Yoga naked classes. Naked yoga for weight loss

Yoga is a great way to relax and get rid of stress. It seems to us that this activity is, in general, standardized. People just accept different poses while exercising flexibility to relaxing music. In fact, there are many varieties in the world, some of them are really unusual.

naked yoga. This direction of yoga appeared in the West, in California in the 1960s, thanks to the hippie movement. They believed that a person is beautiful, regardless of what he wears. Clothes only fetter us, preventing us from opening up. Perhaps, in those years, nylon sportswear really interfered with difficult poses? Today, naked yoga has become popular, despite new clothing materials. The surge came in 2001, when yoga star Aaron Star's classes became very popular in New York. Soon imitators appeared all over the world. It seems to fans of this direction that without shorts and T-shirts they can better accept and feel their asanas. And the famous New York studio now offers courses in various combinations of nudity, co-ed or single-sex. In any case, students are asked to leave all ideas of a sexual nature at the door. Those who are looking for an orgasm are advised to stay away from this yoga course. The organizers assure that naked or naked yoga will help get rid of shame or negativity associated with one's own body and instill self-confidence in people. True, historically, naked exercises became popular among gay men who practiced their midnight yoga in New York in the early 1990s.

Doga. The very name of this practice implies that it is meant for dogs. Doga fans believe that the direction arose back in ancient india. Allegedly dogs watching the dervishes' meditations joined them in relaxation exercises. Today there are dozens of thematic sites in America, Europe and Russia. They intelligibly tell why dogs need a dog at all. This technique provides for joint gymnastics of a person and his friend, stretching and massage. Thanks to this, communication between us is better ensured. Urban dogs in general, due to a sedentary lifestyle, have many health problems. These are arthritis, diseases of the spine. Therefore, the dog is important to animals, allowing you to strengthen muscles, tendons and ligaments. If active walks are not available, why not combine business with pleasure and do yoga together by performing asanas. For dogs - health, and the owners at least get rid of stress. True, there is an opinion that the ancient practice is deliberately simplified, becoming not a spiritual occupation, but a simple hobby. But another opinion - Doga teaches dogs to listen to commands and take certain positions. Instructors also remind that doga is not just dog fitness. It would be nice for each of us to find a trusting and open puppy inside ourselves and establish contact with him.

Hip hop yoga. This direction was invented by Canadians Angie Lo and Sarah Schwartz. Unusual relaxing meetings take place once a month. The role of the guru is performed by DJ MC Yogi, who famously manages with vinyl. Instructors in colorful costumes constantly sing and dance along. A rap DJ sings mantras, and Black Eyed Peas mixes are the soundtrack. If you suddenly turn off the sound track, it turns out that people are doing regular hatha yoga or Iyengar yoga. It turns out that standing in a warrior's pose works better with music than in complete silence. Fans of hip-hop yoga admit that such rhythmic music does not spoil the mood at all. And even more than that, these rhythms are much closer to the modern European than the monotonous howls in Sanskrit.

Rave yoga. Alcohol, tobacco and drugs are known to be popular in clubs. Yoga offers a more positive and sustainable alternative. In rave yoga classes, people start to listen slow music and meditate on it. The music gradually speeds up - a full-scale club dance party is formed. Here only non-alcoholic drinks and vegetarian products are accepted.

Circus yoga. This direction has already acquired its own Facebook page, it already has more than a thousand fans. And the number is only growing. The movement is headquartered in New York City and has branches in several locations. big cities America and even Australia. It is proposed to participate in circus yoga of all family members: mothers, fathers and even grandmothers, and friends will come in handy. How more people- so much the better, because you will have to build living pyramids from your bodies, and acrobatic tricks will have to be put in pairs. The similarity with the classic yoga lesson is the shavasana exercise. It is done at the end of any yoga class. It means just lying on your back with your eyes closed. And I think that doing circus exercises on your own is much more useful than watching them from the hall or on the TV screen.

Yahweh yoga. It turns out that the church can not only take care of the soul, but also conduct special trainings to relax the mind. It is precisely such classes that the evangelical church "Society of Hope" conducts. Yahweh yoga classes are held in Palm Beach, California. First, the students read a prayer of thanksgiving to God, and then meditate to passages from the New Testament. And what's wrong with that? After all, this approach allowed us to bypass the conflict that prevents religious people from practicing yoga. After all, not all are Buddhists, who are in the spirit of Sanskrit and mantras. So why not sing those prayers that you like and not think about the language chosen for this?

