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Two London Bikram students will attempt to complete six classes in one day to raise money for a children's charity.

The Bikram fans will complete nine hours of hot yoga on March 6, starting at 6.45am.

The students, David and Richard, will be raising funds for The Smile Train, which helps provide cleft lip and palette surgery for children in developing countries.

They will be bending and sweating their way through Bikram's series of 26 postures and two breathing exercises, and are set to burn off around 400 calories each.

Around £150 is enough to provide an operation to change a child's life.

www.smiletrain.org

www.bikramyoga.co.uk

www.bikramyogauk.net

Yoga Journal, the US magazine that helped to bring yoga into the mainstream, has been bought by Active Interest Media. Over the last six years, the title's circulation tripled to 331,000, and its profile changed from a niche 'new age' title to one read avidly by mostly working women in their thirties and forties.

Over 16 million Americans practice yoga, according to a 2005 survey, many of whom aim to combat stress and long working hourse. The number of registered yoga instructors in the US has also rocketed - from 2,000 five years ago, to around 14,000 today.

Future plans for the magazine include building a platform to attract increasingly national advertisers, such as hybrid-car manufacturers and health brands. There are thought to be no plans to change the editorial focus.

Active Interest Media also owns Vegetarian Times and Southwest Art.

Yoga classes, massage sessions and farmers’ markets will all be offer at this year’s Fruitstock festival at London’s Regent’s Park.

The free two day event, taking place on August 5 and 6 and organised by smoothie company Innocent, will also feature music ranging from jazz, salsa and hip hop – and artists including Norman Jay, Fink, Aim and Whiskycats.

The partner charity for this year’s festival is Wellchild, which supports sick children to help treat and cure childhood disease.

Innocent was founded by three friends in 1998 with a £500 investment in a bag of fruit.

Eight years on the company employs 100 people and has been copied widely for its pledge to produce only 100% pure fruit with no sugar, water or concentrates.

www.innocentdrinks.co.uk

www.wellchild.org.uk

The Isle of Wight’s second Yoga Festival was held over the second May Bank Holiday weekend.

The five-day festival, which took place on the island’s Atherfield Bay, included a range of workshops, including children’s yoga, partner yoga, meditation and yoga nidra. The Alexander Technique, Homeopathy and drumming will also be on offer.

In addition to the workshops, there was a vegetarian café on site, live music, therapies and a vegetarian BBQ on Saturday night.

A weekend camping ticket was priced at £60 per person, with a day pass costing £20.  There were also chalets available direct from the site – see www.atherfieldbay.co.uk

Last year’s festival attracted over 100 people, over half of whom came from the mainland.

www.islandyoga.org.uk

Yoga features in a new book about journeys that have a positive impact on the environment and local culture.

The full-colour book, Code Green: Experiences of a lifetime, is published by Lonely Planet and details 82 worldwide journeys that fall under the umbrella of responsible travel.

In one chapter, Insights Through Yoga, writer Sarah Wintle travels to India's holy city of Varanasi, where she works under yogi Prakash Shankar Vyas, one of the city's finest yoga teachers.

Wintle writes: ''Yoga is the elixir of India. A time-old practice, it remains a guiding force across the rapidly modernising nation. Practising yoga here left me with a thirst for knowledge about the country and its people.”

In the chapter's responsible travel credentials, yoga is listed as ''a great way to interact with locals. It will enrich your understanding of the Indian way of life and slip you into the pace of the people.''

The book also includes sections on an encounter with gorillas in Rwanda, lemurs in Madagascar and sea lions in the Galapagos. There are chapters on the Maasai of Kenya, the Maoris of New Zealand and the Inuit of Greenland.

To order Code Green from amazon, click this link

For tips on how to travel responsibly see:

www.lonelyplanet.com/responsibletravel/travel_tips.cfm