Stretching your imagination with yoga

A former corporate bigwig takes the ancient art of yoga to boardrooms and inner-city rooftops

Hillbrow, Joburg. Hip-hop beats vibrate through the floorboards as people contort their bodies into gravity-defying poses. This is yoga as we've never seen it, or done it, before.

Steven Heyman has run Yoga Works for just two years, but many would say it's already become a movement (in motion). You wouldn't think it, looking at the sedate man leaning back in his chair in the Melville coffee shop, but Heyman, a former corporate MD from Belgium, knows all about the hazards of stress.

Heyman met his now wife when he moved to South Africa with his company, and she introduced him to yoga. "At first I thought, what are these funny stretches?" he says. But the practice helped him so much in coping with his fast-paced job that he certified as an instructor.

Inspired to do something more fulfilling, he quit his suit-and-tie job of 12 years. Now he can be seen, barefoot and in lotus pose, in boardrooms across the country guiding meditations and teaching basic stretches that employees can do at their desks.

The benefits of yoga go beyond things like improved posture and vitality, he says. "There's a big mental component. It forces you to practise real-life situations. There will be poses you can't do. You'll try to balance on one leg and fall."

By learning to remain present through challenging poses, Heyman believes we can improve our suppleness in life. So next time we'll take a deep, yogic breath before responding to an angry work e-mail, or have a little more patience in traffic. "Yoga is an ancient art that is still very relevant today."

After a positive response to his seven-week corporate workshops, Heyman set his mind to branching out. " What I wanted to do was bring yoga to more people." So he took yoga outdoors, to parks, inner-city rooftops, and historic landmarks like the old railway station in Newtown, Johannesburg.

There's nothing quite like touching your toes and taking in a heady smell of the earth. Heyman, who believes the experiential dimension is why outdoor fitness is such a big global trend, has even got people doing yoga while floating on paddle boards.

"I often encourage people, 'just try this'. Kids are natural-born yogis. They have no fear." He often does yoga at home with his two children. "If I ask my daughter, 'Can you fly?' she says, 'Absolutely.' Ask an adult, 'Can you do this pose?' it's 'Absolutely not.' We're our own worst critics." It's another life lesson from yoga. "The point is not to judge; just show up."

And people do show up at his events - in droves. Heyman likens teaching at these yoga-thons, where he guides the crowd through sequences using a microphone, to choreographing a performance. At some events, a DJ provides the electronic chants, and graffiti artists display their work.

The idea is for people to embody the qualities of the pose, which we hold for 67 seconds.

It's more than a dazzling show. Heyman, who works with various community organisations, is showing how yoga can be a vehicle for change. One reason he decided to start Hip-Hop Yoga in Hillbrow, for instance, was to appeal to dis-advantaged kids who otherwise would not be exposed to yoga.

Via social media, Heyman invited members of the public to each sponsor a child from the NGO Dlala Nje, which works with underprivileged kids, to do the class alongside them. "It wasn't about the whole of Sandton moving to Hillbrow. In every event, we try to integrate communities. The word 'yoga', after all, means union."

Heyman, in sneakers and jeans, doing headstands with kids to JayZ ... "It looks a bit like we're breakdancing." Perhaps purists see it as "bad yoga", he says, laughing, "but there is no wrong way to practise yoga".

He shows me photos of his events on inner-city rooftops, where hundreds have their arms outstretched in perfect symbiosis, looking out over the Joburg skyline. It captures the essence of what he does - broadening horizons. "I find a lot of people in Joburg have never even been to the inner city."

Tomorrow on Mandela Day, Constitution Hill will be crammed with people on their yoga mats. Last year, Heyman's event attracted 150 people to the landmark. "Hopefully as people are doing yoga, they're appreciating that a whole part of South African history played out here."

This year, he's selected 27 poses - one for each year Nelson Mandela spent in jail.

"The idea is for people to embody the qualities of the pose, which we hold for 67 seconds. Some of the poses are tough, but instead of thinking, 'poor me', you just take one breath at a time."

• To book for the Mandela Day yoga event tomorrow visit  YogaWorksSA or visit their Facebook. Proceeds of the event will be shared with Lefika La Phodiso, an art therapy centre.

Watch Steven Heyman demonstrate breathing, spinal and wrist exercises you can do at your desk.