114-818: Yoga Journal is a website and digital journal, formerly a print magazine, on yoga as exercise founded in California in 1975 with the goal of combining the essence of traditional yoga with scientific understanding. It has produced live events and materials such as DVDs on yoga and related subjects. The magazine grew from the California Yoga Teachers Association's newsletter, which was called The Word . Yoga Journal has repeatedly won Western Publications Association's Maggie Awards for "Best Health and Fitness Magazine". It has however been criticized for representing yoga as being intended for affluent white women ; in 2019 it attempted to remedy this by choosing
228-412: A strict vegetarian diet , excluding stimulants such as tea, coffee or alcohol. Their yoga was taught without payment; gurus were supported by gifts and the philosophy was anti-consumerist. According to one theory, the system of physical education practised in the 19th-century Young Men's Christian Association , adapted by ex-military gymnasts for the schooling system in colonial British India , became
342-486: A combination of standing poses such as Trikonasana, sitting poses like Dandasana, and balancing poses like Navasana; it may end with some reclining and inverted poses like Setu Bandha Sarvangasana and Viparita Karani , a reclining twist, and finally Savasana for relaxation and in some styles also for a guided meditation . A typical session in most styles lasts from an hour to an hour and a half, whereas in Mysore style yoga,
456-436: A digital subscription model, restricting unsubscribed readers' access to five free articles per month. In June 2020, The Atlantic released its first full-length documentary, White Noise , a film about three alt-right activists. By its third year, it was published by Boston publishing house Ticknor and Fields , which later became part of Houghton Mifflin , based in the city known for literary culture. The magazine
570-459: A dozen topics. In December 2011, a new Health Channel launched on TheAtlantic.com, incorporating coverage of food, as well as topics related to the mind, body, sex, family, and public health. Its launch was overseen by Nicholas Jackson, who had previously been overseeing the Life channel and initially joined the website to cover technology. TheAtlantic.com has also expanded to visual storytelling , with
684-480: A fixed pattern of 2 breathing exercises and 24 asanas. Iyengar Yoga emphasises correct alignment in the postures, working slowly, if necessary with props, and ending with relaxation. Sivananda Yoga focuses more on spiritual practice, with 12 basic poses, chanting in Sanskrit , pranayama breathing exercises, meditation , and relaxation in each class, and importance is placed on vegetarian diet . Jivamukti Yoga uses
798-650: A flowing vinyasa style of asanas accompanied by music, chanting, and the reading of scriptures. Kundalini yoga emphasises the awakening of kundalini energy through meditation, pranayama, chanting, and suitable asanas. Alongside the yoga brands, many teachers, for example in England, offer an unbranded "hatha yoga", often mainly to women , creating their own combinations of poses. These may be in flowing sequences ( vinyasas ), and new variants of poses are often created. The gender imbalance has sometimes been marked; in Britain in
912-400: A highly specific three-part structure that matches Arnold van Gennep 's 1908 definition of the basic structure of a ritual : 1. a separation phase (detaching from the world outside); 2. a transition or liminal state; and 3. an incorporation or postliminal state. For the separation phase, the yoga session begins by going into
1026-519: A list of asanas that substantially overlaps with Iyengar's, sometimes with different names for the same poses. Jois's asana names almost exactly match Iyengar's. Three changes around the 1960s allowed yoga as exercise to become a worldwide commodity . People were for the first time able to travel freely around the world: consumers could go to the east; Indians could migrate to Europe and America; and business people and religious leaders could go where they liked to sell their wares. Secondly, people across
1140-513: A means of accessing the spiritual... they use their asana practice as a vehicle for transcendence ." He cites yoga teacher Vanda Scaravelli 's 1991 Awakening the Spine as an instance of such transcendence: "We learn to elongate and extend, rather than to pull and push... [and so] an unexpected opening follows, an opening from within us, giving life to the spine, as though the body had to reverse and awaken into another dimension." In mindful yoga ,
1254-437: A neutral and if possible a secluded practice hall; worries, responsibilities, ego and shoes are all left outside; and the yoga teacher is treated with deference. The actual yoga practice forms the transition state, combining practical instructions with theory, made more or less explicit. The practitioner learns "to feel and to perceive in novel ways, most of all inwardly"; to "become silent and receptive" to help to get away from
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#17328547690491368-507: A new editorial staff. In 2006, Bradley hired James Bennet , the Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times , as editor-in-chief. Bradley also hired Jeffrey Goldberg and Andrew Sullivan as writers for the magazine. In 2008, Jay Lauf joined the organization as publisher and vice-president; as of 2017, he was publisher and president of Quartz . In early 2014, Bennet and Bob Cohn became co-presidents of The Atlantic , and Cohn became
1482-451: A news- and opinion-tracking site launched in 2009, and TheAtlanticCities.com, a stand-alone website started in 2011 that was devoted to global cities and trends. According to a Mashable profile in December 2011, "traffic to the three web properties recently surpassed 11 million uniques per month, up a staggering 2500% since The Atlantic brought down its paywall in early 2008." In 2009,
1596-443: A publisher from Boston , created The Atlantic Monthly . The plan for the magazine was launched at a dinner party, which was described in a letter by Phillips: I must tell you about a little dinner-party I gave about two weeks ago. It would be proper, perhaps, to state the origin of it was a desire to confer with my literary friends on a somewhat extensive literary project, the particulars of which I shall reserve till you come. But to
1710-432: A reminder of their forthcoming deaths. Equipment, too, was scanty; sometimes yogins used a tiger or deer skin as a rug to meditate on. Haṭha yoga made use of a small number of asanas, mainly seated; in particular, there were very few standing poses before 1900. They were practised slowly, often holding a position for long periods. The practice of asanas was a minor preparatory aspect of spiritual work. Yogins followed
1824-794: A scientific and medical basis for yogic practices. In 1925, Kuvalayananda's rival Paramahansa Yogananda , having moved from India to America, set up the Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles, and taught yoga, including asanas, breathing, chanting and meditation, to "tens of thousands of Americans". In 1923, Yogananda's younger brother, Bishnu Charan Ghosh , founded the Ghosh College of Yoga and Physical Culture in Calcutta. Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888–1989), "the father of modern yoga", claimed to have spent seven years with one of
1938-543: A secular context, the journalists Nell Frizzell and Reni Eddo-Lodge have debated (in The Guardian ) whether Western yoga classes represent " cultural appropriation ." In Frizzell's view, yoga has become a new entity, a long way from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and while some practitioners are culturally insensitive, others treat it with more respect. Eddo-Lodge agrees that Western yoga is far from Patanjali, but argues that
2052-481: A separate website. Its co-founders included Richard Florida , urban theorist and professor. The stand-alone site has been described as exploring and explaining "the most innovative ideas and pressing issues facing today's global cities and neighborhoods." In 2014, it was rebranded as CityLab.com , and covers transportation, environment, equity, life, and design. Among its offerings are Navigator, "a guide to urban life"; and Solutions, which covers solutions to problems in
2166-625: A spiritual path before they start yoga, replied "Certainly not. A person's spiritual life is his or her own affair. People come to yoga for all sorts of reasons. High on the list is health and the desire to become de-stressed." Kimberley J. Pingatore, studying attitudes among American yoga practitioners, found that they did not view the categories of religious, spiritual, and secular as alternatives. However, Haṭha yoga's "ecstatic ... transcendent ... possibly subversive" elements remain in yoga used as exercise. The yoga teacher and author Jessamyn Stanley writes that modern Western society "does not respect
2280-404: A strong response, leading the journal's brand director, Tasha Eichenseher, to respond with an apology that "we caused harm" to "communities that have been disproportionately excluded from yoga", and an explanation that she was "working to make Yoga Journal more representative—regarding age, race, ability, body type, yoga style, gender, and experience." Yoga as exercise Yoga as exercise
2394-473: A thin woman, nearly always white; the image of yoga that is conveyed is, she argues, that yoga is intended for affluent white women. Murphy notes that the apparent stereotype is grounded in reality: in a 2012 study by Yoga Journal itself, over 80% of American practitioners of yoga were white. The scholars Agi Wittich and Patrick McCartney wrote in 2020 that the image of contemporary yoga is the idealized, fit, young, slim, white, female yoga body, commercialized on
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#17328547690492508-466: A variety of names, including modern postural yoga and transnational anglophone yoga . Posture is described in the Yoga Sutras II.29 as the third of the eight limbs, the ashtanga , of yoga. Sutra II.46 defines it as that which is steady and comfortable , but no further elaboration or list of postures is given. Postures were not central in any of the older traditions of yoga; posture practice
2622-517: A way of life. The Atlantic The Atlantic is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston as The Atlantic Monthly , a literary and cultural magazine that published leading writers' commentary on education,
2736-437: A week, or vigorous aerobic exercise for 20 minutes three days a week. Treated as a form of exercise, a complete yoga session with asanas and pranayama provides 3.3 ± 1.6 METs, on average a moderate workout. Surya Namaskar ranged from a light 2.9 to a vigorous 7.4 METs; the average for a session of yoga practice without Surya Namaskar was a light 2.9 ± 0.8 METs. Since the mid-20th century, yoga has been used, especially in
2850-478: A widely shared distaste for India's wandering yogins. Yoga asanas were brought to America by the yoga teacher Yogendra . He founded a branch of The Yoga Institute in New York state in 1919, starting to make Haṭha yoga acceptable, seeking scientific evidence for its health benefits, and writing books such as his 1928 Yoga Asanas Simplified and his 1931 Yoga Personal Hygiene . The flowing sequences of salute to
2964-491: A wider variety of yoga models. The magazine was acquired by Outside in 2020. Yoga Journal was started in May 1975 by the California Yoga Teachers Association (CYTA), with Rama Jyoti Vernon as President, William Staniger as the founding editor, and Judith Lasater on the board and serving as copy editor. Their goal was to combine "the essence of classical yoga with the latest understandings of modern science." The journal grew from
3078-507: Is a physical activity consisting mainly of postures , often connected by flowing sequences , sometimes accompanied by breathing exercises , and frequently ending with relaxation lying down or meditation . Yoga in this form has become familiar across the world, especially in the US and Europe. It is derived from medieval Haṭha yoga , which made use of similar postures, but it is generally simply called "yoga". Academics have given yoga as exercise
3192-588: Is acceptable as long as they are aware of modern yoga's origins, others like Paul Gosbee stating that yoga's purpose is to "open up chakras " and release kundalini or "serpent power" which in Gosbee's view is "from Satan", making "Christian yoga ... a contradiction." Church halls are sometimes used for yoga, and in 2015 a yoga group was banned from a church hall in Bristol by the local parochial church council , stating that yoga represented "alternative spiritualities." In
3306-485: Is accompanied by a program of live events, led by well-known yoga teachers and gurus such as Cyndi Lee , Judith Hanson Lasater, Kino MacGregor and Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa . The events have included an annual yoga conference, held in venues around the United States, which combined practical sessions and talks. The social historian Sarah Schrank records that co-founder Judith Lasater "made waves" with her public criticism of
3420-594: Is being stolen from one place by another. Yoga as exercise has been popularized in the Western world by claims about its health benefits. The history of such claims was reviewed by William J. Broad in his 2012 book The Science of Yoga ; he states that the claims that yoga was scientific began as Hindu nationalist posturing. Among the early exponents was Kuvalayananda , who attempted to demonstrate scientifically in his purpose-built 1924 laboratory at Kaivalyadhama that Sarvangasana (shoulderstand) specifically rehabilitated
