Next step: Yoga in the Olympics

February 25, 2016 3:44 PM

The USA Yoga National Championship is coming up in a few months. Competitors will execute six poses (four mandatory, two of their own choice) for points based on asana (physical movement), balance, stillness, breathing, and concentration. Before you roll your eyes at America making an ancient form of spiritual exercise into a competition, there have been such competitions in India for at least the last two centuries, and possibly thousands of years. Chavie Lieber takes a look at "Champions of Zen".
posted by Etrigan (29 comments total)

“I am the serenest!” Bikram shouted to the estimated crowd of 20,000 yoga fans, vigorously pumping his fists. “No one is serener than Sri Dhananjai Bikram—I am the greatest monk of all time!”
posted by zamboni at 3:51 PM on February 25, 2016 [19 favorites]

Not rolling my eyes, but it is funny to me that this was in the onion almost exactly 20 years ago.
posted by bruceo at 3:51 PM on February 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

They titled an article about yoga "Champions of Zen"?
posted by mittens at 3:57 PM on February 25, 2016 [18 favorites]

"Before you roll your eyes at America making an ancient form of spiritual exercise into a competition..."

Too late!
posted by crazylegs at 3:59 PM on February 25, 2016 [6 favorites]

I may be splitting hairs here since that article doesn't seem to actually have anything to do with Zen whatsoever, but there is such a thing as "Zen Yoga," and Chavie seems to be missing a not so fine distinction here which makes it hard for me to want to take in their ideas.
posted by cmoj at 3:59 PM on February 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's not yoga, of course, but the first thing I thought of upon seeing the FPP on the front page was this classic (and probably NSFW) Key & Peele skit.
posted by magstheaxe at 4:00 PM on February 25, 2016

Competitive yoga seems like a stretch to me.
posted by crazylegs at 4:04 PM on February 25, 2016 [31 favorites]

This makes me very sad. I've always thought of yoga as specifically noncompetitive. I think I'll just go quietly into shavasana and breathe for awhile.
posted by BoscosMom at 4:23 PM on February 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

> They titled an article about yoga "Champions of Zen"?

I've been sitting here for ten minutes trying to think of an "Omsters Of [yoga-themed replacement for 'Rock']" joke.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:03 PM on February 25, 2016

Can we just go straight to competitive cultural appropriation?

We won that one long ago.

I'm personally in the camp of finding competitive yoga to be oxymoronic, but if people enjoy it then more power to them. Some of the poses in the photos made my joints hurt just to look at, and if the photos are representative then they seem to be going more in a contortionist direction than the gentler kind of yoga classes that I have taken.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:22 PM on February 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'm pretty sure Zen is a word that means "here comes another word which is now more special than it would have been on its own", or "something something monks". Both meanings are at work here. Unless it's about kitchen supplies.
posted by sneebler at 5:22 PM on February 25, 2016

there is such a thing as "Zen Yoga," and Chavie seems to be missing a not so fine distinction here which makes it hard for me to want to take in their ideas.

See also:

A question for Miss Bellamy. In episode 2F09 when Itchy plays Scratchy's skeleton like a xylophone, he strikes the same rib twice in succession, yet he produces two clearly different tones. I mean, what are we to believe, that this is some sort of a magic xylophone or something? Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder.
posted by jpe at 5:26 PM on February 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

People just want that Bodhidharma body, and who can blame them?
posted by thelonius at 5:30 PM on February 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Darwinian yoga!
posted by cromagnon at 5:31 PM on February 25, 2016

I don't understand how they're going to pick a winner when everyone is doing it perfectly.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:21 PM on February 25, 2016

Oh fer the love of pete. Talk about missing the point of yoga.

That being said, I know many yogis that just can't keep their practice on their own mat, and they would love this.
posted by Elly Vortex at 6:31 PM on February 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's nice that they kept up with the times and included a "best Instagram post" portion of the competition.
posted by dr_dank at 6:57 PM on February 25, 2016

Every day is Competitive Yoga Day in Boulder, CO. Believe you me.
posted by alex_skazat at 7:17 PM on February 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

Next step: Yoga in the Olympics

There are people trying to get chess and bridge in the Winter Olympics. At least you can't smoke a cigarette while doing yoga.
posted by thelonius at 8:02 PM on February 25, 2016

I am sure that there are not many competitions being held in India. Yoga is NOT an competitive sport. In fact yogais NOT a sport, so how can anyone have competition?
posted by pashminu at 8:32 PM on February 25, 2016

Competitive yoga seems like a stretch to me.
posted by crazylegs

Are you a contestant :)?
posted by futz at 9:01 PM on February 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you can create an arbitrary evaluation mechanism and points system for gymnastics or figure skating or whatever, why not yoga? It seems just as amenable to such a system due to the importance of body control.
posted by feloniousmonk at 10:14 PM on February 25, 2016

At least you can't smoke a cigarette while doing yoga.

Miley Cryus accepts your challenge.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 10:29 PM on February 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

I wouldn't call it cultural appropriation — they had similar competitions in India before Bikram and Rajashree Choudhury, both from India, brought them to the US.

However, as far as I know the whole idea of asana as a series of exercises is an earlier appropriation of religious terminology by others in India during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Asana originally referred to the posture for seated meditation. So yeah, there is an element of ridiculousness in identifying the competition with yoga in its original sense.

I guess they don't want Bikram's name associated with the competition anymore due to various "controversies."
posted by mubba at 11:20 PM on February 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

Considering how wild everyone is for cleanses these days, kinda surprised they don't include competitive dhauti.
posted by mittens at 5:00 AM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Next step: Yoga in the Olympics
February 25, 2016 6:44 PM Subscribe
The USA Yoga National Championship is coming up in a few months. Competitors will execute six poses (four mandatory, two of their own choice) for points based on asana (physical movement), balance, stillness, breathing, and concentration. Before you roll your eyes at America making an ancient form of spiritual exercise into a competition

So you're saying they don't score on drishti, the yogic eye gaze component of the asana?

Amateurs.
posted by anotherpanacea at 6:38 AM on February 26, 2016

I recommend this book mentioned in the article: Hell Bent: Obsession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga by Benjamin Lorr. It's a really good book for anyone interested in yoga, really. He relates his experiences trying to train with a group of Bikram yoga prodigies, and along the way discusses the history of Bikram's practices, the pro-and-con science behind hot yoga training, and gives an in-depth look at the insanity of Bikram's teacher trainings. It's been a couple years since I read it, but as I recall he doesn't go into the sexual abuse allegations much because there hadn't yet been actual lawsuits at the time this was published, but you get a very clear idea that Bikram is a hot mess of a human being.
posted by dnash at 8:15 AM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

I really like the yoga I have done (working with a friend who is a yoga teacher) but man I don't want to call myself a 'yogi' or engage in some kind of appropriative spiritual exoticism. Or in some kind of workout dick-measuring. I guess I need to look for an old people's class.
posted by thelonius at 12:17 PM on February 26, 2016

Bollocks.
posted by homunculus at 8:21 PM on February 29, 2016