Hot Nude Yoga Inspires Sweaty Self-Acceptance
Hot Nude Yoga
“Nudity is Mandatory.” It’s not the usual tagline for a Yoga class. But for Hot Nude Yoga, as popularized by Aaron Star, skin is part of the practice. I had seen ads for his Hot Nude Yoga, and never quite knew what to make of it. Looking at the website, it’s difficult to get passed the naked bodies bending and unwinding. The poses are in your face, and there’s no side-stepping around the subject.
Aaron Star’s own background influenced his crusade to inspire practitioners to leave modesty at the door and connect with all the whole body, in all of its hotness. His years growing up at boarding school were filled with “a relaxed attitude about nudity,” which left him with an innocence and comfort about his own body. After coming out at the age of nineteen and discovering Yoga, Star wanted to give all gay men the opportunity he had experienced to feel relaxed and comfortable with their own bodies. “In all the Yoga classes I was going to, I saw there wasn’t a real connection with our bodies,” Star explains.
To offer a truly body-centered approach to the practice, Starr created Hot Nude Yoga (HNY) in 2001. The postures and sequences take their inspiration from Ashtanga, Kundalini and Tantra; and HNY was also influenced by Star’s own experiences in spiritual studies, personal inspiration and world travel. Star’s first Hot Nude Yoga classes and studio began in New York City but have since spread to Los Angeles and Boston.
If students end up going home together afterwards… Well, isn’t that healthier than going to a bar, getting doped up, then going home?
Other than the titillation factor, why be naked? Doesn’t this just dangle the carrot a little too close to lust and distraction? “Just because we’re naked, doesn’t mean we have to have sex,” Star says. “We all have an appreciation for each other.” Students are encouraged to connect, to touch each other, to go further in their explorations of their bodies and their movements. Sex itself is not the focus. All the same, Star is prepared for everything, including the obvious question: What if a student gets an erection during class? Students are encouraged to feel perfectly at ease with whatever does – or does not – come up. The main focus is that the men in class enjoy themselves and anything that might come out of the class is equally welcome. However, it’s not really part of what HNY is all about. “If students end up going home together afterwards…Well, isn’t that healthier than going to a bar, getting doped up, then going home?” Star asks.
Star believes that gay men have a different approach when it comes to their Yoga practice. “Because of challenges that gay men face in their everyday lives, there’s more of a resilience that’s felt in class. They step it up. My intention is to bring this out.” The resilience and community has come out of the studio as HNY holds retreats all around the world. In his retreats and classes, Star sees people come together. “Part of any retreat always involves service, whether it is yard work or cleaning, I have never heard anyone complain. There is a true sense of brotherhood. Students are always ready to step up and help out.”
Such was Star’s initial intention when created HNY. Classes go further than just a de-robed asana practice. The notion of naked men might be what makes some curious about the class in the first place. But Star strives to offer students much more than a sweaty and naked Yoga class; Ayurveda, Tantra, philosophy and community are part of the ethos. “One of the greatest things Yoga can offer is a feeling of sangha (spiritual community).” Star explains. Star’s striving force behind HNY is to give each man a sense of appreciation for his fellow man. While there is an element of mystery and intrigue behind the studio, there is also an inspiration that comes from bodies, community and the cultivation of ease and love of oneself.
Hot Nude Yoga has studios in New York, Boston and Los Angeles and holds retreats all around the world, from Hawaii to Bali to pilgrimages in the Indian Himalayas where they have studio space to practice Hot Nude Yoga. For more information, visit: hotnudeyoga.com.
Laura Marcove is a yogini studying Oriental Medicine and living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has never been to a Hot Nude Yoga retreat. Laura.marcove@gmail.com
By Laura Marcove
