Spinning Innovator Johnny G Launches a New Fitness Paradigm with In-Trinity Photo by Tai Kerbs
Trying out In-Trinity, a new fitness paradigm with innovator Johnny G
Zen Chi is the name for the seated pose that is the position taken at both the beginning and the end of an In-Trinity session, as developed by fitness innovator Johnny G.
In Zen Chi, the practitioner is seated, in a comfortable cross-legged position (or near approximation) on the slanted In-Trinity board, with straps slung over the shoulders to provide a sense of the body being anchored and grounded. In Zen Chi, you can sit for a long time, without stress on the hips because of the incline and without stress on the shoulders or spine, because of the support of the straps.
In-Trinity photos by Stephanie Waisler
When Johnny describes this pose, he ascribes weight to it. “Everything else in between is just stuff; this pose is the essence of everything,” he said in his lilting South African accent. He’s extolling the importance of simply sitting as part of a fitness regimen. At first glance, Johnny is a person who may seem to be an unlikely candidate to have developed a program that begins in stillness. Johnny is a former ultra-distance rider who competed in the coast to coast Race Across America, cited as the world’s toughest endurance bicycle race. When you hear more of his story, which we’ll get to in a moment, stillness makes sense.
As far as In-Trinity, it is a regimen that is more than simply a workout, but something the affable fitness pioneer describes as a new paradigm.
This won’t be the first time Johnny G’s (full name Johnny Goldberg) enthusiasm and expertise combine to help create a new fitness paradigm. Whether they know it or not, everyone who clips on a pair of cycling shoes to pedal with a group in an indoor cycling studio, with specialized bikes, music, coaching, and affirmational encouragement, is sweating in the direct or indirect lineage of Johnny G’s groundbreaking Spinning program. The practice of merging technology (stationary bikes that could provide the training feel of challenging terrain-variable road rides) with experience (instructors trained in the ethos of riding as a metaphysical endeavor) continues to be a game-changer in the fitness industry.
In-Trinity, Johnny G asserts, has that same potential.
“We’ve all been training on a flat surface our entire lives,” he says. While some people may rock climb, run stairs, or use the three-dimensional world in creative ways, our training environment is largely flat. As Johnny puts it, In-Trinity “redefines the training environment.” How? He says that the slanted surface allows some movements to become more accessible, while other movements can become more challenging, allowing the practitioner to experience a greater depth with the unique potential of a new relationship with solid ground.
In-Trinity photos by Stephanie Waisler
The inspiration for the development of this training platform began with a nap. As Johnny tells the story, it was 2004 and he was enjoying a siesta on a riverbed in Brazil. When he woke up, feeling the need to stretch and twist, he made use of the variation of the sandy riverbed to use the shape of the earth to access the body differently than a flat surface. Then the actual innovations started, beginning with a bench and then playing around with modifications for shape, form, incline, and props in order to access the energy and capacity of the body in different configurations. From 2004 through 2006, Johnny played around with six different variations before settling on the final version now being produced by Matrix Fitness. Since then, he’s continued to finesse the equipment and the accompanying training program.
In-Trinity photos by Stephanie Waisler
Johnny’s side yard is a kind of fresh-air dojo, where he has arranged a series of the prototypes he’s been developing over the more than a decade that has passed since waking up from that nap. Using the laboratory of the body, he’s adjusted the width of what began as a bench, to come up with a gently curved shape, with the hint of a waistline—a feminine shape suitable for an inherently restorative practice. This shape allows for ease of using the board in different poses as well as getting on and off the equipment for people with all levels of mobility.
When asked if part of his passion for innovation comes from a life lived around the world, training across cultures, his answer takes a contemplative turn. It relates to a journey not around the world, but within the self. The year 2003 brought Johnny what he refers to as a significant teacher. A viral infection in his heart led to cardiac myopathy and a close call for an appointment to receive for a heart transplant (which turned out not to be his fate). Then, another teacher: merely two years ago, a brain bleed resulted in the need for an emergency craniotomy. This gave him a far different perspective than the one he was living – the life of a tireless competitor up until the age of 46, “I gained the sensibility that the body is vulnerable,” he said. “Life is vulnerable.” It changed how he saw himself within his own life and within the fitness industry. “I needed to recognize the vulnerability in someone else.”
These teachers have given him an appreciation of the dynamic between rest and activity and the need to work the body without over-stressing or hastening its deterioration. There is a dynamic balance between work and restoration. This understanding and this sensitivity to vulnerability are part of the heart of In-Trinity.
It is part of what Johnny G feels makes this a new paradigm for approaching fitness beyond simply movement. When he describes an activity like Spinning, he says it involves a constant energy output. In-Trinity, on the other hand, allows the practitioner to circulate energy and to cultivate the movement of energy in to the body. This begins with the first pose, Zen Chi, and continues throughout all of the different types of deliberate movement, whether the movement is static or fluid. While this is not in and of itself Yoga, Tai Chi, or Pilates, it is a blend of all movements that are available. Anything can be done on a sloped surface.
While the sloped, curved, stable board is the base of everything, In-Trinity’s props include a ledge below the board for the hands to grip beneath the surface, straps that attach to the board to use in motion and in stillness, and even a set of sticks that extend the body’s lever arms and create a new focal point and intentionality—extending energy into the sky—in many sequences. There is a historical context to their use that crosses cultures and modalities.
In-Trinity photos by Stephanie Waisler
The use of the slope and the props have the advantage of making movement more challenging when a lifelong yogi wants a fresh relationship with gravity, or more accessible when a person wants to access a shape or movement that has not yet been available to them. In all cases, Johnny emphasized the deliberate nature of the movements done in In-Trinity, movements that restore and revitalize the body, quiet and condition the mind. It’s the central value of moving energy in, rather than our habitual pattern of moving energy out. The emphasis is on balance, flexibility, agility, and coordination. Johnny has bigger plans than first meet the eye. He’s been studying brainwave entrainment and his vision is for the soundtrack for a session to contain biurnal beats, to support the brain’s ability to enter the theta waves of the meditative space while in the workout.
The possibilities are endless—it’s like an uphill climb.
Just looking at one of the pieces of In-Trinity equipment is a bit like looking at a stationary bike for the first time, or a yoga mat, when all you see is a piece of rubber on the floor. Everything is in the experience. And here, the world has gone from flat to a simultaneous uphill and downhill training ground.
Johnny is the first one to say that this methodology isn’t necessarily for everyone. But he’s projecting that enough people will find it meaningful and will enjoy the playground of gravity and negative space to either enhance their current practice or allow them to access something they’ve never before thought possible. Whatever will happen, there is a redefinition of the training experience on the slope.
In-Trinity will be launching to the public at the IDEA Health and Fitness Show in Los Angeles, July 15-19: www.ideafit.com/fitness-conferences.
For more information about In-Trinity, visit: johnnygmethod.com
Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.