3534-597: Is complex and contested; some Christians have rejected it on the grounds that it is covertly Hindu, while the "Take Back Yoga" campaign insisted that it was necessarily connected to Hinduism. Scholars have identified multiple trends in the changing nature of yoga since the end of the 19th century. Yoga as exercise has developed into a worldwide multi-billion dollar business, involving classes, certification of teachers , clothing such as yoga pants , books, videos, equipment including yoga mats , and yoga tourism . The Sanskrit noun योग yoga , cognate with English " yoke ",
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3648-479: Is continued in post-lineage yoga , which is practised outside any major school or guru 's lineage. Yoga as exercise consists largely but not exclusively of the practice of asanas. The numbers of asanas described (not just named) in some major Haṭha yoga and modern texts are shown in the table; all the Haṭha yoga text dates are approximate. Asanas can be classified in different ways, which may overlap: for example, by
3762-514: Is derived from the root yuj "to attach, join, harness, yoke". Its ancient spiritual and philosophical goal was to unite the human spirit with the divine. The branch of yoga that makes use of physical postures is Haṭha yoga . The Sanskrit word हठ haṭha means "force", alluding to its use of physical techniques. Haṭha yoga flourished among secretive ascetic groups such as Nath yogins in South Asia from c. 1100-c. 1900. Instruction
3876-468: Is effective at least in the short term for both neck pain and low back pain. A review of six studies found benefits for depression, but noted that the studies' methods imposed limitations, while a clinical practice guideline from the American Cancer Society stated that yoga may reduce anxiety and stress in people with cancer. A 2015 systematic review called for more rigour in clinical trials of
3990-730: Is evidence that practice of asanas improves birth outcomes, physical health, anxiety and worry in older adults, quality of life measures in the elderly, whilst also reducing hypertension . From its origins in the 1920s, yoga used as exercise has had a "spiritual" aspect which is not necessarily neo-Hindu; its assimilation with Harmonial Gymnastics is an example. Jain calls yoga as exercise "a sacred fitness regimen set apart from day-to-day life." The yoga therapist Ann Swanson writes that "scientific principles and evidence have demystified [yoga, but] ... surprisingly, this made my transformative experiences feel even more magical." Yoga practice sessions have, notes yoga scholar Elizabeth De Michelis ,
4104-459: Is measured in units of metabolic equivalent of task (MET). Less than 3 METs counts as light exercise; 3 to 6 METs is moderate; 6 or over is vigorous. American College of Sports Medicine and American Heart Association guidelines count periods of at least 10 minutes of moderate MET level activity towards their recommended daily amounts of exercise. For healthy adults aged 18 to 65, the guidelines recommend moderate exercise for 30 minutes five days
4218-574: Is now held annually in Los Angeles. By the 21st century, yoga as exercise had become a flourishing business, professionally marketed . A 2016 Ipsos study reported that 36.7 million Americans practise yoga, making the business of classes, clothing and equipment worth $ 16 billion in America, compared to $ 10 billion in 2012, and $ 80 billion worldwide. 72 percent of practitioners were women. By 2010, Yoga Journal , founded in 1975, had some 350,000 subscribers and over 1,300,000 readers. Fashion has entered
4332-457: The 2016 presidential campaign , the editorial board endorsed a candidate for the third time in the magazine's history, urging readers to support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in a rebuke of Republican Donald Trump 's candidacy. After Trump prevailed in the November 2016 election, the magazine became a strong critic of him. In March 2019, a cover article by editor Yoni Appelbaum called for
4446-425: The 2020 presidential election , and urged its readers to oppose Trump's re-election bid. In early 2024, The Atlantic published a special 24-article issue titled "If Trump Wins," warning about a potential second term for Trump being worse than his first. In October, the publication endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in her presidential bid against Trump in the 2024 election . In 2005, The Atlantic and
4560-679: The Aspen Institute launched the Aspen Ideas Festival , a ten-day event in and around the city of Aspen, Colorado . The annual conference features 350 presenters, 200 sessions, and 3,000 attendees. The event has been called a "political who's who " as it often features policymakers, journalists, lobbyists, and think tank leaders. On January 22, 2008, TheAtlantic.com dropped its subscriber wall and allowed users to freely browse its site, including all past archives. By 2011 The Atlantic ' s web properties included TheAtlanticWire.com,
4674-448: The Hindu scriptures , and retreating from society. From the 1970s, yoga as exercise spread across many countries of the world, changing as it did so, and becoming "an integral part of (primarily) urban cultures worldwide", to the extent that the word yoga in the Western world now means the practice of asanas, typically in a class. For example, Iyengar Yoga reached South Africa in 1979 with
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4788-691: The Yoga Journal website "the Web's most expansive and impressive Yoga site." Yoga Journal runs features on the themes of yoga, food and nutrition, fitness, wellness, and fashion and beauty. Its website offers definitions and advice on yoga styles and equipment, with directions for how to practise over a hundred asanas or yoga poses. Readers can select asanas by their name , their type, such as forward bends or hip-opening poses; by anatomical area, such as knees or lower back; or by claimed benefit , such as for anxiety or digestion. The journalist Stefanie Syman calls
4902-452: The abolition of slavery , and other major political issues of that time. Its founders included Francis H. Underwood and prominent writers Ralph Waldo Emerson , Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. , Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , Harriet Beecher Stowe , and John Greenleaf Whittier . James Russell Lowell was its first editor. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the magazine also published the annual The Atlantic Monthly Almanac . The magazine
