ERIC LON
French certified physiotherapist,
yogi and trekker for 40 years
Eric Lon has practiced different kinds of yoga for 40 years. The aim of any yoga being to balance the body and the mind. The Eric classes are given outside, with mountains clothes and your yoga mat to catch more energy. As a certified physical training teacher Eric proposes Hatha Yoga in connection with basics of anatomy and physiology, related to the postures and the breathing.
In the Himalayas Eric teaches Himalayan Yoga, a technique particularly efficient in the mountains. It is made of exercises, done by sets, on a dynamic but sof way, as the sun salutations and the Tibetan Buddhist prostrations. It has nothing to do with any religion of sect. It is mainly a physical yoga to activate the general energy of the trekkers.
Eric has practiced for long a French healing yoga which is efficient against back pain. Everyday you can take part in two yoga sessions connected with the trek: morning and afternoon. The yoga teaching is made for the beginners, even if they feel stiff.
Each trek includes yoga cleansing exercises which are not taught very often in the cities. These exercises are not compulsary. Within a short time, before to trek in altitude, you can eliminate a lot of toxins accumulated during the year. During the trek, the local food is connected with healthy life. Eric is not smoking and not drinking any alcohol.
The yoga sessions and foot massage classes are included in the treks' package. If you want to have individual massage, it will be at extra cost.
Profile of Eric Lon
French born in 1950: 60 years old in 2010.
3 French professional certificates
19 years old: swimming teacher
21 years old: physical training teacher
26 years old: masseur physiotherapist
Plus five certificates of Traditional Thai massage, one certificate of Vietnamese massage, one certificate of Tibetan massage.
Main occupation: masseur physiotherapist in French hospital and in the private sector.
Accessories occupations: physical training teacher, including yoga, and swimming teacher.
Eric Lon practices yoga since 40 years: he is 60 y old.
Sports
15 years old: karate
20 years old: power lifting trainer
27 years old: vice champion of France: triathlon
Golden medal of Sports, Toulon, district Var
International judge bodybuilding IFBB
Vice President of French Bodybuilding Federation: 1977 to 1980
Skiing on the rocks from 1981
Teaching sand skiing on the dunes from1984 in Algeria, Namibia and in Tunisia
Mountains studies from 1981 to 1984
Windsurfing at high altitude lakes from 1979
Trekking, mountaineering and skiing in the Himalayas since 1987
Kayaker since 1989
Book writer
1988: Défis à skis = Challenges on skis
2007: Des Ecrins à l’Himalaya = From the French Alps to the Himalayas
Combining yoga and trekking in the Himalayas
The yoga way to prevent Acute Mountain Sickness
When looking at the trekkers at high altitude places, like Thorong La located 5416 meters above sea level, the highest pass of the Annapurnas,Nepal, or around the lodges of Gorapshep, 5200 meters, close to Everest Base Camp, you can see that many trekkers are not feeling well.
They are the victims of Acute Mountain Sickness. It means that their body is not adapting well to the lack of oxygen. At the height of 5000 meters there is two times less oxygen than at sea level.
It is advisable to stop ascending, to take rest, and to go down with a friend if the symptoms are persisting or increasing.
In Ladakh, India, you can notice the same symptoms during the sacent of Stok Kangri, 6123 meters, which is a high trekking peak with a base camp at 5000 meters.
Feeling bad on a trek, and going down, is not pleasant. It is a fail which may prevent these trekkers to trek again in the Himalayas.
There are natural healing solutions that the trekkers are not using because they don’t know about.
The easiest thing is to do is to breathe with a breathing yoga technique called “Pranayama”.
The yogis say that Pranayama is the “Art of Breathing”.
In yoga, there are different kinds of breathing. All of them allow us to make a better use of the “Prana”, the energy which is everywhere. In the high mountains there is less oxygen but more prana because it is not trapped by the pollution of the cities. If you know the technique to get the prana within your cells, you have a better chance to be adapting to the height because you have more energy. It is easy to learn breathing in altitude.
Cleansing.
