From DETAILS (December 2011)
By Joseph Hooper
Photographs by Eric Ray Davidson

Adam Levine gets thrown from a fire escape and flipped over by cars, has his head slammed repeatedly against a door, and generally gets a solid ass-kicking—all at the hands of a beautiful, manic temptress. But what really catches the eye in the video for Maroon 5’s Misery is Levine’s muscular yet catlike physique.

The 32-year-old singer, who is also a judge on NBC’s The Voice, owes that body to a mix-and-match yoga regimen he practices at home, at the recording studio, and on the road. “At any Maroon 5 concert, you’ll see a room backstage marked yoga,” he says.

Living the plugged-in celebrity life in Los Angeles, Levine was aware of the yoga scene but initially kept his distance, turned off by what he calls “the cheesy clichés.” But he began to worry that his gym routine was a dead end, hurting more than it helped: “Weights made my neck thick, and I would be like, ‘I’m turning into a monster!’” As he grew increasingly frustrated by lower-back pain and tight hips and hamstrings, he decided to give yoga a try. That was five years ago, and Levine hasn’t lifted a weight or entered a gym since. “Yoga takes what you have and molds and sculpts it, which is a much more natural way to look and feel,” he says.

Credit Levine with a refreshing candor about the aesthetic payoff: “I don’t like how people bullshit about how yoga is not about vanity.” Not that he doesn’t appreciate the spiritual benefits—Levine sees his routines as a therapeutic antidote to the distortions of his career. “Playing a show before thousands of people is a highly unnatural state,” he says, “and when I get on the mat to do an hour of yoga before the show, I come out physically relaxed.”

The man behind Levine’s transformation is veteran New York City yoga instructor Chad Dennis. At a friend’s suggestion, Levine met him for a session, and within months Dennis was traveling with Maroon 5. On tour, he puts Levine through daily routines that draw from a variety of yoga schools. Sometimes the poses are slow and repetitive: “For me, that’s a form of meditation,” Levine says. Other times they are muscle-quiveringly difficult: “He’ll take me on a friggin’ obstacle course of yoga.” All of it, he says, adds up to “an investment in happiness for the rest of my life.”

Adam Levine’s three essential poses:

	1. Headstand I: Levine is a fan of this Sirsasana pose because it generates a good sweat and takes an intense amount of concentration to avoid falling over.
	2. Half-moon with hands in prayer: Levine has worked on this pose to open up his chronically tight hips.
	3. One-Legged Koundinyasana II: All the weight is supported by the arms, so it’s a great way to strengthen your chest and shoulders.

For more tips from Levine, watch this video:

Full article HERE

This cute song from a Malaysian sweetheart makes me wanna get on my mat and just ‘fall all over’ for 4-minutes!

P.S. Jatuh means ‘falling’ in my beautiful language, in case some of my readers didn’t get me

Anyone else has seen the last episode of Entourage?

How was T-H-A-T
as the finale of final ever season of
your favourite TV show!

*Standing ovation to Mark Wahlberg!*

Photo by Claudette Barius for HBO

Farewell to my favourite glimpse of glam Hollywood life,
to the most brilliant character ever created for TV (Ari Gold),
and to happily ever after.

Here’s to hoping that Entourage the movie will be better than the Sex and the City movies.
Or.. the second one at least.

I’ve never really been a big fan of American Idol but I do somehow have my favourite (not necessarily winners) contestants over 10 years of AI.

1. Chris Daughtry
2. David Cook
3. Elliot Yamin

(notice my obvious pattern of guitar-playing and scruffy-looking rockstar in the making? LOL)

For this year’s AI, if I could have (or more, WOULD have) voted,
no disrespect to Scotty and whoever wins tomorrow
but Lauren’s got me at “I could stay awake..”

Tell me if Thom Yorke’s NOT high on yoga while writing Lotus Flower ( Padma no Sana ? ) and while shooting the single’s music video

And for an album titled The Kings of Limbs,
(digital download & paperback pre-order is available HERE,
region dependant & cookies-enabled required though)
it’s a dead (body ;D) giveaway.

With my lotus feet & forehead kissing the earth, welcome back Radiohead!