Bow

They call it Buti bliss.

That’s the elation experienced after a session of Buti yoga, the high-intensity fusion of power yoga, tribal dance and plyometrics. Before the bliss, however, comes serious sweating, heart pounding and calorie burning.

Pendleton instructor Wendy Hinkle first stumbled onto Buti yoga at the 2014 Yoga Round-Up in Pendleton.

“Shannon Red Cloud led 50 of us through an hour of the most painful and sweat-filled yoga I’d ever experienced,” she said. “It was cardio and strength and conditioning all in one.”

Hinkle experienced nausea during the session, but afterwards, “I felt incredible.” She eventually trained under Buti yoga creator Bizzie Gold and got certified as an instructor.

On a recent night, Hinkle, 31, led a hot Buti workout at the Pendleton Yoga & Dance Studio. The thermostat hovered around 90 degrees – all the better to sweat out toxins.

Seventeen women and one man stood on mats, pushing their bodies to the max as music pumped from studio speakers. The hour flowed by in a mixture of pulsing, gyrating moves. One sweat-slicked woman paused to take a deep swig out of her half-gallon bottle of water.

The movement is uninhibited and sensual, which gives some first-timers pause. The hip swiveling and other circular motion serve to work all the body’s muscles, Hinkle said. She insists that any embarrassment fades quickly as one simply focuses on moving.

“It’s so raw, so unfiltered and so real,” she said.

Along with strength, cardio, flexibility and balance comes inner healing, she said. Emotions often bob to the surface.

“I’ve had people cry,” she said. “I’ve had people burst into uncontrollable laughter.”

You might think Buti wouldn’t attract many men, but you’d be wrong, Hinkle said. Some nights, men outnumber women.

“Some of them come in the first time with a macho attitude, but come out humbled,” she said. “Some say, ‘Thank you. I have never experienced anything like that.’”

Got trauma in your past? Buti yoga unlocks buried resentments and other toxic emotions, she said. The Marathi name means “a cure to something hidden or kept secret.”

“People are happier,” she said.

Losing weight is a byproduct of all this muscle-burning motion. Acosia Red Elk, of Pendleton, said she’s lost 45 pounds since starting Buti yoga. She attends regularly with her 15-year-old daughter, Dancing Star. When they first started about seven months ago, they felt muscles they had never felt before. Soon the mother and daughter duo became regulars.

“We started as a workout, but it became so much more,” Red Elk said. “Buti yoga is an empowering practice, helping people release the things inside that hold them back.”

Red Elk, a world champion powwow dancer, started training as a Buti yoga instructor. Her friend and instructor, Hinkle, has been teaching for nine months, but still thinks of herself as a student.

“It’s been the wildest ride of my life,” she said. “I can’t imagine ever knowing everything.”

———

Contact Kathy Aney at kaney@eastoregonian.com or call 541-966-0810.