Are you ready? Shake that Buti!

MANILA, Philippines – I once told a friend that I do yoga, and she didn’t believe me. “You?! Yoga?! I thought you were the type to, like, run marathons and whatnot!”

I get where she’s coming from. After all, my workout motto is, “If I’m not dying, I’m not trying.” There’s something satisfying about seeing whole beads of sweat roll onto one’s mat to form puddles (gross), and taking home a backpack of soaked, sweaty gym clothes (even more gross).

My practice has always gravitated to more vigorous styles of yoga, like vinyasa and power, with some more classical forms in between for balance. So when I got an invite from White Space Wellness to try the Philippines’ first Buti Yoga class on May 1 — a mix of yoga, plyometrics, and African tribal dance — I couldn’t say no.

Before heading to class, I looked it up on YouTube and almost fainted. It looked nothing like the yoga that I did — this was a lot skimpier, a lot sexier, and — potentially — a lot more mortifying. “Buti” means exactly what it sounds like: yup, your moneymaker, posterior, derrière, gluteus maximus.

If you’re not sure what that looks like, imagine the foundational asanas of yoga (Downward Dog, Triangle, the Warrior) made a lot sexier, with a lot of hip circling and pelvic thrusting.

The Philippines’ first Butisatthva

Watch a video about Buti Yoga here:

Starting the Buti revolution in the Philippines is Cassie Yang (pronounced “Casey”), a full-time barista who is also a certified Butisatthva or Buti teacher, who never expected to be doing yoga. A self-described cardio junkie who was into boxing, running, and powerlifting, she promised herself that she would never do yoga. Then she tried Buti and was hooked, and eventually earned her certification from founder Bizzie Gold in San Francisco in October 2012.

Cassie is a testament to the benefits of Buti Yoga. “Before I started doing Buti, I was in a pretty dark place. I was hormonal and depressed, and I had all these cravings…But after I started Buti, that all changed!”

She attributes the change to Buti’s intense focus on the hips and pelvis, which is where — according to yoga experts — most women store negative energy. “After I started Buti, I noticed that I got a lot healthier. I felt lighter, I was a lot chirpier, and I stopped craving all sorts of things. Plus, the pounds just melted away.

“I wasn’t even dieting. I was just doing Buti a lot and then suddenly, I was 15 pounds lighter!”

Buti combines the flexibility of yoga postures with the exuberance of African dance and the intensity of plyometrics or circuit training. The result is a workout that promises to help practitioners get lean in a short amount of time.

What to expect from a Buti class

No wonder so many practitioners of Buti lose weight quickly — it is HARD. If you’re searching for the measured breathing and slow flow of a traditional yoga class, you won’t find any of these in Buti. Instead, the vibe is more akin to an aerobics class and is just as infectious — Cassie noted after the first class that, “At first, a lot of the people weren’t really getting into the hip swiveling, parang small movements lang…and then later, bigay na bigay na!” (They were giving it their all!)

Expect short bursts of intense moves from circuit training such as modified mountain climbers, burpees, and push-ups, and returns to traditional yoga postures such as the Triangle series, Warrior series, and the Sun Salutation. Short breaks for Child’s Pose, Camel, and Wild Thing are inserted between sets, which adds to the intensity of the class.

Some familiarity with these poses and their names would be helpful to a first time Buti attendee, as the pace is quick and opportunities for adjustment are limited.

Will Buti catch on in Manila?

The feedback from some practitioners who attended the first Buti class at White Space was amusing. As people picked themselves up off the floor and headed to the lockers, there was a lot of giggling and headshaking going on. One girl even called the moves pornographic — “It’s like people are humping the floor!”

Despite the palpable shock on people’s faces, almost everyone seemed to walk out of class that evening with a grin and a promise to come back.  

It’s not just for girls, by the way. While Buti Yoga is often described as “fierce and feminine,” Cassie notes that a lot of men abroad have turned to Buti as a complement to their training.

“A lot of MMA (mixed martial arts) practitioners do Buti…MMA has a lot of moves that take you very close to the ground, and moves that require agility and flexibility,” she adds.

It will be interesting to see if Buti Yoga takes off in the Philippines, especially considering our culture of hiya (shyness).

“Filipinos are not necessarily shy, but a little conservative. We’re afraid to do anything that’ll make us parang mukhang tanga (look stupid),” says Cassie.

Then again, we are the culture for whom karaoke could be an Olympic sport — maybe a class where everybody has to shake their stuff won’t be too foreign. If you’d like to step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself for a while, come and shake your Buti with us. – Rappler.com

Buti Yoga is offered by Cassie Yang at White Space Wellness Studios, 6F Regis Center, Katipunan on Wednesdays at 6pm. Call 577-0345 or visit whitespacewellness.com to book a slot.

Florianne L. Jimenez teaches Literature and College Writing at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She is a Palanca award-winning non-fiction writer, with a creative interest in the self, places, and consciousness. She has a massive to-be-read pile dating back to 2008, which includes such titles as ‘The Collected Stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez,’ ‘Book 5 of Y: The Last Man,’ and ‘The Collected Works of TS Spivet: A Novel.’