I thought, no problem, I’ve done a lot of yoga, and even a lot of weird yoga. In fact, it would be a good addition to my repertoire, since I’ve never done yoga suspended in a large swath of orange silk.

Watch a video of it here: Anti Gravity Yoga at Om Factory

It was a lot of fun tumbling around in the hammock of fabric, twirling upside down, and swinging my body back and forth in some very creative interpretation of yoga poses (could you really call “that” triangle?).

It also stimulated a lot of abdominal and leg muscles I never knew I had since I was sore the next day. And sometimes it was scary. Falling backwards into the silk required a huge amount of trust—like standing on the high diving board as a little kid and praying that the water really would be there after I jumped.

In April, the NYTimes launched “Gym Class” as part of their Well column and video series, and Anti-Gravity Yoga was the first subject in their “interesting class that you were too intimidated to try” roster. According to the article,

AntiGravity Yoga was developed by Christopher Harrison, a former aerial acrobat and gymnast who found traditional yoga too hard on his injured wrists. The weightless poses can be used to strengthen the core as well as relieve aching joints and stretch tight muscles.

Or, as one commentator on the Gym Class blog said, “Wow! So this is what life is like when one has excessive disposable income….”

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Today I learned that Naked Yoga NYC: Asana Exposed has been offering a full schedule of classes since January 2008 at a secret location in midtown Manhattan. “Sensual shaman” Isis Phoenix leads the way.

“This liberating practice began in May 2007 and due to increased popularity has opened its own sacred sanctuary Phoenix Temple in midtown Manhattan, an urban celebration for the holy body and sensual spirit founded January 2008. ”

Yes, these naked classes are co-ed.

“We are reclaiming and celebrating our bodies,” said Phoenix, who starts each class with a disrobing ceremony,” as reported in the New York Post last summer.

“The first 10 minutes of class for anyone who is new, there’s always a sense of trepidation,” said Phoenix. “It dissolves very quickly.”

You can take group classes or privates with any of the luscious ladies who staff Naked Yoga NYC. In group classes, choose from a menu of erotically-named sessions: “Sensual Candlelit Nude Yoga,” “Bare Energy Yoga,” “Naked Yoga Basics,” “Basin of Power: Goddess Pelvis Ritual for Women” or “Chakra Intensive: Lovers’ Workout.”

Not being a nudist myself, I have a hard time understanding how yoga gets better sans clothes.  Isn’t it just….messier and more distracting? As the center acknowledges on their FAQ page, things do “come up.”

“Erections come up and go down and are part of being a fully functional being and living in a body. No part of the body is ever shamed or discouraged. Part of this practice is about healing and removing shame and guilt from all areas of our body and accepting the beauty of the body in the totality of expression. Bodies are honored in all shapes, sizes and energetic flows.”

No touching, no late entry, no early departure.

And no giggling.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Yesterday in Central Park under changeable skies, the New York chapter of Laughter Yoga celebrated World Laughter Day. Who knew?

According to World Yoga Day’s web site laughter, “directly impacts one’s electro-magnetic field and creates a positive aura around that person. When a group of individuals laugh together, they create a collective community aura.”

Back in New York, the New York Daily News reports: “There’s certain things you can’t do while laughing: fighting, arguing, being mad.”  True!

“For two hours, the group convulsed with laughter, ignoring trivial problems like the economic crisis or the flu pandemic.” A good way to spend your time!

According to Wikipedia, after 11 years in existence, Laughter Yoga now has 6,000 clubs spread over 5 continents. Its originator, Dr. Madan Kataria, of Mumbai, India, says that laughter can unite the world and bring world peace.

Yeah–a lot better than a a bag of anthrax could. Laugh away!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Yesterday, a gorgeous, long-awaited spring day, Bay Ridge, NY’s Ivy Bakery held a cupcake eating contest. Who won? A yoga teacher! How did she do it? Discipline! Focus! Metabolism!

image: Pace for News. The New York Daily News reports:

“Nancy Cummings, the first-place winner, said that her role as a yoga instructor gave her what it took to be the champion.

“I am disciplined and focused and I can digest them faster,” said the slender 31-year-old brunette from Bay Ridge, who dipped each little chocolate cake into a glass of water before shoving it whole into her mouth.”

Yoga mama, you are all that and then some. Love the dipping strategy. Raccoon-like!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

But a friendly note from Yoga Buzz online editor Erica Rodefer clarified that it was just a coincidence. Great blogging minds thinking alike etc etc. Okay, that’s cool.

