Your Journey Doesn’t Have To Be Perfect | Alan S. | Better Man Podcast Ep. 171

Dean Pohlman: Hey guys, it’s Dean. Welcome to the Better Man podcast. Today’s episode is a member interview. I have Alan s here and we’re going to be talking about his health journey over the years. Alan actually started out his professional career in the gym industry. He was a gym manager. He taught group fitness classes and then he eventually moved out of that.

Dean Pohlman: He had some scary health setbacks. He moved out of that position, started working for Penn State University in the alumni department, and now he’s a fundraiser and we talk about his mental health journey over the years. He was diagnosed with chronic depression, with bipolar disorder, and with ADHD during the pandemic. We talk about how he grounded himself during that, how he’s able to utilize different practices and and medication to be able to keep himself grounded.

Dean Pohlman: We talk about what got him started with Manville Yoga and how that helped in his overall fitness journey, and now he’s lifting weights. He’s stronger than ever, he feels better than ever, he’s mentally better than ever. And I think this is just a really inspiring conversation. And it’s a great example of what a health journey can look like.

Dean Pohlman: It’s ups and downs. It’s not it’s not constant progress. And it’s it’s building little habits along the way that stick that work for you. So I hope you guys enjoyed this conversation with Alan. I know it was inspiring. He’s been an inspiration within the mantle yoga community, and I hope this inspires you to be a better man. Hey guys, it’s Dean.

Dean Pohlman: Welcome to the Better Man podcast. Today’s episode is a member interview. We have Alan s here and we’re talking about his his story. And I met Alan at a at a wellness weekend, a manfully a wellness weekend in DC in September of 2025. Yeah, 2025. And he instantly stood out as someone who was incredibly interested in facilitating, facilitating, community and being, you know, one of the more outspoken voices.

Dean Pohlman: And I was like, wow, this guy’s like, this guy’s really cool. This guy’s like, really making an effort to help make this into he’s just one of you’re just one of those great examples of guys within the mantle yoga community who are trying to take this beyond just kind of an online fitness thing and really turn it into a tangible community with real relationships.

Dean Pohlman: So thank you for that, by the way.

Alan S.: Yeah. You’re welcome. Yeah.

Dean Pohlman: But anyways, that’s how I met you and that was my impression of you. But, you know, these interviews are a chance for all of us and me to get to know you a little bit better. You mentioned that you were a group fitness instructor. This was back in 2017. Like, that’s a good place to start our story.

Alan S.: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And thank you so much, Dean, for welcoming me into the community. But then also here to the podcast too. So yeah, I was a group fitness instructor in a former life and what that entailed. I actually was the general manager of a local gym here in State College, Pennsylvania, where I live. And as that we were going through some changes and I had to learn some group fitness classes to fill in the instruction.

Alan S.: And that was that was 2014, 2013. And then I kind of grew in the community and went to another location. And in 2017 I had a Tia or also mini stroke. And what was wild was I, I was what I felt at the city’s point in my life at that point. But that was all outside. My work habits were run, run, run constantly, all the time.

Alan S.: Make sure that I was managing everything within a gym. I had a couple of job changes then to as group fitness grew and all of that stress kind of came to a head. But yeah.

Dean Pohlman: How old were you when that happened, and how long had you been in that role as the gym manager?

Alan S.: I was 35. Okay. At that point. Yeah. Summer. Yeah. Like 30, 35 ish. Whenever everything really kind of came to a head, and and I had been in that role for, I think 5 or 6 years at that point. And yeah, it was just and has been like.

Dean Pohlman: That level of busyness for like that long.

Alan S.: Yeah, yeah. And prior to that, my background before that was event management. And I had my own business leading up to this point in life too. So I went by own business, was an entrepreneur, was doing more than 32 events a year, taking up all of my weekends, things of that nature. So it was a good 10 to 12 years of nothing but that kind of constant stress.

Alan S.: You know, you own a business.

Dean Pohlman: It’s what are you talking about? There’s no stress.

Alan S.: Not whenever you have a three yoga.

Dean Pohlman: All I do is just record yoga workouts all day. How could I be stressed?

Alan S.: Exactly. Yeah.

Dean Pohlman: Anyways, so back to you. You’re working a lot. Clearly you have a full time job. You also have your own business on top of that.

Alan S.: Yes. Yep. Okay. And one of the things that happened in 2017 that I think gave my body a moment to slow down and really look at and tell my body, okay, it’s time to start healing. You were no longer running and now can focus on you. And that was whenever I started my career at Penn State University. I came in as an event coordinator at that time, and at that point I was able to focus on one thing and one thing alone, which was really nice, something that I hadn’t really thought of doing before.

Alan S.: And I feel that once my body kind of adjusted to, okay, let’s take time for you, that’s whenever everything hit. That was whenever the tire hit.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. And yeah. Isn’t that cool? Like you like, oh, I’m fixing things. And then your body’s like. Now we’re gonna get you. Now we’re gonna fix. Now we’re gonna like. Yeah, it’s really cool how that works.

Alan S.: Yeah, yeah. Our our brain and body are amazing. Amazing. And. Yeah, to see that and it was my body saying pause, my brain saying stop for a minute. It’s time to focus on Allen. And yeah, so that was a wake up call. But if I have to be honest, like the mind does what it wants to do and over.

Alan S.: Thanks a lot. And yeah, yeah, it didn’t lead to lasting change for me. I mean over the next several years I, you know, got started. It started up, I wasn’t doing the group fitness as much anymore. And then I kind of phased that out because I was teaching early, early mornings at 545 in the morning. So I would sometimes 5:00.

