Yoga is a 5,000 year old practice. For many, yoga is a central form of fitness that unites the mind and body. Yoga is perennial and eternal and sacred in the minds of many. The yoga journey is often spiritual for those who become deeply immersed in what they may consider more of an art than a fitness class. At PLYOGA, we appreciate and agree with that yoga journey 100%. That's why we started PLYOGA in 2013.
5,000 years ago, there were no modern amenities or conveniences. If someone was doing something, they were doing it manually. The lifestyle was fitness and free of being sedentary. If you could not move functionally, you did not survive. Yoga was the only "fitness", although its use was much more layered in its beginnings in Northern India. The value in this amazing fitness culture is boundless but often disregarded by so many.
As an athlete, PLYOGA founder Stephanie Lauren looked to constantly go fast and powerful when it came to training. Staying in top shape was layered in sprints, gymnastics conditioning, interval training, kickboxing, and bootcamp formats. It was not until after her NCAA Division 1 career was finished that she realized the value in muscle fluidity, balance, flexibility, and overall control. It was then that she fell in love with Yoga as a means of longevity. After making yoga part of her educational rapport in fitness, Stephanie realized that the premise behind yoga was absolutely necessary for top competitors in all sports and genres. Yoga would play a role in reducing injury and creating more well rounded athletes, but the same problem still existed.
Athletes are not often keen to slow down and dedicate significant time to fortifying and protecting these strong bodies with the healing powers of yoga. The task was to fool them into getting these benefits on their terms. PLYOGA began to take shape.
PLYOGA is a 4 part system with a dynamic/ballistic warm-up, a transitional segment featuring plyometric and core intervals with yoga as an active recovery, a short plyometric dedicated segment, and a thorough yoga cool down. So often, interval training classes depend on the students to continue their stretch and cool down after the class. Stephanie knew too well that these students rarely did so.
PLYOGA invigorates its participants with a subtle and focused yoga segment to bring them back down to earth. The question remains. How does PLYOGA compliment and grow Yoga's footprint?
We hear from isolated yoga gurus that yoga infused workouts bastardize yoga and defeat the very heart of the yoga premise. The truth is most people don't know that they need yoga in their lives until they just know. When people are not mentally ready to tackle yoga or yoga seems intimidating, who's going to get them there? Not yoga gurus.
More athletes and bootcamp style people take PLYOGA than yoga people (although we love yoga people because it expands their horizons in the aerobic sector too). Why is this important? Every HIIT advocate that starts using PLYOGA to fill their desire for intense fitness learns fundamental and accelerated yoga movements. In the interim, these people, in majority, become more flexible, balanced, and in tune with their bodies through the yoga component. People always do what they get good at, so they become more curious.
A vast majority of intense PLYOGA students wind up venturing into specialized studios or classes that focus specifically on yoga to elevate the journey and evolve as athletes. We encourage them to. We introduce the benefits of yoga to them through interval training and they fall in love. PLYOGA has been in front of over 100,000 fitness students. If only 10% of them have developed a deeper curiosity toward yoga after realizing the distinct benefits that they learned in their PLYOGA class, then we have created at least 10,000 new yoga fans (and we are happy about it).
Fitness is diverse, evolving, and inclusive. We are excited to be part of it!
YOUR BODY IS POWER
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