Famed yogi Baron Baptiste uses yoga to help MS patients

If you are a yoga enthusiast, you likely know or have heard of Baron Baptiste - the closest thing to yoga royalty in the United States.

His lineage reaches back even before his birth to 1955, when his visionary parents, Walt and Magana Baptiste, opened the first yoga studio in the United States in San Francisco. Baptiste has spent his life immersed in yoga and has studied and mastered the classical forms as well as other yoga styles such as ashtanga, Bikram and Iyengar.

A visionary in his own right, Baptiste founded the Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga in the ‘80s and now teaches his own yoga style, Power Yoga. (His home studios are in the Boston area, with more than 30 affiliates worldwide, including Power Yoga Works on Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia.)

This week, I caught up with the busy but down-to-earth yogi to discuss his life, his upcoming visit to Philadelphia and his new yoga program, MyMS Yoga, which he developed to help patients with multiple sclerosis.

Q: MS, a neurological disorder, strikes mostly women between the age of 20 and 50 and affects more than 400,000 people annually.

Baron, what inspired you to develop a yoga program specifically for patients tackling MS?

A: I have always had people in my classes who deal with MS. Many of them would come to me with positive stories of yoga managing their MS. MS can causes lots of stress, depression, balance [issues] and muscle stiffness. Yoga, you see, is very adaptable. Yoga as a practice can adapt to the different issues unique to them.

Yes, some [people with MS] are more capable. But the intention for this program is to work with people across the board. Those from the greatest fitness level to the most limited.  Read Interview

By Kimberly Garrison