Alan S.: So then I started kind of shifting a little bit and my habits didn’t stay. I thought, oh, this is a great moment for me. I’ve learned diet didn’t stay regular and then didn’t really keep up with the fitness and keeping my body. You know where it should be, I learned, but did I listen?

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. Got it. So you kind of had so 2017. You had the mini stroke. And then it sounds like you had kind of just ups and downs from there.

Alan S.: Yep.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah.

Alan S.: And and.

Dean Pohlman: What what did you figure out kind of worked along the way. What when did you start noticing like kind of consistency or what. What were some of the notable points along that journey.

Alan S.: Well, the journey continued chaotically for quite some time. And then we had this wonderful little thing called the pandemic. Yeah. And that really threw me for quite a loop. I had advanced my career then, so it was another good. I mean, we’re pushing almost ten years now from whenever I had the Tia, and through all that time, things just became more chaotic.

Alan S.: I worked my way up into a director’s role within the university in alumni relations, and I will say that’s where my community engagement comes from. The might, need and want to bring together a community through my alumni relations background and my event background. So the pandemic hits and all of that went away. I wasn’t able to do my job in person.

Alan S.: I wasn’t able to bring communities together. So I had to find virtual ways to do this. And for me, I was working in the College of Agricultural Science at that point and at Penn State, and I created an alumni lounge, a virtual alumni lounge where alumni could come in and we could talk about whatever it could just be.

Alan S.: We sat in silence if everyone wanted to. We, you know, we did some things like read children’s books. We’d have parents get on to get on and put their kids to bed with a lion book or something of that nature. So we just did fun things, and that was where I was like, oh, there’s a different way to bring a community together.

Alan S.: And in my world, up until then, everyone said, this can’t be done virtually. You know, you have to have that in-person kind of stuff. So and that would be around the time you were starting to do this back then. So you were.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah.

Alan S.: Well into it. Really.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. That was you know, I’d been building the, been building the, the groundwork for the community for, for years at that point. I mean, that was probably around the time when the community finally became kind of self-sustaining and by community at that point, we only had like our Facebook group was really the only thing that we had for the community.

Dean Pohlman: We didn’t have a community section in the app yet. So yeah, we were using the Facebook group and I remember, I mean, for years, I would just, you know, I would just log in, you know, and I’d make sure I’d comment on everything. I’d like everything, comment on, you know, and it took years and years until finally, like people had, you know, did the commenting for me, like I didn’t have to.

Dean Pohlman: And now now you look at it and people, you know will give answers that I would give in a lot of instances or you get like, oh, that’s a really cool answer. Like someone took the time to write out, root out like a really long, thoughtful response to this. Whereas sometimes I’m just like, do this thing, you know, I’m just really quick and I’m like, or I’ll say like, do what?

Dean Pohlman: That guy said. He’s right. But yeah, virtual communities do not happen automatically. That’s that’s one thing that well, I’m sure that AI will figure out a way to replace it somehow, but or mimic it. But yeah, those virtual communities have been really powerful. I mean, it’s something that I’ve seen in awesome in the community. Anyways, I’m rambling, I’m rambling.

Dean Pohlman: But yeah, I’m curious for you, like what have and this isn’t really related to, you know, the typical format of this podcast, but I’m curious for you, like what have you done in terms of like practices with virtual communities that you’ve seen work for, for you.

Alan S.: For me, and in the alumni relations world, it’s really been ambassadors and regional ambassadors. And what I ended up working with is how a lot of alumni associations are structured. And it ended up, you know, you have regionally based groups that are always getting together and having for us because we are there’s a plug. Penn State football is a really great way for alumni around the world to come together and watch a football game at a watch party, so they have their own little chapters within regions, and the leaders of those chapters come together and coordinate a lot of different things.

Alan S.: And so I kind of took that same model to in okay, well, we have these kind of regional, we call them affiliate program groups. And I learned this model from the business school here at the College of Business at Penn State, where I used ambassadors that were out there to tell the word, spread the word, and recruit people into the community.

Alan S.: So then it got into everyone’s local community. It embedded itself right there within, you know, from Penn State or within, say, Austin, Texas. And it works. So I just used that model, that same model at a very, very, very smaller scale. And the kind of culminated with a very large what we used to do in person was a fundraiser where we had a silent auction and all of this type of stuff, and the fundraiser went virtual that first year, and I found ways to put together auctions that people could bid.

Alan S.: It was something we had never heard of and never really did at the university. So I had to bring a new platform. And and that year we hit $21,000 on a one time event that we were hitting like $30,000 in person. So we kept the money coming through, even through Covid. And it was a huge pivot. But I wouldn’t have been able to do that without without the ambassadors that were out there to and spreading the word within their communities.

Alan S.: So that’s something that I have found is, you know, you say that some people for you will be able to give that answer, and it’s very similar to what you would give as an entrepreneur and somebody who’s engaged. Community. Yeah, it’s really great. Whenever you find that. And utilizing those ambassadors can really help you to grow the business.

Dean Pohlman: So what do these ambassadors get out of it? Like what are they? Are they, you know, is it solely volunteer? Do they get some sort of status like what really incentivizes them to stay involved?

Alan S.: Well, I mean, it it would depend. So I mean, what we would do is I mean, during Covid it was a little difficult, but we offer them certain certain discounts. We offer them certain like maybe game tickets if that’s a possibility, if they’re coming in some special, unique pieces. Yeah. Just maybe sometimes whenever you’re down into the college level, offering space with one of our deans or leadership to be able to talk to them about what Penn State is doing and how we’re making an impact in the community and within the world.

Alan S.: So, yeah, just special kind of touches that. Maybe sometimes it’s just merch, honestly. Sometimes it’s just like, okay, I want that person out there.