5016-462: The endocrine glands (the organs that secrete hormones ). He found no evidence to support such a claim, for this or any other asana. The impact of yoga as exercise on physical and mental health has been a topic of systematic studies (evaluating primary research), although a 2014 report found that, despite its common practice and possible health benefits, it remained "extremely understudied." A systematic review of six studies found that Iyengar yoga
5130-447: The esoteric or spiritual at all", making people skeptical about any alignment of yoga as practised in the West with " chakras or spirituality". Stanley states that it is possible to start a practice without considering such matters, and that styles such as Bikram do not mention them, but that a deepening yoga practice will bring "an overall evolution of the self." Syman suggests that part of
5244-445: The fashion house Gucci , noting the "halo of chic" around yoga-practising celebrities such as Madonna and Sting , produced a yoga mat costing $ 850 and a matching carry case in leather for $ 350. In India, participants typically wear loose-fitting clothes for yoga classes, while serious practitioners in yoga ashrams practice an arduous combination of exercise, meditation, selfless service, vegetarian diet and celibacy, making yoga
5358-483: The impeachment of Donald Trump : "It's time for Congress to judge the president's fitness to serve." In September 2020, it published a story, citing several anonymous sources, reporting that Trump referred to dead American soldiers as "losers". Trump called it a "fake story", and suggested the magazine would soon be out of business. In 2020, The Atlantic endorsed the Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in
5472-727: The media diets of people from entertainment, journalism, and politics; and "Trimming the Times", the feature editor's summary of the best content in The New York Times . The Atlantic Wire rebranded itself as The Wire in November 2013, and was folded back into The Atlantic the following year. In August 2011, it created its video channel. Initially created as an aggregator, The Atlantic ' s video component, Atlantic Studios, has since evolved in an in-house production studio that creates custom video series and original documentaries. In September 2011, The Atlantic launched CityLab ,
5586-443: The "Hindu origins position." Farmer writes that Syman identifies a Protestant streak in yoga as exercise, "with its emphasis on working the body. This effortful yoga is, she says, paradoxically, both 'an indulgence and a penance'." Authorities differ on whether yoga is purely exercise. For example, in 2012, New York state decided that yoga was exempt from state sales tax as it did not constitute "true exercise", whereas in 2014
5700-568: The "ego-dominated rationality of modern Western life." The final relaxation forms the incorporation phase; the practitioner relaxes in Savasana , just as dictated by the Hatha Yoga Pradipika 1.32. The posture offers "an exercise in sense withdrawal and mental quietening, and thus ... a first step towards meditative practice," a cleansing and healing process, and even a symbolic death and moment of self-renewal. Iyengar writes that savasana puts
5814-456: The 1930s to the 1950s. Several of his students went on to found influential schools of yoga: Pattabhi Jois created Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga , which in turn led to Power Yoga ; B. K. S. Iyengar created Iyengar Yoga , and defined a modern set of yoga postures in his 1966 book Light on Yoga ; and Indra Devi taught yoga as exercise to many celebrities in Hollywood. Other major schools founded in
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#17328547690495928-525: The 1970s, women formed between 70 and 90 percent of most yoga classes, as well as most of the yoga teachers. The tradition begun by Krishnamacharya survives at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Chennai ; his son T. K. V. Desikachar and his grandson Kausthub Desikachar continued to teach in small groups, coordinating asana movements with the breath, and personalising the teaching according to
6042-624: The 20th century include Bikram Yoga and Sivananda Yoga . Yoga as exercise spread across America and Europe, and then the rest of the world. Haṭha yoga's non-postural practices such as its purifications are much reduced or absent in yoga as exercise. The term "hatha yoga" is also in use with a different meaning, a gentle unbranded yoga practice, independent of the major schools, often mainly for women . Practices vary from wholly secular, for exercise and relaxation, through to undoubtedly spiritual, whether in traditions like Sivananda Yoga or in personal rituals. Yoga as exercise's relationship to Hinduism
6156-536: The American Society of Magazine Editors. In 2024, it was reported that the magazine had crossed one million subscribers and become profitable, three years after losing $ 20 million in a single year and laying off 17% of its staff. As of 2024, the website's executive editor is Adrienne LaFrance , the editor-in-chief is Jeffrey Goldberg , and the CEO is Nicholas Thompson . In the autumn of 1857, Moses Dresser Phillips ,
6270-592: The Atlantic, and is read beyond the limits of the English language. At that dinner he announced his idea for the magazine: Mr. Cabot is much wiser than I am. Dr. Holmes can write funnier verses than I can. Mr. Motley can write history better than I. Mr. Emerson is a philosopher and I am not. Mr. Lowell knows more of the old poets than I. But none of you knows the American people as well as I do. The Atlantic ' s first issue
6384-460: The British, a belief reinforced by then-current ideas of Lamarckism and eugenics . This culture was taken up from the 1880s to the early 20th century by Indian nationalists such as Tiruka , who taught exercises and unarmed combat techniques under the guise of yoga. The German bodybuilder Eugen Sandow was acclaimed on his 1905 visit to India, at which time he was already a "cultural hero" in
6498-481: The CYTA's newsletter, which had been called The Word . Initially, the journal was staffed by volunteers, and contributors were unpaid. The first issue's 300 copies were personally distributed by the founders. By the mid-1990s, as yoga's popularity in America grew, circulation for Yoga Journal reached 66,000. In 1998 the former banker John Abbott bought the magazine and hired Kathryn Arnold as editor-in-chief. The magazine
6612-598: The District of Columbia was clear that yoga premises were subject to the local sales tax on premises "the purpose of which is physical exercise." Similar debates have taken place in a Muslim context; for example, restrictions on yoga have been lifted in Saudi Arabia. In Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur permits yoga classes provided they do not include chanting or meditation. The yoga teacher and author Mira Mehta , asked by Yoga Magazine in 2010 whether she preferred her pupils to commit to
