In the early 20th century, yoga practitioners as well as strongmen and contortionists performed in fashionable traveling entertainment shows, displaying a blend of Eastern concentration and breath control with Western bodybuilding and calisthenic techniques. By mid-century, the students of yoga masters such as T Krishnamacharya and Bishnu Charan Ghosh were regularly exhibiting their gymnastic or muscle-control skills to inspire audiences to join their yoga schools.

Following this tradition of inspirational performance, yoga asana championships arose with the formation of yoga federations in India in the 1970s. The first worldwide yoga asana championship was held in 1989, with the goal of introducing yoga to young people from all backgrounds. Since 2003, USA Yoga has been facilitating regional and national yoga asana championships, sharing the mission of the International Yoga Sport Federation (IYSF) to promote yoga by demonstrating its benefits – not only physical wellbeing and mental resilience, but also the inspiring yogic values of friendliness, compassion, selfless joy, and equanimity.

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सिद्ध्य्-असिद्ध्योः समो भूत्वा समत्वं योग उच्यते

siddhy-asiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā samatvaṁ yoga ucyate

Staying the same in success and failure – (this) equanimity is called yoga.

(Bhagavad Gita 2.48)