Dean Pohlman: T shirt.

Alan S.: Exactly. Yeah. So Penn State Penn State apparel is always something that everyone wants to wear to the watch party. So utilizing your brand in that way too and just, you know, maybe even sometimes just special trainings or a special certifications or, you know, something fun, maybe a special type of retreat. We have done retreats before that we’re like, okay, it was only the leaders of the the clubs that we would bring in.

Dean Pohlman: Okay, cool. Well, at the risk of making this like a, you know, an idea board for all of the different Nannerl Yoga ambassador programs to be created and the flood of emails that I’ll receive after this about. That’s a great idea. Can we build it? Let’s let’s talk more about you health wise. So you were a very you were a very you mean you’re a very, you know, people or is it safe to assume you’re a very people oriented person?

Alan S.: Surprisingly, no. It’s very it’s very scary to me. I’m I’m actually a very introverted person. And I learned that whenever I was in middle school and high school and I started singing and I started acting, and I was in a couple of musicals, and the first time I got up on stage, I froze like I did not, and I don’t.

Alan S.: I never really loved being in front of a big group of people, but I always found myself whenever I was in those groups, somehow something would happen and I would have to take charge. It would just happen that way that nobody else was moving forward to do something, and my anxiety would get to a point like, nobody knows what to do.

Alan S.: I’m just going to take care of this. And at that moment, something in my brain clicks and it turns something on and I’ll do it. I’ll push through. So the stage fright was a weird way of me learning, like, hey, there’s, you know, there’s you want to, but you can’t, like, what is this? What what’s what’s holding you back.

Alan S.: And so, like, if I go to an event, I really have to gather myself. And this is now what I do. I’m a fundraiser for Penn State now. That’s where my career has, has brought me. And we have mixers that we have events where I have to go out and introduce myself to brand new people all the time, and I have to psych myself up before that.

Alan S.: I have to get going. And I hope that from what I mean, what you mentioned from the Washington DC event, I don’t carry myself like that. It takes a lot of energy for me to get out there and get in front of people and do that. But yeah, what I do, I mean, I feel like I’m kind of successful, successful at it, so takes a lot.

Dean Pohlman: Okay, well, going back to the pandemic, because something that we hear a lot from the people within our community is, you know, manfully. Yoga was a lifesaver for me during the pandemic, which, you know, we can’t exactly put on a sales page because like, you know, like, hey, sign up if there’s a pandemic. But, you know, it is something that unites a lot of the long time members that we’ve had here.

Dean Pohlman: And, you know, I’m just curious for you, when that happened, what were some of the biggest stressors that you went through during that time? You know, like what were the struggles that you went through?

Alan S.: Well, for me, that weird just a position of being an introvert, but also being an an extrovert like I wanted. I did want community. I missed my community. I missed my close circle of friends. What I find is I’m very whenever I make a group of friends, that small group of friends becomes life. My friends, my family and I couldn’t see them.

Alan S.: So my extroverted person person wasn’t getting that interaction from events, from being out there or being with close family. But then my introverted piece and my husband is also very introverted. We loved the pandemic. That’s whenever we we got into Lego and we would build Lego, and now we have a Lego studio in our studio in our basement with over 250 Lego pieces.

Alan S.: That’s another story.

Dean Pohlman: But you do. You put them back in a box or do you put them on the wall? What do you do?

Alan S.: We put them on display. Yeah, we put them on display.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. Because my son got into Legos recently and like, they’re all still together and they just go on like a kitchen counter. I’m like, this is not a good spot for these. We need to move these. But we haven’t I haven’t had the whatever. I haven’t had the whatever it takes to take them down and say, Jacqueline, we’re not keeping the Legos in the kitchen like this anymore.

Dean Pohlman: They need a better spot.

Alan S.: I Tia Billy shelves are perfect for them. Okay, a couple of books together and it makes great, great display. But again, we digress. Yes, but so with both of us being kind of introverted, it was it was great. Yeah. But we still missed a lot of that. And so as the pandemic gone on, I really honestly wish that I had found Mantlo Yoga then, because I think it would have helped to regulate some of my stuff.

Alan S.: During that. I went through some ridiculous anxiety moments, and this is where I started working with a therapist, and I discovered through a therapist and a psychiatrist that I was I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder one. And in addition to that, as the we started to use medication and different methods of regulating, we found out that I also had I was suffering from chronic depression.

Alan S.: I had very high anxiety. But then I also have ADHD. So combining all of that together, it came to a head. And again, I think that my body was able to pause for a moment and it said, let’s start to let’s start to fix some things. And so I started therapy. I didn’t actually get into manifold yoga until October of 2024, so it took a while to get there.

Alan S.: But I already started doing a lot of the work on my bipolar disorder and started working on myself in a couple of different ways. So I think maybe had I found Man Flow yoga, I might not have taken as much advantage of it as I would have at that time during the pandemic, as I did whenever I actually really found it.

Alan S.: So things happen for a reason. I’m always a big, big advocate for that. And yeah, so I ended up my first my first big introduction into Man flow yoga was not only seeing your ad on Instagram, so your Instagram is working.

Dean Pohlman: Okay.

Alan S.: But then my my first coach meeting was with Coach Patrick, and I think this is where I was absolutely 100% sold because he started talking to me about meditation and I had toyed around with it. You know, I had my my therapist has said I also journal, I journal a lot. I do mood journaling as well. And that’s one of the practices that I learned from the diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

Alan S.: But so Patrick and I are talking and he said about meditation and I said, well, I’m not really good at meditation. And he, as he does me a little bit yet and I yes.

Dean Pohlman: They’re not good yet.

