The Transformative Power of Yoga w/ Bonnie Delgado

Watch or Listen to the full episode

Who is Bonnie Delgado?

Bonnie Delgado is the Area Manager of CorePower Yoga Kapolei and Kahala.  She is originally from Florida.  She graduated from NYU with a Dance & Fashion major.  She transitioned to Yoga, to complement her surf lifestyle, upon moving to Hawaii. As a yoga teacher, she hopes to provide healing and better performance & longevity of the mind and body through yoga techniques.

Interview Transcription

ATTILIO:
The dance and fashion major. she transitioned to yoga to compliment her surf lifestyle Upon moving to Hawaii as a yoga teacher. She hopes to provide healing and better performance and longevity of the mind and body through yoga techniques. Please welcome to the show the area manager of core power yoga couple in Kahal. Kahala, who is it? Adrienne?

ADRIENNE:
Bonnie Delgado, Annie

ADRIENNE:
Delgado. Welcome, Bonnie.

BONNIE:
Thank you. Hello. Hi. Julia.

ATTILIO:
Voices. Yes. So you know, we have a lot of listeners that maybe it’s the new still part of the new part of the year. They’re like, hey, I need to make a change in my life. And I was thinking of making a little bit more commitment than just eating low fat yogurt. Maybe I’m thinking I should do yoga. A more great change. Yoga is not too bad. But yoga is better is better. So new tagline for yoga. Yo, yogurt is okay. But yoga is better.

BONNIE:
So I like it more better.

ADRIENNE:
So before we get into the yoga, how, like, How long ago did you arrive here from Florida? And what prompted that? That big move?

ATTILIO:
Yeah, no, you know? Go ahead.

BONNIE:
Sir. Yeah, try to keep it keep it in a nutshell. I moved here from actually New York City. After I lived in Florida, I went to school in New York, NYU and spent 10 years in New York City and then eventually moved out here. Really just kind of looking to make changes to make changes in my life and and create something that was more sustainable. And yeah, life I didn’t want to escape from you know, and I think I think there’s a lot of us still in that way. So I moved out here about 17 years ago, and I, I just, I never, I’ve never felt so at home or more in a part of a community as I have here in Hawaii.

ADRIENNE:
Nice. So you set your goals. And you just you went for it. You had a visualization. And like I think that’s, that’s pretty brave, coming all the way from the East Coast, to Hawaii to live out your dreams. So congrats.

BONNIE:
Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. You

ATTILIO:
know, so you are, you know, full time into yoga. And that’s pretty, that’s pretty noteworthy. I mean, a lot of people are like, you know, timers, people say, Oh, I’m a yoga instructor. And you’re like, Okay, what does that really mean? Like, what else do you do? Yeah. And but you you are, you know, you’re running, managing two studios, and you even launched the cobble lay one launched it. Your opener. Yeah. And, but talk more about yoga? Because I think, you know, yoga is not something that corporate America picked up on and ran with it, you know, it was been around for 1000s of years. Talk about the, the the mind and body connection connection or improvement that yoga provides? on personal experience?

BONNIE:
Yeah, absolutely, uh, gosh, you know, where to start with the yoga, I mean, I, I have so many personal you know, things with because I come from a dance background, I’ll share a little bit because I know, I also am sharing on the show, but a little bit of the history of core power yoga, you know, because we are really, we are the biggest yoga corporate yoga company in the world right now. And, and for a lot of people were the first introduction to yoga, which is really, you know, kind of what we’re known for, and what, what we’re proud of, because we, you know, we say we’re like kind of the gateway to going deeper into your yoga practice. And core power yoga was started by by somebody who worked in corporate America, who was very successful, and he had an injury actually, and, and, you know, was trying to recover from injury and was, was told to go to yoga after physical therapy, and, you know, can found not only the physical benefits, but then again, the mind body benefits and the, you know, connection, the focus and this person was Trevor Tyson, he was, yeah, very successful business person, and also, you know, an athletic person and, and so bringing those two kind of worlds together and, and finding the benefits of, of what yoga can bring to those two worlds, right of, to, you know, our workplace or to our daily life, and then also to, you know, the other things that we do physically in our bodies. And, you know, for me, I transitioned from dance to yoga, but I also kind of start out yoga to support the other things that I do in my life, like surfing and it’s really helped me grow a lot stronger in that.

