Check out our slideshow of the amazing event.
Yes, yes, this weekend was gross—with a capital G. But the unrelenting rain couldn’t keep hundreds of local yogis from the Art Museum on Sunday morning for Living Beyond Breast Cancer’s annual fundraiser, Yoga on the Steps. We love the event because it marries all the good parts of a flashmob—hundreds of people doing the same thing, at the same time, in a very, very public location—with a really terrific cause. Living Beyond Breast Cancer is a national organization with local routes (it’s HQ’d in Haverford), with a mission to empower and offer support for those directly and indirectly impacted by a breast-cancer diagnoses—we’re talking women and men with the disease, plus their families, caregivers and friends.
Yoga on the Steps started in 2002 here in Philly, conceived of by local yoga instructor (and Be Well Boot Camp presenter) Jennifer Schelter. Now the event has grown to include stops in DC and Denver, too, as a way to raise money and awareness for the cause. Check out our photos from this year’s Philly event below.
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Plus: why sodium guidelines are whack, a new way to lower your diabetes risk (hint: think stoners), and how to hydrate for better running performance.
• Well, this isn’t good. Bikram Choudhury, founder of the patented 26-pose hot-yoga regimen, is headed to court after former students filed two lawsuits alleging rape, sexual assault and human trafficking. Yikes. Listen to this: “During weeks of gruelling training Choudhury singled out Jane Doe 2 [one of the women who filed the lawsuit] claiming she was ‘a piece of gold in a roomful of brass.’ His approaches became more sexual and were rebuffed. The suit alleges the exhausted student was raped when she was ‘too weak and overwrought to fight him off.’” [The Guardian]
• Cool new gadget alert: Someone invented a heart monitor that’s thinner than a dollar bill and the size of a postage stamp. [Futurity.org]
• Drink more water, people! A new study shows how rehydrating today (or not) can impact fitness performance tomorrow—in very real, very precise measurements. [Runner's World]
• It might be time to rethink everything you think you know about salt and blood pressure. New recommendations from a group of experts say that maintaining the super-low, government-recommended daily-sodium-intake levels—1,500 milligrams of salt per day if you’re at risk for cardiac problems and 2,300 milligrams for everyone else—isn’t really doing anybody any good. To wit: “Evidence is too weak to determine whether limiting sodium intake to under 2,300 per day increases or decreases the risk of heart disease or stroke. …Similarly, the report suggests that, as of now, there isn’t enough evidence supporting the 1,500 milligram recommendation for at-risk people. [U.S. News and World Report]
• Go ahead and light up a joint—a little pot may just lower your diabetes risk, according to a new study. [Blisstree]
Photo: Shutterstock
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But on the bright side, it's edible (in theory), and maybe even a bit healthier.
 • Yes, yes, the culinary prospect of meat grown in a test tube seems rather gross, but the proof-of-concept experiment happening in the Netherlands right now could show not only that cultured meat—made of muscle tissue grown in a lab—is not only possible, but more eco-friendly and maybe even healthier, too, since unlike traditional burgers, these don’t have any fat. [New York Times]
• Don’t be surprised if your doctor starts probing your drinking behavior. New guidelines U.S. Preventive Services Task Force encourage docs to fish for “risky” drinking behavior. Question is, will patients be honest about this sort of thing? [HealthDay]
• No need to get your Om on at the studio—here are tips for starting (and sustaining) a home yoga practice. [Mind Body Green]
• In the category of Things I Find Ironic, a new brain-wave-measuring headband purports to show you how well you’re focusing on a task in real time. But, like, if you look at the readout when you’re supposed to be focusing, isn’t that a tad, er, distracting? [Greatist]
• All hail black tea! New research shows it’s good for your blood pressure. [Prevention]
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Here's when you can join in.
Outdoor yoga is one of my favorite things about summer. This year, Dhyana Yoga is bringing its flow to Race Street Pier on the Delaware Waterfront. The free, all-levels classes kick off at 9:30 a.m. every Sunday in June—that’d be June 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th, if you don’t have a calendar handy.
The yoga sessions are part of a full lineup of Waterfront events this summer, including outdoor film screenings, free jazz concerts, and FringeArts performances and concerts. The full schedule is here.
Photo: Shutterstock
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The Fishtown yoga studio's new expansion includes some fun new features—including a wall for yoga (really!).
This demo video shows how a yoga wall works.
On the list of things I have never tried is this: yoga on a wall. Fishtown’s Amrita Yoga & Wellness, which just installed an Iyengar Yoga Wall as part of its expansion in March, now offers classes that allow up to six yogis at a time to practice poses while suspended from the wall. Sounds crazy (maybe even a tad gimmicky, right?), but Amrita owner Heather Rice says students are loving it. “It’s hard to get access to the wall unless you’re going to an Iyengar studio,” she says, adding that hers is mainly Vinyasa focused. “People are excited be able to try it out.”
The wall uses gravity to support and deepen yoga poses. So it can help you master an inversion, if you can’t put weight on their head; improve balance; and deepen a stretch. While it’s obviously incorporated into the studio’s Iyengar classes, in which students rotate time on the wall, it also makes an appearance in the Core classes. There, students pair the wall with resistance bands for moves like scissor kicks to intensify ab work.
