Beer Yoga

Buuurrrppp! (“Excuse me…”)

It was only a matter of time. Proving that some pairings are better than others, suds and stretching have come together in the new trend of Beer Yoga, a hybrid where participants practice yoga at breweries or taprooms, drinking beer during or after assuaging themselves with asana. While its origins are IPA hazy, theorists say it first appeared domestically at 2013’s Burning Man Festival. Others maintain it dates back even farther to the Germans’ obsession with BierYoga. 

Whatever its beginnings, 12 years since its debut at Burning Man it’s tapped into a growing market segment of practitioners. Just ask convert Brooke Larson, who founded Beer Yoga in Oklahoma City in 2015 after “taking a silly picture of myself sipping beer and doing yoga” and now has thousands of followers on Instagram and teaches classes in eight states. And scientific evidence backs the trend, with studies maintaining people who have one alcoholic drink a day are twice as likely to exercise as non-drinkers. The key, of course, is finding the right balance, which yoga helps but beer often hinders. 

“I’m for whatever opens the door to yoga – beer yoga, wine yoga, goat yoga, cat yoga, puppy yoga, whatever,” says Yoga instructor Inga Rouches. “Yoga is a practice of self-awareness and if an external lure is needed to draw someone inward so be it. Hopefully, they’ll eventually drop the lure and dive inward where there is a lot to discover.” 

Ready to give it a go here in Routt County? 

Practice beer yoga with the below poses:

• Downward Drinking Dog Pose 
• Extended “Swig-angle” Pose Side Slurp Pose 
• Hold My Drink and Watch This Pose 
• Chug Pose 
• Side Slurp Pose
• Double Fisting Pose