ATTILIO:
Yeah. And, you know, you talked about the connection between the the athleticism or athletes, because it’s, you know, back away when it was like, you know, hey, we only do it in a commune, you know, back in the day and it’s all you know, it’s just a different lifestyle. But now, I know for a fact that a lot of quite a few NBA and NFL teams incorporate yoga, into their training because it just creates a better athlete mentally and physically. So,

BONNIE
exactly. And yeah, I mean, I think that’s kind of where what shifted for me personally, you know, it took me a while to really appreciate and understand yoga. And for a long time, you know, as a dancer and somebody who wanted to be a professional dancer, I thought yoga was just something that hippies did, because they weren’t flexible. And, you know, that was

ATTILIO
because they don’t have any furniture, and they’re always sleeping on the floor. So they need to be flexible to sit down.

BONNIE:
Exactly. So, you know, and now now I’m one of those hippies. But I, you know, I didn’t understand it, for what it was until I saw it in another lens, and I tried core power yoga, and, you know, I had the music and the other things going on, and just the physical challenges, you know, and to me, I hadn’t really been challenged with a lot of yoga until I started going to core power yoga. And that’s where not only I, my athletic side, you know, felt challenged and felt excited. But then to also to see other people, you know, I started seeing professional surfers doing it, you know, the more there they be, you know, Flynn Novak, and, you know, that also made me feel like I’m going to I’m going to get stronger from this, I’m going to benefit from this and I can, I can, you know, maybe I can be as strong as that one day, you know, and that’s the, that’s what yoga gives you is that, that knowledge that you have infinite potential that you have so many, you know, there are so many things that we are capable of.

ADRIENNE:
So Bonnie, what would you like, what would be your advice for someone that’s new to yoga that do spell yoga, they just want to kind of check it out, maybe they feel a little intimidated about even just coming into the studio, and self conscious, like, what would be your advice for someone like that?

BONNIE:
For sure. Because that’s very common. And a lot of people I hear a lot of times, you know, I don’t I mean, I know I need to go to yoga, but I’m not flexible. And, and that is like the, you know, that is just that, that’s the reason to go to yoga exactly is because, you know, maybe you’re not flexible, or maybe you want to be stronger, or whatever it is that you need, physically or mentally, you know, that is what will help you get to where you want to be, you know, and it’s so different from again, coming from a dance background where, you know, everything is aesthetic, and something is supposed to look a certain way. But what is so amazing about yoga as it really isn’t about how it looks. It’s about what is happening, you know, internally, whether it’s in your body or your mind, or whatever, and the outside posture is really just a vehicle to to find that, you know, to tune into that.

ATTILIO:
What I like is that, you know, in yoga, we have all kinds of body types, you know, not everybody is the pre Madonna ballerina, you know, in looking totally rip, like they just, you know, they’re on break v2, with circus, Olay. And we have all the body types, and it’s a very comfortable environment, like, you know, for me, like my goal, I work out a lot, but I don’t do a lot of stretching. So it’s like one hour of stretching. And for me, I have a very simple goal, I just won’t be able to touch my toes. Because I’m not flexible. I am not flexible. And it’s it’s tricky. It’s gonna take me a long time. In fact, I started, then COVID hit, I got all stiff as a board, and then start all over again. But you know, I’m enjoying the journey back again, because you just get back on that horse and do it again, with the yoga

BONNIE:
so, so badly, and it’s benefiting you whether or not you actually touch your toes. Yes, the journey is the benefit. Yes.

ADRIENNE:
So Bonnie, what about the classes for the newer people that are just new to yoga?

ATTILIO:
Yeah, describe what that would look like if you’re going into a C one.

