'Fat yoga' is the latest fitness trend, but it's not as great as it sounds

In the latest example of good ideas gone horribly wrong, a yoga studio in Portland is offering "Fat Yoga" classes.

The practice is designed for overweight students who may feel intimidated at typical yoga classes. "Fat Yoga" is the latest in a string of yoga studios designed to make people feel more comfortable in class, no matter what they look like. The New York Times has profiled a handful of studios offering yoga classes for larger students, and while the trend is great in theory, it has some significant issues, too.

The classes offer modifications for traditional yoga poses, since some people may not be able to stretch or bend their bodies as far as others can. But some of the yoga studios geared toward overweight students are apparently turning away potential students for being too skinny, a form of body discrimination in its own right. Students who want to take the modified classes due to injuries, or who might also feel intimidated in traditional classes, even if they aren't overweight, would be turned away for not being "fat enough" for the so-called "fat yoga."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Many people would agree that yoga has a "skinny white girl problem," as Well and Good puts it. When people think of yoga, they often imagine a slender, Caucasian woman decked out in the latest Lululemon clothes. But asking students to identify themselves as "fat" isn't the solution — it only creates a greater divide between overweight students and "traditional" yogis.