What he didn’t borrow from Jain’s influential yoga entrepreneurs was Shiddha Yoga’s spiritual teachings, stating his program was more about the workout than the “spiritual mumbo-jumbo” (Page, p. For his program, which would come to be known as DDP Yoga, Page adopted some of the postural poses and movements found in Iyengar Yoga, adding in a healthy dose of Friend’s infectious positivity. Just after the turn of the century, while Friend’s yoga empire was still riding high, another man, wrestling Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page, launched his own yoga brand. But just as John Friend borrowed from his predecessors, a man named Diamond Dallas Page, real name Page Falkinberg, would later borrow from him.įalkinberg at the DDP Yoga Performance Center in Smyrna, Georgia.
Friend, who came some time later, blended elements from both Iyengar and Siddha Yoga, having studied both programs before creating Anusara Yoga. Iyengar Yoga’s focus, for instance, is more centered around postural and soteriological movements and breathing, whereas Muktananda’s Siddha Yoga devised a more spiritually-rooted experience (Jain). Each program possesses its own nuances in its approach to yoga. While these, of course, were not the only men to develop yoga programs of their own, they were key figures in defining the movement. Iyengar, Swami Muktananda, and John Friend. Ultimately, she concludes yoga’s entrance into the mainstream was spearheaded by the entrepreneurial efforts of three key figures: B.K.S.
Andrea Jain explored the transition of yoga from a counterculture fitness trend to mainstream cash cow. In her study, "Branding Yoga: The Cases of Iyengar Yoga, Siddha Yoga and Anusara Yoga,” Dr.