However, it quickly became clear that I had sensed the future (putting my yogic skills to work!).

On Wednesday, April 15, Time Magazine’s article on Yoga and Psychotherpay cited many of my sources and clearly drew from the story structure of the piece I wrote for GAIA Magazine in November 2008!!! ACK!

Read and compare:  Mine and Theirs Too close for comfort? I thought so.

I’m flattered to be imitated but this goes too far.

For now, my complaint has reached the Time Mag health editor and I hope to hear her update on the situation this week. If journalists don’t take pains to avoid stepping on each other’s toes, what are we doing exactly?

[UPDATE: Moving on from the toxicity of the situation, I edited the original post. After the sting faded, there were some interesting meta questions embedded here: journalistically speaking, must mainstream trendspotting rely so heavily on the legwork of others? As a friend pointed out, at what point does one venue's coverage become a stolen idea for another venue? Also implicit here is the question of what happens when yoga bounces into the mainstream? No longer rarified, what are the parameters of representation? To be continued...]

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Of course, it’s a traffic-driving spoof to get a younger demographic on to the magazine’s site. It’s also an ad for the 5-part web series on Odgen at the helm at YJ. View the laugh-out-loud trailer here:

Beginning last Wednesday, the first episode of the series is available on the YJ Web site. See episode 1 here. ( See episode 2 here!)

Notable excerpts from the YJ press release: ”Tough times demand creative solutions. In a surprise move that is already rocking the magazine industry, Yoga Journal Magazine announces it has hired Ogden, also known as “The Inappropriate Yoga Guy,” as its new editor.

Ogden, the YouTube sensation, already has millions of fans who have watched him bumble his way though yoga classes, offending his female classmates and annoying those around him.”

Anyone who can dream up the cover line ‘Yoga and Knives: What Took Us So Long?’ is truly a publishing genius,” says Patricia Fox, Yoga Journal’s General Manager.

“It’s no secret that in this economy, magazines have taken a hit. We are certain that Ogden’s unique character and consistent record of thinking outside the box will not only increase revenue, but also bring tens of thousands of new users and readers to our website and magazine.”

With Ogden’s high-jinx now front and center on the ultra-yoga corp’s site, maybe we’ll see a jump in the number of dudes doing yoga. Or, ahem, checking it out.

(FYI about 700,000 more men were practicing yoga in 2008 compared to 2004, according to—you guessed it—Yoga Journal’s own demographic studies.)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

A recent trendlet in Bon Jovi yoga shows this beautifully. Below, a JBJ yoga chant option thanks to Sadie Nardini, a Brooklyn rocker yogini who teaches in Manhattan and podcasts regularly about yoga. Love the East-Village-of-yore spirit in this video:

What does Bon Jovi think about this? According to Contact Music, Bon Jovi’s all for yoga. In November 2007 he said, ”I’m going to do yoga. I went for my first time, and I enjoyed it. I’m a 21st century man.”

What do other yogis think? According to Rodale’s (magazine chain) yoga site iYogaLife, Bon Jovi is a natural.

“We don’t usually take life lessons from Jon Bon Jovi,” says the writer of “Yoga Cures: The Blues,” “but he was onto some yogic philosophy with his song “It’s My Life”[NICE 80s bods'n'hair in the video, by the way]—where he sings that the key to happiness is a heart “like an open highway.”

“Studies show that sudden emotional stress can release hormones that prevent the heart from pumping normally. Even watching a sad movie can reduce arterial blood flow, according to a study reported recently in the journal Heart.”

There you have it, folks: chanting along (or singing, yelling, yodeling or screeching) to JBJ can help increase arterial blood flow. Like, livin’ on a prayer or what.

For more on humor and yoga classes see the NYTimes’ article from New Year’s Eve 2008, “The Enlightened Path, With a Rubber Duck.” 

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Michele writes: “Don was a first time student who got hooked and now leads the entire construction crew in yoga every morning for their mandated stretches. Don is in good physical shape to begin with; his summer project was to rollerblade from Seattle to NYC. Not sure if he made it the whole way…”

Below, at the South Pole gym: staff in standing forward bend. Padded bums ahoy! 

(photo care of South Pole station staff) 

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

“Be the best maverick you can be with the warrior poses.”

As published in the Huffington Post. 

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

She writes that this romantic comedy “explores gay relationships with low-budget verve” and has “good-natured raunchiness–a nude yoga class is particularly diverting–that’s explicit but never sleazy.”

Nude yoga class on film, hmmm. Easier than checking it out in person.

Directed by Casper Andreas.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites