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When Exercise Becomes A Religious Threat
American evangelicals insist yoga is dangerous
I recently wrote a humor piece about yoga, and while it’s a totally true story, it comes off as not exactly positive. Though I had a bad experience with hot yoga, the truth is some people swear by it and adore it, and that’s great. It just wasn’t for me.
As it turns out, yoga is a vast and deep practice with a multitude of different disciplines. Bikram was the original hot yoga. It sticks to the same 26 poses in a room heated to 100 degrees. Hatha Yoga is a westernized introduction to yoga that mostly promotes relaxation. Vinyasa gets your heartrate up with flowing, dancelike movements. Power yoga is for people who want to get into serious shape while also increasing flexibility. There are still many other styles of yoga that incorporate varying levels of chanting and meditation — some none at all, some heavily.
There’s been a longstanding joke in the US that yoga is for hippies and airheads, and while some of that stereotype has gone by the wayside, there’s a more sinister, cynical…
