Many misconceptions about power yoga are floating around. The name itself can lead one to misinterpret the type of practice it is. However, the ‘power’ in Power Yoga actually refers to one’s inner power. Bryan Kest, who first coined the phrase’ power yoga’ in the 90s, explained that he named it because of the empowering way you feel leaving class.*
The purpose of the practice is to ’empower’ you to tap into that which already exists within. To encourage you to develop qualities and habits that will help you to navigate life with balance, grace, discipline, and compassion.
Is it a challenging physical practice as well? Absolutely. However, not in the way it is often described. A power yoga class will ’empower’ you to meet yourself right where you are when you step onto your mat. It will encourage you to honor your needs, resist comparison or competition, embrace the now, and let go of assumptions and expectations.
Despite what your mind’s narrative might tell you, doing all the poses and everything offered in class is not mandatory. Bryan Kest often describes the poses and movements in class as a buffet. The teacher will suggest poses and options; you decide what to take, how much, and what to decline.
But before we get into what power yoga ‘is,’ let’s clarify a few things that it ‘is not’:
Power Yoga is fast.
Flow does not mean fast. Nor does it mean to fling or to flail. We flow slowly and hold poses to build strength. What would the purpose be to take a break from the ‘rat race,’ only to turn your practice into a ‘mat race’? Along with slowing down and supporting a safer, more mindful practice, you begin to develop a profound sense of body awareness when you take the time to hold a pose for more than a few breaths and sit with it. When you notice some of the more subtle nuances and sensations you are feeling, you can establish a balance of what we call ‘effort and ease’ in your pose. Not working too hard, but not working too easy. You determine the ‘just right’ for you.
A power yoga teacher will hold poses long enough to allow you to explore and be curious. A power yoga teacher will also ask you to slow down transitions (such as getting in and out of a pose) and appreciate the process of getting there. A power yoga teacher will encourage you to slow your flow.
Power Yoga is for experienced practitioners only and includes many ‘advanced’ poses.
This is simply a myth. Not only are you encouraged to rest whenever you need to, but a power yoga class sequence is born from the idea that it should enable you to progress through movements and poses as safely and simply as possible. A typical class comprises the more basic or foundational yoga poses. With variations and options always offered up. Will you still be challenged? Of course! But challenged in a way that does not require you to be from the circus or perform any scary ass poses. The poses will challenge you in a way that is safe and healthy. And YOU decide precisely what you want that challenge to be. Guess what? Sometimes, the biggest challenge you will face is getting away from your ego and taking a break in a child’s pose.
A power yoga teacher will teach each pose from the ground up, giving you the building blocks to develop a stable, strong physical practice. A power yoga teacher will offer options and encourage you to find the pose you need based on how it feels, not how it looks. They will also remind you to take a resting pose as often as needed.
Power Yoga is purely an exercise.
Power Yoga is not only a workout; it is, more importantly, a ‘work-in.’ The practice goes way beyond the practice on the mat—it uses the physical practice as a vehicle for inner transformation. The overall theme is that everything you do on your mat should help you with everything you do off your mat, or why do it?
Your mat practice is an opportunity to observe your habits and reactions as you challenge yourself physically.
Often, your habits in life show up in how you practice. Are they working? Do you need to make a shift? Are you reinforcing habits on your mat that are not beneficial off your mat?
Because when it comes down to it, how you do anything is how you do everything.
You will learn to move calmly and disciplined from one uncomfortable situation to the next. It teaches you to be calm when you are uncomfortable and to take the practice off the mat with you.
And it might change your perspective on what it means to be healthy. Looking good is fine. But if your body looks good but can barely move and bend, is that healthy? A power yoga practice will transform your definition of wellness and what it means to have a fit body. Hence, you will become healthier.
A power yoga teacher will remind you that getting fit does not mean beating the sh*t out of your body. Healthy means moderation. Fit means balanced.
A power yoga teacher will include a philosophical component that will be relatable and practical for daily life.
A power you class will include the following five key foundational elements:
Breath:
The use of breath is the foundation for a power yoga practice. It is what differentiates a yoga practice from a typical exercise class.
It is not a random breath. It is a specific breathing technique called ujjayi breathing.
When you apply ujjayi breath during your practice, you will slow down, your mind will become quiet, and a sense of calm awareness will arise. Random thoughts are less likely to occur, and from that, you are, in a sense, giving yourself a ‘mental break.’ We don’t play music in a power yoga class for a reason. Playing music distracts you from doing the hard work of learning to quiet the ongoing narrative that plays in your mind.
In turn, breath awareness can lead to greater insight into the subtler aspects of your physical practice. With a deeper understanding of your bodily responses to the poses, you can challenge yourself healthily. You will notice that your inhales naturally encourage creating lift, space, and length, while your exhales promote release and letting go.
