Carol Pope wants everyone to feel like royalty.
The founder of Oxy Fitness, 2682 S. Highland Drive, Suite 103, has developed a five-step fitness program based on natural health principles — information formerly available only to the well-to-do.
"These five principles I teach have lasted through millenniums of time," Pope said. "They are ancient secrets that aren't secrets anymore. The royals had all this information back in ancient days. It was saved for kings and queens and hierarchy. The peasants and the po' folks didn't get the information. They couldn't read, and it was not passed on to them. Now it's available to everybody."
The principles are focused on the proper techniques for breathing — diaphragmic breathing. "Oxygen is like a panacea for health," Pope said. "Oxygen affects every system in the body."
Breathing properly is the first step of the program. Pope cites a study that indicates many health problems stem from people using only 5 percent of their lung capacity.
"We take it for granted that we'll breathe. We don't have to think about it. But when people practice and get thinking consciously about intentionally taking in a breath and exhaling as much as they can, deeply, it's remarkable," she said. "You say to people, 'Take a nice, big, deep breath' and they raise their shoulders. They don't know how to use their abdomen and take a nice diaphragmic breath."
Pope believes proper breathing serves as both a physical and emotional cleanser. It can serve to correct bad posture, burn more calories and allow greater flexibility, she said.
Other steps in the program involve moving, cleansing, nourishing and lightening up.
Moving involves many things, such as taking stairs instead of an elevator. The cleansing component is a detoxification of the body involving an all-natural herbal formula for the physical side and ridding one's self of clutter — both physical and emotional — to help the mental side.
Nourishment includes learning how to shop for and buy foods with enzymes and nutrients to help the body rebuild and regenerate itself, as well as getting rid of negative thoughts as a way of nourishing the mind. Lightening up allows the client to stop taking things so seriously, to laugh and to let go.
"That has a ripple effect in the world," Pope said. "Everyone is affected by someone who is light and easy, the same way they are affected by someone depressed or burdened."
The initial level of 10 one-on-one sessions costs $750, with a higher level of 10 costing $600.
The Freedom for Life program has proved popular with people wanting to avoid "the yo-yo thing," she said. "They would diet and get fat, then diet and get fat, then diet and get fat. They now are individuals ready to take on a lifestyle change that they can incorporate the rest of their life. The principles we teach are so practical that when they are mastered, they're free. They don't have to do the yo-yo thing. It's an ongoing thing."
It's been an ongoing thing for Pope for years. A classical soprano who performed with symphonies, opera companies and theater groups, she got advice from a vocal training teacher at age 26 who suggested Pope develop her breath capacity. "That led me into the whole world of natural health and wellness," she said.
Eventually, other performers noticed her healthiness and wanted to know her secrets. They got great results when Pope shared them. And in 1999 she went through a divorce and needed a way to take care of herself. "I found that that was my gift and my talent and decided to create a business around it," she said.
Oxy Fitness was organized in 2001 and incorporated in 2002. She has since remarried to Dr. Robert Pope, a chiropractic physician who also incorporates elements of the Freedom for Life program in his practice.
Carol Pope, a mother of five, stepmother of five and a new grandmother, has breathed such life into her company that she will sell shares in it, prompted by potential investors' excitement over the concepts. She envisions Oxy Fitness centers springing up across the country, bringing weight loss and other physical and emotional benefits to people with an open mind.
"They really get it on more than just a physical level. The physical body cannot be separated from the mental, emotional and spiritual body," Pope said. "It's like fire. You can't take the burn out of fire. You can't take the heat out of fire. You can't take the light out of fire. They're all components of fire. We have to address the emotional and mental areas or else the physical body doesn't manifest the results we want it to manifest."
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com