The 30-Day Power Yoga Challenge

- Niraj Karki

The New Year’s Resolution is one of the most common excuses for people to take steps towards adopting a healthy lifestyle – eating a balanced diet, quitting smoking and drinking, following an exercise routine and a few more on that list. It is odd that the priority of health is somehow affected by the position of earth in its orbit around the sun but most resolutions usually end up with no results. Excuses don’t’ work. Usually.
All the same, this is the account of a 30-day Power Yoga Challenge that started on New Year at Pranamaya Yoga in 1905, Thamel. [Pranamaya Yoga is an active yoga community in Nepal that offers classes in Thamel and Jhamsikhel]. For those that don’t know, Power Yoga is version of the Ashtanga (8 limb) Yoga, which focuses on developing physical flexibility as well your mental strength and willpower.
If you are considering doing yoga, or any form of physical exercise to become healthy, do consider that it is not something like a medicine that you take, the effects of which stay with you forever. Yoga is an approach to fitness – these are lifestyles, not fixes. Trying to be healthy is not a hobby – it is a lifestyle.
While yoga is for everyone, Power Yoga isn’t quite so. Rather, it isn’t for all stages of yoga practitioners. Mostly, because the things you do in Power Yoga are very challenging and demanding and which are better performed when you already have a basic understanding of the yoga asanas. At the same time, the challenges and demands are not physical – the limits in yoga are purely mental and there is always a rhythm and a flow to what you do – which is a good thing.
Losing weight: For those who like the idea of having washboard abs (as opposed to love handles) there is an asana for that! Power Yoga stresses on building core muscles and is very physical so if losing weight is your concern, then power yoga is definitely for you.
Toning up muscles: Very often in yoga, you end up using and toning muscles that you aren’t really aware of. The benefits aren’t instantaneous but if you persevere, they are highly rewarding.
Flexibility: One benefit of incorporating yoga into your daily life, especially in the morning, is that because of the emphasis on breathing, a session of yoga leaves you feeling energized and refreshed for the day. Also, because you start by doing basic stretches and warming up your body a little, your body is ready for anything - whether it’s something very physical or a desk job. Even for those who have desk jobs, supple joints mean smaller chances of stiff backs and necks.
Stop smoking: In daily life, people who smoke don’t really feel the effects of smoking. The minute they go on say, a hike, and walk uphill, is usually when they realize what cigarettes do to them – this feeling of how your whole body is struggling to breathe properly and you can feel that smoking is not good for you. Yoga gives a similar feeling but it’s a lot more accentuated. There is a sense of inner cleanliness that you feel after yoga into which smoking does not fit. So, if you want to quit smoking, then do Power Yoga - especially in the morning.
Cons of power yoga
To be perfectly honest, the worst thing about the 30-day Power Yoga Challenge was having to get out of bed at six in the morning – in winter, very cold winter. Power Yoga, it can be safely said, does not suddenly transform you into a morning person. Apart from that, there are no real reasons why one should not consider Power Yoga. As mentioned earlier, if suffering from any physical condition, it is best to talk to the yoga instructors who are usually able to give proper guidance.
Power Yoga is like any other form of yoga where you do a series of asanas. It is different from other forms of yoga probably because of the combination of asanas that you do and the duration you do them for. It consists of a lot of Surya Namaskars, in fact, one of the ways we realized how better we had gotten was by looking at the number of Surya Namaskars we could do. We started with five in the first week where we were sweating like anything and in the final week, we did 20 rounds without being really tired.
Interestingly, the progress was gradual and almost as if without physical boundaries. I just remember taking control of my mind and saying “I can hold on for another minute, and another minute” – it’s all about taking control of your mind. The benefits are obviously for your body – they are physical – but yoga is a mental process.
There are many aspects to yoga and Power Yoga is no exception. It is interesting how of all the asanas in yoga, the final asana – the Shav Asana (or corpse asana) – the one that demands the least energy because it is essentially sleeping doing nothing except to have a clear mind is actually the hardest, and if not, the one that most people fail at. The mind is part of all exercise – yoga highlights that. Doing the warrior lunges, for example, while a great workout for thighs, is a true test of your willpower and endurance.
For all the good that yoga does, it is difficult to incorporate a regular yoga routine into daily life and taking yoga classes is one of the best ways to do so. Doing yoga with others in a group gives you better motivation; you have guidance from an experienced teacher, which is crucial because it is very easy to get the asanas wrong. Considering safety, yoga classes are even more important because teachers can suggest alternatives if you are suffering from medical or physical conditions. And, if you need a reason to join the yoga classes at Pranamaya, the place – it smells of green tea - the way mornings should smell – which actually makes you want to do yoga.
If the question you have is whether you should consider doing Power Yoga or not, the best thing to do is take a few classes. Whether you want to burn away the tummy fat doing planks, improve your body balance through the various asanas or want to be aware of your body, yoga is a great way to go.
Yoga is about appreciating your body, appreciating breath and energy instead of going through days feeling aches and numbness. It’s also worth considering that all the mumbo-jumbo about yoga and its emphasis on breath and energy are repeated over and over again not to sound cheesy but because they are true. Yoga, because of its mental and eventual spiritual association, is often looked upon as something obscure but a fit body means a healthier mind and that opens thoughts to spirituality.
To conclude, consider yoga, take up yoga. Power Yoga might not be what you are suited for but you’ll never know until you try. Also, the New Year is just around the corner – that is an excuse as good as any!
 [The writer would like to thank Pranamaya Yoga.]