Is this photo making you hungry? New research shows that simply thinking about exercise can increase your appetite.

The new year is still young, and we’re doing a good job of staying resolute: We’re watching what we eat and trying to be active so we can shed a few pounds. Trouble is, we find exercise works up quite an appetite. And it turns out we don’t even have sweat through a spin or Zumba class to put our appetite into overdrive: Recent research shows that just thinking about exercise can make us hungry.

This latest news is courtesy of Brian Wansink, Ph.D., a food psychologist with the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab and the author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think (Bantam, 2010). Wansink and his colleagues asked 94 people to participate in a faux shopping attitudes study at a mall. After the people answered a series of questions, some were asked to read a scenario about exercise, followed by a few questions about their hunger and emotions at that moment. To compensate them for their time, all of the participants were then offered snacks, while the researchers recorded how much the participants served themselves. The results were mind-boggling: People who were prompted to think about exercise served themselves 55 percent more than people who weren’t asked to think about exercise!

Wansink’s research confirms that actual exercise can also lead to greater food consumption — if we’re feeling virtuous about exercising. He and his team had study subjects go on a two-mile walk, telling some of them it was a “nature walk” and others that it was an “exercise hike.” Wansink says, “If they thought they were just enjoying nature, when they came back and ate lunch, they ate less than if they thought it was an exercise hike.” We guess perception really is everything!

The lesson of this research, according to Wansink: Don’t think of exercise as a way to lose weight, but rather as a way to get toned and healthy. And definitely don’t reward yourself calorically for hitting the gym. It takes a lot of effort to burn a significant amount of calories — and it’s counterproductive to assume that because you’ve exercised for half an hour, you can eat 200 more calories that day. In truth, most exercisers overestimate the amount of calories they burn during exercise anyway, either due to incorrect guesstimating or using a faulty calorie counter (like the ones found on some exercise machines).

To learn more about Wansink’s research — he’s well-known for designing clever studies that reveal subtle food consumption behaviors — visit the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab website.

During this winter slump, many of us also spend a lot of time thinking about exercising — but not always making it to the gym. This study gives us a little more incentive to follow up on those thoughts. (Too bad thinking about exercise doesn’t also burn more calories!)

Have you noticed that you eat more after exercising?

Photo credit: Courtesy Zumba

Proceeds from the yoga event benefit the Somaly Mam Foundation. Mam (pictured) has decicated her life to helping end sex slavery after being sold to a brothel as a girl.

While removing our shoes before yoga class one day, we noticed a poster for the Yoga Freedom Project, created by Off the Mat NYC and the Somaly Mam Foundation (SMF) to bring attention throughout the month of January to the issue of sex trafficking. The project culminates with a two-hour yoga class on Jan. 31 at Twelve21, 12 West 21 St. in the Flatiron District, with a lineup of nine of New York City’s top yoga teachers. For those not in New York, we also found ways you can help bring awareness to this important — and often overlooked — global issue. An estimated 27 million people currently are enslaved throughout the world, and one to two million children will be sold into slavery within the next year.

The Somaly Mam Foundation is dedicated to ending slavery, rescuing and empowering survivors and lending support to shelter and rehabilitation programs globally. Namesake and co-founder Somaly Mam was sold to a brothel as a 14-year-old girl in Cambodia by a man posing as her grandfather. After being forced to watch her best friend brutally murdered, Mam escaped and dedicated her new life to helping others. Her full story can be found in her memoir, The Road of Lost Innocence (Spiegel & Grau, 2008); a portion of the proceeds benefit the foundation.

Participating yoga studios have been selling Mam’s book as well as tank tops ($25) commemorating the upcoming yoga event. The tops are available with or without the list of participating studios and instructors, who will lead the two-hour class in about 10-minute intervals, according to Heather Snyder, co-creator and organizer of the Yoga Freedom Project. The teachers include Elena Brower of Virayoga, Tricia Donegan of Bikram Yoga Lower East Side, Sri Dharma Mittra of Dharma Yoga, Dana Flynn of Laughing Lotus, Cyndi Lee of OM Yoga, Alan Finger of Ishta Yoga, Suzanne Sterling, Jodie Rufty and Sierra Bender. Tickets are $50, plus a small service fee if you purchase them online, and benefit the Somaly Mam Foundation. The class starts at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30).

