Buff Yoga bends boundaries of traditional yoga and sculpt classes

NEW YORK -- Balancing on one leg with his upper body and opposite leg parallel to the floor, dumbbells in each hand, Bryan West instructs his class to extend straight arms forward and then row back with bent elbows to strengthen the upper back.

Challenging more than multiple muscles, Buff Yoga turns traditional practice on its head.

Ooom meets oomph, and there's plenty of grunting as newcomers tough it through a rigorous series of abdominal exercises even before anyone lifts a weight.

"I'm not trying to create another style of yoga with this class, like Jivamukti, Iyengar or Bikram. Buff Yoga is a fitness class that combines yoga and strength training," said West, a personal trainer and group fitness instructor.

West's Thursday night class at the Crunch gym at Union Square draws from a diverse demographic.

Keith Macharia, an 18-year-old art history major at New York University, came for the first time last week.

"Wow! I'd taken hot yoga [Bikram] before, but this was way more intense. It gives you that extra resistance. It incorporates the entire body, which I found incredibly intense," said Macharia, of Nairobi, Kenya.

Michelle Koplik, a 31-year-old event planner, says Buff Yoga and West's yoga classes are the staple of her weekly workout routine.

No weights this time, but still keeping balance.

"He's phenomenal. He's caring and meticulous. He walks you through the different steps," she said. "I've never felt my lower abs like this."

Crunch launched Buff Yoga at four locations in New York last September and currently offers it at 10 gyms nationwide, including Los Angeles and Miami, with plans to expand to expand to San Francisco and Chicago in the spring, said Buff Yoga creator and Crunch New York City yoga director Jess Gronholm.

Instructor Bryan West pumps up willing yogis. (Donald King ~ Associated Press)

"This class is perfect for yogis who don't often exercise outside of their 'zone' because they will feel comfortable with the yoga format and feel of the class," Gronholm said. "People whose routines are primarily made up of strength-training or cardio will also see a plateau. Sooner or later they have to change their routines up so that they continue to see results."

Combining disciplines

The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association does not track group fusion classes, but 85 percent to 90 percent of IHRSA clubs in the United States offer yoga and 60 percent to 65 percent offer group strength training, said Kathleen Rollauer, senior manager of research at the Boston-based group.

"I have heard of it and I think is probably gaining in popularity," said IHRSA spokeswoman Brooke Correia. "We know that there are many new classes born out of yoga, yoga with the weights and other hybrids. We just don't have the data but I would say you are more likely to see these hybrid classes in health club locations that have great success with yoga first."

Gronholm said he is unaware of other gyms offering a similar class.

Books like 2005's "Iron Yoga," by Anthony Carillo, and "Yoga with Weights For Dummies," published last year, explain and illustrate similar techniques.

"What people are trying to do is capitalize on the yoga discipline, but take it to the next level by adding light weights," said Cedric Bryant, chief science officer of the San Diego, Calif.-based American Council on Exercise (ACE.)

Yoga with weights.

West has been combining the disciplines even before Buff Yoga.

"I started teaching this way six years ago, when a private client hired me to work on sculpting her body and asked for yoga and Pilates only and 'maybe a little light weights,' emphasizing the words 'little' and 'light,' " West said.

High repetitions at a slow tempo increase strength endurance, while a combination of jumping, posing and lifting weights benefits the cardiovascular system like interval training, West says.

A balancing act with weights. (Donald King ~ Associated Press)

"Performing the exercises standing on one leg, in tree pose, for example, makes the exercise a full body one, improving stability strength in the core, hips and ankle," he said. "We'll do some light plyometrics to increase the heart rate."

Keeping it varied

West mixes up the routine every week to keep even the buffest coming back.

"You don't need to know the basics of yoga because I teach the basics as we begin," West said. "The class is intense, though, and I do keep it moving, so some experience in yoga -- even only five classes -- can go a long way. The purpose is to also sculpt a better body. I start the class with 10 to 15 minutes of core training. I choose exercises that sneak in dynamic stretching, but the point, too, is to work on the six pack."

Bryant of ACE said the benefit of such classes is that they provide greater muscular challenge, but he cautioned that participants who lack flexibility need extra instruction.

"For those concerned that the combination of yoga with weights is dangerous, let me explain that the class does not go as deep into stretching the muscles in asanas as a traditional yoga class should," West said. "I focus on strengthening the muscles around the joints, not opening or stretching them. We are working out with three-pound and five-pound dumbbells and some more experienced are using eight pounds and 10 pounds at the heaviest."

"I'm working with New York City marathoners, grandmothers who haven't worked out in 10 years, models, college students attending, I think, because the word 'buff' is in the title of the class and that's the way they want their bodies to be," he said. "No one wants to waste their time in a workout that doesn't do anything for them."