Ganja yoga. It's no secret that it allows you to relax. In America, cannabis is generally made legal in many states, allowing smoking "weed" for medical purposes, and just for recreation. As a consequence, ganja yoga appeared in Toronto. Its founder, Di Dussso, encourages her students to smoke a good joint before class. Surprisingly, the idea works well. The body becomes extremely flexible, and all the muscles relax. At the same time, the guru of the new direction is not at all afraid of the police, believing that they have more important things to do than to understand the specifics of the new yoga. Yes, and classes are held only once a month. Di Dusso herself claims that marijuana can stop the internal dialogue and open the heart. There is a similar studio in New York. Only there students are not allowed to smoke in the classroom. The class is intended for those who use marijuana for medical purposes, and these people are encouraged to come to class already relaxed. And although this combination of practices seems unthinkable, there is an opinion that yoga and cannabis are excellent and natural partners that both allow you to calm a person.

Yoga Guru Ar Santem. Under such a complex name, our compatriot Gennady Statsenko is hiding. He became famous yogi even under the Soviet Union. One day he decided to bring a national flavor to the Indian teachings. Now classes are held under Russian folk songs. Listening to motives familiar from childhood, changing asanas is much easier. Twisting in different vinyasas is accompanied by the playing of the button accordion and the singing of the students themselves. The difficulty lies in the fact that you have to have time to listen to the commands of the guru Statsenko himself. Anyone who first saw such an unusual practice will most likely see in it not yoga, but some kind of pagan ritual, like the holiday of Ivan Kupala.

Laughter Yoga. The healing power of laughter is known. In the West, as well as in India itself, they decided to combine this "weapon" along with ancient practice. Invented this kind of yoga Madan Kataria. Today he promotes laughter-based exercises at a special Laugh Institute in Bombay. And there are studios and schools of this direction in America, Japan and Germany. Dr. Kataria himself believes that yoga is needed for enlightenment. To achieve this state with the help of laughter will be much easier than with the help of standard meditation.

Yoga for real boys. This direction was created by three-time world wrestling champion Diamond Dallas Page. It is understood that such yoga is needed for those who would not turn to such training without special need. At 42, Page was told that it was time for him to stop his career as a wrestler - his lower back did not allow him to carry loads. And at 48 a real man decided to return to active life. Only now, sitting in asanas and chanting mantras is, in his opinion, an unworthy occupation for real boys. He offered his version of yoga. It involves a warm-up that really allows you to sweat. Page says that when he sees classic yogis, he just wants to hit them with a chair. Former wrestler created his own own methodology. It turned out to be so successful that Page became popular and leads master classes and private lessons in Los Angeles. Yes, his CDs sell well. And instead of the traditional gratitude "namaste" in the lessons of such yoga, "boobs" and "ass" are heard. What else to expect from real boys?

Aerial yoga. While meditating, you can feel how the soul breaks away from the earth. Why not do the same with the body? Aerial yoga combines pilates, gymnastics, acrobatics, modern dances And traditional yoga. For this, special anti-gravity silk belts are used, which help a person soar above the ground. It is believed that this practice allows you to relieve tension from the spine and sometimes stretch up to four centimeters.

Yoga horse breeding. Riding a horse means connecting with the rider and achieving mental and physical harmony. Yoga has also appeared, which exploits the close relationship between man and the graceful beast. In the classes, participants in asanas sit next to the horses, focusing on their breathing. Upon reaching unity with the beast, you can continue to take new postures already on horseback. Through the movement of the horse, you can help maintain focus and balance.

Hysterical yoga. This practice allows people to find their way to health through loud cries. The class looks like a classic yoga, there are also stretches, breathing exercises. But unusual is the presence of dance and vocal techniques. Students are allowed to express their emotions by screaming, screaming, stomping and beating their chests. And as in the case of a child in hysterics, a period of relief soon follows. People find themselves relaxed and cheerful, they are ready to take life's difficulties in a balanced way.

Karaoke yoga. Karaoke is a good way to relax. And if you combine this activity with yoga, you can buy and physical training. In the classroom, students not only sing, but also dance and stretch. Training here is much more free than in classical yoga. There are even TVs in the classrooms, where stars and DJs light up on the screens. People repeat favorite lyrics and even play imaginary musical instruments. There are also traditional yoga poses that allow you to focus. And the main part of the emotional experience are the songs of Elton John and the Beatles, which make the participants laugh and cry.

Mother yoga. These activities enable mothers to postpartum period bond with your spiritually and physically child. Yoga classes can sometimes compensate for artificial feeding and lack of appropriate contact with the baby. At the initial stage of parenthood, such yoga provides an excellent opportunity to communicate with other young mothers. It is believed that even in infants, yoga will help develop motor skills, stimulate knowledge of the world around them. Thanks to this practice, the child will sleep longer, as the lulling movements in yoga can imitate those that the baby is used to in the womb.