6726-423: The English language edition of CityLab.com . The site has not been updated since 2018. In early December 2019, Atlantic Media sold CityLab to Bloomberg Media , which promptly laid off half the staff. The site was relaunched on June 18, 2020, with few major changes other than new branding and linking the site with other Bloomberg verticals and its data terminal. In September 2019, TheAtlantic.com introduced
6840-588: The Indian tradition." The contemporary yoga practice is the result of "radical innovation and experimentation" of its Indian heritage. Jain writes that equating yoga as exercise with hatha yoga "does not account for the historical sources": asanas "only became prominent in modern yoga in the early twentieth century as a result of the dialogical exchanges between Indian reformers and nationalists and Americans and Europeans interested in health and fitness". In short, Jain writes, "modern yoga systems ... bear little resemblance to
6954-454: The Party: My invitations included only R. W. Emerson , H. W. Longfellow , J. R. Lowell , Mr. Motley (the 'Dutch Republic' man), O. W. Holmes , Mr. Cabot , and Mr. Underwood , our literary man. Imagine your uncle as the head of such a table, with such guests. The above named were the only ones invited, and they were all present. We sat down at three P.M., and rose at eight. The time occupied
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#17328547690497068-624: The Russian Eugenie V. Peterson, known as Indra Devi (from 1937), who moved to Hollywood , taught yoga to celebrities, and wrote the bestselling book Forever Young, Forever Healthy ; Pattabhi Jois (from 1927), who founded the flowing style Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga whose Mysore style makes use of repetitions of Surya Namaskar, in 1948, which in turn led to Power Yoga ; and B.K.S. Iyengar (from 1933), his brother-in-law, who founded Iyengar Yoga , with its first centre in Britain . Together they made yoga popular as exercise and brought it to
7182-450: The Western world became disillusioned with organised religion , and started to look for alternatives. And thirdly, yoga became an uncontroversial form of exercise suitable for mass consumption, unlike the more religious or meditational forms of modern yoga such as Siddha Yoga or Transcendental Meditation . This involved the dropping of many traditional requirements on the practice of yoga, such as giving alms , being celibate , studying
7296-449: The Western world has continued to grow rapidly. By 2012, there were at least 19 widespread styles from Ashtanga Yoga to Viniyoga . These emphasise different aspects including aerobic exercise , precision in the asanas, and spirituality in the Haṭha yoga tradition. These aspects can be illustrated by schools with distinctive styles. For example, Bikram Yoga has an aerobic exercise style with rooms heated to 105 °F (41 °C) and
7410-480: The Western world, as physical exercise for fitness and suppleness, rather than for what the historian of American yoga, Stefanie Syman , calls any "overtly Hindu" purpose. In 2010, this ambiguity triggered what the New York Times called "a surprisingly fierce debate in the gentle world of yoga". Some saffronising Indian-Americans campaigned to "Take Back Yoga" by informing Americans and other Westerners about
7524-496: The Western world. Iyengar's 1966 book Light on Yoga popularised yoga asanas worldwide with what the scholar-practitioner Norman Sjoman calls its "clear no-nonsense descriptions and the obvious refinement of the illustrations", though the degree of precision it calls for is missing from earlier yoga texts. Other Indian schools of yoga took up the new style of asanas, but continued to emphasize Haṭha yoga's spiritual goals and practices to varying extents. The Divine Life Society
7638-501: The addition of the "In Focus" photo blog, curated by Alan Taylor. In 2015, TheAtlantic.com launched a dedicated Science section and in January 2016 it redesigned and expanded its politics section in conjunction with the 2016 U.S. presidential race. In 2015, CityLab and Univision launched CityLab Latino , which features original journalism in Spanish as well as translated reporting from
7752-467: The attraction of Bikram and Ashtanga Yoga was that under the sweat, the commitment, the schedule, the physical demands and even the verbal abuse was a hard-won ecstasy, "a deep feeling of vitality, a feeling of pure energy, an unbowed posture, and mental acuity." That context has led to a division of opinion among Christians , some like Alexandra Davis of the Evangelical Alliance asserting that it
7866-433: The brand's high standards, he apologised publicly and took steps to protect the brand, in 2012 stepping back from running it and appointing a CEO . Jain states that yoga is becoming "part of the pop culture around the world". Alter writes that it illustrates "transnational transmutation and the blurring of consumerism, holistic health, and embodied mysticism—as well as good old-fashioned Orientalism." Singleton argues that
7980-453: The changes cannot be undone, whether people use it "as a holier-than-thou tool, as a tactic to balance out excessive drug use, or practised similarly to its origins with the spirituality that comes with it." Jain argues however that charges of appropriation "from 'the East' to 'the West'" fail to take account of the fact that yoga is evolving in a shared multinational process; it is not something that
8094-534: The choice of his yoga over other brands to choosing "a fine restaurant " over "a fast-food joint ." The New York Times Magazine headed its piece on him "The Yoga Mogul", while the historian of yoga Stefanie Syman argued that Friend had "very self-consciously" created his own yoga community. For example, Friend published his own teacher training manual, held workshops, conferences, and festivals, marketed his own brand of yoga mats and water bottles, and prescribed ethical guidelines. When Friend did not live up to
8208-622: The class is scheduled in a three-hour time window during which the students practice on their own at their own speed, following individualised instruction by the teacher. The evolution of yoga as exercise is not confined to the creation of new asanas and linking vinyasa sequences. A wide variety of hybrid activities combining yoga with martial arts , aerial yoga combined with acrobatics , yoga with barre work (as in ballet preparation), on horseback , with dogs , with goats, with ring-tailed lemurs , with weights , and on paddleboards are all being explored. The energy cost of exercise
