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So, You Think You Can’t Do Yoga?

July 2009, by Jo Sgammato

(All together now:) Yes, You Can!

“I’m not flexible enough to do yoga,” say many people who are nevertheless attracted to feeling better. Would you say, “I’m too thirsty to drink water?” Flexibility is the result of yoga practice, not a prerequisite. You’ll be amazed at how good you feel after tapping in to your instinctive ability to stretch and breathe, and trying the ancient practice that has become a modern-day path to stress relief and better health.

Glamorous, skinny women and buff men, all wearing the latest “yoga fashions,” performing pretzel poses, are not what yoga is about at all. Integral Yoga Institute’s founder, Swami Satchidananda, believed that yoga is for every body - short and tall, young and old, skinny and fat, robust and on the mend. The yoga class he designed - a comprehensive, ever-deepening combination of yoga poses, relaxation, breathing practices, and meditation - brings a meditative state, immediate comfort, and lasting health benefits to everyone who tries it. With regular practice - even just once a week - you’ll experience improvements in brain function, digestion, muscle tone, posture, circulation, and, yes, flexibility. You might even find you sleep better.

How do you begin? The Integral Yoga Institute, at 227 West 13th Street, makes it easy. There are over 100 classes each week at every level; you just drop in 15 minutes before the class starts, entering through the yoga shop. Every Sunday, there’s a free introductory class at 1:15 p.m., where a certified instructor provides one-on-one attention and encourages you to ask questions. A three- or four-week course called Fundamentals of Hatha Yoga, where you work with the same instructor and systematically learn each pose and part of the class, prepares you to take any of the dozens of beginner level (Hatha I) classes offered each week. (Check www.iyiny.org for upcoming fundamentals courses and the complete open yoga class schedule).

Hatha I is the classic, authentic, traditional yoga class that has served for more than 40 years as the introduction to yoga for thousands of practitioners, many of whom were just as reluctant to take the plunge as you might be. Each pose is held for 30 to 60 seconds while you breathe deeply and steadily, thus directing pure oxygen to different parts of the body, cleansing the digestive and reproductive systems, kidneys, liver, spleen, those overworked adrenal glands, the endocrine system, and the lower digestive tract from the inside out. The poses also lengthen and strengthen muscles, build bone strength, and elongate your spine. Next is the wonderfully restorative practice of “deep relaxation” where for 15 minutes you are encouraged to withdraw the senses from outer stimuli and simply rest the mind, body, spirit. Breathing practices that calm and relax the nervous system are followed by the crown jewel of yoga, meditation, to remind you that peace is your true nature.

As a nonprofit organization, Integral Yoga keeps prices low. A single class is $17, but you can bring the price down as low as $13 per class with a 20-class card that never expires. Each Saturday night at 6:15, IYI offers a “community class” for only $5. So give Integral Yoga a try. You’ve got nothing to lose but your stiffness. What you’ll gain is an immeasurable sense of health, peace, and happiness.

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