Article for Weekly Magazine for Monterey County by Rick Cannon 

WOWZA -  Pioneer in Health and Fitness

We are at Esalen Institute in Big Sur California at one of the most beautiful personal growth retreats in the world. A mix of men and women, artists and business people are balancing on large brightly colored balls. We are gathered around our leader, Elisa Lodge, also affectionately known as ‘Wowza, who at the age 74, radiates ageless vitality and unleashes this quality in her thousands of students.

Wowza is the mother of twin sons, actress, expressive arts therapist, corporate consultant and a fitness dynamo. Her inspiring story how she transformed the pain of physical/emotional abuse, a disfiguring skin disease, cross-eyes and crippling inhibition into winning the Miss Florida beauty pageant in 1957, has given her the compassionate empathy to empower others to do the same. Later, this modern day Renaissance woman became an actress (where she hung out with stars like Marilyn Monroe, was in a film with Jerry Lewis, then a body worker, then an expressive arts therapist, and then a fitness and health expert. She is one of the first people to teach yoga in an American University back in the ‘60′s. A unique approach to human wellness is detailed in her book Primal Energetics, Emotional Intelligence in Action, which Lodge teaches around the world.

A Modern Day Renaissance Woman

From her years of studies with masters of modern bodywork forms (for example she studied with Ida Rolf and Moshe Feldenkrais), pioneers of dance movement (Anna Halprin, Gabrielle Roth) and acting trainers (Lee Strasberg) of Actors Studio and her decades of acting, bodywork and teaching experience, Lodge has synthesized a unique and powerfully transformational system that pushes the boundaries of the health and fitness industry. She has created an ‘expressive arts fitness’ that exercises the emotions as well as the body.

The workshop: Secrets of Ageless Vitality is being videotaped for the live-motion portion of her soon-to-be-released book, Wowzacise – Growing Young on the Ball. In using the balls instead of chairs, which is just one of a large palate of techniques she teaches, Lodge states “What is now being discovered is the motion of bobbing stimulates the chemical endorphin that ignites sensations of pure joy.” She explains how are cells are affected by the variations of the earth’s gravitational pull as the body moves up, down and around the ball. “In the upward thrust of the bounce, the cells are aerated with heightened oxygen; in the downward movement, toxic waste is flushed out of the cells and circulation flows with increased vigor.”

Lodge’s Ageless Vitality system also involves reclaiming ‘expressive intelligence’ as the storehouse of natural genius. Her process opens up a myriad of ways to be aware of and exercise the energy of emotion, which is a crucial aspect of sustaining radiant health and ageless vitality.

Another distinguishing and effective aspect of her breakthrough system is the use of vocalization to disperse energy and express the truth of our feeling nature. I was exciting to bounce on a ball expressing affirmative phrases with passionate vigor! This unique energy-building program works from inside the person, making the outside beautiful and healthy in turn.

In an age of increasing awareness of the importance of ecology, Lodge’s work takes on a deeper meaning. She states, “Perceiving the inner ecology of our being interconnected to the larger ecology of the biosphere is essential to our very survival. To breathe, sound, and move with the elemental rhythms of nature, coming into kinship with the energies of the earth, water, fire, air and ether is to align with the vast energizing powers of the biosphere as your extended body.”

Lodge has developed a slant on yoga that she has named “Primal Yoga” in which strictly delineated yoga poses, or asanas, are given the freedom to be modified into organic, natural movements. She believes that even the system of modern yoga, which was originally based on movements and aspects of animals and nature’s elements, has lost much of its originality and purpose. She feels she is helping yoga return to its true roots.

I left this workshop with a unique feeling of feeling calm and centered, as well as energized and motivated to bring more of my true self out into the world.