High Yoga Sessions In NYC: Inhale Cannabis, Exhale Slowly

In a brick-walled studio in Brooklyn a higher yoga experience “Bend & Blaze” invites participants to smoke marijuana during the ‘inhale and exhale’ 420 sessions.

“People want the community, they want to find their stoner circle, they want to find this connection,” said Amanda Hitz, Bend & Blaze instructor, who added that the students in her cannabis-infused classes seem particularly flexible and laid back.

“Rather than being traumatized about falling out of a pose and having it wreck a class,” she said, “it’s much more of a laughing matter,” as they teeter in tree pose, extend into downward-facing dog and then lunge forward into warrior one.
Hitz founded Bend & Blaze in Denver in 2015 to fill the need for a yoga community that also accepted cannabis use. In February, she moved to New York City and brought the program with her. Hitz offers weekly beginner-friendly classes for $25. “I never want to be in charge of anybody’s high,” Hitz said. “I just prefer that everybody medicate themselves.” She recommends that her students BYOP or bring your own pot.

“It helps you get into your body a lot more,” said Antonio Jimenez, a television grip. He and his wife are regulars at Hitz’s classes. “I’ve had some flows where I really felt nothing but every inch of my body, and it felt way more relaxed.”

Bend & Blaze yoga started out on Zoom due to the pandemic but now people go in person.

Evening classes end with participants lying on their backs in a relaxing Shavasana, known as "corpse pose." Students then sit cross-legged on their mats, chatting and catching up with friends over a smoke.

Are Marijuana And Yoga A Good Match?

Shortly after New York legalized recreational marijuana in 2021, high yoga became an up-and-coming activity via Zoom classes that made it accessible to more people than ever before. However, not everyone in the yoga community agrees with the combination of yoga and cannabis use, according to the Yoga Journal magazine, which looks at the so-called “Yoga and Weed Debate.”

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