hope to bring you more as often as possible.

Love to you all.


Namaste,

Mark Blanchard

Yoga and Professional Sports

People keep writing to me with their questions about Yoga and professional sports... so I gave it some thought to share with you all...

There are so many reasons that athletes should be practicing Progressive Power Yoga, it would take a textbook by McGraw-Hill to encompass the information. I've been practicing yoga for the better part of 30 years now and it has kept me agile, energetic, focused and exceptionally strong, without ever making me bulky or rigid. I realize the need for alternative sports exercise in professional sports, such as agility drills, strength training, sprints and two-a-days in August. That's all fine and dandy. What I'm here to tell you is that without practicing Progressive Power Yoga, you as athletes are not working at your optimum level, physically or mentally. You are not creating a balance of strength and flexibility - the most valuable tool an athlete can possess, both for success and longevity. I realize that many teams in many sports have adopted some form of stretching and/or so-called hatha yoga into the regimens. The problem is, there is no other form of yoga out there that is even close to the practice I teach when it comes to being geared towards the professional athlete.

I was a three-letter athlete myself in high school and blew my knee out, to the point my athletic career should have been over. It was the 1970's and surgeries to repair shattered patellas and crucial ligaments were, let's just say, not quite up to par. However, I had a doctor who was years ahead of his time. He not only repaired my knee to the best of his ability at the time, he suggested I do yoga as my therapy. Now this was the 70's and I was a competitive athlete of 16 who thought yoga was wrapping a turban around your head and making funny noises with a bong in your hand. (Maybe there was some truth to this, but that's another story.) What this doctor told me was that Joe Namath did yoga, and he was Joe's doctor at the time, so who was I to argue? He knew Broadway Joe was my idol, and if telling me this got me to practice for the next thirty years, then he was even more of a genius than I thought. (As it turns out, I found out twenty-five years later the Doc was making it up, knowing I would fall for it and give yoga a try.) Boy was he a clever one!

I've been training TJ Houshmansadeh, wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals and one of the best in the league, for the better part of three years now. I have also worked with many other athletes from the NFL to the NBA to the NCAA, and the one thing they all agree on is that there is no other workout that combines so many different elements of strength training, cardiovascular benefits and flexibility training, while both making them feel younger and creating mental focus. Just ask TJ and/or ex-NBA All-Star Steve Smith. I'm 44 years old or I should say young, have had 2 different knee surgeries from competitive skiing as well as having had my right shoulder completely rebuilt (the latter 2 surgeries by Dr. Neal Elattrache of Kerlan/Jobe Orthopedics, the best surgeon in the world), and I'm faster and stronger than I was 15 years ago. Thanks partially to modern medicine, however thanks greatly to my steadfast practice over the past twenty-eight years. I can still throw the rock fifty yards on a rope, not bad for a guy old enough to be some of the foresaid athletes' father. Point being, it's time you all get hip to the practice and I'm available to foot the need. Please take a look at my new series of DVD's: The Sedona Experience, and give us a call to arrange private sessions. BTW the two men in the DVD's are triatheletes, one girl a runner, one a dancer, and the other never before practiced yoga. Its time! Make it Happen!!

As an athlete myself, I have always taken care of myself so that I would always be able to play whatever sport I was playing at the highest possible level. Now I'm 44 years of age, and although I haven't reversed the effects of entropy altogether, I still can play at nearly my college-day level and I'm having even more fun doing so. The reason for my continued ability is plain and simple: a healthy diet, plenty of spring water and Progressive Power Yoga. These are the 3 elements of my life that I have continuously maintained. While I won't elaborate on diet or the benefits of healthy hydration much more, I feel compelled to do so when it comes to PPY.

