Right feet at the front of their mats, knees bent, leaning forward, they stand with their arms in the air in a warrior pose.

It is a fitting movement toward the end of this Warriors at Ease yoga class.

The class is designed to help those dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, particularly veterans, find relief from their symptoms. Those include hyper arousal, anxiety, hyper vigilance, depression, insomnia, social avoidance and nightmares.

The class is held three times a week at Mt. Sinai Congregation, 2610 Pioneer Ave. It is free for military personnel; civilians are asked to make a $7 donation.

For Deb Causey, who spent 23 years in the Wyoming Air National Guard, yoga has taught her to be more aware.

"(It) gives you an awareness of your body," she says.

That awareness, and the control that goes with it, are two reasons the class aids those with post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD.

The class was started here by clinical psychologist Sherry Gardner and Natalie Vernon, a certified yoga teacher.

In the last few years, professional literature has begun to show that yoga practice is good at relieving symptoms of PTSD, Gardner says.

"Researchers have been able to demonstrate that many of the (PTSD) symptoms result not from the horrible story but from the residue of the trauma," she adds.

See the article here:
Yoga Helping Veterans With PTSD

Quick links to other pages on this site | Still can't find it? see Site Index Lyn Tally leads a group of Citadel football players during a Yoga class as part of off season training. Tally has taught the Yoga class at the Citadel for five years. (Brad Nettles/postandcourier.com) 1/11/13

Visualize your thoughts, like they are clouds moving through the sky. If you get lost in your thoughts, take a breath and then let them go.

Citadel football coach Kevin Higgins wont be using those words to fire up his players when they play Appalachian State next season. But the Bulldogs are employing that advice spoken by yoga instructor Lyn Tally to a roomful of players to get ready for next fall.

Citadel players are taking part in 45-minute, twice-a-week yoga sessions as part of an intensive five-week training period before the start of spring practice in early February.

In addition to twice-daily sessions of heavy-duty weightlifting and speed work, Citadel players gather in groups of about 30 in the upstairs mat room at Deas Hall to clear their minds and stretch their bodies through yoga.

Poses such as Sun Salutation and Plank Position dont come naturally to a 6-0, 310-pound lineman like Jim Knowles, but the junior from Belle Glade, Fla., said its worth the effort.

It gets me very loose, he said. It stretches my hamstrings, makes you very flexible. When you get down in that three-point stance, the coaches want you to come out with a low pad level, and doing yoga really helps.

In contrast to the blasting heavy metal or rap in the weight room, the yoga class is mostly quiet, with the occasional gasp or grunt from the players and the soothing tones of Tally, who runs Go Interactive Wellness and has been working with the Bulldogs for four years.

We really work on trying to get into their hips, so they can get lower to the ground with more open, flexible hips and create more range of motion, Tally said. And since this is my third or fourth year with some of the guys, weve been working more on the mental aspects of being really focused.

Yoga is much bigger than just the physical aspects, and this season weve gotten more into the mental aspects. Getting them to hold the poses for a longer time kind of hits all those points at the same time.

Excerpt from:
Citadel football turns to yoga in offseason workouts

The hottest class at Green Monkey, a friendly yoga and workout studio tucked atop a Starbucks on a crowded South Miami street, is literally hot.

Hot Power Yoga, not to be confused with the more extreme Bikram yoga in which workout rooms are heated to 100 degrees and above, is a steamy, fast-paced class that combines Hatha yogas high-intensity poses. Yet the multipurpose class also features pauses to incorporate Ananda style yoga through silent affirmations. The result aims to fine-tune and calm body and mind.

The class is held in a room heated to about 90 degrees. The steamy environ helps students sink into the stretches but isnt as oppressive as Bikram in already unseasonably hot South Florida. Students are advised to hydrate, take a break in childs pose if need be, and water is available. As a first-time visitor I made it through an hour. Not bad.

Fans like this hot stuff. Anas Benoudiz, 35, a professional photographer, says Hot Power Yoga changed her perceptions of what yoga could be.

I was anti-yoga until I came here. I was more into the high cardio type of workouts running, kickboxing, she says. I was hesitant about the atmosphere, its very relaxed. Im not going to break a sweat.

Five months later and Benoudiz is a regular.

Ive actually lost weight doing yoga because I come almost every day. I run, sometimes I do spinning. My muscles get tight and this helps me loosen my muscles and I come out sweating and all your toxins go out and its amazing.

The class, run by Grisell Gonzalez, is an invigorating and challenging 90 minutes designed with many familiar postures yoga aficionados will recognize from other Hatha classes downward dog, star pose, headstand, childs pose, warrior one and two, plank and more. These more vigorous movements aside from childs pose which is a cool-down position and used frequently whenever one feels the need to catch ones breath and focus mix well for cross-training purposes. They also stand up on their own should your goal be weight loss, conditioning, increased strength and flexibility.

But Gonzalez, who offers clear instruction and guidance, wants her students to get a bit more.

These things are important but yoga helps us find calmness, peace and inner joy, which makes life more meaningful, she says.

See the rest here:
Hot Power Yoga fine tunes body and soul