I tried DDP Yoga after years of back pain. It’s the real deal
“It ain’t your mama’s yoga!”
In 2015 my wife and I got engaged, and I, being rather rotund at the time, wanted to do everything in my power to get into the best shape of my life before the big day.
I knew it would be a long road, but I was determined not to look back one day at our wedding photos and feel embarrassed due to my weight. I had a little over eight months to prepare, and I loaded onto my shoulder every chip I could conceive of to motivate me.
That grandparent who speaks his mind a little too freely and comments that you haven’t missed any meals lately? Hope he enjoys the taste of crow because that’ll be the only thing on his plate come the big day. I wasn’t just going to be slim-fit, I told myself, I was going to get bonafide jacked! That was the mindset I applied to every workout. And while it was powerful, it also became destructive over time.
Every struggle for one more rep led that inner voice to bark at me to press on. Soon, it became more about losing weight out of spite than actually being healthy and feeling confident.
In addition to working out five, sometimes six days a week, I was oftentimes working out twice in a given day, splitting time between the treadmill and gym as I built up my chest, arms, and shoulders. I was relentless. The weight shed off of my frame like a dog’s undercoat in the Summer.
I lost 10 pounds. Then twenty. Then forty. Fifty.
Along the way, I added serious muscle, blowing past every goal I’d set for myself. I did it again and again, all the while moving the goalpost rather than celebrating each achievement. In doing so, I lost sight of those successes, putting all of my hopes and expectations into the next milestone and becoming evermore desperate as June approached. I was pushing myself way too hard, and it was all about to catch up with me.
One month before the wedding, I blew out my back doing leg presses. It was my second workout of the day, and exhausted, I got sloppy and tried to arch my back for leverage on my final rep. Bad idea.
The benches are designed to catch so they don’t crush you (thankfully), but it won’t stop the weight from crashing back to that catch and jamming you up in the process. My poor technique had left me vulnerable, and as the plate crashed back, it drove my knees halfway into my chest, I felt a pinch in my lower back, followed by a shifting feeling and a small pop. The quick jolt of pain ebbed quickly enough, giving way to a warming sensation throughout the area. I knew I’d probably messed myself up, but I was so obsessed with the stupid goal that I cared more about finishing my final station.
I don’t know how I did it, but I wrapped up my workout with an abdominal station, the whole while telling myself I was probably doing more damage to my back.
By the time I made it back to my apartment, I could barely walk.
The next 24 hours were a blur as I all but crawled my way through multiple chiropractic visits and cryotherapy sessions. While that did get me back to “functional,” it would take a whole hell of a lot more to get back to pain-free status.
A doctor at the time recommended back surgery, but I declined. Instead, I continued solely upper body workouts while mixing in more cryotherapy and chiropractic visits over the final weeks before the wedding.
For what it’s worth, I did feel strong and confident on my wedding day, and my transformation did surprise a lot of people. The problem was that I’d pretty much broken my body in getting there. And when it could go no longer, I shut it all down to focus on my recovery. Anything to avoid back surgery.
Over the next 10 months, I gave back everything I’d worked so hard to gain. Worse yet, while I could function without pain, I could no longer endure high-impact workouts, making every subsequent effort to get back in shape futile. I wouldn’t have to feel embarrassed looking back at wedding photos, but I would feel immense shame in having lost it all.
But after a few years of floundering, I finally found a program that worked around the limitations of my back. In January, I committed to better addressing my physical and mental health. The first step was meditation. The second was DDP Yoga.
With my back no longer capable of enduring high-impact workouts, I had tried and failed Crossfit and other programs in the years prior. Although I had known about DDP Yoga for a few years, I’d never considered giving it a shot. The whole idea of yoga seemed, at the time, more about flexibility than building strength or losing weight. But when I realized my back would never let me progress until I’d built up a reasonable core, I decided to give it a shot.
It was intended to be a stepping stone to something more. It became the only program I would ever need again.
I started DDP Yoga the first week of February, and, despite initially planning to do it two or three times a week, I soon found myself attacking the workouts every day.
The difference this time was that the routine not only strengthened my muscles but my ligaments and tendons as well. My core strength improved drastically, as did my flexibility. Within a few weeks, I’d dropped 25 lbs. despite making little initial change to my diet. By the three-month mark, I was 45 lbs. down. Best of all, at no point did I feel like I was taxing my body.
My goal was to lose 40 lbs. over the first six months of the program, and I blew through that goal in half the time. In the past, working out always felt like a means to an end. I wanted to lose “X amount of weight by this date or for this purpose,” and while I loved feeling healthier and stronger, I knew the odds of continuing with such high-impact workouts and strict diets simply weren’t sustainable beyond six or eight months. With DDP Yoga, I don’t have a finish-line mindset.
Most of the DDP Yoga workouts, of which there are many to choose from for people at pretty much every physical activity level, can be completed within 45 minutes. Many can even be knocked out in as little as 20, making it easy to string together consecutive days. The program has its recommendations, of course, but if I’m really limited on a given day and can’t swing a 45-minute workout, I’ll edit the schedule to replace it with Energy 2.0 or Red Hot Core.
Don’t get me wrong, this program will make you work, and some of the workouts will have you sweating and swearing as you struggle through 10-second pushups or a particularly difficult stretch, but for just $8/month, its a steal of a fitness program.
Unlike other programs that require free weights or equipment like resistance bands, DDP Yoga doesn’t need anything. Sure, a heart rate monitor helps, and their website even sells a Bluetooth model which syncs with the app to give you real-time tracking of your fat-burning zone throughout your workout. Beyond that, the most you might consider investing in is a yoga mat. It’s really that simple.
The DDP Yoga Now app allows you to track your progress with picture documentation, measurements like arms, waist, legs, and neck, your weight, blood pressure, BMI, etc. It also has its own healthy recipe guide with videos on delicious meals, many of which are gluten-free.
It doesn’t get much better than that.
When you’re feeling good physically from head to toe, not to mention limber, it’s easy to find yourself coming back day after day for the next workout. Even the difficult workouts are challenges I welcome — albeit cursing Diamond Dallas Page under my breath as he takes his sweet time counting down those 10-second pushups. But that’s not a bad thing; it’s a good thing (if you know, you know).
DDP Yoga might not be “your mama’s yoga,” but its blend of traditional yoga with old-school calisthenics and physical rehabilitation moves makes it a powerful and balanced program anybody can do.
It’s helped me lose 80 pounds and counting. It’s helped others, like Arthur, completely own their lives. In fact, it was Arthur who inspired me to give DDP Yoga a shot finally. I’d quit more workout programs than I could count over the previous few years, but if he could transform his life despite his injuries and limitations, what reason did I have to believe I couldn’t?
To read my in-depth analysis of DDP Yoga and its fitness roots, both yoga and otherwise, click here. While you’re at it, consider following me for more great content.
