By Lara Endreszl, healthnews.com

Sure yoga has had more than its fifteen minutes of fame and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be over any time soon, and pilates is still a popular offering for those looking to add a bit more intensity to their workout, but there is a new type of “miracle exercise” popping up in magazines, gossip rags, and newspapers over the last few years. Have you ever wondered why Friends Courteney Cox Arquette and Jennifer Aniston are able to keep their figures and their friendship so tight? If you enjoy yoga but are also in love with the high-intensity kickboxing class across the hall, try a fusion class like Budokon (bu-do-kon) and get hip with the Hollywood crowd. Budokon is spiritual rhythmic class involving the poses of yoga with the quick, cardio aspect of martial arts training that is quickly sweeping the red carpet.

Created in 2000 by Los Angeles-based trainer Cameron Shayne, the word Budokon is Japanese for “Way of the Spiritual Warrior” and Shayne is the embodiment of his creation. Budokon isn’t just the hyped-about new fusion workout that has celebrities praising his name, but is more about precision and technique while being true to your mind and spirit while tending to your body’s health needs. Shayne says that Budokon is a “living art,” he goes on to say that it encompasses your entire being, “It is your waking and your sleeping, your walking and your sitting, your living and your dying.” Shayne promises that he isn’t selling anything with Budokon and that there are no gimmicks, there is only something he calls “The Way.”

Although “The Way” sounds like a connection to a religion or another structured practice, Shayne emphasizes that it is merely a zen way of approaching your life and is not meant to be taken as enlightenment. There is a specific philosophy attached to the practice of Budokon as a way of connecting spirituality to the physical and mental stages of the art, but it primarily focuses on the individual and letting go of attachments and being true to yourself above all else.

Budokon

There are three steps to bringing Budokon into your life. First, study the practices and do them regularly, keeping a fluid motion within your body and an open communication with your mind. Check out the locations to find a Budokon class near you or to inquire when a teaching workshop will be in your area. (more…)