Yoga Classes Reach for the Extremes

AT a recent yoga class at SLT studio in Midtown Manhattan, Erin Jacques was putting her students through a grinding cardio routine of lunges, push-ups, side planks and squats.

The hard-bodied women, having entered the studio armed with their Stella McCartney Falabella bags (or the equivalent fashion statement), were now drenched in sweat, hearts pumping to blasting Eminem, Nicki Minaj and One Direction. Ms. Jacques’s class is aptly named Hardcore Yoga.

Yogis are seeking an edge and studios are jumping to provide every extreme permutation. Some yogis, veterans of a thousand down dogs, long for a new twist. Even non-yogi adrenaline addicts are checking out classes like Hardcore Yoga, which appropriate the poses while jettisoning the chanting. Studios are offering high-velocity intensity or, at the other end of the spectrum, rendering students unconscious on their mats, wrapped in comfort blankets as they reach for a state of “sleepless sleep.”

“With the increase in teacher training graduates and yoga hitting the mainstream, both studios and teachers are trying to find their niche, their point of differentiation, so there are far more choices than there used to be,” said Liz Eustace, chief executive of alignyo, a yoga Web site and newsletter. “For example, today I’m heading to a vinyasa boot camp.”

While traditional advanced vinyasa (or flow) classes produce a sweat, it was a byproduct, not the main event. Now the quest for an elevated heart rate may be the goal. “It is yoga for Type A personalities who want to get a workout in and move and sweat,” Carlos Rodriguez said of his trademarked Caponyasa class, offered at the Pure Yoga studio on the Upper West Side.

The class, combining vinyasa yoga with Brazilian Capoeira, itself a mash-up of dance and martial arts, is one of the 20 variations in the exhaustive Pure Yoga class directory, along with Hot Ki Power Vinyasa, Pure Prema and, for Type Z personalities, Restorative Yoga and Yin Yoga, a series of static poses held for several minutes and designed to reach into the connective tissues of the hips, pelvis and lower spine.

The roots of Cardio Yoga can be traced in part to Exhale Mind Body Spa’s introduction of core fusion yoga classes around six years ago. “We were the black sheep in the yoga community,” said Elisabeth Halfpapp, a founder. The chain, now in 11 cities, has a wide range of sessions, from fast-paced Music Yoga Flow to meditative Yin Yoga.

Some might wonder: does cardio workout yoga lose its Zen appeal? “If you are physically challenged, you are not thinking about kids, relationships or work,” Ms. Jacques said. “Your mind is clear.”

Ms. Jacques, a former national yoga director at Exhale, introduced SLT Yoga (Strength, Lengthen, Tunes) in May, citing Maha Yoga and YogaHop studios in the Los Angeles area as her inspiration. She also developed Shred, which uses two- to three-pound weights interspersed with yoga postures at a quick pace, and is taught at SLT as well as at the chic Surf Lodge in Montauk, N.Y. The one-hour classes are generally Sanskrit-free zones.

Yogis are also delving deeper into contemplative practices. At the Ishta Yoga studio downtown, Jean Koerner, a teacher, says that her students start with traditional classes of yoga poses, then get a glimpse of what she calls the “space between the chatter.” Ms. Koerner sees restorative and meditation classes, including a recumbent guided visualization version called Yoga Nidra, as surprisingly challenging. “It’s harder to quiet down and sit in a culture where we like to sweat,” she said.

The recently opened Cobra Club yoga studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn, has already cycled through the myriad adaptations. When it comes to the yoga program, there are no gourmet classes du jour, no advanced class and no beginner classes. The preference instead is a back-to-basic approach of stretching, breathing and relaxing. Most classes are called “yoga.” One exception is a weekend offering with an après-class Bloody Mary or mimosa: Hangover Yoga.