Giving Down Dog a whole new perspective, some brave denizens of New York City are shedding their clothes and offering Namasté greetings while practicing yoga nude.
These two are on this naked bandwagon in the UK: 200 cyclists rode naked to celebrate cycling and the human body in Brighton Britain 07 June 2008. EPA/NICK RAIN
The New York Post headlines reveal that the heat in New York currently is brutal, and some city dwellers are exploring their rights to go nude in restaurants and yoga studios Even a few comedy clubs are going naked, according to the paper.
The Post interviewed some participants in the naked city trend: "We're just more comfortable nude," said John Ordover, who rents city eateries for naked dinner parties.
"We're not out to shock or put on a public spectacle. We want only to do things that other people do in the way that we are most comfortable doing them. That, for us, is without clothes," he said.
The Post toured a Midtown studio called the Phoenix Temple, where the twice-weekly yoga classes allow the naked to practice various forms of Yoga
"I had such a transformative experience on my own when I did yoga naked rather than clothed," said Naked Yoga NYC teacher Isis Phoenix to the Post. "I wanted to share that."
The class size is around ten, and the rules are no duds, and BYOM - Bring your own mat.
What will be interesting to see is if the nude Yoga trend in New York will carry over to other cities, especially where the "hot yoga" style of Bikram Yoga is becoming more popular. Heat is used in order to assist your efforts in mastering the difficult poses for strength building.
Bikram Yoga is a series of 26 poses performed in a room with temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat of a Bikram studio is a shock for the uninitiated, yet it allows more flexibility since most poses used in Bikram are physically challenging.
Newsweek magazine also covered the naked alternative yoga trend. The One Taste Urban Retreat Center in San Francisco is where naked Yoga allegedly got its start. LINK
Talk back and let us know if you would entertain the idea of a nude yoga studio in your town.
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