Ninie Ahmad: Off her yoga mat.

If you can still handle YOGA & ROCKSTAR overload..

From Women’s Health

Sting, who made yoga manly not to mention sexy, has an heir. Adam Levine, Grammy winning lead singer of Maroon 5 and a hipster style icon, is a self-proclaimed yoga devotee.

Levine who shares his playlist and workout below loves to move in mysterious ways. With the help of instructor Alanna Zabel, the tall, trim and handsome front man used yoga to cure chronic back pain, quit the gym forever and become a wiser guy-all at the ripe old age of 29.

WH: How’d you wind up at yoga?

AL: A year and a half ago, my trainer recommended I try working with Alanna to help with my flexibility issues. I’m naturally very tight in lower back and my hips and hamstrings too. My first class felt like someone was ripping my body apart. It wasn’t what you’d call peaceful. But I was excited by the idea that the more dedicated I became the more effortless it would become to relax and give in to that tightness. Yes, the torture subsided a bit over time.

WH: How did your body change?

AL: Physically I have always been on the slender side. When I started practising I instantly felt more sculpted. Yoga carves you into a different person-and that is satisfying physically.

WH: Did it change how you work out?

AL: I had been lifting weights for years. After our first yoga session, I vowed never to lift another weight again.

WH: Do you believe in the mind-body connection?

AL: I was skeptical, to say the least. I was wary of the cliche´s associated with yoga: spirituality used as a marketing tool or Eastern philosophy sold at Starbucks to disenchanted lawyers and accountants looking for meaning. What I soon realised is that yoga welcomes everyone-that’s extremely appealing.

WH: How do you maintain your practice on tour?

AL: Being a traveller, yoga is by far the most convenient way to exercise while I’m on the road. You don’t need anything but a few metres of space and a mat. And I can always find at least an hour a day to practise. (Levine even made videos with his teacher to take on the road with him.)

WH: What is your advice to people who think they are too inflexible to do yoga?

AL: Start simple. Yoga will drastically improve you in every way imaginable. But let’s face it, I only practise yoga because the classes are always packed with beautiful women. (I am totally kidding.)

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The Yoga Teacher’s Report

Alanna Zabel: Adam was so tight when we started to work together that he would actually roll back if he was sitting. Shortly after he learned Warrior 1 and 2 he noticed a difference in the way his body performed.

His spine is curved-it’s a genetic thing–so we’ve kind of incorporated moves to loosen up his spine. Too much lower body and abdominal work would actually hurt him because he’s slightly bound in the lower back. We do a lot of dog-cat tilts and do a lot of Warriors, to stretch his legs and relax his lower back.

I can tell you, Adam has the same intensity in yoga as he does in a music video. We work every day when he’s at home. He even hired a camera crew to videotape one of our sessions so he could watch the DVD in hotel rooms across the USA. He’s so excited about it. He’ll call from the road and ask, ‘Do I need a block? Do I need a strap?

He even creates a new playlist for each session. I’m usually the girl who brings the good mixes and they’re nothing compared to his. But we do have the same taste in music. We like Alicia Keyes, Maxwell, Marvin Gaye, Amy Winehouse.

I’ve seen him with his friends and his girlfriend and he so wants things to be right. Men tend to have a hard time expressing how they feel but he’s so passionate and well spoken. But with some yoga they can be like Sting.

Adam is really focused; he’s really persistent; he’s a good man. He lives yoga.

More articles on Adam Levine and yoga.

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Even our generation’s coolest (if not hottest) rockstars are living yoga. Are you?

Love and yoga-ta rockstar Friday!