8322-620: The commodity is the yoga body itself, its "spiritual possibility" signified by the "lucent skin of the yoga model", a beautiful image endlessly sold back to the yoga-practising public "as an irresistible commodity of the holistic, perfectible self". In 2008, the United States Department of Health and Human Services labelled September as National Yoga Month. From 2015, at the suggestion of India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi , an annual International Day of Yoga has been held on 21 June. The anthropologist Sarah Strauss contrasts
8436-544: The connection between yoga and Hinduism. The campaign was criticised by the New Age author Deepak Chopra , but supported by the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , R. Albert Mohler Jr. Jain notes that yoga is not necessarily Hindu, as it can also be Jain or Buddhist ; nor is it homogeneous or static, so she is critical of both what she calls the "Christian yogaphobic position" and
8550-711: The country. The anthropologist Joseph Alter suggests that Sandow was the person who had the most influence on modern yoga. The first handbook of asanas in English, and the first to be illustrated with photographs, was Seetharaman Sundaram 's 1928 Yogic Physical Culture . Yoga was introduced to the Western world by the spiritual leader Vivekananda 's 1893 visit to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, and his 1896 book Raja Yoga . However, he rejected Haṭha yoga and its "entirely" physical practices such as asanas as difficult and ineffective for spiritual growth, out of
8664-584: The cover with the January/February 2004 issue, and officially changed the name in 2007. In 2024, it announced that it will resume publishing monthly issues in 2025. In 2016, the periodical was named Magazine of the Year by the American Society of Magazine Editors . In 2022, its writers won Pulitzer Prizes for feature writing and, in 2022, 2023, and 2024 The Atlantic won the award for general excellence by
8778-472: The covers of glossy magazines such as Yoga Journal , and that non-lineage yoga evolved in reaction against that image. In January 2019, Yoga Journal exceptionally published two covers for the magazine, one showing a slim white woman, the other showing a larger black woman, both accompanied by a headline "The Leadership Issue", intended to examine the evolution of yoga and the part played by " lineage , social media, and power dynamics." The pair of covers drew
8892-462: The default form of mass-drill, and this influenced the "modernized hatha yoga". According to the yoga scholar Suzanne Newcombe , modern yoga in India is a blend of Western gymnastics with postures from Haṭha yoga in India in the 20th century. From the 1850s onwards, there developed in India a culture of physical exercise to counter the colonial stereotype of supposed "degeneracy" of Indians compared to
9006-573: The effect of yoga on mood and measures of stress. The practice of asanas has been claimed to improve flexibility, strength, and balance; to alleviate stress and anxiety, and to reduce the symptoms of lower back pain . A review of five studies noted that three psychological ( positive affect , mindfulness , self-compassion ) and four biological mechanisms (posterior hypothalamus , interleukin-6 , C-reactive protein and cortisol ) that might act on stress had been examined empirically, whereas many other potential mechanisms remained to be studied; four of
9120-544: The few masters of Haṭha yoga then living, Ramamohana Brahmachari , at Lake Manasarovar in Tibet, from 1912 to 1918. He studied under Kuvalayananda in the 1930s, and then in his yogashala in the Jaganmohan Palace in Mysore created "a marriage of Haṭha yoga, wrestling exercises, and modern Western gymnastic movement, and unlike anything seen before in the yoga tradition." The Maharajah of Mysore Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV
9234-559: The goal of classical yoga, the isolation of the self or kaivalya , with the modern goals of good health, reduced stress, and physical flexibility. Sjoman notes that many of the asanas in Iyengar's Light on Yoga can be traced to his teacher, Krishnamacharya, "but not beyond him". Singleton states that yoga used as exercise is not "the outcome of a direct and unbroken lineage of haṭha yoga", but it would be "going too far to say that modern postural yoga has no relationship to asana practice within
9348-500: The headline "The Negro Is Your Brother". The magazine has published speculative articles that inspired the development of new technologies. The classic example is Vannevar Bush 's essay " As We May Think " (July 1945), which inspired Douglas Engelbart and later Ted Nelson to develop the modern workstation and hypertext technology. The Atlantic Monthly founded the Atlantic Monthly Press in 1917; for many years, it
9462-635: The journal's history, in 1976, it published the guru Ram Dass 's confession. Yoga Journal 's 2012 survey, Yoga in America found the yoga market to be worth more than $ 10 billion per year. The data, collected by the Harris Interactive Service Bureau (HISB) , showed that 20.4 million people practiced yoga in America at that time. There are 12 international editions, published in Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand and Turkey. The magazine
9576-508: The longer title, and with Goldberg as moderator, was the one broadcast on August 11, 2023. In 1860, three years into publication, The Atlantic ' s then-editor James Russell Lowell endorsed Republican Abraham Lincoln for his first run for president and also endorsed the abolition of slavery . In 1964, Edward Weeks wrote on behalf of the editorial board in endorsing Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson and rebuking Republican Barry Goldwater 's candidacy. In 2016, during
9690-585: The magazine in 2010; in Lasater's view, "photos of naked or half-naked women ... do not teach the viewer about yoga practice or themselves. They aren't even about the celebration of the beauty of the human body or the beauty of the poses [ asanas ], which I support. These ads are just about selling a product." The journalist Rosalie Murphy, writing in The Atlantic in 2014, stated that Yoga Journal and similar yoga magazines are illustrated in "nearly every spread" with
9804-446: The magazine launched The Atlantic Wire as a stand-alone news aggregator site. It was intended as a curated selection of news and opinions from online, print, radio, and television outlets. At its launch, it published op-eds from across the media spectrum and summarized significant positions in each debate. It later expanded to feature news and original reporting. Regular features in the magazine included "What I Read", describing
9918-603: The magazine won a National Magazine Award for fiction. Editors have recognized major cultural changes and movements. For example, of the emerging writers of the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway had his short story " Fifty Grand " published in the July 1927 edition. Harking back to its abolitionist roots, in its August 1963 edition, at the height of the civil rights movement , the magazine published Martin Luther King Jr. 's defense of civil disobedience , " Letter from Birmingham Jail ", under
