All dressed down with nowhere to go, several slimy Georgia Tech players the other day took it in the chops — and glutes, pecs and quads — with sweat pouring, muscles screaming and hearts pounding as Diamond Dallas Page yelled: "Do you own Notre Dame or what?"
It wasn't quite a hardy retort as they countered with a collective gurgle that approximated, "Yes!"

When entrenched in "Yoga for Regular Guys," nothing's easy. And when Page, a former world champion professional wrestler, shows up to drill Tech's weekly class, it's like boot camp. Given a choice, blacking out might rank ahead of yelling back.
"I know you're going to kick Notre Dame's [hint: he didn't say leprechauns]!" bellowed the freakishly lithe Page, a 50-year-old human cable.
Here, he ordered, "extended side angle, position one." Cue the moaning and groaning, as the faces of quarterback Reggie Ball, cornerback Kenny Scott, safety Djay Jones and 15 others twisted into masks of agony.
Oh, the lengths to which the Jackets will stretch for any edge to send Notre Dame away yelping after the Irish visit Tech Sept. 2. If it's good enough for Steelers wide receiver and Super Bowl MVP Hines Ward, it's good on The Flats.
"It helps me with flexibility and relaxes the muscles," said defensive end Darrell Robertson. "But I hate the 'Downward Dog,' where you're on all fours and your butt's in the air."
The Downward Facing Dog is a position that epitomizes the vision of YRG co-founders Page and Dr. Craig Aaron. It's irregular, a kind of "commando yoga," Aaron said, in which the difference is more than new positions. There's also adding one's own muscle resistance — isometrics — to many maneuvers.
It leads to a lot of trembling dudes.
"We're engaging the muscles right onto the bones," said Aaron, who's also a licensed kinesiologist and chiropractor. "Yoga people have a tendency to look at what we do and say that's not really yoga. I say you're exactly right. Yoga is the foundation, but ... we have modified it into a better workout while using all the great things that yoga has to offer."
Heart rates can soar, at least one player reaching 153 beats per minute Wednesday.
"The reason I wanted to try it was to work on my flexibility," said Kansas City Chiefs linebacker and former Tech star Keyaron Fox, who was in town. "It's very demanding."
A business is born
When Page sought Aaron at age 42, they had no designs on a business partnership. It was about professional survival.
"I had a back injury ... I had to find some way to continue my dream," Page told current and former Tech players before Wednesday's session. "My wife said, 'Why not try yoga to heal your body?' I was the last guy to do that."
Starting safety Jamal Lewis believes.
"I play defensive back, and you need core strength and flexibility," Lewis said. "The more flexibility you have, the faster you are. I think from last year [when Aaron began working with the team] to this year, my core is much stronger ... and as far as flexibility, I'm able to move my hips more, open my hips faster [to turn and run]."
Aaron, who played college linebacker at LaFayette and Union in the 1980s, explained, "I won an audition [at Tech]. Paul Hewitt, who's one of the more progressive basketball coaches in the country, set out to find a yoga teacher — because Phil Jackson was doing that with the Bulls and Lakers — and he had one of his assistants call for referrals.
"Those who met the criteria met with the staff, and that's how we began. That was August of 2001. Then, the tennis teams wanted to know what it was all about, then golf, then football."
Gailey tried it once
James Butler, a rookie safety with the New York Giants last season after playing at Tech, was back Wednesday for more yoga.
Even coach Chan Gailey gave it a try. Once.
"He went through a session and came up to me afterward and said, 'I have never experienced anything like that in my life, " Aaron recalled.
Aaron (www.yoga-doc-.com), who also contracts with Tech for advanced one-on-one stretching sessions, has worked as a chiropractor, yoga instructor or both with Falcons Chauncey Davis, Bryan Randall and Wayne Gandy. Braves relief pitcher Tyler Yates has been a client, as have Orioles pitcher Kris Benson, Bills linebacker Takeo Spikes, Ravens running back Jamal Lewis, Ward and Raiders cornerback Tyrone Poole — all with local ties.
"Most of what I do with these guys is YRG because it seems to fit their needs," Aaron said. "You would think that athletes could perform normal yoga or YRG positions maybe to a level far beyond you and I, but they have a lot more resistance because they have a lot more muscle mass around joints."
And every Wednesday (Mondays during football season), Tech muscles protest.
Flexible at 50
"All right guys, fourth quarter, the last two minutes. It's here! This is where you win," Page screams. "Ten-nine-eight-seven ..."
The fingertip push-ups — done very, very slowly — gut the Jackets.
"Hey, guys, Notre Dame's not doing this," the Yoga Doc declares.
"Uggghhh!" is the response. Some players collapse. Others perch from knees rather than toes. Page plows onward, flawless in form.
Page earlier dropped to his knees, upper body upright to form an "L," then lay back, touching back to heels, and said, "Flexibility is youth. I'm 50, was hit by a car when I was 12, been thrown around like a rag doll, and here's my flexibility."
Veins bulging, Page turned to a shutterbug: "Photo op!"
The Jackets aren't looking to be in pictures. They want to win, and figure YRG may help by increasing flexibility, agility and possibly reducing the likelihood of injury through work on the body's core.
"The push-ups, they kill me. The standing on your fingertips, oh, man," Lewis said after a 50-minute session. "Some guys, friends or whatever, tease me. ... I just think about getting better on the field."