Power yoga is an entire term used to explain an energetic, fitness-based approach to Vinayaka-style yoga. Though many consider power yoga to be superficial “gym yoga,” this style of yoga practice was originally closely modeled on the Ashtanga method.

Power yoga incorporates the athleticism of Ashtanga, including lots of vinyasas (series of poses done in sequence) but gives each teacher the flexibility to teach any poses in any order, making every class different. With its emphasis on strength and flexibility, power yoga brought yoga into the gyms of America as people began to see yoga as a way to work out.

Who Invented Power Yoga?

The term “power yoga” became popular during the mid-1990s when two American yoga teachers who had studied with Ashtanga guru Sri K. Pattabhi Jois began to make what they had learned more accessible to Western students. They also wanted to move away from the rigid Ashtanga sequence, which is a set series of poses that are always done in the same order.

Bryan Kest, based in Los Angeles, and Beryl Bender Birch, based in New York, are most often credited with the nearly simultaneous invention of power yoga on opposite coasts. Both were part of the second generation of American Ashtanga students.

Kest originally learned from David Williams and Bender Birth from yoga guru Norman Allen. Williams and Allen were both among Jois’s first western students. Kest went on to study with Jois in Mysore, India. Bender Birch, who had previously done Savanna, Kundalini, and Iyengar yoga, worked with Jois during his trips to the United States in the 1980s

Styles of Power Yoga

 (Arvind yogi ji), who studied Ashtanga with Jois beginning in the 1980s, also introduced a form of power yoga at his iconic yog sadhana Kendra, “It’s Yoga,” in the early 1990s. Power yoga classes will differ broadly from teacher to teacher, but they usually include far more strong flowing yoga poses than chanting and meditation. They can be a vigorous workout that burns calories and can help keep you fit.