Reprinted from the Health District's quarterly publication mailed to district residents (Fall 2001)

Despite all the muscle-shaking, flexibility-challenging contortions in the yoga repertoire, it's the relaxation pose that people find the most difficult to maintain. 

"As a nation we're a people that aren't accustomed to being still," says Celene Van Buren, a yoga instructor at Miramont Sport Center. "The biggest challenge for people just starting in yoga is to simply relax." 

It's an endeavor that a growing number of people are interested in achieving. An estimated 15 million Americans practice yoga, according to Yoga Journal, up 300 percent in the past decade. Interest in yoga is up in Fort Collins, where health clubs are adding more yoga classes into their fitness calendars to meet demand.

Kelly Banes, who oversees Miramont's yoga program as well as being an instructor, said there has been a spike in interest in this age-old discipline in the past couple of years. 

"It's difficult to characterize why more people are taking up yoga, because everyone comes to class for very individual reasons," Banes says. "For some people it's a way to relieve tension, for some it's a spiritual experience and for others it's about the health benefits."

Through controlled breathing, prescribed postures, and meditation, "hatha" yoga (the most common type practiced in the U.S.) seeks to enhance the life force that resides in the body and achieve a state of balance and harmony between body and mind. 

This Eastern discipline may have health benefits as well. Limited studies have indicated that relaxation methods such as yoga have been associated with long-lasting changes in blood pressure. Some research has also indicated mind/body techniques such as yoga can be effective as a complementary treatment for musculoskeletal diseases such as osteoarthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome.

At first, artist Tom Lundberg's interest in yoga was purely physical. He was looking for relief from the back pain that he had been experiencing since his mid-30s.

"My original motivation was to simply improve my flexibility," says Lundberg, now 48. "But I discovered so much more at that first class. 

"Yoga is instantly challenging and almost instantly rewarding."
That first class was three years ago. Now Lundberg attends four or five classes a week. In addition to increased strength in his back, he reports a higher fitness level and increased focus. 

"Probably the most dramatic improvement has been in my flexibility," he says. "Let's put it this way, for the first time in my life I can do a cartwheel."

Although yoga's effects are unquestionable, scientists still don't know exactly how it produces them. Some speculate that, like other mind-body therapies, it works largely by relieving stress. Others suggest that it promotes the release of endorphins, the brain's natural painkillers. 

As far as complementary therapies go, yoga is definitely one of the most pleasant. 

Yoga participants attend classes in a room with dim lights and soothing music playing in the background. A typical session includes three disciplines: breathing exercises, body postures, and meditation. Each session usually begins with a set of gentle warm-up exercises.

The teacher then focuses on breathing and takes participants through several breathing exercises. 

After proper breathing has been established, yoga students move on to a series of poses that are held for periods of a few seconds to several minutes. The goal is to mildly stretch and strengthen all the muscle groups in the body, while gently squeezing the internal organs. 

"Yoga puts the body back into a more natural state," Van Buren says. "It lengthens out the compressions of every day life." 

The class ends with a period of relaxation focused on body awareness.

"I always walk out of class refreshed," Lundberg says. "Yoga feels good on so many levels, that it's like a vacation for your mind and your body."