The New Face of Modern Yoga no comments
From legal pads to yoga mat, Kimberly Fowler is the new face of modern yoga. Her Yoga for Athletes® program has gained a cult following with more than 500 YAS-goers frequenting her six-year-old, ultra-modern Abbot Kinney studio in Venice, Calif., on a daily basis. Her unique blend of yoga and indoor cycling, coupled with her promise of “no-chanting, no granola, and no Sanskrit” has proven to have mass appeal.
“I started the Yoga for Athletes® program because people try to force themselves into a pose and end up injured, so they don’t like yoga,” she explains. “They don’t realize that it takes a while for the body to adjust, to turn yourself into a pretzel. Every pose has a lesser or more advanced level so athletes don’t get injured.”
Fowler, with her black nail polish, Edie Sedgwick-reminiscent bob, and signature low-rise black YAS sweatpants, doesn’t fit the stereotypical image of a soft-spoken, earthy yoga guru; in fact, she is notoriously the ‘anti-guru.’ Her progression into the yoga realm is far from conventional; after two decades as a litigator (“the scariest kinds of lawyers.” Cher quips in the 90’s classic Clueless), and then as the only female executive of The Wining Combination, yoga was an unlikely career move.
Combing the yin and yang energies of spinning and yoga, Fowler’s sequence allows students to sweat out their aggression on the bike before lunging deeper into warrior IIs or surrendering in child’s pose-all to the tune of a fabulous Rolling Stones or Zeppelin track.
Aside from the seemingly unlikely marriage of cardio and core work, Fowler further flouts the more traditional chanting and meditative practices of yoga as well as the ninety-minute Power Yoga craze, as her classes are designed to meet the one-hour mark.
A strong advocate of movement in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and a preference for strong yoga bodies over ‘waify’ figures, Fowler continues to be a one-women powerhouse single-handedly revolutionizing the age-old practice of yoga, all from the comforts of her minimalist Venice Studio.
For more information, visit go2yas.com