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When “regular” yoga got too boring for Berlin-based yoga teachers Emily and Jhula during their efforts to reach the “highest level of consciousness”, they tried making it more German. How? With beer, of course.

And, just like that, “Bieryoga” became a thing. What the duo calls the “marriage of two great loves.”

Don’t laugh, for their website says it’s not a joke.

Beeryoga has become an international fitness craze in 2017 as yoga enthusiasts in Australia, Thailand, Russia have started to practise it.

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Beer Yoga in Moscow.

It goes without saying that an icy pint of beer isn’t going to help you build a six-pack. But “beer yoga” is supposedly more for relaxation than fitness. Call it clever marketing or just a challenge to better your balancing act.

“Without alcohol I might feel a bit shy. Alcohol makes me brave and enjoy yoga,” said a participant of a beer yoga class in the video above.

Beer Yoga in Brisbane.

Not everyone has warmed to the idea, though. A comment on YouTube said, “Yet another way for the west to completely destroy what this is meant to be about. Bravo.”

But there was one clever suggestion to replace the alcohol with an Indian drink: “You’re supposed to have bhang, not beer!”

Before beer yoga became the new trend in fitness, the internet was filled with videos of yoga practitioners practising their asanas with animals – dogs, goats, cats winding around their legs as they peacefully stretched. Some of the animals even mimicked their humans.

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