10032-558: The magazine would stay in Boston for the foreseeable future, as it did for the next five-and-a-half years. In April 2005, however, the publishers announced that the editorial offices would be moved from their longtime home at 77 North Washington Street in Boston to join the company's advertising and circulation divisions in Washington, D.C. Later in August, Bradley told The New York Observer that
10146-414: The magazine's language that "of science and physiology, of diet and blood pressure". In her view, the journal uses "highly clinical-sounding language" even when covering "more mystical topics"; it stresses the use of yoga as therapy . Syman notes that the journal's coverage was "eclectic", especially noticeable in its calendar and classified advertisements. The magazine covers topics beyond exercise; early in
10260-568: The mechanisms (positive affect, self-compassion, inhibition of the posterior hypothalamus and salivary cortisol) were found to mediate the potential stress-lowering effects of yoga. A 2017 review found moderate-quality evidence that yoga reduces back pain. For people with cancer , yoga may help relieve fatigue, improve psychological outcomes, and support sleep quality and life attitudes, although results vary from reviews published in 2017. A 2015 systematic review noted that yoga may be effective in alleviating symptoms of prenatal depression . There
10374-490: The move was not made to save money—near-term savings would be $ 200,000–$ 300,000, a relatively small amount that would be swallowed by severance-related spending—but instead would serve to create a hub in Washington, D.C., where the top minds from all of Bradley's publications could collaborate under the Atlantic Media Company umbrella. Few of the Boston staff agreed to move, and Bradley then commenced an open search for
10488-413: The needs of individual students. Yoga sessions vary widely depending on the school and style, and according to how advanced the class is. As with any exercise class, sessions usually start slowly with gentle warm-up exercises, move on to more vigorous exercises, and slow down again towards the end. A beginners' class can begin with simple poses like Sukhasana , some rounds of Surya Namaskar, and then
10602-534: The opening of its institute at Pietermaritzburg; its Association of South East & East Asia was founded in 2009. The spread of Yoga in America was assisted by the television show Lilias, Yoga and You , hosted by Lilias Folan; it ran from 1970 to 1999. In Australia, by 2005 some 12% of the population practised yoga in a class or at home. As a valuable business, yoga has in turn been used in advertising , sometimes for yoga-related products, sometimes for other goods and services. The market for yoga grew, argues
10716-509: The position of the head and feet ( standing , sitting, reclining, inverted), by whether balancing is required, or by the effect on the spine (forward bend, backbend, twist), giving a set of asana types agreed by most authors. The yoga guru Dharma Mittra uses his own categories such as "Floor & Supine Poses". Yogapedia and Yoga Journal add "Hip-opening"; the yoga teacher Darren Rhodes, Yogapedia and Yoga Journal also add "Core strength." The number of schools and styles of yoga in
10830-457: The practice of asanas is combined with pranayama and meditation, using the breath and sometimes Buddhist Vipassana meditation techniques to bring the attention to the body and the emotions, thus quietening the mind . The idea of competitive yoga has been called an oxymoron by some people in the yoga community, such as the yoga teacher Maja Sidebaeck, but the fiercely contested Bishnu Charan Ghosh Cup , founded by Bikram Choudhury in 2003,
10944-565: The practitioner in "that precise state [where] the body, the breath, the mind and the brain move toward the real self ( Atma )" so as to merge into the Infinite, thus explaining the modern yoga healing ritual in terms of the Hindu Vishishtadvaita : an explanation that, De Michelis notes, practitioners are free to follow if they wish. The yoga scholar Elliott Goldberg notes that some practitioners of yoga as exercise "inhabit their body as
11058-544: The publication's sole president in March 2016 when Bennet was tapped to lead The New York Times ' s editorial page. Jeffrey Goldberg was named editor-in-chief in October 2016. On July 28, 2017, The Atlantic announced that billionaire investor and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs (the widow of former Apple Inc. chairman and CEO Steve Jobs ) had acquired majority ownership through her Emerson Collective organization, with
11172-419: The scholar of religion Andrea Jain , with the creation of an "endless" variety of second-generation yoga brands , saleable products, "constructed and marketed for immediate consumption", based on earlier developments. For example, in 1997 John Friend , once a financial analyst , who had intensively studied both the postural Iyengar Yoga and the non-postural Siddha Yoga, founded Anusara Yoga . Friend likened
11286-583: The sun, Surya Namaskar , now accepted as yoga and containing popular asanas such as Uttanasana and upward and downward dog poses , were popularized by the Rajah of Aundh , Bhawanrao Shrinivasrao Pant Pratinidhi , in the 1920s. In 1924, the yoga teacher Kuvalayananda founded the Kaivalyadhama Health and Yoga Research Center in Maharashtra , combining asanas with gymnastics, and like Yogendra seeking
11400-816: The world of yoga, with brands such as Lorna Jane and Lululemon offering their own ranges of women's yoga clothing. Sales of goods such as yoga mats are increasing rapidly; sales are projected to rise to $ 14 billion by 2020 in North America, where the key vendors in 2016 were Barefoot Yoga, Gaiam , Jade Yoga, and Manduka, according to Technavio. Sales of athleisure clothing such as yoga pants were worth $ 35 billion in 2014, forming 17% of American clothing sales. A wide variety of instructional videos are available, some free, for yoga practice at beginner and advanced levels. By 2018, over 6,000 commercially produced titles were on sale. Over 1,000 books have been published on yoga poses. Yoga has reached high fashion, too: in 2011,
11514-776: The yoga systems that preceded them. This is because [both] ... are specific to their own social contexts." The historian Jared Farmer writes that twelve trends have characterised yoga's progression from the 1890s onwards: from peripheral to central in society; from India to global; from male to "predominantly" female; from spiritual to "mostly" secular; from sectarian to universal; from mendicant to consumerist ; from meditational to postural; from being understood intellectually to experientially; from embodying esoteric knowledge to being accessible to all; from being taught orally to hands-on instruction; from presenting poses in text to using photographs; and from being "contorted social pariahs" to "lithe social winners". The trend away from authority
