Another twist to yoga: polga
Once considered a path to attain oneness with God, modern day yoga has metamorphosed into a commercial product. And lately, there’s been a fair amount of enhancing, where yoga is offered with something extra on the side. Different forms like polga, doga and broga have been added to traditional yoga to make it popular across the world.
Recently, Jacqueline Fernandez and Varun Dhawan shared pictures on Instagram doing polga or pole infused yoga, an intense and fun workout that can be done by people of all age groups. The exercise helps enhance the body’s flexibility, strength and stability. The pole is only a prop just like a mat, strap, or foam block that allows deep stretches and balance during challenging poses.
Actress Sanjjanaa galrani, who has always been into healthy living and is pro-fitness, describes the various forms of yoga that have come into existence like acro (using a partner to balance oneself), wheel yoga, aqua (pool yoga), beer (doing yoga after consuming beer), doga (practice along with canines), broga (tailoring the asana routine to have more strength-building routines along with a few push-ups, squats and crunches — yoga for brothers), power yoga (an intense workout that makes you sweat with an even faster rhythm) and so on.
Various forms of yoga
Acro yoga: (using a partner to balance oneself)
Wheel yoga:
Aqua yoga: (pool yoga)
Beer yoga: (doing yoga after consuming beer)
Doga: (practice along with canines)
Broga: (yoga for brothers)
Power yoga: (an intense workout that makes you sweat with an even faster rhythm)
She feels swanky yoga centres, costumes, studios, and new age yoga gurus have made it more commercialised. Competition is hotting up and each prominent yoga school has come up with a unique selling point to make a pitch for its own route to wellness.
Says Sanjjanaa, “All these forms of yoga have originated from our classical yoga — Suryanamaskar. These modern forms however, are made both for commercial purposes too. In this rat race, each academy is coming up with new funny yoga asanas and losing out on the authenticity of traditional yoga postures, which aligns all the chakras of the body and helps one to have control in any situation. The new yoga forms are very entertaining. But those who are deeply into fitness and understand the value of traditional yoga will stick to it and just laugh away the new forms.”
Bharat Thakur, who is himself a yogi, says, “These are the simple modifications of yoga. Pole dancing and pole yoga can’t be considered as yoga. Yes, Malkhamb is there, but the content and concept of yoga is freedom from any object. Yoga talks about a body that is capable of moving and creating the best of energy within, thus changing the internal cosmos of the body. Objects distract one from the core objective of yoga."
Kamal Maliramani of Energizer Yoga says, “Humans are meant to move and so any activity that promotes movement of the body is great for physical health. Yoga has become popular around the world as a means for fitness and so we have other streams combining their strengths with yoga to tap into the growing market. However, one should remember that yoga is a way of life and its key objective is stillness of the mind. Polga is great for a workout but you still need yoga for work in.”