Slang dictionary
snowga
[ snoh-guh ]
What does snowga mean?
Snowga is the practice of doing yoga in a snowy environment.
Where does snowga come from?
The word snowga combines yoga, which is a series of postures and breathing exercises practiced to achieve control of the body and mind, and the word snow.
While yoga originated in ancient India, new variations like snowga have been created by or for Western practitioners. Professional yoga and ski instructor Anne Anderson claims to have invented snowga, and she began receiving press about the practice in 2012. The practice, which is simply a flow of yoga poses intended to warm the body up before skiing, expanded in the following years.
In 2020, actress and businesswoman Gwyneth Paltrow showcased snowga on her Netflix show The Goop Lab, which introduced viewers to various lifestyle and wellness techniques. The show cited snowga as a way to fight anxiety and a slew of other medical issues.
Examples of snowga
Who uses snowga?
Snowga tends to trend every year when the temperature drops. Since 2012, news outlets such as NBC, the New York Times, and Health have featured stories about the practice.
Some people have decried snowga after it was featured on The Goop Lab, which has been criticized promoting pseudoscience. Other think it’s culturally appropriative to invent a name for an ancient practice. In places such as India and Nepal, monks have long practiced not only yoga but also meditation and breathing in cold temperatures.
"The mind-body connection is not some secret known only to men who sit on ice. But an old biofeedback machine in a medical office has no shock value and isn’t Instagram-worthy high-resolution video of gorgeous Goopsters doing snowga." @DrJenGunter https://t.co/waLbkXMP7B
— Petrie-Flom Center (@PetrieFlom) January 17, 2020
Snowga often appears in social media posts featuring yoga poses in the snow.
These snowga photos are so cool they'll give you chills ❄️️: https://t.co/L9vcmrHPiq pic.twitter.com/WdJPoeoe5c
— FITNESS Magazine (@FitnessMagazine) March 15, 2017
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of snowga like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of snowga that will help our users expand their word mastery.