Raffle tickets will be sold for $5 at the door for a chance to win the following prizes: a certificate for Deep Root Massage, a Bikram Yoga Lower East Side monthly unlimited pass, a Dharma Yoga poster, private yoga with Eric Stoneberg, Karma Warrior Clothes, a Sierra Bender workshop, Virayoga T-shirts, an Ishta 10-class card and signed book, a Yoga Vida monthly unlimited pass, private instruction with Marjorie Nass, Electric Yoga clothing and mat and a Hyde Off the Mat tank top. After the class, there will be a reception with light snacks.

No plans to be in New York City that day? Check out the SMF events page and PROJECT FUTURES events listings, or find out how you can take action, from participating in online campaigns to hosting an event. Donate online to SMF or visit the Empowerment Store and purchase an item made by a slavery survivor, such as the silk Empowerment Necklace ($25) or Freedom Scarves ($50).

Mam’s story has opened our eyes to modern day slavery, and we’re inspired to see so many styles of yoga unite for a worthy cause! Are you inspired to raise awareness about human trafficking?

Photo credit: Courtesy Yoga Freedom Project

While yoga can cause injury, a recent book excerpt in "The New York Times Magazine" has received a lot of attention for its assertion that "yoga can wreck your body."

The yoga community has been abuzz since an article called “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body” was published Jan. 5 in The New York Times Magazine. The excerpt is from an upcoming book called The Science of Yoga: The Risks and Rewards (Simon & Schuster, 2012), by William J. Broad. The section that ran in the Times looked at the risk and severity of yoga injuries. What stuck with us were the gruesome anecdotes: yoga-induced popped ribs, hip replacements, nerve damage and strokes.

Broad, a yoga student himself, related how, after rupturing a disc in his back several years ago, he turned to yoga for therapy. But his faith in yoga’s healing powers was shaken after his back gave out during a pose. Broad cites medical journals and speaks to several yoga instructors about injuries, including yoga instructor Glenn Black, who links injuries to insufficient teacher training and the recent phenomenon of modern-day, largely sedentary people practicing the traditional asanas of Indian yogis. Broad then spoke to Black a year later, after the instructor had undergone surgery for spinal degeneration he attributed to yoga.

After reading the article, as we went into our first backbend in our Bikram yoga class (singled out in the article for its own types of risks), we were suddenly crippled — with nagging doubt. Were we going too far? To relax students, some of instructors joke that if your head falls off during the first backbend, you get free yoga for life. Suddenly, the vision haunted us: Is yoga inherently dangerous?

Then a yoga instructor pointed us to a blog titled “How the NYT Can Wreck Yoga” by respected teacher Eddie Stern, director of Ashtanga Yoga New York. While courteous about Broad’s perspective — as most yogis’ responses have been — Stern contradicts many of Broad’s claims, noting that the article is “heavy on anecdote and slim on science,” and leans toward the sensational.

With Stern’s post are responses from Marshall Hagins, Ph.D., P.T.,  a professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at Long Island University, and Rick Bartz, a New York chiropractor, both of whom noted an error in the article that the cervical spine can rotate only 50 degrees. While Broad says the yoga-related emergency room visits have gone from 13 to 46 in two years, Hagins put things in perspective when he observes that the number of people doing yoga has increased by 15 million in 10 years, as well as noting that yoga injuries are far fewer than in most sports (especially contact sports, such as football).

What everyone seems to agree upon is that yoga does pose some risk for injury. Stern says that some are due to overzealousness on the part of the student. And he agrees there’s often a lack of thorough teacher training — the byproduct of yoga becoming a booming industry. “Yoga has been McDona-fied,” he notes.

As for Broad’s book, we’re tempted to dismiss it based this one chapter, but we’re intrigued by Simon & Schuster’s description, which promises the work cuts through mysticism, hype and superstition and “celebrates what’s real and shows what’s illusory, describes what’s uplifting and beneficial and what’s flaky and dangerous — and why.” And Priscilla Warner, author of Learning to Breathe (Free Press, 2011), which we told you about recently, is quoted on the book’s jacket that it is a motivation to practice yoga.

