Feel the Burn
Power yoga is the Western world’s take on the spiritual practice that originated thousands of years ago. Originating in the 1990s, power yoga has now become a staple in gym classes around the country, making the practice of yoga mainstream.
Power Yoga Origins
Power yoga stems from the style and philosophies of Ashtange yoga, According to healthyoga.com it was Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, a renowned Sanskrit scholar who inspired the Western world’s yogis with Ashtange. However, the term power yoga was created the another Ashtange yoga teacher Beryl Bendere Birch, who is the author of “Power Yoga: the Practice.”
What is Power Yoga
Power yoga focuses on the building strength and flexibility through basic yoga poses. It is typically a faster paced than other practices, but is easily modified for beginners.
- Power yoga uses basic yoga poses from practices like Bikram and Ashtange, which both offer an energetic workout with a progression of challenging poses for all levels.
- Vinyasa is used in power yoga. Vinyasa is the use of breaths that are synchronized with movement.
- Power yoga encourages the correct form of yoga poses, it also requires the poses to be held for long periods of time. This helps improve flexibility as well as endurance.
Benefits of Power Yoga
Power yoga like all practices of yoga has a long list of benefits, but power yoga gives focus to key benefits.
- Power yoga increases strength by using the weight of your body, while also improving endurance by quick flowing movements and maintaining poses for longer periods of time.
- Flexibility is increased through the range of movements that stretch and elongate your muscles.
- As with other types of yoga, power yoga helps with the ability to focus, but it can be more challenging than other yoga practices as the focus is on simultaneous breathing and movement.
- Yoga, being a full body workout, helps to tone every part of the body.
- Through meditation and controlled movement anxiety and tension is relieved.
- Power yoga improves the core muscles which helps to improve posture.
- Many athletes use yoga for training purposes as it helps strengthen muscles and joints. This makes athletes less prone to injury. Many surfers, swimmers, cyclist, and football players practice power yoga.
Yoga for All Ages
Power yoga, like many other practices of yoga, can be done at almost any age, as modifications are offered with every pose. This makes power yoga a great workout no matter how long you have practiced. After leaving a power yoga class you will feel more in tune with your mind, body, and spirit, as power yoga classes focus on coordinating all elements of the practice.
