With gyms and studios worldwide off limits, online exercise classes are booming – and one Texan teacher has become the ‘patron saint of quarantine’. By Marisa Meltzer
Hop into something comfy and let’s get started!” This is how Adriene Mishler, YouTube’s biggest yoga guru, begins many of her videos. For those of us who are not spending our quarantine days writing an update of King Lear or attempting to follow along with Barry’s Bootcamp on Instagram, Mishler’s just-show-up approach to yoga is a comfort and a welcome distraction. In recent months, she has been described as “the patron saint of quarantine” (Paper magazine), “the most influential yoga teacher on the planet” (Refinery29), and “Our saviour” (a fan on Twitter).
Mishler was already huge before the pandemic – her channel, which has more than 7 million subscribers, is the first to pop up when you search for “yoga” on YouTube – but the lockdown has catapulted her to a new level of fame. Fans on social media recommend their favourite videos, post charcoal drawings of her and express their undying devotion to her for keeping them sane. One devotee even built a digital replica of her home studio in the video game Animal Crossing. There are countless memes about her, as well as ones about her dog, a blue heeler, or Australian cattle dog, named Benji, who frequently makes cameo appearances lounging beside the mat, or wandering into shot.
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