Kries invites you to shed your inhibitions, doff your clothes and “celebrate the body in its most sacred form.”
The New York City fitness expert is talking about naked yoga.
As in yogi bare. Or getting buff in the buff.
Naked yoga is like skinny dipping, Kries explains, except you’re swimming in air.
“It’s really liberating — not having any constraints and really being able to feel your body as you move through the poses,” she tells Sun Media in a candid phone interview.
“It’s not a sexual thing. It’s much higher than that, and deeper. It’s very sacred, reverent and spiritual. It’s really about self-acceptance and love.”
Kries, perhaps best known as a trendsetting Pilates master, is launching Yoga Undressed: The Goddess. The series of four DVDS — beginner, intermediate, advanced and duet — features several female yogis (a.k.a. yoginis) in their birthday suits performing what is described as “a flowing Vinyasa Tantric practice combining Kundalini and Hatha styles.”
The nude stars of the DVDS aren’t models, Kries emphasizes, but they are extremely fit.
“We wanted to showcase women who have dedicated themselves to the life of the body,” she adds.
Kries isn’t in any of the videos herself because she was too busy producing and choreographing the project.
But the naked-yoga practitioner did pose for promotional shots. A G-rated pic of the Yoga Undressed creator appears on the website at yogaundressed. com.
Kries credits yoga — whether it’s with or without clothes — for keeping her body and mind flexible.
“Aside from keeping my body in beautiful condition, and really maintaining strong health, I derive a very deep, energized calm,” she explains.
“For me, yoga is my spiritual practice. It’s my lifeline to my innermost self and my connection to Spirit — whatever we consider to be the great beyond, whatever that means, a God consciousness or God.”
Kries teaches yoga classes — of the clothed variety — at large wellness centres around the world.
Despite receiving a “ton of requests,” she has no plans to start teaching naked yoga classes, which have been offered for years in major U.S. cities.
“The DVDS are intended for people to discover themselves in the privacy of their own homes,” she notes. The Yoga Undressed DVDS will be out next month.
A series catered specifically for men is slated to be released this fall. It will be called Yoga Undressed: The Hero.
“It’s all about being able to love and accept yourself whether you feel a little overweight or not exactly as fit or as buff as you’d like to be,” Kries says.
“The whole series is intended to help people feel good about themselves.”
Of course, Kries knows that not everyone will feel good about the DVDS. She accepts that there’ll be critics.
“I think there are people who are secretly wishing they could liberate themselves and be naked, and be open and strong,” she says. “A lot of the haters, a lot of the people who judge, really secretly wish they could be that courageous.”
“Be conscious of your breathing because the breath speeds up metabolism and helps you to
burn calories. “If people want to get in shape, the beginner DVD in the Yoga Undressed series is the way to go. It hits every mark — it increases flexibility, it tones your body, it strengthens your core, and you don’t have to be a “fitness
person” to do it.