The Birth of Modern Yoga: How Hatha Yoga Changed the Way We Move

The yoga most of us practice today is actually quite modern.

Now, don't misunderstand me.

The roots of yoga are ancient, thousands of years old.

But the yoga class you walk into at your local studio, the one with the standing poses, the flowing sequences, and sun salutations, much of that took shape within the last hundred years.

And to understand why there are so many different styles of yoga today, we have to meet one man.

If you've been practicing yoga for years, you've probably heard his name.

If you're brand new to yoga, there's a good chance you've never heard it before.

But whether you realize it or not, his influence is almost certainly part of every yoga class you've ever taken.

His name was Tirumalai Krishnamacharya.

Some people call him the father of modern yoga.

And while no single person can truly claim to have invented yoga, it's difficult to overstate just how influential he was.

Think of him almost like Arnold Palmer in golf.

Did Arnold Palmer invent golf? Of course not.

Golf had existed for centuries.

But did he help transform the game? Absolutely.

He brought it to new audiences.

He inspired future generations.

He influenced countless players who came after him.

Krishnamacharya had a similar impact on yoga.

He didn't invent it.

He helped shape what it would become.

So today, I'd like to tell you his story, because once you understand his story, everything else begins to make sense.

So let's travel back to southern India in the early twentieth century.

India looked very different than it does today.

The country was still under British rule.