Every body should do yoga

Times Reporter    

 

Yoga isn’t just for the young and healthy—it’s a beneficial way to maintain mobility and regain mobility, at any fitness level, and at any age. Strathmore features two facilities, Pranava Yoga and the Bank Athletic Club, to release tightness and strengthen the body.

Pranava Yoga only opened at the end of last year; owners Wayde Garrioch and Becky Stone felt that fate brought the idea together.

“He’d been dreaming about it for a couple of years on his thing, I didn’t know him, I’d been dreaming about it for a couple years over in my world. We ended up coming together to create it,” Stone said.

During the summer, they offer 15 classes on their schedule (hot, warm, and regular yoga) from six different teachers. Yin yoga and gentle yoga seem to be two of their most popular groups, the latter helping make yoga accessible to everyone, from seniors to those dealing with chronic illness.

“There’s a lot of people really, really needing to find movement, safe movement, in a pain free zone, so we’re having a lot of interest into the gentle yoga class right now,” Stone said.

Yoga not only increases flexibility, science is now showing that practicing yoga reduces cortisol levels that are linked to stress, which can create black spots in the brain. It’s also very helpful in regulating hormone and adrenal functions, and improving circulation and breathing.

Pranava is offering a Little Yoga Explorers Day Camp in July, for ages 5-9, and also a fall immersion program from Strathmore’s own Amy Thiessen. Check www.pranavayoga.ca for more details. Pranava will also continue to offer free yoga in the park on Wednesdays at 6 p.m. each week, weather permitting.

“Every body should do yoga,” Stone said.

The Bank Athletic club offers classes five times a week: multi-level yoga that provides modifications to those new to yoga, Ashtanga Flow yoga, and therapeutic yoga, which uses different types of props and smaller range of motion poses motion poses to safely align; from this, participants feel less pain and have more energy.

The therapeutic yoga class is used within the Healthy Lifestyle Initiative Program, paired with the Primary Care Network. This course includes eight weeks each of yoga, nutrition and fitness. It allows everyone to complete exercise without discouragement, and a support group is even provided once the program is finished.

The three certified Yoga Alliance instructors weave the philosophy of yoga into their classes.

Barb Smail, director of the facility, had back problems herself prior to finding yoga, and now, has no issues at all. She finds that yoga is also a great way to align the body’s shoulders and hips.

 “We escape from our everyday worries. There’s a mental release when you close the door of the room, and it’s just about you and finding that peace,” Smail said.