I think it is interesting that there are different ways to do yoga. It is great that yoga can adapt to whatever you like. Say, you like hip-hop, you can do hip-hop yoga, which suites your interest in yoga and hip-hop. It is also cool that you can do yoga in the water, such as paddle board yoga. I think I would want to try yoga in the water because it seems very relaxing. I have never taken a yoga class before, but I plan on taking one during Fall 2013 semester at my school.
April 13, 2013
The bendy brilliance attained by practicing yoga regularly has become a treasure sought after by many Americans. Hindu monks brought the 5,000-year-old practice to the West in the late 19th century, and by the mid-1980s, yoga was heralded as a way to cultivate strength, mindfulness and calm. And as yoga has gained popularity, newfangled ways of practicing have emerged.
Love the ocean? Had a few too many Appletinis last night? Want to be surrounded by "bro" energy? There's a yoga class for you.
It seems only natural that people who practice yoga will combine it with other interests.
"Yoga is constantly evolving," said Kaitlin Quistgaard, editor in chief of Yoga Journal. "Variety gives people an opportunity to approach yoga from different perspectives."
Here's a look at a few bends and twists from traditional yoga.
Hip-hop yoga
Want to hold side crow to some classic Notorious B.I.G.? At YogaHop, with studios in Santa Monica and Pasadena, you can do just that.
Blaring hip-hop, rock and pop music combine with a high-energy vinyasa flow practice. With a lightning bolt as its logo and brightly colored walls and TV screens, the studio is not what one might imagine as the neighborhood yoga class.
Nevertheless, co-owner Matthew Reyes, 44, has practiced yoga for 15 years, but he has taught spinning to booming pump-it-up music. He began to wonder, "How can I make a class so efficient that it has an element of all of these things?"
Six years ago, Reyes founded YogaHop, a practice that combines traditional poses, mainstream music and an intense workout.
Dian Evans, a family nurse practitioner and clinical assistant professor at Emory School of Medicine's School of Nursingwho has studied the influence of yoga on chronic back pain, wondered about the collision of hip-hop and yoga.
"It's fun to move your breath with sound, but I don't know how you can be doing yoga to hip-hop music and breathe in a controlled fashion," Evans said.
But Reyes countered that the end goal for all types of yoga is the same. "Yoga is a big tree with many branches. All the branches have something to offer. Our yoga and a traditional type of yoga all get to the same finish line; we just get there in a dynamic and fun way."
Paddle board yoga
Stand-up paddle boarding has grown exponentially popular in recent years. So why not try some yoga while balancing on a paddle board? That was Sarah Tiefenthaler's logic after taking her yoga-teaching course in Costa Rica and getting introduced to paddle boarding soon after her certification.
"I took the board out every week, and I just started putting together sequences while on the board," said Tiefenthaler, 30, of Los Angeles.
YOGAqua was soon born.
Tiefenthaler said the practice starts off slow, and the class is always held in calm waters. Students have about half an hour to get acquainted with the water and their board, and then their boards are anchored, so there is no worry that they will float away during the class. People shouldn't hesitate to try the class if they've never been on the board, she said. They'll catch on.
The practice works the core muscles even more than a typical practice because of the need to balance and stabilize, said Tiefenthaler.
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