What do you think about this recent discussion of yoga’s benefits and risks?

Photo credit: Lise Gagne

High-Intensity Training (HIT) workouts are poised to again be a top fitness trend in 2012.

As part of the traditional New Year’s resolutions, most of us probably have at least two or three must-try new workouts on our to-do list. Whether you’re looking to bust out of a routine or craving a new challenge, we selected the top five fitness trends that will add spice and substance to your regimen in 2012.

1. HIT it!

With research now validating the benefits of bursts of hard, full-out training, we predict High-Intensity Training (HIT) will be a serious contender for the top workout of 2012. The motto of HIT? Break through your barriers and find your personal best. Most HIT programs include a variety of exercises in one session, including both cardio and resistance. Check out VIVmag‘s own 30-minute HIT home workout here.

These workouts are typically shorter and can be intense to the extreme, which is this method’s pitfall if you’re not ready for it. HIT style workouts include:

• The ever-popular fitness boot camp, from the original military-style workout to spinoffs such as bridal boot camp and Pilates boot camp.
• CrossFit, which involves performing elite feats of endurance, stamina and strength using your body weight and nontraditional props — such as tires and climbing ropes. CrossFit Boxes (small group organized studios) are cropping up in neighborhoods throughout the country.
• Newbie group exercise HIT programs such as R.I.P.P.E.D., which includes cardio, plyometrics, resistance training and intervals in set format.
• The Tabata Method, high-end interval training. You’ll push to near-maximum effort for 20 seconds, then rest and recover for 10 seconds; this is repeated over four minutes for a total of eight cycles per exercise. Because of its intensity, a complete Tabata workout can be as short as 16 minutes.
• HIT programs that span six to 12 weeks offered by gyms to members. For example, Breakthru Fitness in Pasadena, CA, offers Peak 10 for an additional charge; this includes “before” and “after” measurements, set schedules and nutrition counseling.

2. Personalize

Don’t like big groups? Look for specialized, small group training that will cater to more individualized programming in just about any activity — from boot camp to Pilates suspension training and more.

For example, Equinox and many other gyms offer group Reformer Pilates classes limited to six to eight students. Boutique fitness studios, such as Refine Method in New York City, allow only 12 students per class because of the limited number of stations available, and to ensure that the instructor can devote attention to each student. (A second Refine studio planned for a spring opening can accommodate 22 students, but many classes are expected to have two instructors.)

Personal training gyms that are 1,000 square feet or less are popping up all over the country, and offer six- to eight-person boot camps with two trainers for a more personalized touch. If you can’t afford a personal trainer, these options deliver personal interaction at a smidgen of the cost (average of $15–$25 per session) of private sessions.

3. Technology workouts at your fingertips

Hectic schedules call for squeezing in a workout when you can, and what’s more handy than your smartphone, iPad or laptop? Mobile applications for fitness on the go! With thousands of apps available, people are adhering to the “10 minutes is better than nothing” advice and opting for instantaneous access to personal training via phones or iPads. Challenging and encouraging others to fitness has become a virtual group endeavor, as people share results on social networks sites like Facebook, as well as fitness-specific communities such as Fitocracy and RunKeeper.

4. Fusion workouts

Having trouble scheduling in everything you want to do fitness-wise? Fusion workouts — yogalates, Caponyasa and Piloxing to name a few — have been popular for a while; however, instructors and trainers are now becoming ever more creative to help you squeeze it all in. Look for classes that combine disciplines — such as spin yoga or a treadmill-resistance circuit, where you’ll intersperse treadmill intervals with dumbbell work off the treadmill.

5. Suspension training

Suspension training is still on a roll with products such as TRX and the GO U.P. System featured in VIVmag‘s January/February fitness feature, “4 Rules You Need to Break.” The equipment allows you to use your body weight to strengthen your core and build lean muscle.

What is your prediction for the No. 1 workout trend for 2012?

Manduka's Soujourner Package includes an eKO SuperLite Travel Mat, an eQua hand towel and a practice journal.

