We all love yoga and the benefits that it brings our body. It’s safe to say that the art of yoga itself has stood the test of time, dating back almost 5,000 years and is still extremely common in today’s modern age.
However, as with absolutely everything else in the modern age, yoga has been manipulated and transformed in so many ways. Whether this is to make it more fun, quirkier, to earn more money or to simply make it more accessible to people, the question remains to be answered.
We’ve already covered a couple of yoga trends on this blog, having seen practices from Goat Yoga to Naked Yoga. However, I was recently made aware of a practice known as ‘Drunk Yoga.
Now, to me, having a few drinks every now and then, maybe at the weekend with some friends or a glass of wine in the week might be already for some. Personally, I drink a couple of times a year maximum.
But then actually going into something and calling it Drunk Yoga? This left me a little confused and, quite frankly, a little bit shocked.
Of course, don’t get me wrong, I know a tonne of people that love to go out and get drunk but, as surveys have proven time and time again, getting drunk is by far one of the healthiest things you can. It even ranks higher in terms of body damage that heroin, cocaine and smoking.
In the UK, the National Health Service spends over £3.5 billion a year just on alcohol-related health problems. And now studios are promoting it in their yoga classes? Something doesn’t seem right.
So, I investigated.
It turns out that these classes were being held by Grey Lady, a studio in New York City. The class is run by an Eli Walker and costs around $30 for a basic yoga class. However, within the studio, there is also an open bar which can provide you with unlimited wine.
You’re encouraged to take as much wine or booze as you like and take it with you to your mat for consuming throughout your session.
Walker states in an interview to Refinery29 that she has spoken to many people in the past about the benefits of yoga. In return, they stated that they were too inflexible for yoga and it made them embarrassed.
Walker then thought if she turned the practice into a party-like situation, people would feel more comfortable and therefore willing to practice. She also went on to claim that one of her students finds it impossible to touch their toes unless they are drunk.
While this doesn’t really make any sense, she exclaims that her students feel empowered by the alcohol, especially the less abled.
The Dangers of Drunk Yoga
Now, I’ve already mentioned how unsafe drinking alone is. So, what about in a yoga environment? Firstly, as we all know, drinking can do crazy things to your brain, especially when it comes to your judgement. When practising something like yoga, there becomes a very high risk that you could severely injure yourself.
Additionally, alcohol is known for being a diuretic. This means that it’s going to make you want to urinate, a lot. This means you’ll be expelling a tonne of liquid and bodily fluids after drinking, leaving you dehydrated.
If you’ve just completed an hour session, the last thing you’re going to want is to feel dehydrated and thirsty. It’s an essential fact that you need to stay hydrated throughout your workouts.
All in all, it’s easy to see that although booze might make a class interesting, it’s definitely not the safest thing to do. Whether it’s a trend gone too far, I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
