Education
- B.A. Sociology, U.C. Santa Cruz with Honors from Sociology and Merrill College boards of Studies
- Studied Hatha Yoga at the Yoga Room, Berkeley
- Completed Yoga Training Program at the Iyengar Yoga Institute, San Francisco
- Complete extended Teaching Apprenticeship at the Yoga Room with two of the most experience Iyengar-style teachers in the U.S.
Certifications
- American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) – Health/Fitness Instructor
Achievements
David considers his greatest personal achievement to be having helped hundreds of individuals claim greater health, strength, comfort, and serenity within their own physical bodies.
Experience
David has been a fitness professional for over twenty years. He has been a personal trainer and/or yoga teacher at the YMCAs of Hollywood and Berkeley, at Kaiser-Permanente, and at the Cal Rec Club since 1995.
Interests
Complementary to David’s work as a personal trainer and fitness instructor is his active career in music. As one of the Bay Area’s leading flamenco guitarists, he performs and teaches throughout Northern California, directs his own group of dancers and musicians, and has appeared frequently in venues such as La Pena Cultural Center, Ashkenaz, and the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and the Herbst Theater.
Personal Philosophy
David feels that his yoga training is at the core of his approach to fitness. He began his professional work when the fitness field was just emerging from an era when weight-lifters never ran, runners never touches a weight, and yogis stood on their heads and laughed (silently) at them both. His work has always focused on enabling his clients to create their own unique optimum balance between strength, flexibility, and cardio-respiratory endurance training activities. He realizes that some clients will simply want to know how to get awesomely ripped abs, while others may want to explore the psychological, nutritional, and spiritual aspects of fitness training. He has taught yoga to dancers and guitarists; weight-training to world-class athletes and the physically challenged; and has been the personal trainer to professors-emeriti and first-semester-freshmen, to corporate executives and award-winning artists. He enjoys working in the panoramically-diverse mix of the Cal Rec Club membership, where nearly all ages, physical abilities and cultural backgrounds are represented.
Quote
“Lift weights like you’re practicing yoga; practice yoga like you’re playing a musical instrument; eat a big complex salad every day for eighty years and you’ll live a long, healthy, life.”
