Written By Donna Engle
On any given day, an increasing number of Carroll Countians are aiming their buns skyward and their heads down like puppies inviting play, standing wide-legged with one knee bent and arms outstretched like Japanese warriors, or using their abdomens as bellows to pump air in and out in the “Breath of Fire.” All of these gestures, physical movements or ritualistic poses are part of the ancient discipline called Yoga.
A system of exercises that originated in India 5,000 years ago as a spiritual regimen, Yoga today draws growing numbers of people seeking better health and fitness and a calming interlude in their high stress lives.
An estimated 15.8 million Americans practiced yoga in 2008, racking up $5.7 billion on yoga-related expenses from classes to vacations, according to a Yoga Journal market study. A decade earlier, there were an estimated 11.1 million yogis in the U.S.
“In five to seven years, we’ve gone from no yoga to yoga six days a week,” said Sarah E. Carias, group fitness co-coordinator at the Westminster Family Fitness Center. Class sizes range from five to 25 students, she said.
Terry Howard, group fitness director at Merritt Athletic Club, Eldersburg, has seen a similar surge in yoga’s popularity. In the past three years, demand has prompted the club to added three classes, for a total of eight. Classes average 20 to 30 participants.
Patty Whitson, supervisor of the Bureau On Aging community services, said fitness classes such as yoga find an eager audience among the elderly.
“We’re seeing an increase in all physical activities, not just yoga,” said Whitson. “Seniors who take it love what it does for them.”
Lucy Beebe, owner and director of the five-year-old Santosha School of Yoga in Westminster, said she has seen increasing interest among men, although women are still in the majority.
“In terms of ethnicity, yoga [interest] is as diverse as the population. It has become more widely accepted as an alternative to signing up for the gym,” Beebe said.
Carroll residents from 4 to 94 can find a local yoga class to meet their needs. Among the options: “Mommy and Me” yoga at Freedom Fitness in Eldersburg, for children 4 and older with an adult partner; private individual and group classes for teenagers and adults with individual instructors or in athletic clubs or gyms; individual and group classes through public agencies such as the Department of Recreation and Parks, the Family Fitness Center or private nonprofit organizations such as the YMCA; and yoga for the elderly at four county senior centers.
Nor are pregnant women left out. Lynette Stupi, group fitness coordinator at the Carroll County Family YMCA, tells of two recent prenatal yoga class “graduates” who returned after births to tell her, “Taking yoga through this class made all the difference.” The muscle strengthening exercises, focus and breath control they learned in yoga paid off in the delivery room, Stupi said.
The yoga umbrella covers more than 20 styles of practice. All are based on the same physical postures, or poses, but emphasis varies. Styles available locally include:
Hatha, a general term for slow-paced, gentle practice, a good introduction to basic yoga poses;
Flow, fast-paced, intense, physically demanding;
Integrated, yogis use props to get into difficult postures or add weights to increase strength building;
Kundalini, as taught by Yogi Bhajan, emphasizes breathing techniques, chanting and meditation, and
Vinyasa, breath-synchronized movement, poses flowing in carefully balanced sequences.
C. Brent Myers of Westminster is Carroll’s only registered teacher of kundalini, a style he describes as “more than gym yoga, a whole way of life.” Myers is an enthusiastic advocate of kundalini’s breathing techniques such as the rapid, rhythmic “Breath of Fire” to release toxins, hand and finger manipulations to stimulate different emotions and behaviors, and kriya (sets of exercises). He also follows the recommended macrobiotic diet and rises daily a 4 a.m. for two hours of exercises.
Myers taught kundalini to his 92-year-old father, Carl Myers, who finds that the 15 exercises he does for an hour each morning help ease stiffness in his joints.
“For my age,” said the elder Myers, “I think I’m pretty good. I have my aches and pains, but I can still mow the yard, and I think yoga is the difference.”
At Santosha School, Beebe, a registered teacher, teaches vinyasa flow yoga, a style for experienced practitioners. The school offers classes ranging from introductory to physically demanding, as well as prenatal yoga and restorative yoga for those with limitations. Class sizes are limited to provide more individual instruction.
“Our classes tend to be more in-depth, approaching yoga from all aspects,” Beebe said. Teachers include the spiritual component of yoga because students want it, she said.
Katie Bernstein, yoga instructor at the South Carroll Senior Center, learned adapted yoga for seniors through Yogafit, Inc., a California-based training program.
“We want to increase strength, increase flexibility and work on balance,” she said. The style is hatha, but poses may be modified by using chairs for support or balance rather than sitting on the floor.
Traditionally, yogis followed an eightfold path to enlightenment: social restraints or ethical values; purity, tolerance, and study; physical exercises; breath control; sense withdrawal in preparation for meditation; concentration; meditation, and ecstasy.
Americans modified the practice into “gym yoga,” with an emphasis on health and fitness, and little or no spiritual content. Traditionalists continued to focus on yoga as a path to enlightenment. Some instructors offer elements of both.
Carroll yoga practitioners often cite fitness benefits and stress reduction as their rewards for regular practice.
Seventy-year-old Tony Matulonis of Eldersburg, a retired teacher, takes yoga classes at the South Carroll Senior Center to reduce stress and improve his balance after a stroke.
“Senior citizens especially have a lot of stress because of the cost of living and the cost of medication,” he said. “I think today seniors have more stress than ever.”
Carol Healy of Westminster has been taking yoga at the Family Fitness Center for two years. “I just feel better when I’ve done it. It helps with my sore back and helps to ease the tensions of the day,” she said. Asked if she has a high-tension job, she smiled. “I teach eighth-graders,” she said.
Stress reduction in yoga starts with atmosphere, usually a quiet setting, dim lights, soothing Sikh or similar music.
Yoga classes generally proceed from gentle poses held for a shorter time to more demanding poses and then to less difficult poses to cool down, followed by shavasana, a period of deep relaxation to rejuvenate body, mind and spirit. Nearly all yoga classes end with teacher and students seated on their mats, palms together, hands at heart center, a bow forward and the word “namaste,” meaning “I bow to you.”
The experiences of local yogis are finding some support in research. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the National Institutes of Health concluded that yoga may improve mood, produce a sense of well-being, counteract stress, reduce heart rate and blood pressure, increase lung capacity, improve muscle relaxation and body composition, help anxiety, depression, and insomnia, improve overall physical fitness, strength, and flexibility and positively affect levels of certain brain or blood chemicals. But the NCCAM cautions that more well-designed studies are needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn about yoga’s use for specific health conditions.
A recent study at Duke University found that yoga significantly improved sleep and energy levels and in a study of postmenopausal women with breast cancer, reduced hot flashes.
However, yoga can lead to injuries when students push themselves too hard or are in the hands of poorly trained instructors. There is no licensing requirement for yoga teachers. Yoga Alliance requires teachers to take at least 20 hours of anatomy and physiology and 100 hours of training in techniques and practice to earn registration.
Some Carroll instructors introduce specific poses with a reminder to students not to do the pose if they have back or knee problems. Some also frequently remind students not to push themselves to pain.