11628-592: Was a leading advocate of physical culture in India, and a neighbouring hall of his palace was used to teach Surya Namaskar classes, then considered to be gymnastic exercises. Krishnamacharya adapted these sequences of exercises into his flowing vinyasa style of yoga. The yoga scholar Mark Singleton noted that gymnastic systems like Niels Bukh 's were popular in physical culture in India at that time, and that they contained many postures similar to Krishnamacharya's new asanas. Among Krishnamacharya's pupils were people who became influential yoga teachers themselves:
11742-499: Was announced that Jeffrey Goldberg , who had served as editor-in-chief of The Atlantic since 2016, had been named as Washington Week 's tenth moderator, and that the politics and culture publication would also enter into an editorial partnership with the television program – which was retitled accordingly as Washington Week with The Atlantic – similar to the earlier collaboration with the National Journal . The first episode under
11856-628: Was directly from guru to individual pupil , in a long-term relationship. It was associated with religions, especially Hinduism but also Jainism and Buddhism. Its objectives were to manipulate vital fluids to enable absorption and ultimately liberation . It consisted of practices including purifications , postures (asanas), locks , the directed gaze , seals , and rhythmic breathing . These were claimed to provide supernatural powers including healing, destruction of poisons, invisibility, and shape-shifting. Yogins wore little or no clothing; their bodies were sometimes smeared with cremation ash as
11970-598: Was founded by Sivananda Saraswati of Rishikesh in 1936. His many disciples include Swami Vishnudevananda , who founded the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres , starting in 1959; Swami Satyananda of the Bihar School of Yoga , a major centre of Haṭha yoga teacher training, founded in 1963; and Swami Satchidananda of Integral Yoga , founded in 1966. Vishnudevananda published his Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga in 1960, with
12084-427: Was longer by about four hours and thirty minutes than I am in the habit of consuming in that kind of occupation, but it was the richest time intellectually by all odds that I have ever had. Leaving myself and 'literary man' out of the group, I think you will agree with me that it would be difficult to duplicate that number of such conceded scholarship in the whole country besides... Each one is known alike on both sides of
12198-674: Was operated in partnership with Little, Brown and Company . Its published books included Drums Along the Mohawk (1936) and Blue Highways (1982). The press was sold in 1986; today it is an imprint of Grove Atlantic . In addition to publishing notable fiction and poetry, The Atlantic has emerged in the 21st century as an influential platform for longform storytelling and newsmaker interviews. Influential cover stories have included Anne Marie Slaughter 's "Why Women Still Can't Have It All" (2012) and Ta-Nehisi Coates 's "A Case for Reparations" (2014). In 2015, Jeffrey Goldberg 's "Obama Doctrine"
12312-784: Was published in November 1857, and quickly gained notability as one of the finest magazines in the English-speaking world. In 1878, the magazine absorbed The Galaxy , a competitor monthly magazine founded a dozen years previously by William Conant Church and his brother Francis P. Church ; it had published works by Mark Twain , Walt Whitman , Ion Hanford Perdicaris and Henry James . In 1879, The Atlantic had offices in Winthrop Square in Boston and at 21 Astor Place in New York City . A leading literary magazine, The Atlantic has published many significant works and authors. It
12426-517: Was purchased in 1908 by editor at the time, Ellery Sedgwick , and remained in Boston. In 1980, the magazine was acquired by Mortimer Zuckerman , property magnate and founder of Boston Properties , who became its chairman. On September 27, 1999, Zuckerman transferred ownership of the magazine to David G. Bradley , owner of the National Journal Group , which focused on Washington, D.C. and federal government news. Bradley had promised that
12540-431: Was purchased in 1999 by businessman David G. Bradley , who fashioned it into a general editorial magazine primarily aimed at serious national readers and " thought leaders "; in 2017, he sold a majority interest in the publication to Laurene Powell Jobs 's Emerson Collective . The magazine was published monthly until 2001, when 11 issues were produced; since 2003, it has published 10 per year. It dropped "Monthly" from
12654-447: Was relaunched with a new design in 2000. Since their arrival, the paid circulation grew from 90,000 to 350,000 by 2010; the readership reached over 1,300,000. Yoga Journal has won major media awards including eight Western Publications Association's Maggie Awards for "Best Health and Fitness Magazine," and the Award's top honor for "Best Overall Consumer Publication." Forbes has called
12768-498: Was revived in the 1920s by yoga gurus including Yogendra and Kuvalayananda , who emphasised its health benefits. The flowing sequences of Surya Namaskar (Salute to the Sun) were pioneered by the Rajah of Aundh , Bhawanrao Shrinivasrao Pant Pratinidhi , in the 1920s. It and many standing poses used in gymnastics were incorporated into yoga by the yoga teacher Krishnamacharya in Mysore from
12882-740: Was the first to publish pieces by the abolitionists Julia Ward Howe (" Battle Hymn of the Republic " on February 1, 1862), and William Parker , whose slave narrative , "The Freedman's Story" was published in February and March 1866. It also published Charles W. Eliot 's "The New Education", a call for practical reform that led to his appointment to the presidency of Harvard University in 1869, works by Charles Chesnutt before he collected them in The Conjure Woman (1899), and poetry and short stories, and helped launch many national literary careers. In 2005,
12996-499: Was widely discussed by American media and prompted response by many world leaders. As of 2022, writers and frequent contributors to the print magazine included James Fallows , Jeffrey Goldberg, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Caitlin Flanagan , Jonathan Rauch , McKay Coppins , Gillian White, Adrienne LaFrance , Vann R. Newkirk II , Derek Thompson , David Frum , Jennifer Senior, George Packer , Ed Yong , and James Parker. On August 2, 2023, it
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