Alan S.: Yet. Yeah, exactly. But he did also ask me, why do you say that? You’re not good at it. What does that mean? And I was like, well, I don’t do it well. And he said, well, what’s the basis? How why are you saying you don’t do it? Well, if you like, nobody knows like it’s not. And I said, well, I know it’s so nebulous, but I just don’t think that I can throw my thoughts away the way that you’re supposed to kind of bounce everything off and just kind of.

Alan S.: And he said, but it takes practice. And that’s when again, he said, it takes practice. So you’re not comfortable with it yet. It’s not that you’re not good at it. You’re not comfortable with it yet. So practicing is going to help you. So that’s whenever I was kind of like, okay, this is cool. And this is a really interesting community.

Alan S.: And I took that forward and took that to heart. So that was the moment where I really started and talked to my therapist about this. And she was saying, you know, this sounds like a really great community. And then I started using the online platforms. I was in Facebook. I was starting to kind of look at things. I was doing it from afar, not really jumping in.

Alan S.: And then I found my therapist had suggested a book to me that really started to help me out. And it’s don’t believe everything you think, and it really stops. That helps you to learn why you’re overthinking things and what’s diving, what you’re diving into all the time with your brain. Yeah, my brain just doesn’t stop.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, no, that was like that was that was one of the first. That was one of my big realizations with anxiety. My own personal experience with anxiety is like, oh, wow. For the first time in my life, I can’t trust like, my brain. I can’t trust all these thoughts, which is a weird it’s a weird thing to go through.

Dean Pohlman: But I wanted to I wanted to go back to like, you know, when you started therapy during the pandemic, after you were diagnosed and you mentioned mood journaling, but like, what are some of the other grounding practices that you started during that time that that helped you and that stuck.

Alan S.: That helped me in stuck that I would say we my husband and I started rowing, so we were having some rowing competitions and that that.

Dean Pohlman: Was like an urge at home.

Alan S.: Yep. Yeah. We, we, we bought a hydro fitness rower and we started rowing. So we’d wake up and we were trying to see who was going to. They give prizes for how far you come and how many meters you row. And he got socks before me. And I was like, no, this. I’m very competitive. So they sent him a pair of socks and then he got to the water bottle before me as well.

Alan S.: I was like, no, this is not happening. So I pushed a little harder. And that third badge that you get, I ended up pushing and beating him for that one. So okay.

Dean Pohlman: All right. So we’ve got we’ve got the rowing. We’ve got mood journaling. So you know when you are in depression it’s very hard to get yourself to do things like exercise. So what did you what enabled you to actually be consistent with that?

Alan S.: It was doing it for my husband. Like knowing couldn’t show up for myself if I didn’t show up for I’m sorry if I don’t didn’t show up for myself, I wasn’t going to be able to be there for them, for him. And then as we started to be able to get to see our families and as we started, you know, I could, you know, if I’m not doing something, then I’m not going to be able to be there for them.

Alan S.: And that was, you know, that was the motivation I find myself. It’s never about me. I always push forward in thinking of other people, very empathetic. And I, I really I will put myself way behind anyone else and make sure that anyone else is comfortable and that’s good. So but for motivation and for reasons to to get out of bed, it’s thinking of other people and I don’t want to let them down okay.

Dean Pohlman: So all right so we got mood journaling rowing competitions at home. Anything else.

Alan S.: We did walking. We started back into walking. We were walking sometimes six seven miles a day. I mean that was during the, you know, the height of the pandemic and things. But that stayed consistent. And in 2020, just before everything happened, we bought a new home and we discovered so many different routes. But as we as everything was starting to lift, we started walking to Duncan, which is, if you do around a full block, it’s about two miles.

Alan S.: So we and rate smack dab in the center is Duncan. So we will go I am I love Duncan coffee so we will go for a walk.

Dean Pohlman: Almost everyone. I wasn’t sure if this was like Duncan or like Dunkin Donuts. Now I now I understand that it’s Dunkin Donuts. Are we seeing Dunkin Donuts?

Alan S.: Oh, this Dunkin Donuts. And they’ve dropped the donuts part. It’s now only Duncan.

Dean Pohlman: Oh, okay. I am educated. So many so many new terms to learn okay. So all right.

Alan S.: Yeah. So we walk we walk to Duncan. And that’s still something that we keep. It’s a great way for us to catch up. It’s a great way for us to kind of get the morning going. And if it’s good weather, we’ve even gone so far as to we’ve done it during winter in ice and John has fallen. My husband has fallen.

Alan S.: So we had to we had to calm ourselves a little bit. But yeah, so two months almost every morning.

Dean Pohlman: Okay. And what is mood journaling?

Alan S.: Mood journaling is just logging your mood. It can be as lengthy or as simple as you’d like. So and you can do it either. There are apps that can do it. But I wake up and there are three times, usually during the day that I will write down my mood. And so I wake up and I will in my phone, I will put it into a note and I will say mood is anxious, mood is content, mood is happy.

Alan S.: And through doing that three times a day, this is how they helped me to. This is one of the tests that we were doing through my diagnosis. You looked back in the patterns over a month, and whenever the moods were certain ways, you you could see that there was going to be an abortive low or a high or a low, as they call it, with bipolar.

Alan S.: And in bipolar you will have an extreme high where you are on the top of the world, and then at any moment you can fall down to the lowest to the lowest low and think, you know, I’m not I’m not getting out of this. I’m, I’m going to curl up and go to bed. And that brings on the chronic depression.

Alan S.: So watching those and then correlating those to maybe diet or just patterns that are happening in your life, you start to learn, okay, let’s watch out for these types of things because those could be trigger moments. And that helped us to put whether it would be extended release medication that we would utilize, or if there were times that we would have just a bump of a dosage that might bring me to the next, you know, the next couple of hours, that’ll do some of the effects.