We admit that on some days, when we’re curled up in a chair in our childhood home as the snow flies outside, the most exercise we’re likely to get is trips to the cookie plate. But even when on the road for the holidays, we try to incorporate some exercise, so we’ve shared some of the latest ways to stay in shape on the go. We also asked VIVmag fitness director Linda Shelton to share her secrets for staying fit — and motivated — while traveling.

Before you go

• If you’re staying in a hotel or motel, ask about an on-premises exercise room or guest privileges a nearby gym. Check out the cable TV system to see if there’s an on-demand workout channel, Shelton suggests.
• If you belong to a national gym, search for locations near at your destination and inquire about getting an out-of-town pass, if needed.

What to pack

• We pack a few of our favorite yoga and fitness DVDs to play on our laptop. Some previous VIV Says picks include barre3 Total Body Lift Workout and Bethenny’s Skinnygirl Workout. Total Yoga 4 Pack is one of our personal favorites.
• We love our Manduka eKO SuperLite Travel Mat ($39) that easily folds into a suitcase — and even some of our bigger purses. While it’s thin for easy transport, it provides the necessary grip whether you’re in a guest bedroom, hotel room or at a yoga studio. Manduka also has a Soujourner Package ($64) with the travel mat, eQua Hand Towel and a practice journal.
• Shelton says, “Stash a resistance tube in your bag and squeeze in a quick total body circuit of at least 8–10 exercises.” These can be done in your room in lieu of your regular gym program.

Already at your destination?

• Gaiam TV offers thousands of streaming videos, including hundreds of workout routines and yoga programs, accessible via your laptop, smartphone or iPad. Routines include 10-minute yoga supersets to full routines, such as Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30, Vinyasa Flow Yoga With Seane Corn and Mari Windsor’s Flat Abs Pilates. Subscriptions are $9.95 a month, but there’s a 10-day free trial right now.
• If you’ve been meaning to try some of those fitness moves you’ve seen in VIVmag, there’s no time like the present. Fire up your laptop or iPad and see our latest issue for instructions and video for Eva Mendes’ favorite exercise move and more of her fitness secrets in “Eva Genius,” plus some “Flex Ed” stretching tips. And whether you’re exhausted, scattered or unmotivated this holiday season, “Moves That Bust a Bad Mood” has exercise instructions and video to provide you with a mood adjustment.

Get moving

• Speaking of motivation, we know that can be hard to find this time of year. Shelton recommends making a gym or workout date with a fitness-minded friend or relative: “The best motivation when you can’t motivate yourself is to exercise with others.”
• Also look for special holiday classes, which many fitness and yoga studios offer. “You don’t just have to rely on yourself to get the workout done, you have someone else pushing you toward the finish line,” Shelton notes.
• Your workout buddy doesn’t even have to be human. Shelton suggests walking the family dog, who could use the exercise too.

…and Remember

“Readjust your expectations during the holiday season,” Shelton says. “Whether traveling or home, think ‘fitness maintenance’ as your goal, as opposed to the holidays being the time to get in the best shape of your life.”

The most important thing to aim for, she says, is to “do something every day, even if it’s not your regular activity.” Even if it’s a quick workout, she says, “Something every day is better than not at all.”

We don’t think she’s talking about our quick bakery runs to the kitchen! How do you stay in shape while traveling?

Spa Week is giving away a trip for two to the Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara.

Every now and then, when we have 15 or so browser windows open at the same time, we feel a bit overwhelmed, like we’re in the technology loop skit in Portlandia. But ’tis the season for giveaways, and Twitter, Facebook and our email inbox yielded some opportunities we want to share — all on one handy page.

For those who need to decompress from the holidays and enforce some healthy-living resolutions, Spa Week and Keri Glassman, R.D., are giving away a four-night stay for two at the Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara. The package includes two spa treatments per person, private cooking classes and two dinners, a personalized nutrition counseling program, $100 Spa Week gift card and a two copies of Glassman’s book The O2 Diet (Rodale, 2009). The winner, named in mid-January, will also get a three-day supply of Nutritious Life Meals, if they are within the delivery area (see rules). Airfare is not included. To enter, simply “like” Spa Week on Facebook and fill out the form.

