Yoga first came to the United States in the mid 1800’s. It didn’t gain popularity for the physical
benefits it’s associated with today, but for its mental benefits. An elite group of intellectuals known as the
Concord Circle; Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, and
William Henry Channing all popularized yoga’s mental benefits in America. These scholars learned about and educated
others on the ancient Vedic texts and the Bhagavad Gita, texts that define the
meditative branch of yoga. The spread of
the gospel of yoga for its meditative benefits was fueled by the arrival of
several prominent Indian swamis in the late 1800’s. It took decades for the physical benefits of
yoga to be popularized in the west, but around 1920, the first institute for
studying the scientific aspects of yoga opened in Pune, India.
Indira Devi, known as the first lady of yoga in America,
opened her first studio in Hollywood, California in 1947. Hollywood types such as Jennifer Jones,
Gloria Swanson, and Robert Ryan flocked to her studio; they helped spread the
word about yoga’s physical benefits.
Around the same time Inyegar and Ashtanga yoga were introduced to the
west. Shortly after, pop culture began
publicly embracing the discipline. The
Beats and the Beatles famously popularized transcendental meditation; Richard
Hittleman and Lilas Folan both hosted yoga programs on television. In the 1970s, Jean Couch detailed an Inyegar
yoga-based approach for athletes in The Runners
Yoga Book, an educational guide that is still referenced by modern yoga
instructors. Health clubs began teaching
yoga, but its popularity waned in favor of higher intensity aerobics in the
80’s.
Celebrities once again breathed new life into yoga in the
1990s. Madonna credited yoga with
chiseling her frame, which sent young women signing up at yoga studios in
droves. Sting famously credited Tantric
Yoga with giving him marathon orgasms, sending men rushing to the internet and
bookstores to investigate. Middle aged
women identified with Jane Fonda’s Yoga
Exercise Workout, which came out in 1994.
Since its arrival to the United States in the 1800’s,
enlightened individuals have striven to teach yoga’s vast benefits to
others. Today, in addition to the
establishment of independent yoga studios across the United States, nearly all
large gyms teach yoga classes. Yoga has
established itself as a popular and effective tool for expanding your physical,
mental, emotional, and spiritual capacity; and its history in the west is only
beginning.