Another new addition to the studio is its state-of-the-art far-infrared heating system for hot yoga classes. Unlike other systems that heat you from the outside-in, Amrita’s emits infrared light waves that heat students from the inside-out. Fancy! The technology is the same as what’s used in infrared saunas, which some (small) studies suggest may have health benefits, including treating high blood pressure, arthritis and more.
Heather says students who haven’t liked other hot-yoga classes find these more tolerable. “The heat doesn’t take your breath away,” she says. “It’s a comforting warmth but not a smoldering heat.” You can also control your own heat, to a point, by positioning yourself under one of the ceiling-mounted panels for more heat or away from them for less. Amrita’s hot yoga classes range from an hour to an hour and a half in length, depending on the time of day. The full schedule is here.
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Celebrate the studio's birthday with a free class.
 Roxborough’s Yoga on The Ridge turns five years old this month, and to celebrate, they’re offering a day of free yoga!
You can choose from three gratis classes on May 11th. An advanced core strength Vinyasa will start off the day at 9 a.m., followed by a basics class for beginners at 10:30. To finish off the day, YOTR will bring everyone together for a “yoga for stress relief” class at noon. No registration is required—all you need to do is show up and roll out your mat! Find out more information here.
FREE, May 11th at 9 a.m., Yoga on The Ridge, 493 Domino Lane, Philadelphia.
>> Have a health or fitness event you’d like to share with Be Well Philly readers? Email eleaman@phillymag.com with details.
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When yoga meets beer, you can absolutely count us in.
Fact: we love yoga and we love beer. Which is why we couldn’t resist sharing deets about BrewMaha, Maha Yoga’s yoga-and-craft-beer combo class coming up on May 8th.
The workshop, which takes place on May 8th, starts out with a full-spectrum yoga class for an hour. Afterwards, yogis will be invited to head over to The Corner Foodery for a craft-beer tasting that will be just as delightful. Find out more and register here (click the Workshops tab).
$25 before May 1st, $35 after; event is on May 8th from 5 to 7:30 p.m .; Maha Yoga, 1700 Sansom Street, Philadelphia.
>> Have a health or fitness event you’d like to share with Be Well Philly readers? Email eleaman@phillymag.com with details.
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Proceeds from yoga classes will go to good causes.
 Yogis get a good workout painting the still-under-construction Seva Center With four wildly successful yoga studios already under her belt, Dhyana Vitarelli is expanding her Dhyana Yoga empire with a new studio at 2000 Spring Garden Street, set to open on May 1st. But this isn’t just any studio—it’s one with a mission.
“I realized it’s my life’s work to run yoga studios,” Dhyana says. “But the question became: Is that enough?”
Apparently, not. Her newest project, the Seva Center, named for the sanskrit word meaning “selfless service,” is a yoga-studio-cum-charitable-foundation concept, in which the profits from all classes will be donated to charity. When the studio officially opens next week, CHOP will be its first beneficiary, with others—including ones selected by students—to come as the studio grows.
Dhyana says she had just come up with the idea for the Seva Center when the right space for it literally fell into her lap: “I got an email out of the blue from a guy that was like, ‘Hey, I don’t do yoga, but I have this space for rent and I think it might be good for a yoga studio. Do you want to come look at it?’ So I went and looked at the space, and it was great and the location is great, so we’re doing it.”
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Give your closet a much-needed seasonal facelift with these workout threads and accessories.
We know, we know—it’s hard to dress for spring workouts. The temperature can change dramatically from one day to the next, and what starts off as a sunny day often ends up with torrential rain. If you’re looking for some good not-quite-winter-not-quite-summer gear (plus a few extras—awesome gym bag, maybe?—for fun), we’ve got you covered. Here, Karen McGovern, owner of Rittenhouse Sports Specialties in Philly, and Lululemon’s Amanda Casgar, the regional community manager for the brand, were kind enough to give me their picks.
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I snapped photos of a seriously cool acrobatic routine.
I think I discovered the greatest people-watching spot ever yesterday. No, really.
While enjoying a late-afternoon picnic at Liberty Lands Park (Third and Poplar in NoLibs), I got to watch:
1) A mini soccer practice with a dozen three year olds. (So. Cute.)
2) Two separate groups of friends slacklining.
3) A man and a woman practicing their tandem juggling skills.
4) Lots and lots (and lots) of dogs.
The best thing I observed were two girls absolutely killing it at Acroyoga. I’ve written about that particular style of yoga a number of times on this blog, but I’ve never tried it (or actually witnessed it) in real life. I had no idea it was so fluid; the transitions between the poses were probably the most impressive part. And, dumb as it sounds, I didn’t realize how actually acrobatic it is—like, flying-through-the-air-with-the-greatest-of-ease and all that.
The two acro-yogis in question, Meredith Rosenthal and Holly Dixon, were kind enough to let me snap a few photos. They were practicing moves they learned through Acrobatic Yoga Motion Design, a group that hosts classes on Saturdays at the Upper Merion Dance and Gymnastics Center in KOP. Check out photos of Holly and Meredith’s awesome routine below.
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