Spa Week also has partnered with Rioja wine to give three winners the choice of three prizes: an iPad 2, a pair of Manolo Blahniks or a wine-tasting party for 20, which includes appetizers and a wine education. Simply provide your email and ZIP code to enter by Dec. 31.

We’ve also spotted a few prize-a-day contests, such as the Anthropologie’s 20 Days A’Gifting, now on day 13. Each day, Anthropologie gives away a new prize; past items have included an array of whimsical ornaments, vintage tapestry boots and a Beauty by the Bagful set that included a weekender bag, Julie Hewett makeup palette and lipstick, a Happ & Stahns 1842 Rosa Alba Parfum Tear Catcher and a Cross-Continent passport case, wallet, pouch and luggage tag. To enter, simply fill out the form on the Anthropologie website.

The Adidas by Stella McCartney All I Want for Christmas giveaway, on day 13 of 25, also has a new prize each day. Among the past ones: Procera ballerina shoes, a Firebird track top and Monogyna running shoes. Every entry to the daily prize also counts as an entry for the grand prize — a new wardrobe from Stella McCartney, worth $1,000.

And don’t forget to enter VIVmag’s giveaways by the end of December! Win a pair of SUBJEKT HerPhones, earbuds designed for a perfect fit for the ladies; a copy of 1,000 Mitzvahs: How Small Acts of Kindness Can Heal, Inspire, and Change Your Life (Seal Press, 2011) and an assortment of wellness blends from Kusmi Tea!

What type of giveaway luck are you hoping for?

Southern Californian and VIVmag reader Erika Hodges won this equipment package for her home-gym makeover.

When we ran the Reader Home Gym Makeover Contest in VIVmag‘s September/October issue, we received more than 1,450 entries from readers vying for the freedom to exercise at home with a new home-gym package, worth $560. Our goal was to provide a lucky VIVMag reader with some of the newest innovative fitness products that up the ante on improving the results and training experience. But our favorite part was surprising our winner with a personal phone call to tell her she had won!

Erika Hodges, 25, of Irvine, CA, has jampacked days caring for two young children (ages 1 and 4), holding down a job in the finance industry and going to school a few nights a week to pursue a communications degree. When we asked her why she entered the contest, she explained that getting to the gym was a hassle, with a full workweek and other commitments.

“I was not impressed with the child-care program at my gym, so I would have to schedule my classes and workouts around my husband’s schedule, which is already crazy enough,” Hodges said. “It came to the point where I was only going maybe once a week. For the money I was spending, it was a waste. When I saw the giveaway I figured it would be fun to try new equipment and keep me inspired to exercise and if I won, I could give up my gym membership.”

Thanks to SPRI Products and Hyperwear, Hodges’ new home gym includes:

• Step 360 PRO ($149.95), a round step with a platform atop two inflated air chambers that challenges balance and can be used with resistance tubing, plus a DVD
• BOSU Ballast Ball ($71.95), a sand-weighted stability ball that can be used for core work or as a resistance tool, plus an instructional DVD
• A Dual Grip Xerball ($46.95–$89.95), a medicine ball with integrated easy-grip handles
• A Braided Xertube ($29.98) with a door attachment to re-create hundreds of cable exercises
• A complete set of Hyperwear Sandbells ($7.99–$99.99), neoprene-covered, sand-filled circular weights that you can use just as you would a dumbbell, kettlebell or any kind of weighted ball — plus you can stand, kneel or sit on the Sandbells

Hodges told us she likes to do something active every day and makes sure that she squeezes in exercise four to five days a week, even with her hectic schedule. At the gym, she went to classes such as yoga, Zumba or kickboxing, and even put in a few miles on the treadmill before every class, plus a few sets on the leg machines. We’d say she’s a committed exerciser!

Now that she can work out on her own schedule at home, Hodges has quit the gym. “My husband and I are still discussing how we’re going to create a space, though I already have a treadmill and weights in the garage,” says Hodges. “Having new equipment will help me stay motivated and give me more options.”

When we asked her what she was going to do with the money she was saving on a gym membership, Hodges told us it was being redirected to the “mom who doesn’t feel like cooking tonight fund!” But she added that she also plans to invest in an elliptical machine soon.

