Students lined up throughout the studio room of Sweat and Soul Yoga and prepared for their routine class. Instead of the traditional om chant, however, Snoop Doggs tunes fill the room.

While it seems weird, whats really cool about it is that the hip-hop music is really deep, and the beats are really strong and allow people to feel good, said Lynn Begier, a yoga expert and and the founder of both Sweat and Soul Yoga and Back Bay Yoga Studio. Sometimes people dont get it because its really experiential. Then they take it. and they are like, wow, theres something really connecting and powerful to the class.

A number of Boston University students have said that this upbeat twist on yoga helps them enjoy the activity more.

I always get bored because usually [studios] put up music thats like chanting or something, and its fun to focus on something else and go back and forth or dance while youre listening to Snoop Dogg, said Rachel Franklin, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences.

For Begier, who first opened a yoga studio in Back Bay 11 years ago, there is nothing contradictory about yoga and hip-hop.

When my life felt funky, I started doing my normal yoga practice to this [hip-hop] music, she said. On days I felt so depressed or bored, I would practice to everything from Madonna to Britney Spears greatest hits and I would feel so transformed.

All-Ages Activity

Begier said that very few people during her college days even knew about yoga and that she has noticed an increasing trend in the activity.

Every gym has yoga now, she said. When I opened up Back Bay yoga which was my original studio, 11 years ago, we were really the only studio in Boston. Now a lot of people are doing yoga, and it is spread out and segmented, you dont have to be in the go to do yoga.

More here:
Yoga: Stretching the body, mind and soul