“The fitness crowd” versus “the om crowd”
Yoga in the 21st century is fragmented into countless styles that fall into two basic camps.
“We call it ‘the fitness crowd’ and ‘the om crowd,”‘ says Gary Zoller, the Gen-X owner of
Meditation Art, between brisk sales that include bringing his Indian spiritual art to the newly opened Om Time yoga studio in Denver.
Yoga went mainstream in America during the mid-1990s, when it fused with the
health-club trend.
“People in the exercise field started fitness yoga, because you had to catch the yoga wave,” says Margie Terrell, 43, who teaches yoga at health clubs in Texas.
“Everyone wants yoga in the gym, but if you bring a spiritual aspect to your class, they walk out.”
In Iyengar studios, every class starts with a Sanskrit chant that honors Patanjali, the father of yoga. But in health clubs, yoga is often a trendy form of calesthenic chic.
“It’s not everyone’s path to be spiritual,” says Iyengar teacher Jayne Satter, director of Bear
Mountain Yoga in Boulder.
“But it is the yogic path to be introspective, and to be the best person one can be.”