If you won a new home gym, what would you do with the money you saved not having a gym membership?

"Zumba Fitness 2" for Wii offers new routines, musical styles and ways to customize your workout.

As holiday prime time approaches and the weather turns colder, it gets harder and harder to find the time and motivation to work out. Thankfully, there’s the newly released Zumba Fitness 2 ($39.99), the sequel to the 2010 best-selling game for Nintendo Wii, to keep us moving — all to upbeat, energizing music that will keep the winter blahs at bay.

Since dancer/choreographer Beto Perez developed the Latin-dance workout in his native Colombia in the mid-’90s, women of all ages — including celebrities like Vivica A. Fox, Jennifer Lopez and Madonna — have discovered the body-toning benefits of Zumba. About 12 million people in 125 countries take part in Zumba classes every week, and more than 4 million join in at home via the Wii console.

Zumba Fitness 2 has plenty to offer both devotees and newcomers, with new features, music and customization. Perez, along with instructors Tanya Beardsley and Gina Grant, guides players through 32 new routines. Hit songs from artists such as Pitbull, Nicole Scherzinger, Yolanda Be Cool and DCUP accompany 24 different dance styles, with newly added axé, belly dance, Bollywood, Latin pop and pasodoble in addition to Zumba favorites cumbia, merengue and samba.

Packaged with a Zumba Fitness belt that holds the Wii remote so you can dance with your hands free, Zumba Fitness 2 offers players the opportunity to choose from several game modes: Dance to a single song, learn steps at your own pace, take a Zumba class (blocks of routines in 20-, 45- or 60-minute segments), create your own routines and playlists, or have a Zumba party (up to four people can play together). There’s also a tutorial mode geared to skill levels for beginner, intermediate and advanced players and a video cueing system that makes the choreography easier for newbies to follow.

The new version also lets you select the setting (Miami yacht or L.A. nightclub, for example) and even the instructors’ outfits. A Progress Tracker records every stat including scores, ranks and calories burned. If you’re a Kinect for Xbox 360 player, don’t feel left out; Zumba Fitness Rush ($49.99) will hit shelves in February.

Want to try a live class? Type your ZIP code into the class finder. And every copy of the game includes a free seven-day pass to try a live Zumba class at a 24 Hour Fitness location.

What’s your favorite home workout?

Now you see him: Students at several of Marco Rojas' upcoming classes at Pure Yoga will be asked to don blindfolds.

In theory, practicing yoga lets us tune out the world and tune into ourselves. In reality, however, studios are often full of distractions, from wondering where we can find the great cami top a fellow yogi is wearing to worrying about falling out of Ardha Chandrasana.

Longtime yoga teacher Marco Rojas has found an innovative solution to that problem: He asks his students to wear blindfolds during some of his classes at New York City’s Pure Yoga.

The idea is that blindfolded, we banish our self-criticism, comparisons and egos. Rojas got the idea about five years ago, when a blind woman showed up in his class. Unsure of what to do, he decided to put everyone in the same position and asked his other students to close their eyes. “After class, people told me it was one of their most powerful experiences,” he recalls.

Since then, his eyes-closed classes (he only recently added actual blindfolds) have been something he’s held when the world is extra-stressful — “like now, when we’re losing all our money,” he quips. Lately, he’s been riding a wave of media attention, and his blindfolded classes are likely to become a regular part of the schedule at Pure Yoga.

Rojas says his intention is “to bring out the best in each student and show them what belongs to them: freedom, ease, compassion and awareness. People keep coming back because it’s not only a physical experience. It takes them to the best part of themselves, away from the outside world.”

Rojas reassures students anxious about the blindfolds. He leavens classes with humor, gives fantastically detailed instructions for finding and feeling correct alignment and offers frequent reminders to return to the breath, a tool to bridge mind and body and anchor yogis in the present. And for those who picture blindfolded students falling like dominoes, Rojas and his assistants stand watch to rescue wobbly students.