Dean Pohlman: Okay. So okay. Cool. Yeah. All right. And then I also, you know, you’ve so we have this thing called Flex Friday in the mantle yoga community. And we post we post photos of ourselves flexing. And you’re kind of jacks now. Like, you know, you’re you’re you’re a strong dude. Have you always been you know what I’m like, what did you look like?

Dean Pohlman: You know, like seven years ago or like six years ago?

Alan S.: Six years ago I because of the fitness and I was using what we would call example weight. I was, I was I was looking pretty good. I had muscle form. And it takes a lot for me to say that about myself. So but I was looking I was looking pretty great and but not as good as I am looking now and feeling right now.

Alan S.: So yeah, while all of this was happening in diagnosis and I went on some certain medications, I am I’m five foot seven. I’m not a very tall. I’m not a big guy by any means. And I’m not Jesse, let’s say.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, not many people are that tall.

Alan S.: Yeah. Very true. So I ended up weighing at one point just under 180. And it was again, combination of medications and things. And so at this point I had just I was like my what is my body like? And I have thought eating disorders most of my life that started whenever I was, I think I was, I was 15 whenever I learned that I had anorexia.

Alan S.: So I’ve been fighting that. And yeah, so it was time I had to. I knew that if I didn’t do something and this was right, whenever I started finding flow yoga, had I not said I’m doing something now, I knew that there was a possibility that a Tia was going to happen. And what started scaring me was, maybe this time is going to be a massive stroke, or I’m not going to be able to be there for my for my family, for my loved ones, my friends, my small communities that I put together.

Alan S.: Like I’m not going to be there. So, yeah, you need to start something.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. I mean, but so at this point, you know, October 24th, you started Mantle Yoga, but before then you were already walking. Were you walking at this point? Were you doing the rowing? So how did you get the sense that something like Mantle Yoga was missing?

Alan S.: I didn’t know, to be very honest. I like I was going back into my head of, you know what, you were doing all of this stuff before you were in the best shape of your life whenever you had this Tia. So but now you’re overweight and you’re still rowing. You’re on medications that are moving your body back and forth and you’re ebbing and flowing and you’re trying to figure this out and you’re still putting in some of the work, but you’re not putting anywhere near the work you were putting in before.

Alan S.: And honestly, Dean, it was it was one of the ads that caught my attention. And I just said, you know what? I’ve never really put any energy into yoga. It was the one format that I did not teach. I would teach hit class. I taught strength class, core class, Pilates, but I never I didn’t enjoy yoga. But you and the community honestly made it kind of approachable.

Alan S.: So whenever I first started working with your YouTube videos, I’m like, okay, this is okay, this isn’t yoga. This, this is something completely different. And it was the strength part, part of it that I was like, okay, this is great. And then after honestly, I think after it was like 2 to 3 weeks, my husband was like, oh, hey, your arms.

Alan S.: What are you doing to your arms? I’m like, well, okay, okay. So it was then that I was like, okay, this is working. And that’s whenever somebody else was affected by it. So I was like, okay, now I can get into it, now I can jump in. And that’s whenever I started. One of the first, I was starting the breathing, the beginner’s breathing session.

Alan S.: Yeah, the rest series. And that, that really showed me as well. You are not even breathing. You’re nowhere near the capacity that you should be breathing.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. That was that was a hard series to film because you just had to be constantly like, oh, breathing, breathing. I’m breathing, I’m breathing, I’m still breathing. But yeah, I’m glad you did that one. What was it about the what was it about the ad that that made you sign up? Do you remember? Was it because it was like, this isn’t traditional yoga or like, what was it that made you want to try it?

Alan S.: You’re gonna make me answer that?

Dean Pohlman: Yeah.

Alan S.: It was because you had your shirt off.

Dean Pohlman: Oh, okay. Yeah. You know.

Alan S.: You had your shirt off, you were hot. And I was like, okay, if this guy can do this. See, not many people can make Alan blush. And I think you’re making me blush right now. Yes. And that brought me in. And. But no, seriously, I, I was kind of interested in the strength. I don’t remember the exact ad that was going through, but it was it was talking about strength and it was like this, this sounds interesting.

Alan S.: So and there were many other yoga after I clicked on one of your ads, there were many other yoga ads that were coming through, but this one just stuck with me. So.

Dean Pohlman: Okay. Yeah, everyone’s just everyone’s trying to rip me off, man, right?

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. Okay. So what did you notice? So your husband mentioned your arms getting bigger. You started doing the breath series. When did you feel like what were some of the benefits that you noticed that you didn’t notice from walking and rowing?

Alan S.: My flexibility. I used to love to think that I was super flexible, especially whenever I was younger. I was able to do splits. You know, I was very flexible in certain ways, but I’ve never really been as flexible as I am now, and I think it was in my hips because I thought my hips were super flexible, but moving them in different ways and yet strengthening, strengthening them, my muscles and the rest of my body.

Alan S.: I started finding myself, being able to stretch farther. I’ve had shoulder issues for some odd reason. I got a couple of shoulder issues through over the last probably six years, and I started noticing that whenever I started doing the shoulder routine, I was like, oh, okay, my shoulder is feeling a little bit better and my flexibility of my shoulder was working so much better.

Alan S.: I was able to. I’ve never been able to bring my shoulders back as far as I am, my arms back as far as I do now. And so the flexibility and then I feel like the stamina, the, you know, my endurance. For walking with the breathe series, I noticed there’s a set of stairs going up to our next road in our community, and it’s a steep set of stairs.