BONNIE:
Yes. So our C one classes is what we will be called the beginner class. And that is because it’s, it is always the same. So it will, every time you go to a C one, you’ll see the same postures, and it’s helpful for the newer students to be able to learn what the postures are called with the alignment is we’ll move a little bit slower and break down alignment and postures. So that you know, then we can move with a stronger foundation into some of the other classes. That one is also unheated. So most of our classes are heated, that is the one of the only ones that is not heated. And that’s also great. You know, because if you have a heart condition, purchasing in the heat is not optimal. So that is also a great option for you know, anyone who doesn’t want to be in the heat or cannot be in the heat. So that’s a great one. We’ve also got some great workshops coming up a foundations workshop on Monday the 21st where we will be kind of bringing back something that we did when we first opened the studio, which was kind of a back to basics idea or foundations workshop where we go even slower than a C one because the c one is not necessarily slow. And we break down the postures even more for deeper understanding of the postures and what we should be filling in our bodies. I

ATTILIO:
found that helpful when I was first sorry, because I never did yoga prior to corporate

ADRIENNE:
so So where could our listeners go to find out more about the upcoming classes schedules?

ATTILIO:
What was it like to get started? Yeah.

ADRIENNE:
How did they get more?

BONNIE:
Yeah. More definitely on everything’s online, so they can go to core power yoga.com can also download the app, we just upgraded the app. So you can sign up, start an account and everything right through the app. And you can get started with the two free weeks if you’ve never visited us before, that is either will roll into a membership, or will you can cancel it out before it rolls into the membership. And right now that is that is the trial offer that we have available. There’s always, you know, there may be some emotion here or there different things going on, depending on the season or the time, but that’s what’s going on right now. And we’re hoping we’re trying to get together some outdoor community classes within the next month or so. Yeah. So look out for that. And again, you’ll see all of those things scheduled on our on our app on our website. And yeah, yeah. Now it is right now that we got those now that we got it up.

ATTILIO:
And then just whether the classes are full of knowledge with the app, it makes it so easy to sign up for the classes. The other thing I want to point out the misperception is people like, you know, hey, it’s a bunch of hippies getting together to do yoga. And what’s worse than that a bunch of smelly hippies getting ready to do yoga, because it’s hot in there. But it’s, it’s anything but because the air the air is it’s it’s when you say air condition, we always think of cold air, but it’s conditioning of the air. So it’s being recirculated through so it’s fresh. And then I know a couple, it’s, it’s one of the newer studios, so you guys have the infrared heaters up in the ceilings, which is kind of nice. But even if it’s not, I what I get from that experience is you’re just dripping with all the sweat. And people know, if you drink a lot of water stay hydrated and sweat, you’re getting all those toxins, all that negative negative out onto your yoga

BONNIE:
mat. So it’s so important and all of that to just get it all out of our bodies.

ATTILIO:
And I think though it’s a warmer environment, your muscles stay warmer, so it’s easy to stretch and loosen up those muscles. Adrienne so

ADRIENNE:
so we’re talking about the triple A studio. Bonnie, where else is this core powers? Where are these studios located? Yeah.

BONNIE:
Yeah, so we’ve probably comments right by NBCC. If people know where that is, we’ve also got the word studio in town right by TJ Maxx in social marketplace. Kahala studio was the first one that island as a hollow law. And then we’ve also got Kailua which is where Whole Foods is in the same building the Whole Foods nice. You know, it’s nice to find this near a whole foods

ATTILIO:
when you travel, you can go to the other ones like I have adult kids that live in Scottsdale, so I’m always going to Old Town Scottsdale for yoga.

ADRIENNE:
Except for videos. You missed a couple a window when you go there.

ATTILIO:
Yeah, last couple days the best the the other thing I wanted to to point out to you know maybe you’re feeling a little fluffy from the COVID You know, you put on the COVID 19 pounds and the sculpt class talk about the skull because I I was I was gone for like 40 days. And I went I was gathering to animals and putting them in an arc and then I came back and I you know when you’re away from beyond just joking, I was visiting my kids but when you’re away for a long time is when you notice a difference. And I noticed my fellow studio members were like, dang, they were shedding some way with the scope. So talk about scope. What is that? Because people think oh, I’m super Flexi, but I’m fluffy but you can shed weight with the scope. Tell us about sculpt.

BONNIE:
Oh, yeah, yeah, well when with all of it, really? But yeah, yeah, this scope last week. We have a joke. We call it the gateway drug because it really is. You know, it’s the the format that a lot of people love because they know they can’t get into the yoga it’s too slow. They get distracted. So yoga sculpt is kind of like a C two or like a power vinyasa class with weights layered in so we do rap. We do cardio, we got squats, it’s a lot of fun and in the middle

ATTILIO:
of a rave and then

BONNIE:
that’s that’s what told me that is why I do yoga now and that’s what you know and it’s funny because for a long time I was only a sculptor of I don’t want to teach other for I don’t want to teach any other I just want to sculpt Yeah, and you know now I just want to lay on blocks and do restorative again, you know, I’m just I’m a hippie that I just want to I want to be a hippie instead.