Progressive Power Yoga is the most complete and safe way to maintain muscle tone, elasticity and most importantly, strong organs and bones...period. Everyone knows how important it is to exercise as we get older. What most don't know is how to properly implement this into their daily lives. As athletes, this becomes even more important because we're asking our bodies to perform at an optimum level. In order to do so we must be strong, flexible, lean and know how to breathe in order to maintain this. Progressive Power Yoga focuses on all these elements equally.

Oddly enough, when an athlete comes to me and says he needs to be more flexible, I tell him: "That may be true, but first you must become truly strong." Inevitably he looks at me and my wiry frame and says boldly, "No, I'm strong, it's the flexibility I need to improve on." "OK," I say, "then let's begin." In less than 10 minutes they are all lying on the ground in a pool of sweat saying, "This is hard." I smile and say, "It's easy once you're truly strong." Strength comes from balance, and Progressive Power Yoga creates balance. The balance of Body, Spirit (breath), and Mind. Muscles are not strong because they are big, muscles are strong because they react well under pressure and in order to do so they must be both flexible and strong as well as fully supported with oxygen. If any part of this is missing they will be either brittle (causing injuries) or fatigued. Our bodies and minds can only function if supplied with both O2 and glucose. More than a few minutes without either and we have cellular damage, and then within a few more cease to exist. Progressive Power Yoga is built on these scientific facts. In order for this metabolic exchange to take place, you must when exercising learn how to breathe and support your body as you do.

A side note: Know in your heart that exercise should be fun as well, so it encourages you to continue the practice of it. It's time all you athletes out there get Progressive Power Yoga into your worlds. It's time to truly be the best you can be!

Shoot me an email; let me know how you are doing.... mark@marksyoga.com.

Namaste,

Mark Blanchard

Life Is Full Of So Many Wonderful Opportunities

Wow, in the Big Apple one week and off to the Eternal City the next. I do have to say, as cities go, these two are my personal favorites. New York being my home town and all, will always live deep in my heart. Rome is such a rich blend of new and old, art and modern science. There is truly a deep connection with a rich history in doing yoga in this region.

Life is full of so many wonderful opportunities, It just bewilders me how we continue to throw them away. Why must we always judge and fear? For when we live from the riches of our hearts, all things are possible. This is why I continue to teach and make my DVD's. In the hopes that I can humbly inspire people to reach out and embrace their lives. Reach out and hug their fellow man. They sure know how to hug in Rome, both men and women and woman and woman. And yes, man and man. It's all good.

The response to my press tour in NYC has been mesmerizing. Everyone of the editors embraced the concept. Everyone loved the brilliant graphics by the Illusion Factory. And know they're pouring in the accolades about the DVD's themselves. Life is grand and we owe it to ourselves to live it this way. Let's make this next year about spreading the word of our practice with everyone we can. If more people practiced, more people would smile.

Oh by the way to those of you out here in LA with me, keep your fingers crossed, cause I've found the perfect location in West Hollywood and we put in a bid for the property today. I haven't forgotten any of you on that side of the hill and I can't wait to return. in the meantime keep up the practice, "The Sedona Experience" is the way to go.

I just want to reiterate on Sedona once more. The magnitude of its beauty was more than overwhelming and as I teach from inspiration moment by moment, I believe much of this natural impetus was captured on our DVD series. For over a dozen years now I've been teaching what comes to me as the class unfolds and not what some book or someone has deemed what I should teach. Never more than the days we spent practicing under Sedona's beauty have I been more inspired. This is why I believe "The Sedona Series" to be such a wonderful accomplishment.

I am planning some special workshops in Los Angeles in the coming months. If you have a special request for a workshop, I would love to hear about it. We are starting our teacher training in the Spring, email us for details. Our shopping gallery is growing exponentially now. We are very excited about the many new products that we have created and assembled for you. I know you will be thrilled too.

I'll wrap this blog up by saying thank you to all of you beautiful people out there, your practice and support brings joy to my heart. Please feel free at any time to drop me a line and I'll respond as quick as I can. mark@marksyoga.com

Namaste,

Mark Blanchard