As anyone who has ever carried a case of wine from a winery or store out to the car, then you know one thing for sure, and that is that a case of wine is not a light little object to tote around. In fact, each 12-bottle case weighs 40 pounds or more (a case of sparkling wine is the heaviest), so when you are talking about moving around over a million cases you are talking about some serious weight issues here. Yet that is what the Wine Service Co-Op in St. Helena and Napa does, serving the needs of wineries both large and small as a central storage location.

While fork lifts take on the majority of the heavy lifting, there is still plenty of hands-on involvement by the warehouse workers at the sprawling facility at the southern end of St. Helena (the slightly smaller South Napa facility is near the airport). And unlike moving boxes of shoes, shirts or wrapped stacks of magazines around, the contents of many of the cartons they manipulate can easily run more than $1,000 a case. And unlike shoes or magazines, the contents of these cases can break. It is not a situation that any warehouse manager or winery owner likes to contemplate.

"We noticed that it was in the morning when people were getting hurt, sometimes badly enough that they had to go home before the end of the day," said Art Young, warehouse manager of the Co-op.

Ten years ago, Young -- at the direction of his physician -- was seeing Wil Anderson, owner of the Veranda Club Spa in Yountville. They talked about Young's work situation and Anderson explained the benefits of what is called "Arica Psycho-Calisthenics." At that time, he had been a practitioner of it for 22 years and taught it for 20.

Developed 35 years ago by Oscar Ichazo, a Bolivian teacher and author, it is now used around the world and its founder has been honored by institutions and organizations across the globe.

"The reality of the situation is that it takes people's bodies three hours to really wake up if you don't provide it with the right exercises," Anderson said. "What Arica P-Cal does is provide those exercises in a very short period of time in a very effective manner."

At the Co-op these exercise sessions are held first thing every day. They last just 15 minutes and everyone participates, from warehouse workers to managers, and in the last three months the women who work in the office have joined in as well. There are no aerobic outfits, special shoes, mats, weights or machinery. It is simply a carefully orchestrated series or progression of movements that prepare your body for the day ahead.

"It is all built around breathing," Anderson said as he demonstrated one of the movements. "The breath bridges the mind and the body, and there is no movement that we do that does not acknowledge breathing.

"It is based on what some people call 'chi' or 'bio-energy.' ... No matter what you call it, the end result is harmony and it improves the quality of your efforts in everything that you do."

At the Co-op this means greater alertness, fewer pulled muscles, a generally safer and healthier working environment overall. But does that sound a little bit too New Age. Then just look at the bottom line.

"We're paying the lowest workers' compensation premium possible," Young said. "If you don't have accidents in our type of business that is what happens, you pay the lowest premium. It's black and white. And I know for a fact that there are a whole lot of warehouse facilities, as well as wineries around here, that are paying much higher premiums than we are."

"Wine Service Cooperative is taking a positive and pro-active approach to their safety program," added Mary Fortune, a senior loss control consultant for the State Compensation Insurance Fund who is familiar with the program currently in place at the company. "In fact, they are a doing a great job with their safety program in general."

A couple of concerns business owners might have is how enthusiastic their workers will be about a 15-minute exercise session every morning, and how long will it take to get results.

"It wasn't tough to get started, not tough at all," Anderson said. "Everyone was enthusiastic from the start, very enthusiastic, and that was due in large part to Art."

Four or five days a week Young leads the sessions in St. Helena, while Dave Deming, his counterpart at the south Napa facility, does likewise. Anderson checks in periodically to make sure things stay consistent.

And as to the speed at which results from the program become apparent and quantifiable? "We began to notice the benefits immediately," Young said, thinking back almost a decade to when Arica P-Cal became an everyday part of life at the Wine Service Co-op.

"The beauty of this is that you can do it anywhere, even when you travel," Anderson said. Which means workers can keep up their daily regimen even when they are not at work. And for those not involved through the workplace it means an exercise program that is completely portable.

As frequent traveler, Margrit Mondavi said of Arica recently:,"It's almost effortless. Doing these exercises every morning makes me feel good for the rest of the day."

Which goes to point out that you don't have to have a business or workers' compensation payments to reap the benefits of the program. Anderson, who opened the Veranda Spa in 1987, offers what he refers to as a day-long "Arica P-Cal Experience."

Either way, the results are pretty impressive, whether your goal is to improve the bottom line of your business, or to just start the day faster, better and healthier without having to leave your own home.