Boat yoga. There is a whole world organization, Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP), which encourages yoga on the water. Instead of the usual mat, it is proposed to use a boat, for example, from windsurfing. As a result, it becomes possible to practice yoga on the water, both on a small pond and on the surface of the ocean. This is the main difference from practicing in halls on a hard surface. Fans of this yoga need to constantly make sure that their boat does not capsize, reacting to a change in the balance of weight. After all, the surface will react very sensitively to all human movements, and strive to get out of balance. But like most yoga practices, this one increases stability, flexibility, and increases strength. The mind should be rejuvenated from such activities, and the spirit should be strengthened.

About what yoga is great option training for those who care not only about the physical, but also about, today even doctors say. But if yoga is good, then naked yoga is even better. So, in any case, say the teachers of naked yoga, which is becoming an increasingly popular direction of "harmony of body and spirit" abroad.

What is the advantage of exercising without clothes, in comparison with? About this Femail ( Daily Mail) told naked yoga teacher from Australia Lee Holmes (Lee Holmes). And we summarize for you the most interesting information on the topic.

“There are some studies that say that not wearing clothes, for example, when you are at home, helps improve body image, mood, sleep and many other things,” says Holmes, adding that one of the reasons why people choose naked yoga, is that they want to learn how to feel . If you want, you can call it directed not at others, but at yourself.

“All people like to feel good, and this is very natural,” continues Lee Holmes. “Exercising in the nude makes you feel more comfortable overall, even when you put on your clothes and go to work.” And this, according to the coach, is especially important in the modern world, where we continue to evaluate each other by the cover, and more and more often find fault with our own bodies for no reason.

“Naked yoga, I am absolutely convinced of this, allows you to build the right relationship with your body, reduce shame, increase self-acceptance and work with self-esteem,” says Holmes. According to the expert, any training without clothes or with a minimum of clothes is a way to understand that we are all different, but we are all at the same time.

Lee Holmes also believes that naked workouts, among other things, can motivate a person to complicate things that he may not have originally thought about. This, she says, is because in such a workout you have the opportunity to see how each muscle moves in response to a particular exercise. “They say that just 15 minutes of training without clothes helps to become more confident. So why not try an hour of classes?” the coach urges.

Not less than important point, according to the adherents of naked yoga, is the fact that during training in the nude it is very clearly visible over which areas you really are. “When you know exactly which zones you don’t like, it’s easier for you to change the approach to training to target correct muscles' adds Holmes.

An additional bonus for some may be that profuse sweating in sportswear, which is not breathable or poorly breathable, can affect the condition of the skin. While if you train without clothes, this will definitely not happen.

But despite the fact that there are quite a lot of positive aspects in naked yoga, of course, there were also some negative ones. Lee Holmes says that in the case of a naked body, sanitization of the premises is of great importance - this is the time. Two - like yoga in general, naked yoga is not for everyone, because there are people who are psychologically uncomfortable to undress in front of strangers.

“Not everyone is comfortable with being naked, let alone being naked during the event, so it’s important to consider your individual needs,” Holmes concludes.

Historically, "naked yogis" - "naga sadhus" - have appeared in India since time immemorial, perhaps even several millennia ago. Of course, it was not the cult of the body or foppishness that pushed the ancient yogis to “nudism”, but the idea of ​​asceticism - a conscious, voluntary restriction of comfort and even self-flagellation somewhere, in order to harden the spirit. They practiced and walked naked not only because in a large part of India it is almost always hot. In fact, an ascetic who refuses to wear clothes in India is actually doomed to suffer from the scorching sun - so this is more likely not a refusal of warmth, but a refusal of protection from the sun! In addition, the culture and social order in India since ancient times have sharply condemned public nudity. In a country where “there is a clear differentiation of pants”, the naked is excluded from the structure of society. (Even today, the police in India do not pay attention to the existence and antics of naked ascetics - they usually do what they want). So, the ancient ascetics - "naga baba" or "naga sadhu" - at the expense of nudity, sought to develop non-attachment to worldly comforts and conventions, deliberately expose the body to the vagaries of the weather in order to develop strength of mind. They were almost always celibate, and sometimes even further damaged their reproductive organs in order to get rid of natural desires (this is still practiced by some such ascetics today).

This culture has analogues, starting with "hypnosophists" - "naked wise men" Ancient Greece. However, in Ancient Hellas, nudity and physical education, gymnastics - since ancient times went hand in hand, and did not cause complaints from society, but even vice versa. Many philosophers, who are depicted in school textbooks dressed in togas, were not averse to walking around the "philosophical gardens" naked, this did not cause any reaction in people, everyone understood everything - the person is "blissful". So the Greek philosophers were, in fact, the prototype of the "nudists" of Europe and the USA. There is a version that the Greeks spied on the custom of walking “dressed in the sky” just in India (there were trade routes), but this is difficult to verify, just like the fact that Jesus Christ studied yoga in India in his youth.

