New form of yoga combines strength training and cardio

PHOENIX (FOX 10) - It's described as a fierce combination of yoga, strength training, and cardio. We're talking about "Buti Yoga." A valley woman, and now celebrity trainer, is giving us a closer look at this unique workout.

It's a calorie scorching, soul-searching, dynamic workout. Creator Bizzie Gold promises it will change you inside and out.

"We try to encourage people to switch the mindset from working out to movement or punishment to [a] celebration," Gold said. "You can have those in your practice and then you lose weight as a by-product."

Her knee injury, a lupus diagnosis at 23 and years later, a pregnancy, that led to a 52-pound weight gain and her daughter with cerebral palsy. A series of events that Gold says led her to her mat - to Buti Yoga.

"I actually found my yoga practice when I was 19 after I had a debilitating knee injury," Gold said. "So when I went back to teaching that really linear stagnant yoga, it just wasn't doing it for me. It felt like something was missing and through a variety of different healing modalities and trying to heal myself from the PTSD."

The word "Buti," according to Gold, is an Indian term for "the cure to something that's been hidden away or kept secret." The movement involved in a Buti class is designed to help everyone develop body confidence.

"If you look at the Buti practice a year ago versus two years ago and so on, we are always pushing the envelope and being really creative with how were are linking movement and how we're really trying to merge the experience between the physical, emotion, and energetic body so that people have a really complete human experience," Gold said.

Buti Yoga is in 27 countries with 6,000 certified teachers worldwide. There are online classes, DVDs, a Studio and in New York and one in Scottsdale.

Instructors say the most important thing is to leave your judgment at the door. It may be unusual and you might feel out of place, but people do keep coming back.