A Brief History of Yoga in the United States

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.