The courtship between yoga and Hollywood stars doesn’t show any signs of losing steam. Recently, actress and mother Reese Witherspoon revealed to Shape magazine that in order to stay in shape, she is a regular at YogaHop classes. In addition to her usual jogging and hiking routines, Witherspoon finds time to sneak in these 90-minute action-powered classes that set yoga postures to hip hop, rock and pop music for an invigorating workout.
While many yoga practitioners prefer to down-dog in silence, YogaHop classes provide the same stress reducing and calming effects of traditional yoga classes but to music. The first hour of the class is a choreographed sequence of yoga postures that you hold for 5 to 10 breaths at a time while also doing upward and downward dogs in between postures. When done together, up and downward dogs are the equivalent to a yoga push-up. The last fifteen minutes incorporates slow stretching exercises followed by a savasana or resting pose. Given its reliance of using your own body strength as well as the cardio-intensive movements, YogaHop is a total body workout that increases your heart rate while also working scores of muscles in your body.
Unfortunately, right now, YogaHop classes are only offered in Santa Monica, California. But you can look for a similar class in your area by taking a power yoga or vinyassa type class that is also set to music.