20 Oct 2014
Naked mixed-gender yoga takes off in London
BY Helen Andrews
The latest fitness trend to hit London is mixed-gender naked yoga classes. Actor Matthew McConaughey and pop artist Lady Gaga are said to be fans of the liberating exercise, which supposedly helps participants beat weight issues and become less self-conscious.
The founder of the only mixed gender naked yoga programme in London – Naked Yoga London – is a lady who goes by the name of Annette. She teaches yoga to nude students on mats arranged in a horseshoe shape so that each participant faces her and no one else. No one is behind anyone else.
“We have such high and unattainable standards of what our bodies should look like,” Annette told The Daily Mail. “People can feel inadequate, insecure and dissatisfied with themselves. Part of the reason I do naked yoga is to react against these ideals of perfection.
"The benefits range from simply feeling great and free, experiencing the liberation of your body free from clothes and moving in contact with the air, to a sense of psychological liberation,” Annette added.
Attendees range in age from their 20s to their 60s and the gender split is about two-thirds men and one-third women.
Designed to be for all abilities, the course is a range of four classes over four weeks that each last one hour and forty-five minutes.
Annette provides naked yoga retreats in northern Ibiza too, on 20 acres of private land, where guests stay in a country house for the duration of the programme. The next retreat is between 23-29 May 2015.
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