Rojas’ signature style, influenced by Iyengar and Ashtanga, is challenging; our 90-minute class included plenty of sun salutations and balancing poses, sometimes held for 10 breaths or longer. And while students tell him that poses they had mental hang-ups over, like Sirsasana and Bakasana, get easier when they stop thinking so much, we found that even “simple” high lunges became difficult without our eyes to steady our balance. We left exhausted — but feeling like we’d gotten a lot more out of a vinyasa class than we had in a while.

Rojas will teach blindfolded yoga at Pure West on Oct. 5 at 6 p.m. and Pure East on Oct. 6 at 12:15 p.m. Currently, the classes are open only to Pure Yoga members. Membership is $140 per month for one location, $160 per month for membership to Pure East and West and $245 for membership with Figure 4.

Do you think you could do yoga blindfolded?

Photo credit: Courtesy Pure Yoga

Dynamic female teachers such as Shiva Rea (pictured) have been leading the way for women in modern yoga, once a practice for men only.

Even without yoga mats tucked under their arms, the women streaming into a Santa Monica, CA, movie theater a few weeks ago had the lean, clear-eyed look of people who spend a considerable amount of their time in downward-facing dog. And no wonder. They were attending the world premiere of Yogawoman, a documentary written and directed by sisters Kate Clere McIntyre and Saraswati Clere and narrated by actor Annette Bening, a longtime Iyengar student.

“Never underestimate the power of inner peace” is the film’s tagline. And the movie shows all kinds of women — imprisoned teens, domestic-abuse survivors and exhausted multitaskers, as well as plus-sized, pregnant or depressed women across nine countries  — affirming how the practice of yoga has brought them serenity.  Women are seen practicing in solitude or in packed classes led by celeb teachers like Shiva Rea, Seane Corn, Sharon Gannon and Patricia Walden.

We’re accustomed to seeing yoga cast as a path to enlightenment, of course. But what this doc highlights is that, for women, yoga is also a subversive practice. For millennia, yoga was for men only. With the rise of Brahmanism in India, women were seen as obstacles to enlightenment, “like filthy water and rotten food,” says yoga teacher and author Anne O’Brien. Until the beginning of the 20th century, to be a female practitioner of yoga, you had to become a “wild woman” in exile, leaving your family and community behind.

Today, according to the film, 85 percent of the 20 million people practicing yoga in the United States are women. “When we breathe together as women, powerful truths come out,” said McIntyre in a discussion after the screening.

Of course, sometimes when a woman steps into a yoga studio and folds herself into padma-asana (lotus pose), her goal is nothing more elevated than a firm yoga butt. Tari Prinster, one of the most incandescent of the 50 women interviewed in the film, began her practice at 50 “for all the wrong reasons,” she says: “Vanity.”

Five years later, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, yoga, she says, kept her feeling good “even through chemotherapy.” Now 66 and a 10-year survivor, she teaches classes for female cancer survivors at Om Yoga in New York City, and says, “I’ve never felt better or stronger, even when I was 25.”

Also featured in Yogawoman is Shana Meyerson, the founder of Mini Yogis, a Southern California mobile studio for kids. She credits yoga for saving her life, as she explained, her voice breaking during the post-screening Q&A. “When I didn’t get into Stanford grad school, I was put on suicide watch,” she said. “I thought I always had to be perfect. Then I walked into a Bryan Kest yoga class and it was the first time in 30 years someone told me it was OK to fall. Today, I want kids to know that it’s OK to fall, as long as they get up again.”

Sitting beside her, Corn nods her head in agreement, her gorgeous pre-Raphaelite curls bouncing. “Yoga is the remedy to everything,” she says. That might sound facile coming from another yoga rock star, but Corn is the co-founder of Off the Mat Into the World, a grassroots group dedicated to using yoga as a tool not just for personal transformation but for social change as well.

She illustrates the film’s message that, unlike the more rigid male-based yoga, a female-centric practice honors connection, community and activism. Yogawoman follows Corn and Off the Mat volunteers to Uganda, where they help build a new birthing center, desperately needed in a community where most of the pregnant women are HIV-positive and many do not survive childbirth.

Yogawoman isn’t being released in theaters. Instead, in the spirit of community, small screenings are being hosted in communities across the country. Find a screening near you, discover how to host your own screening or order a copy of the DVD.

How has yoga changed your life?