PYB history

PYB is the combination of three types of exercises: Yoga, Pilates, and Balance. Typically these three elements are bypassed by intense athletes. Our PYB class is on Saturdays at 1015 am at the Prescott Valley Civic Center Field.

The history of PYB came through years of working out and never finding a way to properly recover.

I worked hard to build muscle and stretch my cardio. My recovery days never seemed to be fulfilling. There were many occasions where I would suffer an injury or did come close to my optimal performance. I began to realize exercise has two components a Yin and a Yang side.

Having studied the Yang side of exercise in college, I decided to begin focusing on my Yin side of exercise. Working in an alpha male-dominated occupation, yin applications were not considered "cool."

My first experience with yoga was in 2000 at the Arizona Law Enforcement Academy.

I remember having a fitness instructor who said we were going to do yoga. We did some light exercising and then moved into corpse pose. For the first time in my life,

I was connected to the ground. I thought this was amazing, but how do I add it to my experience? Unfortunately, that is where the moment remained for many more years.

In 2005 I began exploring concepts for my business. I wanted to see how I could add non-traditional elements. I explored the P90 programming series with Tony Horton.

I worked through the programs and decided there were many fantastic aspects of the program. The one that stopped me cold and was the most challenging was the P90X yoga. The P90X program made me sweat and forced me to learn to use muscles I never knew I had. The P90 programming became the mainstream, and everyone began using it. I learned the benefits of stretching in my fitness program and the overall scheme of exercise.

I designed Total360 in 2005, and applied yoga principles and stretching to a hard-line sparring program. I noticed the more we stretched and used restorative ideologies, the better we were sparring. In the same year, I began studying martial arts (karate). One of the different aspects of the studio I attended was one of the senior students was a yogi. The Sensei allowed him to use sun salutation as a portion of the warm-up for the class. I found this exercise fantastic for getting the muscles ready for work.

In 2012, I moved to Arizona to become a personal trainer full-time. I continued in the stretching aspects of my growth. I opened the original Total360 karate studio in Chandler, Arizona, and added the sun salutation program as a warm-up. I noticed students were successful, had fewer injuries, and learned how to breathe through issues. In 2013, I moved further into the mountains. The move allowed a naturalistic aspect to grow in my training, by adding breathing to my personal and martial arts training.

My outside classes began to flourish. I added the concept of balance, as I recognized the more we learn to work balance into our exercise, the more likely we can handle it daily. The fundamentals of one-leg stands and bosu balances added a dimension of training to my success as a trainer.

Multiple clients loved the concepts and stated they had helped them daily. I accepted I was not going to be a large muscular person, given my body type, and decided I would learn how to generate more power. I began a 2-year mission of anatomy, research, and challenges which brought me to the conclusion, power is generated within the body, starts in the core of the body, and works outward. I started dialing in on core and back exercises to build a framework for PYB.

My weekly exercise programming had at least one full day of yoga, pilates, or a balance class. In 2020, I realized that these three elements should be worked on a more constant basis. I added all three to my daily workout routines. The results were astounding. I had fewer back issues, generated more power, and did not fear falling. Later in 2022, Prescott Valley offered me the opportunity to teach classes in fitness. I decided I wanted to do something different. I was approved for the martial arts studio but added on a Jumping rope class. The class itself was successful but added impact on bodies. I then took all three concepts of balance, yoga, and pilates and put them together into a class. This class became the current PYB class.