Punk-yoga workouts attract the anti-health-club crowd

By REBECCA COOK
The Associated Press

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The guitarist plugs in his amp, and the yoga instructor strips off her baggy skull-patterned boxers to reveal black bike shorts.

They both warm up for the latest twist on an ancient practice: punk-rock yoga.

Power yoga, baby yoga, kickboxing yoga, and now this.

Has yoga fusion finally gone too far?

After all, yoga is a spiritual discipline aimed at creating a sense of deep quiet and inner peace, while punk rock is all about being undisciplined and loud.

It makes sense to instructor Kimberlee Jensen.

"It's the whole do-it-yourself ethic," said Jensen, 34. "Punk is democratic, nonhierarchical — that's definitely the way I like to approach it."

Her free, weekly classes are held at an all-ages Seattle nightclub and aimed at teenagers and adults who wouldn't be caught dead in a health club.

The Vera Project is at 1916 Fourth Ave.
 
"It shouldn't be a thing that just skinny people do," Jensen said. "That's not what yoga should be."

She was inspired by the success of Punk Rock Aerobics, the brainchild of two Boston women who turned classic punk moves like skanking and pogo-ing into a real workout.

A longtime fitness instructor, Jensen has practiced yoga for eight years and began training as a teacher about a year ago. The punk-yoga class started last year to satisfy the community-outreach requirement of her training, but it was so popular she's kept it going.

She eschews a fancy studio with mirrored walls for a dark, black-painted nightclub. She banishes rows of yoga mats in favor of a circle arranged around a plate of flickering votive candles.

She knows plenty of serious yoga people wouldn't approve of her methods, but it doesn't worry her.

"I get new people in off the street every time," Jensen said. She remembers one student who told her, "This is the first physical thing I've done where I haven't felt made a fool of."

Jensen smiled. "That," she said, "is what yoga should be."

After one recent class, students gave punk-rock yoga good reviews.

"A lot of yoga classes are really kind of wimpy," said Janelle Hartman, a hard-core yoga devotee attending her first punk-rock yoga class. "She got us really heated up."

Erik Englund, 28, has been attending Jensen's classes for about a year. He said the nightclub setting intrigued him, and the health benefits and relaxed atmosphere kept him coming back.

"This felt very unpretentious," he said.