When you focus on the breath, your mindset will become more process-focused and less goal-oriented, and your physical practice will fall into place naturally. When you take this practice off the mat, you will feel calmer as you move through your day.
A power yoga class will establish ujjayi breathing at the beginning of class.
Foundation:
As the saying goes, you can only build a great building with a strong foundation. Or, your pose will only be as strong as the foundation you build.
The breath is the foundation for a power yoga practice. But then, as we add the physical component, the focus is grounding—creating a stable connection with whatever touches the ground. Then, build the pose from that connection. Along with grounding, a solid connection to your core, called ‘uddiyana bandha’ (or upward lifting lock), will develop a feeling of root and rise. When the whole body is incorporated, you will feel light and more ease in your practice.
You will build a solid foundation to support your pose, enabling you to grow.
Grounding and building a solid foundation in yoga practice helps you stay grounded in your daily life. It brings you back to your roots, connects you to who you are, and keeps you connected to your values and purpose.
A power yoga class will include the practice of uddiyana bandha, or core engagement.
Focus:
Wandering eyes means a wandering mind. Where your mind wanders, your energy will follow.
Drishti is the yogic practice of a steady, focused gaze, which develops greater concentration. It helps cultivate insight, inner wisdom, and heightened self-awareness.
In a power yoga class, you will be encouraged to fix your gaze on a specific point. Fixing your gaze will steady your mind and help eliminate distractions. It will bring your attention inward and create a greater mind-body connection.
Applying specific gaze points helps cultivate more body awareness. You become more in tune with the signals your breath and body give you, developing a safer practice. You begin to notice the more subtle sensations within your body, which will encourage more process-focused exploration rather than goal-oriented.
When you fix your eyes on specific points on your mat or body, you resist the urge to look around and mimic what other students are doing. The reality is that you can’t find what you need on someone else’s mat. When your eyes don’t wander, your mind doesn’t wander. When you are fully present, you can hear the different options your teacher is offering and decide based on what you need.
A power yoga class will establish the practice of Drishti at the start and include reminders throughout about where to set your gaze.
Heat:
Tapas, or to ‘burn’ through obstacles and challenges, is one of the core principles of yoga and is used as a tool for transformation on your mat in a power yoga class.
However, it does not mean setting the thermostat to 100+ degrees. The physical practice between connecting movements on breath and challenging yourself by holding poses will create heat on its own. You can practice power yoga without added external heat.
Typically, the external heat is set to no more than 90 degrees. (At LKPY, it is usually around 80-85 degrees.) Anything higher will generally make it nearly impossible to move your body and exert the proper energy to reap the physical benefits of the practice.
The added heat is about something other than the ability to go deeper into a pose (which we do not recommend!) Instead, it pushes you slightly out of your comfort zone.
Rather than avoiding situations that are out of your norm or uncomfortable, you learn to stay with the discomfort – getting comfortable in the uncomfortable! A skill that transfers with you off your mat when life starts to ‘heat up,’ yoga teaches you how to stay grounded and strong. This is where growth and transformation meet!
Remember, it is for you to decide what a healthy uncomfortable is.
A power yoga class will take you on a journey from one uncomfortable situation (position) to another. A power yoga class will teach you that challenges are to be expected, and you can choose how to face those challenges. Power yoga will teach you that growth comes from when things are hard, not when they are easy.
Flow:
When all four of the above are in place, the flow appears. Flow means a complete absence of resistance. Your practice becomes process-focused rather than outcome-focused. Your practice comes into balance.
You leave behind old habits and remove obstacles that you created. You find an honest practice, what you need rather than what you want.
It creates a feeling of harmony between mind and body. When you take this off your mat, you surrender to the outcome, leave all force and resistance behind, and align with your truth and reality. Your life flows and comes into balance as well.
A power yoga class will teach you to stay on your path without attachment to the outcome.
A power yoga class will teach you that the process is the prize.
You will find your practice in your breath.
It’s not what you can or cannot do, it’s how you respond to it all.
If you can breathe, you can practice power yoga.
Lyn has been teaching power yoga since the late 90s. She has had the honor of learning from Bryan Kest and Baron Baptiste and the privilege of attending in-person classes with K. Pattabhi Jois. All Lyn Kehoe Power Yoga studio classes are in the power yoga style as originally designed.
*It is important to note that Baron Baptiste almost simultaneously began using the name to describe his classes. Beryl Bender Birch also wrote a book called Power Yoga in 1995. However, her book was about traditional Ashtanga yoga practice. She once said she named the book to get people’s attention. While Kest’s and Baptiste’s style indeed have derived from the foundational elements of Ashtanga, neither are synonymous with the practice as originated by K. Pattabhi Jois.