Whole Life Times: Holistic Fitness Fusion

June 2005 | Feature

Holistic Fitness Fusion

Yoga, Martial Arts and Meditation Synergize in Budokon

by Kyle Roderick

A tautly muscled, black-clad American Ninja is demonstrating rapid-fire kicks, thrusts and turns with forceful exhalations and high-speed leg and footwork. We, his eager students, are united in concentration, perspiration and endorphin-induced exhilaration as we watch teacher Cameron Shayne return to wide-legged warrior’s stance.

Here at Jiva Yoga in Pacific Palisades, we are practicing Budokon, or “way of the spiritual warrior” in Japanese. After the class completes the sequence just modeled, Shayne attempts to explain this fusion of physical and mental techniques. “Yoga develops power through stillness and space, martial arts develops power through explosive movement and meditation develops power through concentration,” Shayne clarifies in his Northern California drawl. “We cultivate all three in Budokon.”

While Budokon builds awareness like a yoga or martial arts practice, Shayne asserts that its “emphasis on mental focus, body organization, alignment, technique, core development and awareness is designed to bring you eye to eye with your greatest obstacles, which are perceived physical and mental limitations.” For him, Budokon is a path to cultivating the mind/body clarity and power that leads to the ever-elusive self-mastery.

Shayne begins our class at Jiva Yoga with an Ashtanga sequence, one of the more athletic forms of yoga. Flowing Vinyasa, lunges, hip openers and balancing poses demand sustained focus and intermediate skill level. After encouraging us to practice yoga at home, Shayne leads us briefly into child’s pose before instructing the class to roll up our mats.

Martial arts kick in as we power through sequences demanding choreographed full-body movements, intense concentration and precisely coordinated breath work. After 10 minutes of Ninja activities, my T-shirt is drenched, I feel exhausted but endorphin-pumped, and I can understand how Budokon conditions physically, emotionally and spiritually in ways that yoga, karate and Pilates individually do not.

A black belt in Olympic style Tae Kwon Do and Okinawan Karate-Do as well as a certified yoga teacher, Shayne developed Budokon while working as a martial arts trainer and fight scene choreographer for the film industry. Amidst the stresses of film production, his yoga practice grew increasingly important to him, along with meditation, diet and self-care. As he recalls, “I wanted to do more than teach martial arts. I wanted to share everything I knew about compassion for self and others, meditation, diet, yoga and martial arts practice—so I came up with Budokon.”

Here in Southern California, the country’s personal growth mecca, Shayne’s Budokon classes at Jiva Yoga and the Santa Monica Equinox Fitness Club are packed. Celebrity adherents range from actresses like Jennifer Anniston and Rene Russo (whom he trained for the Lethal Weapon series) to athletes like Olympic volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh. If you can’t catch a class, holistic lifestyle retailer Gaiam offers an easy-to-follow Budokon beginning practice DVD, available at www.gaiam.com or at Shayne’s Web site, www.budokon.com.

At the end of our high-octane class, Shayne cools down the group, leading us in a standing meditation followed by some brief thoughts on living with compassionate, warrior consciousness. “How you take that consciousness into the world is the question,” is his concluding challenge.

As we bow together, I feel hopeful that Budokon will help me formulate an answer.

In between writing health-related books and magazine articles, Kyle Roderick raises children and chickens in Los Angeles.

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