I have never been so tired in my life. I was halfway through my very first yoga class, the popular Saturday morning class at King Yoga, in a former garage at the Airport Business Center, and I felt as though I had been in class for 40 days instead of 40 minutes.

In Aspen, yoga has been popular for a long time with parents, professional athletes, ski instructors and also teenage girls at AHS. However, almost every teenage guy, like me, avoids yoga. It just seems girly, soft and more about fashion than fitness. I have always ridiculed girls who said that they were going to yoga for their “workout.” I will not be doing that anymore. I can now tell you from personal experience that yoga is not easy in any way, especially not at King Yoga.

My experience at King Yoga was not at all what I expected. First, the design of the studio is industrial and rustic, with water pipes crisscrossing the ceiling, rough concrete walls, a cork floor, and Buddha statues. Overall, King Yoga looks like it belongs in a hip neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Aaron King, the owner, doesn’t look like a yoga teacher – he often wears a Grateful Dead T-shirt and baggy shorts while teaching – and his style is deceptively laid-back. He doesn’t yell like many physical trainers do but he does lead students relentlessly through one pose after another, including about twenty chaturangas. A chaturanga, I learned, is a yoga pose that’s basically like doing a pushup in slow motion. It’s excruciating.

Yoga is an ancient form of exercise that was founded in India about 5,000 years ago and designed to strengthen not only the body, but the mind, spirit, will and emotions. It creates balance in a way I could sense even while suffering through my first class. For people who have a lot of strength and zero flexibility (me), yoga can lengthen and stretch their muscles. For those with more flexibility than strength, practicing yoga regularly can correct that imbalance too.

People often say yoga can not only change bodies and muscles but also lives. This hasn’t happened to me, not yet, but King’s life was completely altered when he went to his first yoga class in 1999 in Los Angeles. King’s initial class was taught by Johnny Kest, a famous power yoga teacher.

“I went in there and everything he was talking about just completely shifted my perspective on where I was in my life, the direction I was going in,” King said. “It was an awakening.”

At the time, King was working in the music business, but he soon quit to become a yoga teacher. In 2004, he moved to Aspen to teach at 02 Yoga, where his classes were so popular students would often be turned away because there was no space left in the studio. In 2006, he opened his own studio at the ABC and created his logo, which he still uses today: a Buddha wearing headphones.

Some yoga teachers do not play music during class, believing that music distracts students from paying attention to what’s going on in their body and mind.  King takes a totally different approach to yoga and music. His playlist for classes is fun, energizing, full of classic rock that would work at any party.  While leading students through yoga poses, he plays bands like The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan and, of course, the Grateful Dead.

“I am heavily influenced by the Grateful Dead and Phish,” King said. “I like how they improvise and have that creative flow to the music that really fits my sequence of yoga poses.”  He added, “I want to create a warm, healing vibration in my classes.”

When I was in the King Yoga class, I was struggling through the nonstop poses, but through the pain I was able to really feel that “healing vibration,” that King often talks about. King pairs poses and songs in a really thoughtful way. I could tell that the people around me, and King himself, felt the flow of the music throughout class. King often hops around dancing and shaking his head to the music while he teaches. This method of combining high-energy, flowing songs with high-energy yoga poses, has attracted a cult following among the youth of Aspen.

Besides music, King uses other stimulants to enhance his students’ experience. There is a large overhead light that changes colors and brightens and fades throughout the practice, seeming to “flow” along with the mood of the class. Also, during most classes, King burns Palo Santo, a Brazilian bark that is extremely calming and smells fantastic.

King talks about his philosophy of life throughout class, and his messages are especially appropriate for teenagers. For instance, he often tells his students not to watch anyone else in class, and not to compare themselves with others. One of his favorite sayings is, “Stay on your own mat,” which essentially means stay true to yourself and don’t let peer pressure affect you.  King said he tries to inspire his teenage students to look inward more often, another skill that you can develop with a regular yoga practice. In fact, he often instructs students to close their eyes and connect with what’s going on inside of themselves during class, not what’s going on around them. Of course, this often results in falling over, but that’s okay. “Let go” is another of King’s favorite phrases. He often says during different poses to “let go” of whatever has bothered you outside of the studio.

At King Yoga, there is also a strong sense of camaraderie among students. Students help each other with difficult poses like the headstand, and after class everyone hangs out in the front hall to talk while wiping off their sweat. It is yet another small, positive community in Aspen and I encourage everyone to experience it. During my first class at King Yoga, I practiced next to Summer Pennetta, my former third grade teacher at Aspen Country Day School.

“Every time I come to Aaron’s class, I leave a better person, in every way,” she said. “I’m stronger physically and emotionally. We are all so fortunate to have Aaron as part of our community.”

King said he wishes he had started practicing yoga as a high school student rather than as a 27-year-old.

“If I had practiced yoga when I was growing up, I think it would have helped me so much with my discipline in school, being more focused on studying. Through yoga, through meditation, through breathing, through a routine of building strength and flexibility, you really build a sense of self and clarity in your mind and life. It’s just an empowering feeling,” King said, “After a yoga class, you can go out there and deal with whatever you need to deal with whether it’s a tough day of work or a tough day in school.”