ATTILIO:
I think it supports whatever your mindset or your mentality or disposition is you guys have the full spectrum from see you want to sculpt and to me like I’m just not feeling sculpt today. So I do a C two I’m not feeling see to sculpt and work some stuff out. So a lot of options. Yes and every day because you have you go through the full range of those classes every day. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And last one is the so what kind of temperatures because people think it’s like, you know, some kind of unbearable some kind of, you know, Guantanamo torture program. But what are the temperatures we’re looking at and then talk about the mass and what we’re moving into as far as mass.

BONNIE:
First, well, the temperatures, so yes, we are hot yoga. And as I mentioned, the C one and chorus store if you just see that on the schedule aren’t needed. And then our C two and sculpt classes are anywhere between 92 and 95 degrees, we’ve been keeping it on the lower side, because we’re wearing that. But looking forward to getting rid of that after after the Monday lifts, which we think is on the 25th. And, and then as far as our hottest class that we offer is hot power fusion. And that is similar to if you’ve ever taken a big room class. It’s a 60 minute format. And it’s, it’s the 26 postures to it’s a very healing class. And I recommend that one for anyone who’s coming back from injury, especially if they’re shoulder wrist stuff involved because it’s all standing and balancing. And we don’t put weight on our hands or shoulders. So that’s a great option if you know if that’s that’s just not what you need right now in your body.

ATTILIO:
Yeah, and then you guys, it’s not like super intense either. Like, I know, some people are like, You know what, I just need to go into child’s pose or Shavasana. I’m kind of done for the moment. And there’s no pressure to like, keep going. You just you be where you’re at.

BONNIE:
Exactly tap out when you need to tap out and come back when you’re ready.

ATTILIO:
Yeah. And so

ADRIENNE:
yeah, so Bonnie, I know that like as the studios are have reopened and membership is growing, you guys have gotten a lot of new teachers trained up. Are you looking for more teachers? Is there upcoming trainings that if any of our listeners are interested? How does that work? We

BONNIE:
are? That’s really expensive. Great question. Absolutely, we are always looking to fill out our schedules. And, you know, there’s always opportunities for growth. We are we have a lot of different options. Right now, there are some intensive trainings happening one this weekend coming up, but we we’re have them going on monthly now. So if anyone out there does have their 200, our already certification, but they’re not trained with core power yoga, and want to teach with us, they can do one of those intensives and get certified to teach with us. And then we also have a 200 hour training coming up starting on the the week of the 28th of March. So that will be a hybrid program that is partially online, and then partially in the studio. So we’re getting kind of the best of both worlds is the flexibility of the online learning experience. But then the connection of the in person in studio experience as well.

ATTILIO:
You know, I want to share with people to these, there’s a sense of community because everybody starts getting to know each other and we know the instructors. And so it’s it’s I think there’s more out of the way what I would use would be accountability in a group environment, where people are like, Hey, I didn’t see you see, too, or hey, you know,

ADRIENNE:
where have you been?

ATTILIO:
Where you been? Where you been? You know, go your house, kick your door in and drag you to yoga? We don’t do that. But maybe. But, Adrian, you had another question.

ADRIENNE:
Oh, so you had talked about some community events? Bonnie? Where Where exactly. will those be taking place? Was that what the schools are planning? Yeah, give us some

BONNIE:
that? Great? Well, yes, we’ve got a lot of stuff in the works right now. And you know, looking at even like working with sustainable cosines and beach cleanups coming up for Earth Day. But we are looking to create the Ohana yoga classes. We’ve a lot, especially a couple of you, a lot of our instructors are also school teachers. So just a way for us to get back to the community and get the local community you know, just outside and doing stuff together and trying out yoga, maybe if it’s new to them. So we are still scouting spaces and looking for the right locations. But we’re thinking, you know, beach parks, outside public areas around one of our instructors, teachers at Waianae another one in heaven. Kapolei. So, just all over where wherever our you know, we were able to reach our students and yeah, look out for those they will be posted probably will be on our schedule, but also probably on our, our Facebook.

