Paper: Sunday Times, The (London, England)
Title: Strike a pose – Fitness
Author: Lorna V
Date: March 23, 2003
Section: Features
Page: Style 39
There is nothing to it. Actually, there is much more than you think. Lorna V asks top yoga teachers exactly how Madonna managed to get into this position.
Like all Madonna projects, Mrs Ritchie makes yoga look as easy as breathing. The photo, above, from the American fashion bible W, will prompt anyone who’s ever done a Saturday yoga class to try and fling one leg behind their head without breaking into a sweat.
Alas, it’s not as easy as it looks. This is an advanced ashtanga position – a particularly arduous form of yoga. It’s not what you’d get in your average yoga class: in fact, your average yoga teacher is probably still dreaming of achieving it. Madonna’s pose is a transition between eka pada sirsasana and yoga nidra asana (or sleeping yogi), in which both legs are wrapped around the neck.
These days, with as many choices of yoga available as Starbucks coffee, Madonna has hers ultrastrong – and physical. Popularised in the West as “aerobic” yoga, ashtanga is the most demanding form of yoga. Most people do what’s known as the primary series, Madonna is on the third series, alongside top-notch teachers.
Kahti Goupil has taught Madonna at The Life Centre in west London. She says that ultraflexible people, such as dancers, might be able to achieve this posture relatively easily, but it carries a severe risk of injury. “This would be done three-quarters of the way into a two-hour session, following all the standing positions, the sun salutation sequences and the forward and backward bends. You would then be lying down and easing one leg behind the head.”
Though long legs and a short torso might seem like an obvious head start to an acrobatic posture such as this, Kahti says that, in fact, the crucial elements are very warm hips, soft and long hamstrings and strong shoulders. Such challenging positions also require the kind of daily practice that isn’t feasible for most people with jobs, families and social lives to organise. “In reality, most of us don’t have several hours a day to devote to practising,” says Kahti, who says not even she herself can do the position. “Madonna will do one series in the morning and another in the evening. Most people struggle to fit in one lesson a week. But it’s great to see her doing this. She’s in her mid-forties yet has the body of a 20-year-old. It’s inspiring and proof of what commitment can achieve.”
However, Kristin McGee, the Sex and the City yoga guru, says that although the outlandish posture is impressive, it’s not representative of yoga. “Most people don’t want to do these extreme poses. What’s the point, unless you want to be on the cover of a magazine or in Cirque du Soleil? It suggests yoga is about immediate gratification. Ashtanga yoga was created in India for 20-year-old boys. At Madonna’s age, gentler yoga is more appropriate.”
Of course, the point Madonna is making has little to do with yoga and more to do with her other prime subject: sex. As McGee says: “The first thing my boyfriend asked when he saw the picture was if I could get into that position.”
Author: Lorna V
Section: Features
Page: Style 39