This is the second Mr. Puniverse contest in Texas. San Antonio hosted one last year with about 10 contestants. They did pose-offs, arm wrestling and push-ups, said Lindsey Pickett of Gold's Gym. "It was a lot of fun."

As Ms. Bottini, clad in a one-piece white "yogatard," grabbed her left ankle with both hands, extended her leg in front and curled her forehead onto her knee, a panel of three judges scribbled on notepads. To determine a regional winner and a runner-up as part of the first yoga competition ever in the United States, they graded Ms. Bottini and other contestants on their precision in seven separate poses, as well as their gracefulness and appearance. (Jewelry, nail polish and excessive body hair, particularly under the arms, were strongly discouraged.) In September, regional winners will meet in Los Angeles in a pose-off for the national title, with the champion crowned by Bikram Choudhury, the iconoclastic and occasionally outrageous founder of Bikram yoga.

The crowd quieted in anticipation as a line of 18 sleek women in the 5-foot-5 and under category marched out of the locker room in their multi-coloried bikinis, eliciting shrill whistles from the mainly male audience.

From there, each contestant was asked to display side, front and back views of her musculature in order to pare the field down for the main ''pose-off'' event in which the six judges would chose five winners.