ATTILIO:
Yeah, what I like about the yoga workout is that it’s it’s having you take an inward journey, because when you’re outside the studio, or outside of yoga class, just everything’s coming at you the phones, the kids, the significant others and then when in the yoga, the phones, the kids and the significant others. Well, they might be next to you, but they gotta be quiet. At least Yeah. And all that is out and you can focus inward and take care of yourself. Because I know a lot of times we we feel guilty about taking care of ourselves, but if you really want to take care of others you Gotta take care of yourself. So highly recommend yoga

BONNIE:
badly.

ADRIENNE:
Go check it out. There’s two weeks, three weeks free.

BONNIE:
Right now it’s indefinitely. So that’s our, our promotional offer. And yeah, so there may be some other ones seasonal and things that come up

ATTILIO:
that, you know, people will look at the tell people that look at the cost of it, and you need to flip that word around to investment. Because what they say what’s the cost of your health? Yeah, have you not going to melta well being? Yeah, so it’s an investment in your body. We only got we’re only going through this world with the one with the one soup called your body will take care of it and your mind. Oh, true. Okay.

BONNIE:
Very true.

ADRIENNE:
So So Bonnie, is there anything that we should have touched on that we didn’t? time together? Or like a member story? Yeah, give us a success. Or you can share stories.

BONNIE:
Oh, my goodness. So any success stories? Gosh, so many, I guess I’ll start with Maka, who, you know, she opened a couple of studio with me. And I remember her, you know, we I did my teacher training at the college studio. And I lead mock of teacher training out there. And you know, I remember just kind of watching her growth and development and she she ended up coming out to Kapolei or to some outside and open the studio and was teaching yoga to a lot of the her jujitsu crew and when the time came to you know, that we were we got the word we’re gonna open couple, a Maka was had been waiting for it. And she was actually waiting to finish some of her trainings. Because she was waiting for us to open up out there. And so it was just the way that the timing all kind of worked out. And, and things happen. And just to see her, you know, go from all of a sudden, just like a brand new teacher, to a leader. And she really is she’s just so inspiring. And, you know, she she helped me open up studio and create the community in Kapolei. And then now she is managing the Kailua studio. And she’s also working on, you know, going back to school and getting her master’s degree. And she’s good in school for social work. And, you know, I watched her she actually got to teach one or co teach one of the Olallo yoga classes when we first opened the studio in Hawaiian language. So that was Makonnen Maleah, had started teaching those classes and they actually translated everything from directly from Sanskrit, to Hawaiian Scotties, were authentic, they were packed. Yes, they were very popular. And so, you know, when I got to Moscow was in a fluent hola speaker, but she studied it and knew enough that she had to get to watch her, you know, study and work to teach that class. And to see her kind of step into that and embrace that, because I think, I know that she expressed to me that for a long time she, she was struggling to feel connected to, you know, a lot of her her culture and her history. And so that was just such a beautiful moment. And yeah, hopefully we’ll get those classes back one day, or we’ll just see them somewhere on the island.

ATTILIO:
I’m pretty sure we will and then you know, people come into it. I’ll know as the first experience I you know, a lot of times you kind of want to giggle when you’re hearing the names, you know, like dog and cat and, and cow and cat and shavasana and Chaturanga. And it you know, we talked about it before it sounds like you know, menus on an Indian restaurant menu items on it for an Indian restaurant or, you know, stuff like furry monkey. No, no, I just made that one up.

BONNIE:
But there is one off and I is the king Monkey King.

ATTILIO:
King. There we go. But

BONNIE:
yeah, they’re named after legends. And

ATTILIO:
they come from nature. And it’s a natural way for your body to learn. Yeah, sitting on the couch watching Netflix for eight hours is not natural. No, no go. We put your bodies into those natural poses and stuff like that. So anyway, Bonnie,

ADRIENNE:
yeah. So thank you for being our guest and sharing more about your journey about yoga or yoga, how to get started, and we hope that our listeners will reach out and take advantage of those two weeks for free and get healthy yoga. Yeah.

Follow Us On Social Media