New York - As a model working in South Africa in the early 2000s,
Tracie Wright Vlaun started doing yoga along with her fitness regimen to
help her deal with the mental toll that the fashion industry can sometimes
inflict. “To let go of all the BS,” is how she put it. But she eventually
wanted something “less Om-chanty,” and set about to create a workout that would
blend poses into a more intense session.
By 2009,
she and her trainer husband Chris Vlaun had devised a regimen that
included entry-level yoga poses and bodyweight exercises grounded in the
“fundamentals of ancient movement art disciplines.” Aeroga, the name of
the duo’s high-energy workout offered at Florida’s St. Regis Bal Harbor Resort, is a
seamless mix of power-based calisthenics set to a choreographed playlist that
ranges among Adele, U2, Stevie Wonder, and Bach. It has taken off by word
of mouth, attracting Miami
tourists and a few athletes as well as the owners of the teams the athletes
play for. “It’s going to kick your ass,” Chris Vlaun said.
Hybrid
takes on vinyasa flow are the latest attempt to convince high net worth, Type-A
guys that spending 60 sweaty minutes stretching next to beautiful, scantily
clad women is a good idea. These riffs on the Indian art are more likely to
resemble boot camp-style workouts, and classes come with such names
as Hardcore Yoga, Core Power Yoga, and Cross Flow X, integrating elements
of weightlifting, martial arts, Spin, and boxing.
Read also: There's a Crossfit war being fought
At Set +
Flow, a fusion studio in the shadow of the Hollywood Heights in Los Angeles,
founder Eddie Guerra teaches a 60-minute heated class
called Cannonball Yoga Sculpt that combines yoga poses such
as Warrior 1 with kettle bell drills. “We gave it a catchy name
that lets people know it’s inviting to people who work out, maybe they do CrossFit,
but wouldn’t normally think of doing yoga postures to a hip-hop
beat," he said. “It’s a mashup.” Guerra said that kettle bell drills
coexist easily with yoga because the workout styles, based on
breath and movement, are similar.
Yoga + punching
BoxingYoga,
which started in London in 2012 and has since expanded to Amsterdam, Berlin,
San Francisco, and Johannesburg, uses a modified Ashtanga practice that
integrates boxing technique—think, low lunges with wider stances to improve
balance and mobility—with other Rocky-lite moves such as doing plank pose
on your knuckles. “It’s a very physical practice,” said co-founder Kajza
Ekberg, who has done private training with the Chelsea Football Club and
Saracens rugby team in England as well as Krav Maga, the self-defense
system developed for the Israel Defense Forces.
There are
actual punching bags at Box + Flow, which opened last November in downtown New York. The 50-minute
barefoot classes begin with shadowboxing warmups, then shift to sessions
on the bags with a high-energy Top 40 soundtrack, then a final session of yoga
postures that ends with breathing exercises and a savasana. “It’s yin and
yang, fire and water,” said founder Olivia Young, who trained for 10 years at
Church Street Boxing Gym and practiced yoga for 15 before starting her own
studio. “Yoga allowed me to open up and slow down. But I tend to be very
high-energy, and I needed something with more adrenaline.” She cautions,
however: “If you're looking to become the best boxer or the best yogi, this is
not the right class.”
Is it necessary?
Skeptics
abound, of course. Adam Vitolo, who teaches Iyengar classes for Pure Yoga
on New York’s Upper
East Side, said a yoga session, properly done, should deliver
a well-rounded workout by itself. “My perspective is that a lot of people
hurt themselves in those classes, then they come to my class and learn about
their bodies, then go back and are able to do them safely,” he said. Genny
Wilkinson Priest, who teaches at Triyoga in London, agreed but also acknowledged the
appeal of more physical workouts, especially for guys. “Yoga does have a
reputation of taking itself a little bit seriously,” she said. “And these
hybrids tend to be more focused on the physical. If you’re a runner, it's
great for hamstrings, and hopefully they remind people that there’s a spiritual
aspect,” she said.
“We got a
lot of 'haterade' at first,” said Chris Vlaun. “But for guys who are
making that billion-dollar deal, you can’t start off with the spiritual
stuff. We just try to get them to focus on their breath.” Guerra put
it another way. “This isn’t the only yoga you’re ever going to do. If you
are able to bring more awareness to your breath, body, and have compassion for
yourself, then why isn’t that yoga? It’s more contemporary, but that’s
what’s been going on since it came to America. It’s not
about whether we’re burning sage or playing esoteric music when you walk
into the class.”
BLOOMBERG