There is something new to yoga; it is not a new pose or a new mantra, no, it is new way to practice. Rather than practice alone or in a group setting these new practitioners are taking it to the stage

There is something new to yoga; it is not a new pose or a new mantra, no, it is new way to practice. Rather than practice alone or in a group setting these new practitioners are taking it to the stage, in front of a panel of judges. They announce their yoga asana or pose, then balance, bend, or twist to beat out the other competitors.  Sound unreal?  It’s true.  There is now competition in a centuries old practice that has always been about looking inwards and NOT competing, about lowering blood pressure, not getting anxious just before being judged. 

There are 15 million people in the U.S. who say they practice some form of yoga and there are thousands of yoga forms to chose from – Power, Ashtanga, Laughing, Colorgized, Bikram, Heated, Anusara, and the list goes on and on. Apparently when you have that many Westerners participating in an activity someone was going to come up with the idea that it should be judged.  There has been talk about making yoga an Olympic sport.  

Yoga which means to unite, to yolk or to cease thinking seems to be contradictory with the concept of competition, but that is just the writer’s opinion.  After practicing many forms of yoga I found that I do enjoy Bikram for its physicality and the heat (the room is 102 degrees F) but felt it lacked the Spiritual component. The instructors focus on all moving together and no one can so much as scratch an itch or take a sip of water if not instructed to do so.  (I have practiced under at least 8 different instructors and all have had a degree of rigidity.)

The first yoga asana competition in South Florida was a cross between a bodybuilding contest and a gymnastics meet.  They would walk out in black leotards and “strike a pose”.  There were approximately 30 participants who showed up at the West Palm Beach Bikram Yoga College of India. The majority of the competitors range in age from 20s to 30s although there are children as young as 12 years old who have taken part in the competition. Each person has three minutes to perform five compulsory poses and two optional poses or asanas.

When asked why they felt yoga should be judged, Rajashree Choudhury answered "It's the best way to encourage more people to practice yoga,", whose husband, Bikram Choudhury, created the Bikram yoga empire.

Yoga competition itself isn't new but it isn’t common.  It is being pushed more by proponents of Bikram yoga more than any other.  Bikram is a form of yoga that began in the United States in the 1970s.  Bikram himself was a yoga champion in the 1960s. He brought his 26-pose sequence, which is performed every day in the same sequence, to the United States in 1973, and it has grown to more than 1,700 studios here. Bikram filed suit against yoga centers that used his franchised sequence but used neither his name nor teachers who took his $5,000 certification class.

Cynics say the Choudhurys are talking about participating in the Olympics to bring more exposure (and money) to Bikram yoga. Rajashree says that isn't the point; yoga competition existed long before Bikram created his system. She hopes other yoga leaders encourage their students to participate, even if they don't convert to Bikram.

Perhaps another less controversial name for the competition would be Asana Competition.  Asana means pose where yoga is a lifestyle or philosophy.  This would make it a competition not about a practice and ideology but simply about form and function.

By Christina Leon, Staff Writer