Alan S.: I wasn’t able to get up those stairs all the time without really huffing and puffing. Whenever I got up there, I would push myself, but I noticed like 3 or 4 weeks in, I was like, okay, yeah, this is a huge difference. And my husband even noticed that too. He’s like, okay, now I have to keep up with you.

Alan S.: So so that was that was kind of fun. So breathing. And I would also say the flexibility were two things that I didn’t know I was missing.

Dean Pohlman: How long did it take you to notice those results with being and how often were you doing man full yoga?

Alan S.: I was doing the inflow yoga at least three times a week at that point, and I would say I noticed a difference at like three weeks. But whenever I got a month into it to a month and a half, I really started noticing some changes. And then really two months in, I was like, people were. Other people were starting to notice, like, what are you doing?

Alan S.: You’re a little you’re a little trim. Allen, like my coworkers were, were being like, what are you doing? I was like, there’s this yoga guy that I found. So for a while.

Dean Pohlman: Yoga man.

Alan S.: There was yoga guy. Yeah. So. And one of my good friends and colleagues at that time, she’s a yoga instructor. So I was I would always go in and say, oh, I have to show you something, yoga guy. Yoga guy did. And she was like, this is, this is really cool. This is, you know, she’s not used to the strength portion of it, too.

Alan S.: So it was fun to be able to share that a little bit as well. And then in 2025, I also this was April. So almost a year now I took another position. That’s whenever I moved into the fundraising role. So I left all of that community engagement in alumni relations behind to go into strictly fundraising role. And that was another giant change that if I hadn’t had the consistency of Mantlo Yoga at that point, I really don’t know how I would have handled the stress because this was one of the biggest career changes in my life.

Dean Pohlman: So this was something that, I mean, when you were when you first started, is this something did you notice the stress relief benefits kind of immediately or like what do you. Is that what kept you going with it? Or like, you know, because I like asking that question because I think that’s the hard part is like starting something new and then keeping it up until you notice results.

Dean Pohlman: So like, what was it that kept you going when you started it?

Alan S.: It was the I could think I like I said before, I’m not really great at meditating, but you kept my focus and then it made me I was aware of what my muscles were doing. And I think that’s the thing that took that took it all away from me until I was doing yoga. I mean, before when I was doing yoga, I was just like, okay, I’m going to get into this pose.

Alan S.: I don’t know exactly what I’m doing, and I’m going to make myself look like that woman that’s up front that’s doing this because I was usually in person. And for you, you allowed me to be in the comfort of my own home and learn along the way. And then you coached me as well to say, okay, well, videotape yourself, videotape, record yourself.

Alan S.: Yeah, I’m showing my age.

Dean Pohlman: Set up, set up your camcorder. Exactly.

Alan S.: Get your VH VHS tapes out. But I recorded myself, and I don’t like to do that, but it showed me my form. And when you tell me to activate a muscle and you’re telling me not to, I’m not going to look the same as your flexibility. I’m not going to look as flexible as the person right beside me.

Alan S.: If there is a person there too, it’s how I want, how I should be moving my body, not how I should look. And when you say simply activate your your muscle and you tell, you tell us to touch your your glute or touch your abs. That started happening and I still do that. I will still make sure and that everything’s activating and that puts me right in the moment.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, yeah. My wife my wife calls me out on that. She’s like, you’re always touching yourself. You’re always like poking yourself. I’m like, well, yeah, I don’t making sure my abs are on I don’t know. It’s a it’s a thing.

Alan S.: It is. And it works. I mean, it kept me in so that I was able to think and I was able to get through it. And I did see myself being much more clear mentally afterwards. Like I could feel the endorphins and I had being an instructor, I knew everyone talked about endorphins, like, yeah, but I could, I could feel it.

Alan S.: I felt my mood being better. I know now whenever I’m having a bad mood, or if I know that I wake up in my mood, log says, aggravated. I know that something is going to happen to put me into a spiral. I know it has to watch for that. And I will try to do yoga two times that day.

Alan S.: Okay? And I know.

Dean Pohlman: We just we just recorded a series, a yoga for anxiety series. So that’s going to be that’s going to be cool. I’m not sure exactly what I think that’s going out in June. Okay. But that’s going to that’s like a combination of yoga and coaching like anxiety specific coaching. So that’ll be cool. But that’s like got stuff like you know that has like workouts for like when you’re spiraling or when you’re just kind of, you know, need something to get settled before bed or need something to help you refocus for the morning.

Dean Pohlman: So that’ll be that’ll be cool. I’m curious to see how you find that.

Alan S.: I look forward to that a lot. Yeah.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, that’ll that’ll be fun. All right. So all right, so you’re doing mantle yoga. You’re about three months in now. You’re noticing flexibility. You’re starting to record yourself doing the workouts. What were some of the other like we could call them milestones or we could call them whatever shifts or whatever it is between then and now that you’d want to mention.

Alan S.: I would say the mind, the mindset, my mindset started changing from, I have to do this. And I stopped associating it with, if I don’t do this, I’m not going to be able to be there for my family, my friends, my my groups. I wanted to I found myself kind of missing it if I didn’t, and not in a bad way.

Alan S.: Like, oh, shame myself into it. It was no like I really, honestly wanted to, I wouldn’t like I, I missed my dean time, I guess. But yeah, it just felt good. I felt limber afterwards. I felt, yeah, uplifted.

Dean Pohlman: And that’s, that’s that’s a thing that people who don’t have that haven’t gotten there yet, like, don’t get. Because like when I say things like, man, I’ve been like haven’t able to work out for a week, were like, take it easy. So I’m like, no, you don’t get it. I feel better when I’m working out or like, I feel better when I’m eating well, you know, like like I’ve been eating really crappy for the last few days.

