R Healthy Lifestyle
enaissance Man
A LIFE-SPECIFIC APPROACH TO HEALTH, FITNESS AND HAPPINESS ARTICLE JORDAN LEBOWITZ | PHOTOGRAPHY COLLEEN KELLY
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t’s difficult to assign a title or term to the professional position Sky Van Horn has created for himself. What do you call an expert that integrates more than 15 years of experience in Thai medicine, Chinese medicine, massage, yoga, martial arts and functional fitness? You could call him an excellent opportunity to reach new personal heights. As owner/operator of Element 6, a holistic health and fitness company, Sky acts as a specialist of sorts. Not as a teacher in one particular discipline, but rather he is a holistic teacher in the true sense of the word. The combination of each tool in Van Horn’s repertoire, used with discretion towards an individual’s needs, crafts an immeasurable learning experience through his truly unique knowledge base.
ELEMENT 6
“Can we improve upon our perfection? I think we all can!” Element 6 – which refers to the six essential elements of the human body - doesn’t just offer fitness regiments, acupuncture and massage sessions. Van Horn’s approach is really about incorporating all aspects of life into your conscious decision making and choosing a more advantageous way of going about each facet. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY - ASKING THE TOUGH QUESTIONS
Van Horn believes, “We are where we are because of the choices we’ve made.” Every client is asked to answer a few questions at the beginning of their program. Most questions revolve around goal setting in regards to mind, body and spirit. The question that truly scares people is the same question that has the potential to garner the greatest results. That question is: “Where are you hiding in your life? Where are 70
Boulder Lifestyle | April 2015
you not fully present? If you put energy there, could you achieve your goals?” Van Horn says, “These are questions people don’t ask a lot…I really don’t care!” FUNCTIONAL FITNESS
“Putting your foot behind your head isn’t functional in any way.” Van Horn develops fitness routines that are both sport and life specific. Sport specific routines revolve around enhancing what an athlete is already doing and focuses on the range of motion and muscle groups that are most prevalent in that activity. Beyond that, creating more space in the body to allow greater flexibility is key and applies to any sport and any life. Life specific fitness is designed to enable us to live our life as we want to rather than have decisions be dictated by injuries or poor range of motion. Life specific training is what allows the dad with a bad back to play catch with his son. TO EACH THEIR OWN
“Each person pulls what they need from me,” says Van Horn. Authenticity can be hard to find. Everywhere we go people have pre-set statements, sales pitches, processes and procedures. Finding SKY VAN HORN L.AC., a practice that makes no preconLMT, FUNCTIONAL ceived judgments about what you Fitness Coach need and why you need it is special. Element 6 Van Horn’s only goal for his 720.989.1513 clients is to, “upgrade and uplift sky@element6boulder.com to get fit, be healthy, and live a SkyVanhorn.com life you love!”