What is Frozen Yoga? Or snowga, if you will.

At first glance my mind conjured up images of tiny little yogis holding Downward Dog and Warrior One poses held frozen in ice cubes. A party favor for a budding hippie’s birthday party?

Or perhaps it’s the latest addition to Disney’s Frozen empire. Forget Elsa and Anna, Olaf is going out on his own and his first solo performance will be as a yoga instructor. Kids everywhere will get in line to take Frozen Yoga lessons from their favorite singing snowman.

Frozen Yoga may not be any of these crazy ideas, but it is pretty cool (pun intended).

The newest yoga craze is, as you may have guessed, done outside in snowy landscapes and chili temps and usually accompanies other snow sports like skiing or snowshoeing. According to the New York Times several companies in Montana, Vermont and New York have started to offer the new yoga classes as part of a package where customers snowshoe and/or ski out to their destination, do 30 minutes or so of yoga and then head back.

“Yoga and cold just sounds like an oxymoron,” said Ms. Riedman, a public relations consultant. “But I got hot. There were some parts where I had to open up my coat and take my gloves off. We were really working out.”

Though I’d never considered the pairing before, the combination does seem to make sense. Many cold-weather injuries occur because the body is cold and has not been sufficiently warmed up. Adding yoga into the mix is a great way to avoid injury and get warm at the same time.

In fact, some Snowga teachers say that many of the positions used in skiing, such as the racing tuck, and snowshoeing,  where just putting on the snowshoes requires flexibility, are similar to some of the basic yoga poses like Chair pose, Tree pose and the Warrior poses.

Regardless of it’s roots, Frozen Yoga is proving to be a great addition to the yoga family. Trading in the regular yoga mat and hard wood floor for snowy drifts and icy terrain can add some fun to your regular work-out or take it to a whole new level. Advanced yogis can try their hand at balancing on uneven ground and holding poses with more equipment and weight, really testing their skills.

If you’re part of the new Frozen Yoga wave be sure to share your pictures with us and check out Instagram using the new hashtag #snowga.

P.S. Disney, if that Olaf-yoga-teacher thing takes off I want a cut.

 

Relephant:

No Hot Yoga for Me, Thanks. 

 

 

 

Author: Brenna Fischer

Editor: Renée Picard 

Image: Ada Juristovski/Flickr