BEYOND POWER YOGA INSPIRED BY BERYL BENDER BIRCH

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Power Yoga Flow ~ Be a Light to Yourself
Berl Bender Birch developed Power Yoga in the ’80s. This style of yoga that remains popular among the athletic community. Power yoga is a general term used to describe a vigorous, fitness-based approach to Vinyasa style yoga. Though many consider it to be “gym yoga,” this style of practice was originally closely modeled on the Ashtanga method.
Power yoga takes the athleticism ofAshtanga, including lots of Vinyasa, but gives each teacher the flexibility to teach any poses in any order, making every class different.
With its emphasis on strength and flexibility, power yoga brought yoga into the gyms of America as people began to see yoga as a way to work out.
Although power yoga classes vary widely from teacher to teacher, you can expect to find some intense flowing yoga with a minimal amount of chanting and meditation. Gyms and health clubs, in particular, have taken up the term as a way to let their clientele know that this is exercise. Prepare to work hard and work up a sweat. Bryan Kest, based in Los Angeles and Beryl Bender Birch, based in New York, are most often credited with the nearly simultaneous invention of power yoga on opposite coasts.
Both were part of the second generation of American Ashtanga students; Kest originally learned from David Williams and Bender Birth from Normal Allen. Williams and Allen were both among Jois first western students. Kest went on to study with Jois in Mysore, India. Bender Birch, who had previously done Sivananda, kundalini and Iyenger Yoga worked with Jois during his trips to the U.S. in the 1980s.

A power class has a heavy emphasis on standing postures because using your legs a lot gets your heart rate up—a key component of Power Yoga, cardio. In Ashtanga you do the same groups of postures each time you practice. They are broken down into six series and you must complete one series fully before going on to the next. Power Yoga varies from class to class.
The important phrase that Beryl picked up on is “workout”. The creators of Power Yoga wanted to make the practice more accessible to everyone, (Ashtanga is tough stuff,) yet make it more athletic, sweaty and hot—who doesn’t want that? They removed yoga philosophy from the practice and made it primarily physical. Gone was the Sanskrit, Aums, and meditation—in was the “feel the burn” mentality. Uh oh.

“If your goal is weight loss, choosing one of the vigorous, flowing styles of yoga, such as Ashtanga, Vinyasa or Power Yoga, is the smart choice. … You will burn calories, tone and stretch your muscles, and provide weight bearing exercise for your bones with these forms of yoga. Power Yoga is a modern form of yoga that is a good fusion of the traditional values of yoga with the need of the hour – fitness and weight loss. Therefore, this is a very upbeat form of yoga, which makes it interesting and more sought after. Yoga of this kind suffices the need of those who feel that they have had a good workout only if they have profusely sweated.