Don't Sit Up Straight

More info on cultivating an aligned back. From the NYTimes.

"The Claim: Sitting Up Straight is Best for Your Back"
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR

"Thirty years ago, scientists first showed this [that sitting up straight was bad for your back] by inserting needles into the backs of volunteers and measuring the amount of pressure created by various seating positions. They found that a reclining position was ideal, placing the least strain on the back and minimizing pressure that could lead to back problems. Since then, multiple studies have confirmed that finding."

Read the whole thing here.

Yoga for...

On Thursday, my article on "Yoga for Everything" appeared in Time Out New York (mysteriously titled "Goal Mate" by TONY).

On Friday, The New York Times ran this story, "Days of Wine and Yoga", about a yoga and wine workshop that's touring major US cities.

Hmmmmm, seems as journalists we're cementing a trend. (See what happened to the entrepreneur after she appeared in the Times.)

According to the Times, Yahoo.com is starting an entire "Yoga + " series that will pair yoga workshops with other kinds of learning and "indulgences." Yoga for chocolate is one.

I've watched some reactions to my little article. Yoga for dating raises eyebrows, but is by far the most talked about entry. Some people get indignant, some laugh, some are curious. The more sensible pairings, like yoga for running, or yoga for singers (after all, yoga tones the muscles of respiration and calms performance jitters) doesn't ruffle any feathers.

But what does yoga have to do with chocolate? Or wine?

I can see having a drink after a yoga class: when Go Yoga was still located in the Mini Mall, I used to enjoy stopping in at Uva Wines to taste the night's samplings.

But the Times shows yogis on their mats sipping wine. Mais, pourquoi? What benefit could there be from learning about wine in your gym clothes? (And possibly spilling it on the studio floor.) Is this a product of literal thinking or great marketing?

I think the answer is this: lifestyle.

Ahhh the fresh scent of the wave of the future.

Better Sex Through Yoga videos

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, "Better Sex Through Yoga" is a video series, created by Jacquie Noelle Greaux. I know it's ridiculous, but don't tell me you're not curious.

Didn't you used to think, vaguely, that yoga had something to do with sex? Back before you actually practiced it, of course. I think that association lingers, especially among men who don't practice. Fantasies of flexible women, you know...

In October 2006, Prevention.com ran an article on how yoga improves sex. Read it here: The Big O in OM. No one's watching.

New DVD: Yoga 4 Fellas with Trev the Yogic Builder: The Only Yoga Teacher who Can Drink Ten Pints.

Ailon Free was a yoga teacher for 20 years before getting into comedy. In this self-produced DVD, his character, Trev, "features yoga down the pub, in the motor, at the footie, with the missus and meditation for builders – each with up to eight poses adapted for everyday situations."

Trev will also help guys to "achieve the perfect builder's bum."

From the Brits, of course: Yoga 4 Fellas with Trev the Yogic Builder.

Bikram Yoga Championships Hit Britain, Olympics Could be Next Stop

The Huffington Post reports that two former British Yoga Champions (this is only for Bikram-style yogis) are lobbying to have yoga officially recognized as a competitive Olympic sport . The last National Championships in the US were held in the summer of 2003, to very mixed reactions. When did yoga become a competitive sport, some asked.

Bikram himself was a champion in India; who knows what other yogis like Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois think of it, but yoga championships continue today, like the World Yoga Competition in New Delhi next week. The competitors are five 15-year old boys and one 14-year old, so don't get excited.

One thing's for sure: in the West, many of us don't accept this version of yoga. The comments on Huffington Post blurb show a familiar mix of lurid skepticism and outraged disbelief. Some hilarious comments, too.

More on the Olympic effort on buzzfeed.

bunch of hooey

Today, MSNBC's Mental Health page reports on weird new "laughter yoga"in the article, "Laughter yoga no joke for fad's followers."

Forcing yourself to crack up in a class sounds pretty odd--so does muttering gibberish for a cool-down (not kidding). And what does this have to do with yoga?

So far, this fad is restricted to Laguna Beach, California.

But I do have to laugh at the headline that follows this one. Remember, this is the mental health category on MSNBC: "Botched penis surgery ends in mailbomb to doc."

Freaky yoga, suicide, depression, schizophrenia management, and penis surgery--you'd think mental health (and by association, yoga) was just for psychos.

Fear of Yoga

Robert Love, faculty at Columbia's school of journalism, and former editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone, writes at length about the history of yoga as it's appeared in the American press since 1909. After an exhaustive and entertaining review of personalities, movements, and attitudes, Love concludes that yoga is a marketer's dream, a flourishing and trend-proof recreation (vocation?) that can sell anything and everything.

Read more in "Fear of Yoga" at the Columbia Journalism Review web site.

Taking Our Pulse

Hanna Rosin, former Style writer for the Washington Post and a current contributing editor for The Atlantic, takes the pulse of yoga in America in her December 2006 article "Strike a Pose." According to Rosin, the good old days of hard-core yoga--like that practiced by Jivamukti teachers and practitioners--have been superceded by the more mainstream yoga like Power Yoga taught by Baron Baptiste, a pragmatic blend of gym workout and church pep talk.

The article is not available online, but you can read a related interview with Rosin on The Atlantic's site here.

Sweet Irreverence from McSweeneys

The Primary Series of Poses in Yoga for Depressives.

BY CARMEN NOBEL

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1. Up yours/downward spiral
2. Dead cat/fat cow
3. Sorrier one
4. Sorrier two
5. Unloved child's pose
6. Shrug of futility
7. Goddam farting vegan
8. Crap squat
9. Awkward pause
10. Applying for COBRA
11. The collapsing bridge
12. The pointless Kegels
13. Too fat for that pose
14. Forward flop
15. 12 hours of corpse pose
16. Namaste, or whatever

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