From the rooftop where Im contorting my way through a power yoga class, I can watch a construction crane swinging over downtown and office workers filing in and out of a high-rise.

A bustling urban environment might go against the peaceful, quiet setting Ive come to associate with yoga, but I kind of like this.

About 75 other students at Wanderlust Yoga must agree. Theyve rolled out their mats on the wood-planked deck, too, some of them in the sunshine, others under an expansive shade-granting awning. A breeze is blowing, and from our vantage point a few floors above street level, the city noise seems remote, like background music.

Jo Kutchey and Ashley Spence Clauer opened Wanderlust Yoga studio in April 2012 as kind of an Austin-based version of the traveling Wanderlust Festival, which combines yoga, live music, speakers and, yes, even a little booze.

Were not just a yoga studio where you come in and go to a class, Kutchey says.

In perfect Austin style, Wanderlusts classes incorporate music in some way, be it hand-picked play lists of recorded music, DJ-spun tunes or live musicians. The occasional Saturday night yoga jam draws up to 100 people who twist and bend to a backdrop of electric house music.

Besides the usual array of vinyasa flow and beginner sessions, Wanderlust offers candlelight classes, classes that incorporate hand weights and something called bittersweet yoga, described as a kick-butt restorative class that supposedly leaves you feeling like youve had a massage and a workout at the same time.

Up on the rooftop, I strike a warrior pose, glance out at a garbage truck rumbling past and surreptitiously check out my fellow classmates.

Theyre mostly young and fit, and Im pretty sure many are downtown workers on their noontime lunch break.

Ive popped by on a cool day. Im not sure how long Id last on a withering hot one, but some people pay good money for heated yoga classes, and rooftop yoga could be Mother Natures version of that.

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Wanderlust class offers yoga in the urban jungle