Sentinel Article

Madonna's new movie The Next Best Thing could do for Ashtanga yoga what John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever did for disco -- or what The Blair Witch Project did for camping.

It depends on how well the movie does at the box office, and how limber the ticket buyers are. Watching the exquisitely toned Madonna do Ashtanga on the wide screen could prove more daunting than inspiring.

Ashtanga, which means "eight limbs," is the name of the yoga Lewis Rothlein teaches... But to someone unschooled in yoga who's watching Rothlein twist himself into shapes Mother Nature never intended, it looks like Pretzel Yoga.

In the course of teaching a nonstop 90-minute Ashtanga class, Rothlein seems to spell out every letter of the alphabet with his Gumby-like arms, legs, head and torso. His students still are working on the ABCs.

"When I started yoga I was a joke," said Rothlein, 52 with a body going on 35. "I was less flexible than anyone in this room. Even a simple thing like sitting on your heels, which even people who don't do yoga can do, was almost impossible for me."

Today, thanks to yoga -- especially the Ashtanga style he has practiced for two years -- Rothlein can search for loose change on the floor of the back seat and keep one hand on the steering wheel.

That's only a slight exaggeration. Rothlein can do things with his body which, at first glance, appear anatomically impossible to the flexibility-challenged. But the elasticity of a Star Trek shape-shifter is just one of Ashtanga's payoffs.

"It combines strength, flexibility and conditioning," Rothlein said. "It's good for athletes but also for people looking for one physical activity that covers all the bases.

"I used to run marathons, and I don't need to do that anymore. I used to work out in the weight room, and I don't need to do that anymore."

Rothlein does a 90-minute Ashtanga workout six mornings a week, much like Madonna's regimen, judging by a story in the current edition of Yoga Journal that says she has a had a daily Ashtanga practice for the past two years.

"It's no secret that the one-time Material Girl has become the planet's best-known yoga student, burning karma even faster than she's burned up the charts," the article says.

"She does it very well, based on the pictures in the magazine," Rothlein said. "Her form looked beautiful."

To make sure the yoga scenes in The Next Best Thing looked authentic, 90 Ashtanga students were hired as extras. Rothlein plans to check the movie out.

"Oh, yeah, I'll go," he said. "Even if he [Sentinel movie critic Jay Boyar] gives it one star." (Boyar gave it two.)

The movie brings fresh notoriety to Ashtanga yoga, but it's hardly new, dating back 5,000 years to India. The surge in interest has less to do with Madonna than it does with the American workout ethic.

"Ashtanga is a high-heat, high-energy workout. You're moving all the time, sweating," Rothlein said. "Some styles of yoga are very gentle -- they emphasize stretching. If you like to work out hard, you gravitate toward this."

In Ashtanga yoga, breathing is synchronized with a series of postures -- those pretzel shapes -- "producing intense internal heat and a profuse, purifying sweat that detoxifies muscles and organs. The result is improved circulation, a light and strong body, and a calm mind," according to an Ashtanga site in the Internet.

One result, according to Pat Fluno, is "I spend a lot of time with my toes."

She's not complaining. Before taking up Ashtanga six months ago, Fluno couldn't do what she was doing last week in Rothlein's class -- touching her face to the toes of her outstretched legs.

"I had a frozen shoulder," she said. "Now I have all the movement back and more. Plus I'm getting strength which I never had before. I can't think of a body part you don't hit with Ashtanga -- abs, quads, pick a part."

The continuous 90-minute workout consists of a series of movements, postures and breathing that take on a dreamlike rhythm. At the end Rothlein closes the shades and plays soft New Age music as the students lie on their backs with their arms out, as if floating. "Allow your breathing to deepen... bring your consciousness back to the present," Rothlein said as the music faded.

"Sometimes we hear some snoring if the music goes longer," he told a reporter, not entirely joking.

Joseph Montemurno, 32, joined Rothlein's class three months ago. He's a convert from the weight room.

"It's a very unique feeling," Montemurno said after the class. "Something is going on -- I don't want to say spiritual or psychological -- but everything seems rebalanced across the board."

The next best thing to hearing about Ashtanga is trying it... Sessions are $12 each or four for $40 [or eight for $72]. For more information call [407-644-3288].