By Rbecca Groff, The Gazette

March 14, 2015 | 3:00 pm

For a time, yoga was touted as the solution for the under-pressure business professional. A way to calm down, decompress and gain focus.

In classes throughout the Corridor today, that approach to inner peace is part of sales pitch.

Hatha yoga is the beginning of yoga, said Cindy Hathaway, who teaches hatha yoga at Prairiewoods Spiritual Center in Hiawatha. It offers not only calming, meditative benefits, but is also beneficial for muscle toning as well as cardio and arthritic issues.

Hatha yoga refers to a set of physical exercises, known as asanas or postures, and sequences of asanas, designed to align skin, muscles and bones. The postures are designed to open the many channels of the body, especially the spine, so that energy can flow freely, she said.

But the way the western culture of the United States approaches yoga is different from that of the eastern culture, where it originated.

Here in the west, Hathaway said, most people think of it only as the poses.

In my classes, we concentrate on the poses and the breath work because I do like to touch on the spiritual end of yoga.

She teaches approximately 60 students each week at Prairiewoods Spiritual Center in Cedar Rapids.

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Yoga still for stress