“Walking is the most basic living activity. Walking correctly is a dying art.”
As a kid, he grew up playing stickball in Brooklyn. Now as an adult, he leads Stick Yoga classes in doctors’ offices, yoga studios and classrooms statewide. Santa Cruz chiropractor Dr. Faygenholtz—or “Dr. Arthur” as he is known—is the “Father of the Stick Yoga® Method,” which he developed as a “new paradigm for wellness” to improve balance, flexibility and coordination for people of all ages and abilities.
“It’s a whole system of being more comfortable with your whole body,” Dr. Arthur says. “It adds a safety, a balance and other benefits as well.”
Faygenholtz describes Stick Yoga as ‘“radical self-healing” best practiced barefoot in nature. Since most people are not touching the earth any more, we are losing touch with a primal magnetic charge. “We as a society are generally walking in an insulted environment, connected to the earth by plastic-soled shoes, sitting in cars on rubber tires,” he said. “Most people do not ground anymore.”
He traces the roots of stick walking back to ancient evolution. “Throughout history, man’s leaders had a staff,” or stick, Faygenholtz said. “When the ground touches you, you feel all that.”
An offshoot of Nordic pole walking, Stick Yoga was something Faygenholtz first developed in 1997, inspired by skiing. For the off-season, he noticed skiers needed conditioning to stay in race form for the warm months when there was no snow.
“This is what skiers do in the off season,” he says. “If you add poles, now you have 4-Wheel Drive.” When you walk without poles, you activate muscles below the waist. But when you add poles, you activate all of the upper body muscles as well.
Walking with poles can help maintain an upright position, which in turn will improve posture, prevent back pain, help with breathing and of course burn calories. As pole walking became popular in Canada, health insurance companies were even paying for trekking poles, he points out.
Faygenholtz first discovered Stick Yoga while working in wheelchair physical therapy at Sonoma State University. “When I was in chiropractic college I started teaching in Portland, Oregon, in 1974,” he said. “That’s when I started working with sticks. I taught stick stretching at Portland Community College.”
He trademarked his innovative system as a chiropractic approach, combining sticks with elements of tai chi form and the flowing movements of traditional hatha yoga. “You can apply isometric principles, discover traction, develop left and right hemispheres and leg strength.”
Stick Sessions
Dr. Arthur has taught Stick Yoga seminars for more than 20 years, from Sacramento to Los Angeles. He taught locally at Breath+Oneness studio, Eden yoga studio and open-air workshops at Ocean View Park and Nisene Marks State Forest, and he currently holds monthly seminars and workshops at 1440 Multiversity.
In the workshops, Faygenholtz shares techniques to build core muscle, improve posture and enrich both left and right hemispheres of the brain. “It’s teaching the brain to be in sync with both sides of the body,” he says.
Whereas many sports are one-sided, such as golf and tennis, stick work is symmetrical. For those training for a sport, this bilateral movement will enhance the sport, he adds. “When you’re using both hands, both hemispheres are in a relationship using 100 percent of the brain,” he explains.
With the stick as a tool, one can be more relaxed or stable while working through different movements. “The stick is your dance partner,” Faygenholtz says. “You can squeeze it or push it or pull it to add more strength.”
Adding a second stick opens up a whole new set of movements. “You can use the ground. You can use other parts of the environment to support different stretches,” Faygenholtz says. “But the main thing is your healing yourself. There’s a lot of benefit to having a ritual, a routine.”
The Science of Nature
Stick Yoga and Stick Walking are helping people get back to basics by practicing the simple art of walking in nature—bare feet encouraged. When doing the work on the beach or in a forest, the benefits grow exponentially with every breath of phytoncides.
Phytoncides, present in the salt air, help the body neutralize inflammation as negative ions neutralize positive ions. “The beach is an adult sandbox,” Faygenholtz says. “You are healing yourself, reducing inflammation when you ground yourself.”
The forest is another ideal environment, as trees have a particular protection around them, a phytoncide that protects them from fungus, Faygenholtz explains. “It’s a protection that kills to help the tree live,” he said.
Phytoncides not only protect trees from harmful insects, bacteria and disease; these little molecules can also benefit forest visitors.
“It’s the alchemy of the forest. You’re bathing in your senses. Cedar, pine, eucalyptus…all the different smells and sounds and tastes,” he says.
According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, phytoncides found in forests include pinean, myrcene, camphene, limonene and sabinene. Benefits from these natural forest substances offer anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and analgesic effects and serve as natural anti-depressants.
Faygenholtz compares the forest to a pharmacy. “Everything is symbiotic, nurturing,” he says. “As we breathe all of that in, we’re enriching our immune system. Even just going in the forest sitting on a rock,” he says. “It opens you up to being connected. More organically, it’s a closed kinetic chain. It’s self-care.”
Phytoncides are also the science behind the current trend of “forest bathing” as exposure to phytoncides and essential oils from trees have medicinal benefits that go far beyond aromatherapy. Just as people in Japan partake in social outings as a form of forest therapy, we owe it to ourselves to reap the benefits of walking in nature, rather than a room or a building. By exercising outside, we are giving ourselves an “interior celebration,” Faygenholtz says.
It doesn’t matter whether you use one stick or two, whether you’re pole walking barefoot or practicing Stick Yoga on grass or on sand. The bottom line is that working with sticks opens up a greater connection with the earth and its elements. “You are influencing your electrical system in a very positive way,” Faygenholtz says. “The stick is something to hold onto, and you can feel that you’re connected.”
BYO Sticks
With a little bit of DIY and a trip to the hardware store, you can improvise a pair of walking sticks for less than $20. “If you don’t have poles, you can’t pole walk,” Faygenholtz says.
He prefers rattan wood because of its light weight and flexibility, whereas bamboo has been known to fracture or crack from exposure to temperature and humidity. Recently he has been getting into polycarbonate sticks, which he developed and uses on the beach.
The grip is also a very important piece of working with a stick. “The quality of your grip is directly linked to your circulation,” Faygenholtz says. Just like acupunture can test your pulse, a good grip will enrich isometric strength, he notes.
Straps are not necessary but can serve a function for the wrists as students advance in their technique. “In the beginning you just want to test the water,” Faygenholtz said. “It’s like four-wheel drive, and you’re a machine. You’re like a toy soldier walking with good posture and awareness. You can’t slouch because you’re using the ground to benefit and push off and on.”
If you feel a sudden urge to inhale some natural forest phytocides right now, two good places to start are Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park and the Forest of Nisene Marks. So why not grab a friend and a pair of poles? “When you’re walking with other people you are raising your social EQ,” Faygenholtz says. “All those things are there with pole walking.”
For more information about workshops and seminars, call 831-688-0361, email fa*********@gm***.com or visit StickYoga.com.