Dean Pohlman: People like, it’s okay, give yourself a break. I’m like, no, I feel better when I’m eating well like that. I want my good food. It’s not like I’m like self-flagellation or like, whatever. It’s I’m not punishing myself by eating healthy or exercising. You just you feel better when you’re doing it.

Alan S.: Exactly. And you wouldn’t have been able to tell me that. You know, I probably would have thought the same thing. Like somebody, a lot of my friends were like, well, you’ll be fine if you miss, if you miss one of the yoga sessions or whatever. My family would say that too. And, you know, I started bringing my my yoga mat with me.

Alan S.: Yeah, everywhere. And started asking, I’m a marriott Bonvoy member and we should get them as a sponsor.

Alan S.: But I started asking them to put I started asking them to put yoga mats in my in my room. And my husband is a wonderful agent for finding things. So if I say I want a yoga mat within three minutes, 17 are ordered and they’re coming to the house and we’re going to test them out and then send back what we don’t want.

Alan S.: So he found a folding one that worked really well in my suitcase as well. So it started being a habit that I couldn’t miss whenever I was out traveling. And really, honestly, I don’t know where I would be in my fitness journey if I didn’t have man flow yoga as I started traveling as a fundraiser, because that was being as consistent as I was, and it just happened.

Alan S.: I didn’t force the consistency as we’re mentioning. What happened was I had it there, it was there, it was ready, I wanted it, it wasn’t, you know, it wasn’t like an addiction type of thing. But that consistency kept so many things in play for me during the transition into my career. And I went from not traveling to traveling two times a month for a week at a time, you know?

Alan S.: So every other week I was traveling and my yoga was always still there. But you and the coaching was still there too, because I could take it with me anywhere I went. I didn’t have to, you know, it was easy. So.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. So and that’s something that, you know, we hear about a lot about within our community, people who are traveling and some of them are good about doing manfully with their travel and others don’t do it. So what do you do when you travel that enables you to be consistent with it? Like do you have set practices or like, do you do it?

Dean Pohlman: You know, do you what are what makes you do it consistently?

Alan S.: Well, again, it’s that feeling. I know that if I wake up in the morning and get it out of the way in the morning, I know that I’m going to get it done because my day can go off the rails. I could be in traffic in LA at one point. I could be in Houston and having a massive downpour and not being able to get to my appointment on time.

Alan S.: So the later in the day that I try to do that, I don’t make the time for it. So if I wake up in the morning, whenever I’m traveling, I get my workout done and I get my my yoga done, it’s right there. As for me as well yoga, I can fold out my mat in my in my hotel room and get it done there.

Alan S.: It gives me that boost of energy in the morning. So I do that. I eat breakfast and then I’m writing for the day and I can hit my meetings. And then my upbeat piece of that gets me ready to so that I can start that, getting my introvert out of there and getting my extrovert running. So it helps me out there and I there were could have been times where I would have missed it, and I probably would have gone into a spiral while I was on the road, and I would have had to manage that.

Alan S.: And so then I also have started weightlifting, and I used the beginner’s weightlifting series to start there. And so now I’ve incorporated my weight training, and actually I have an accountability buddy who I met at the DC at the DC event, and we’ve become fast friends and he is now jacked as well.

Dean Pohlman: So is this is this Lee? Who is this?

Alan S.: Yes. Yeah. Lee and I have become very, very good friends and.

Dean Pohlman: That’s awesome. Leah. Fellow fellow. Fellow. Mental health. Mental health. What do we call it? Mental health worker.

Speaker 3 That’s what we’re going to call mental health workers. Yes, yes. So Lee kind of.

Dean Pohlman: Had a great interview on this podcast, by the way, if you want to hear more from a guy who suffers from anxiety and has made some incredible improvements, check out the podcast we did with Lee.

Speaker 3 By the way. Yes.

Alan S.: Yeah. So he and I started working out and he was he had anxiety about being in a gym and I.

Speaker 3 Said, well, he did, I remember that.

Dean Pohlman: I remember that because I told him, like, he got to the gym and he’s like, I hate being here. I’m anxious just being here. I’m like, sorry, yoga studios aren’t big enough. We have to use a gym. Also. This is like, I feel like this is a good location. Anyways, I remember that. Yeah. So he’s over it now.

Dean Pohlman: I guess.

Speaker 3 He he’s we’re all.

Alan S.: Still working on. But what happened was I was like, well, I had just started the lifting series. So I was like, hey, I’m doing this. Do you want to get together virtually? And we can we can do this together. And the first time he tried it on his own, it brought back some some tough memories for him and things.

Alan S.: And that’s again, whenever I said, hey, you don’t have to do this alone. This was where the community means so much to me. I was like, hey, and I’m I, I give nicknames for many of the close people in my life. And so I’ve nicknamed him Lil Bro. And I just said, Lil bro, you’re not alone. How about we do this together?

Alan S.: And we did this virtually and we now have started. We’ve we’ve advanced past your program. So if you’re going to do another lifting series, intermediate to to advance would be great. Okay I have some ideas. So we did a men’s health fitness program, the Spartacus program that I used years ago in in a hit class. And so we started doing that and that really started our path down.

Alan S.: Okay. We’re starting we’re starting to feel and see some really great results. And then because we advanced past that, we were on that for maybe like a month. And this led up to the holiday season. So we, Lee and his husband and my husband and I got together and we got to see each other. We invited them to our house.

Alan S.: So we at that point said, okay, what are we going to do for the holidays are over and we’re done with with the men’s health version that we did. And I said, well, I’ve done it before. Let me put together some, some exercises for us. So I started putting together a my own workouts for a four week workout, focusing on chest and arms, because that was something we both felt we wanted to to progress in, and then we the next series after that.

