Jason Alan Griffin :: The Blog

One of the best things you can do for your long-term health is to create a brief daily ritual of self care. It should be something that allows your breath, body and mind to move toward a place of comfort and relaxation. One example of such a routine is this: Place a blanket on the floor and sit on it. Breathe slowly and deeply while performing the following movements. Rotate the right ankle a few times in each direction and then repeat with the other ankle. Bend the right knee, bringing your heel toward your buttocks and then extend the leg again. Repeat a few times on each leg. Sitting tall, with your arms and legs outstretched, touch the outside of your left leg with the back of your right hand and look over your left shoulder, gently rotating your spine. Then switch sides and slowly rotate back and forth a few times. Sit tall again. Lower your chin to your chest and then look up toward the ceiling. Repeat a few times. Lay flat on your back and then tense all of your muscles so t...

I recently got this email from one of my clients and I wanted to share his story. Jason, My experience with you has been extraordinary for me...for you it's basic and fundamental...but for me it's beyond belief how much I have changed from just a few exercises..and really not many, because I am too easy on myself most of the time..and diet changes of course. Before Christmas I was 202 pounds of pure fat...I am now 174 pounds . ..and also FYI..everyone ..even the waitress at an Irish pub where I always eat once a week and used to drink also..but now have iced tea (sugarless of course)..said just tonight.."you look terrific...you have lost all your bloat..your face has changed dramatically...and my wifes best friend who is the epitome of a bitch..said "i was worried about you..even though I didnt say anything...u were so heavy and getting fatter and had no exercise...and I was glad when u said u were going to a trainer but I didnt have much faith ...BUT now look at u..y...

Probably one of the most common questions I get as a fitness expert is “what should I be eating?” It makes sense to me that people don’t know what to eat because there is an abundance of available foods and so much conflicting information out there. Interestingly enough, it seems to me like many people do actually know what they should be eating, but don’t do it because they don’t know how to incorporate it into their lifestyle in a way that works for them or they just simply aren’t willing to change their lifestyle. Another reason for the confusion is that there are plenty of big, powerful entities out there who are dedicated to keeping us ill-informed. For example, snack food companies need to keep us confused about fat and sugar. If we were well informed, we’d buy a lot less of their junk. And “health food” companies need to keep us confused about what is and isn’t healthy in order to sell their products. A quick example is “Wheat Flour” listed on the label. Guess what? Your...

Second to air, water is the most important nutrient for your body.  Whereas you could go months, or maybe years without many of your body’s important nutrients, you would be dead in a few days without water.  Everyone who hasn’t been living under a rock has heard something to the effect that you should be drinking “Eight glasses a day.”  But still, most people don’t.   I’m not saying that you should necessarily drink that much water, but you should certainly be drinking enough. Most of us are walking around in a chronic state of mild dehydration and don’t even realize it.  Check out this website to find out how much water you should be drinking. When figuring your water intake needs, keep in mind that water sources include drinking water and also certain foods and other beverages, so an individual with a healthy diet can assume they are getting about 20% percent of their water needs from their diet. Do not consider soda, coffee, alcohol, and black teas to be good sources of water beca...

I had to wake up at about 4am to be sure I had enough time to shower, shave and make and eat my breakfast and be at the corner of 11th Ave and 47th St. looking to be picked up in a van and driven to a golf course in Yonkers by sunrise. My job for the day was another modeling gig, but this time I had the opportunity to incorporate another interest of mine; yoga.  I was hired to do some yoga poses on a golf course for an article set to appear in a future issue of Golf Digest about how doing yoga can improve your golf game. They started me right off right with a crow pose. And I held it for a LOOOONG time while they focused, set light levels, fussed with my clothes and made sure every blade of grass was facing the right way. Through out the course of the day I only did about four poses.  The hardest was the headstand.  Not usually a terribly hard pose for me, but they had me holding the flag in one hand and only using one arm to support my headstand! Ouch.   I needed a massage after this....

The Angelo Musco shoot was a blast, even though it did start raining and actually get pretty cold for a few minutes.  It was fun to play around in the chrome bottomed pool on top of an eleven story downtown building.  It was almost a shame that the photos were only of the underwater environment because the view from the pool was breathtaking.  The edge of the pool disappeared over the edge of the building and it seemed like you were sitting in a pool of water magically floating amongst the downtown high-rise landscape.  The sky was a steel grey and a light rain left droplets on the pools surface as we got our instructions: 1-float around, making shapes with our bodies. 2-don't make "underwater / holding breath" expressions 3-interact with the other bodies 4-entice the camera to join you He plans to use all of the images he took to wallpaper the inside of a gallery giving the viewer the impression that he/she is underwater and being beckoned to enter further into t...

About four years ago I was contacted by an artist's agent in Santa Monica.  He had seen my website where I used to have a large collection of nude photography modeling I had done. The agent told me that the artist, Don Bachardy, was interested in hiring me as a model for his painting.  He dropped the artist's name like it was someone I should have heard of -- but I hadn't.  I Googled him and found that he was a well known, established artist and one-time lover of Christopher Isherwood.  He has painted portraits of such people as Mr Isherwood, of course, as well as Lillian Hellman, Tennessee Williams, W. H. Auden, E. M. Forester, and Igor Stravinsky.  This is a sample of his style.  And also a sample of the type of work he did with me.  Although this is NOT me.  He didn't let me have any copies of his work and this was what I could find on the Internet to give you a feel for his work. I agreed to pose for him. I was flown to LA, put up in a Four...