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. information about yoga has largely reached the West (Great Britain and the United States, in the first place). In the 60s of the 20th century, a real "boom" of yoga and Indian culture as a whole came, provoked by the hippie movement. Therefore, although the first commune of nudist yogis appeared in Europe at the end of the 19th century - just such a “modern” style even for the 21st century was practiced in the politicized self-development group Lebensreform (Germany and Switzerland) - still really mass "naked yoga" became intoxicated and happy 60s. "Naked yoga" turned out to be very appropriate in an environment that, even without any yoga, was not averse to throwing off its clothes. Numerous groups appeared that followed the philosophy of "gymnosophism" - that is, naked yoga training, including the most famous one - in (California, USA).

The second wave of popularity of “naked yoga” in the modern world rose in 1998, in New York, at the suggestion of an American who called himself by the yoga name Jayadev, and organized the first naked yoga group in the city. It was called "Midnight Yoga for Men" and soon became famous in yogic circles. Jayadev encouraged his students to practice "naked in the face of Infinity" like the ancient naga sadhus. (By the way, the Jayadev group had no relation to sexual minorities - just like Indian yogis). The group practiced what is now called "purna yoga" - a practice aimed at spiritual, rather than physical, development.

An even more powerful impetus to the “revival” of “naked yoga” came from a more commercially successful yogi, Aaron Star, owner of the Hot Nude Yoga studio. Opened in April 2001, the center became a real sensation, it was written about in newspapers and talked about in yogic circles and beyond. It is clear that at the beginning of the 21st century, American society has already accepted both gays and naked yogis, so the project has easily found acceptance among both. After the resounding success of Aaron Star, similar "naked yoga" groups began to spring up all over the world. From the very beginning, the public associated such activities with homosexuality, which is not always true. There are a large number of "rainbow" "naked yoga" centers, as well as completely heterosexual ones. Usually there are separate classes for men and women, but there are also mixed classes. In order to start exercising in such a group, written consent is often required, including the refusal of photo and video recording (which is quite logical). No selfies!

Behind modern "naked yoga" is, in general, the same idea as in ancient times - the rejection of identification with the body, accepting it with all its shortcomings, an attempt to rise above the level of physiology. So such a practice, although not intended, apparently, for a wide range of practitioners - for obvious reasons - can be useful in individual cases. For example, if someone is very complex about their fullness or other defects in appearance: the opportunity to “spit on everything” and go to “naked” yoga can radically change the situation, break the pattern. But "naked yoga" is a powerful "medicine", and you quickly get used to it. Some note that the first shock - and with it the psyche-liberating effect of "naked yoga" - already passes somewhere around the 15th minute of the lesson, then it becomes all the same. Someone else will probably need a few sessions. But sooner or later, the focus returns to the practice itself - the need for "naked" yoga disappears. After all, except for nudity, it is no different from the usual Hatha.

I think there are few who want to do "naked yoga" every day - and it's not convenient, and hygiene considerations are not in favor of this method. And why? If you conduct such a lesson as a ritual, with the thought that you are really practicing "in the face of Eternity" - as the stern American yogi Jayadev suggested - you should not part, because with each repetition the effect will inevitably come to naught. When something becomes habitual and “not important” for a person, the energy leaves this action. And to follow in the footsteps of “naga sadhus” and try to bring “naked yoga” into society, or, more simply, to go out into the streets, is simply crazy in our latitudes: it’s cold, and even criminally punishable. In addition, if the Hindus have an ancient tradition of stripping to the waist (men) during a visit to the temple, then we, under the influence of Christianity, have developed a completely different semantic connection with nudity - it inevitably alludes to sex, and starts the thought process in the wrong direction. Therefore, in my opinion, it is very difficult for a Westerner to achieve with the help of “naked yoga” the same results that, undoubtedly, the “naga sadhus” in India have achieved and are achieving.

But often in modern society, "naked yoga" generally serves other purposes. Representatives of sexual minorities often come to such classes (in special groups, though) in order to feel involved in their community, to communicate with like-minded people. Lonely people (including heterosexuals) come to mixed groups to remove, sublimate sexual tension. There are "naked yoga" groups and a bit of a specialty that encourages interaction with a slight sexual connotation, such classes are usually marketed as "naked yoga and tantra" (watch out!). There are some yoga centers where another “naked yoga” is practiced - emphasized for “real men”, and here the focus is athleticism is put- in this vein, the need to practice naked becomes another motivation to work hard on the body so that its shape strives for the ideal. Such a tradition is already, perhaps, closer to the spirit of Ancient Greece and Rome than to the ancient Indian roots, the ideas of “naga-sadhu”, who did not at all strive for an ideal form, but deliberately ignored the body (and its clothes), and sometimes crippled their bodies, demonstrating complete disinterest in physical, "mortal" well-being.

Thus, in many cases, naked yoga, originally conceived in the East as a severe asceticism and practice for disidentification with the body, in our West, it develops rather than weakens such identification with the body, and may even have overtly sexual overtones.

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