Various hiking trails in Boulder, 720-243-1376, yogiwalks.com, rajseymour.com

Instructor: Raj Seymour, of Boulder, has been teaching yoga for 51/2 years. He's been teaching Acroyoga for two years, and is trained in yoga-slacklining.

He also teaches a sports conditioning class at One Boulder Fitness, and he and his wife regularly perform and teach Acroyoga classes and run slacklining workshops. He also leads yoga teacher trainings at CorePower in Boulder.

Seymour also works for Open Space and Mountain Parks in the community education and outreach department, and he used to lead hikes for kids.

What is the workout? A combination of yoga and hiking around Chautauqua Park in small groups. Not like you'll be walking up the trails in crow pose or lunging the whole way. The class infuses aspects of yoga and meditation into a hike of 2 miles on uneven terrain with an elevation gain between 500 and 1,000 feet.

"It was a perfect fit for me being a yoga teacher and a naturalist," Seymour says.

We started with light yoga postures under the trees, then followed a 10-minute open-eyed, silent walking meditation. We hiked for about 45 minutes to an hour, with a break at the top of the overlook for a five-minute silent meditation. Class ended in the grassy park with a 30- to 45-minute yoga practice. We focused on the hamstrings, hip flexors and quads, which are the primary muscles used in hiking.

Yoga Hikes started last month as an extension of Boulder Walking Tours, which offers group tours of Pearl Street and other areas of town.

"It's not a fragmented, forced combination of two activities together," Seymour explains. "It's an integration of two mind-centering, peaceful, contemplative practices. Yoga and hiking can bring people to similar states of mind, which is the goal: the calming of the 'monkey mind,' the ceasing of the fluctuations of the mind."

What's different? Yoga after a vigorous hike feels different; the body and mind are settled, peaceful and focused. For me yoga outside (especially in the shade with the perfect breeze that we had) is dramatically more satisfying and nurturing. Plus, the grass feels better on your knees than a hardwood floor.

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Workout of the Week: Yoga Hike