In addition of breathing deeply, the yogis are used to practice some “krias” to clean the body. The more common and the easiest cleansing technique is to clean the nose with salty water in order to get better breathing. The trekkers are not used to this easy technique. It is a way to prevent sinus problems in altitude.
Cleansing the digestive system by drinking salty water and practicing five specific yoga exercices is a natural way to eliminate many toxins. It can be done before to trek.
Stretching.
Some trekkers are stretching their body when they feel tired. They are right, but only few trekkers are used to do so. Since thousands years yoga is proposing the widest range of stretching techniques adapted to anybody, flexible or stiff. It can be done on a static way with various postures called “asanas”, or on a dynamic way.
Eric Lon has given free yoga classes and lectures about foot massage in different Indian governemental institutes of mountaineering, at: Uttarkashi, Mount Abu, Manali and Mcleodganj-Dharamsala.
What is the best time to do yoga in the Himalayas?
Wake up your energy with morning yoga.
Beforele to enjoy your breakfast, it is advisable to awake your global energy, body and mind, with soft dynamic exercises, at the rising sun, like the classical “sun salutations” of hatha yoga. Himalayan yoga moves more energy. It warms the general functions and it activates the appetite.
From this morning session, it is easier to have a better breathing all day long, for trekking.
Combine yoga and trekking
Yoga is not only done during special yoga session at a specific place: it can be practice during the trek by harmonizing the breathing with the way to walk. This is "yoga in action".
After trekking get relaxed with evening yoga.
After walking six hours per day, the body is tired: it needs to rest. Some selected stretching exercises combined with deep breathing help a lot to clean the toxins generated by the trek. They restore the balance and they prepare a better resting night to enjoy trekking the next day.
Some accessories techniques to yoga.
Nowadays yoga is no more taught as in the past.
In addition to the asanas and to Pranayama some great yoga teachers like Swami Ram Dev in India and Lila Nanda in Nepal are teaching to lay people some reflexology techniques, mainly the foot massage.
In Ladakh, India, the authorithies are not yet informed about the benefits of yoga for the trekkers.
Foot massage is known for thousands years to relax and to heal some organic disorders. The body is reflecting his state of health on both feet. Knowing the chart of the feet with the locations of the different parts allow us torelease tenses in the muscles and the joints, as well in the internal organs. Foot massage is the root of the global massage, but it is a whole massage.
As a medical masseur and a physiotherapist Eric Lon is used for long to use reflexology as a healing technique.
Anybody can learn foot massage, and the trekkers are on the front line because they need to have good feet. Eric Lon is teaching foot massage to the trekkers: this is included in the package.
Ear massage is another kind of reflexology. Eric Lon received this medical technique from a French doctor. It is very usefull in the mountains, at places where it is not possible to take off his shoes.
Janga Bahadur Shahi is the spiritual son of Eric Lon.
For several years this Nepali travelled with Eric Lon in different countries, learning yoga and massage in different schools. He holds several certificates of massage and he is a certified Nepali yoga teacher.
He was with Eric Lon on various treks in Nepal and in India. When Eric Lon is not available in Nepal, you can trek with Janga Bahadur Shahi, 28 years old.
In Nepal, The Kathmandu trekking guides' company is the unique Nepali agency to propose the professional services of a French certified masseur physiotherapist during some selected treks.
In India, the Leh Chen hotel is the unique placeof Ladakh where yoga is proposed to adapt more quickly to the height, but the Ladakhi authorithies are not yet aware of the benefits of yoga.
Contact Email: ericlon@hotmail.fr
Contact at Leh Ladakh India: Himalayan Yoga Center: Leh Chen hotel
www.lehchenhotelladakh.com
Contact in Nepal: info@lacompagniedesguidesdekatmandou.com
Choose your "Health'Holidays"
A yoga trek is more than a trek. If you want to travel with a certified masseur physiotherapist who will teach you yoga and foot massage, it is a bit more expensive than a trek. It is up to you to choose trekking with a physiotherapist and a yogi, or to trek like the others.
Eric Lon is a unique" physio globe trekker" who makes the treks easier with yoga.