Alan S.: Now we’re working on all of them are full Body that I put together in three days a week with different exercises. Some of them are super set. One day will be a superset type of thing. And so then I put the series we’re doing now is we’re focusing on glutes and legs that we still have upper body in it too.

Alan S.: So we’re continuing continuing to grow there too.

Dean Pohlman: So amazing. Well you answered the question about what’s next. So you’re doing those things. You’ve got support systems. Do you guys when you do your when you say virtual, do you mean like you guys FaceTime each other while you’re working out or like what do you mean by that.

Speaker 3 No.

Alan S.: We we have our gyms ready to go and we have we just get on to Google Meet and through my laptop, just as we’re doing right now, we’re set up. Both of us have have cameras in our gyms.

Speaker 3 And we.

Dean Pohlman: Also you guys have are you at home? At home gym?

Speaker 3 Yeah, we we both.

Alan S.: Have our own at home gyms that we put together.

Speaker 3 So very cool. Okay.

Dean Pohlman: Awesome. Yeah, that that makes it so much easier. Yeah.

Alan S.: And what’s really nice about it is we don’t need a lot of equipment. There’s not a lot of like. I mean, a lot.

Speaker 3 Of.

Alan S.: You know, so you don’t have to have a massive set of weights. You don’t have to have, you know, you know, he has the changeable weights like, you know.

Speaker 3 Oh yeah.

Alan S.: Yeah.

Dean Pohlman: So yeah, I mean that’s that’s what I had for years. I had the, I had the power block, changeable dumbbells, and I had a barbell and weights that I bought on Craigslist and that was all that I had. And then I slowly added like some bands and I can’t, I can’t think of the main things that I have, like bands and pull up, pull up, pull up.

Dean Pohlman: Our squat rack is something that I bought that I think I got that for like $90 from Academy Sports.

Speaker 3 We both.

Alan S.: Has pull up bars. He had bought his first and I was like, okay, where did you get that? And I did the same. And so we have pull up bars. We don’t have the racks, but we used that and there’s a pulley system now that I found that uses dumbbells. So we’ve now we’re doing push some pool exercises and things that we do right off of our, our racks.

Alan S.: So we’ve modified it to be very easy. And it’s the same type of workouts that I can do within the gym at a hotel as well.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Dean Pohlman: That’s awesome. Cool. Well, there you go. I love that. That’s a great tip for people. It’s like you can actually do a Google meet and work out together from your home gyms together. I love that. That’s so cool. I want to get into my rapid fire questions.

Speaker 3 You ready? Okay. All right.

Dean Pohlman: What’s one habit, belief, or mindset that has helped you the most with your overall health and wellness?

Alan S.: That it doesn’t have to be perfect in the beginning. Leave room for for growth.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Dean Pohlman: What’s one thing you do for your health that is overlooked or undervalued by others?

Speaker 3 Stretching.

Dean Pohlman: Stretching?

Speaker 3 Go figure.

Dean Pohlman: What’s the what’s the most stressful part of your day to day life?

Alan S.: I would say fear of the unknown. Yeah, I and I’ll explain that as my my day can be so out of my control. It isn’t funny. Like I said before, I could be stuck in LA traffic and not be able to to get there and not being able to control that. The something that’s going to happen out there in the, in the future is beyond me.

Alan S.: So I need to remember I don’t have to be in control of it all the time. So there is going to be fear of the unknown. But it’s a healthy fear. You don’t. You’re going to be able to problem solve and figure it out, and you’re going to be just fine.

Speaker 3 Cool.

Dean Pohlman: And then what is your best piece of advice for men who want to be healthier?

Alan S.: Stop making excuses and making it harder than it is. Just embrace it. If you want to be healthier, you’ll be healthier and and just move forward with it. Take that first step, get a yoga mat and put the yoga mat down in one step at a time. Whatever it is, if you want to start weight training, start with one exercise or one weight at a time.

Alan S.: It’s going to come. Don’t be. Don’t overthink it. Just just start. Start somewhere. Start anywhere and ask somebody for help. Don’t be afraid to ask anyone for help. There’s always somebody that’s out there that’ll be able to help. You can find someone.

Dean Pohlman: Great advice. All right, well, Alan, I want to thank you again for joining me on the betterment podcast. Thank you for all that you do for our community. I really appreciate it. I’d say this to everyone who comes on the podcast, who is one of those people who is super active, but it does really make a difference. So thank you for all that you do for the community.

Alan S.: Absolutely. And thank you, Dean.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Dean Pohlman: All right. Well guys listening in, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you enjoyed this interview with Alan. I hope it inspires you to be a better man. And I will see you on the next episode. All right, guys, I hope you enjoyed that interview. If you want to see more or anything we mentioned in the podcast, check out the show notes.

Dean Pohlman: If you’re enjoying this podcast, I encourage you to leave a review wherever you’re listening. If you’re curious about joining the Manifold Yoga community or learning more about that, we do have a free seven day trial at.

Dean Pohlman: We also have a free seven day challenge, which you can use to see if you actually like the workouts, because if you don’t like the workouts, then you probably won’t like the everything else and you can check that out for free. No email, no sorry, no credit card required at Manifold Yoga DC link for that also in the description below here.

Dean Pohlman: All right guys, I hope you’re enjoying this podcast. More member interviews to come. More expert interviews to come. Check out all the different interviews we’ve done in the past. There’s a ton of great stuff in here and I hope it’s inspiring you. I hope it’s helping you. Hope it inspires you to be a better man. I’ll see you guys on the next episode.

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