Yoga provides high-intensity training tool
For Bryce Smyth, yoga can be used to strengthen the body, as well as tone it.
The Los Angeles yoga teacher lead three sessions at Wanderlust Great Lake Taupo over Waitangi weekend.
Smyth is best known for the ‘‘Fit-flow’’ classes she runs with fellow yoga teacher McKenzie Miller, which blend highintensity training with yoga stretches.
‘‘We decided to mix the two because a lot of yoga practitioners are weak in certain parts of the body,’’ Smyth said.
‘‘We [yogis] mainly focus on stretching the legs, so the legs get a little weak.’’
The classes feature highintensity exercises like knee ups, top jumps and burpees.
‘‘We also do yoga slows at the peak of those high-intensity moves,’’ Smyth said.
‘‘Usually yoga is slow and you don’t get your heart rate up.
‘‘But in this day and age, we’re short on time, so sometimes it’s nice to mix it up.’’
Smyth said contemporary yoga can be a great way to relieve the emotional tension people feel.
‘‘People will store it and manifest it in the body.’’
Smyth is no stranger to stress and tension, as she describes on her website Bryceyoga.com
‘‘As a child pop star in Asia with a platinum album by the age of 13, an enormous amount of pressure bore down on me at a young age,’’ she writes.
‘‘I developed a severe battle with anorexia and bulimia as a result. After years of suffering, I found yoga in Thailand in 1999, and it launched me on a path toward healing, health, and purpose.’’
Practitioners can also use yoga training to improve on their habitual patterns, she said.
‘‘For instance, when somebody hunches their shoulders or hunches their neck, when they put their hands down to do downward dog, they’ll do those same habitual patterns.’’
People can unlearn these habits over time by strengthening their weaker muscles and by repeating correct form with yoga, she said.
‘‘There are so many different styles and teachers, so before you decide whether you like or don’t like yoga, go to at least 10 classes.’’
* Wanderlust Great Lake Taupo: February 2–5 at Wairakei Estate. See Wanderlust.com/events to buy tickets and sign up for classes.