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PERSONAL JOURNEYS
Bryan Kest
Bryan Kest started practicing yoga when he was 15 years old and has been
practicing ever since. A yoga teacher for more than three decades, he is the
creator of power yoga, a unique workout for the body, mind, and spirit. He is
owner of the world-famous Santa Monica Power Yoga.T.E. First of all, I wanted to say that one of my rst yin yoga experi-
ences was taking your world-famous LSD class. For people who are
unfamiliar, what does LSD stand for?
B.K. Long, slow, and deep. That's where we got the name; it was just a descrip-
tion of the class. It's long. It's slow. And it's insanely deep. This class will get
you more “stoned” than any other class you could possibly do. It is the ultimate
drug. You leave LSD flying! Like it's not safe to drive after that class; it's not
even good to talk. [laughter]T.E. How did LSD come to be?
B.K. I had broken my shoulder mountain biking, and I still wanted to do yoga.
So, I laid on the floor, I spread my legs open, and I fell forward. I just stayed in
the poses, and that's where it came from. I stayed down there in that practice
for, I don't know, two or three hours. When I was done, I honestly never felt more
stoned in my entire life than after that practice. I knew I was onto something
that was really cool. This predated yin yoga. Whoever created yin yoga hadn't
released it out into the world yet. No one had ever heard of yin yoga at that
time. Now, it's really, really popular for a lot of good reasons.T.E. Being one of the most traveled teachers on the planet, are you
seeing a greater demand for yin yoga?
B.K. Yeah. Yin yoga is becoming as equally popular as the most popular yoga
out there now. When you talk to the studio owners, they're telling you their yin
classes are packed. There is no doubt yin yoga has swept over the yoga world