Power Yoga Master Class – Niyama Yoga (Basel, Switzerland)

Power Yoga Master Class with Bryan Kest is a yoga workshop at Niyama Yoga in Basel, Switzerland. It is led by Bryan Kest, the creator of Power Yoga, who is traveling through Europe to teach in studios across Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy and Slovenia. For students in Basel and the surrounding region, it is a chance to practice with the teacher who originated the method rather than with someone teaching a style named after it.

What to Expect

The word "power yoga" has come to mean almost any vigorous class, and Kest is the first to say so. His own approach is broader. He teaches that power lies in strength, the yang side of practice, and equally in gentleness, the yin side, and that real health comes from a sound balance between the two. That balance is personal, and each student has to find it individually.

In his classes, students breathe deeply through the nose, honor their limits, and back off when sensation turns into strain. Comparing yourself to the person on the next mat is discouraged. Meditation and gratitude run through the practice, so the class is as much about attention and attitude as about effort. Kest describes the aim as "a system of exercise that fully integrates the body, mind, and spirit."

A master class like this suits people who already have a regular yoga or Ashtanga-influenced practice and want to learn from the source, and it can equally suit anyone curious about what Power Yoga was meant to be before the term became generic. Because the emphasis is on working at your own level, the room is not a contest.

About Bryan Kest

Bryan Kest is the creator of Power Yoga. Born in 1964, he began practicing yoga in 1979, at the age of 14. He was one of the first Westerners to learn Ashtanga, studying in Hawaii with David Williams and in India with Pattabhi Jois. He has been teaching since 1985.

Over those decades he has become known for insisting that Power Yoga is not simply a hard workout. His teaching keeps returning to balance, self-honesty and gratitude, and to the idea that a practice should leave body, mind and spirit working together rather than pulling against one another.

The Place

The class takes place at Niyama Yoga, a yoga studio in Basel, in the canton of Basel-Stadt, Switzerland.