Instructors Host First Yoga Event at Detroit Zoo

Lions, tigers and yoga.

At 8 a.m. Sunday, June 29, join yoga enthusiasts from across metro Detroit for the Detroit Zoo’s first-ever yoga event.

This photo is  taken from the Detroit Zoo Polar Bear Exhibit.

The day will include relaxation, music and wildlife adventures at the zoo afterwards.

Kacee Must, owner of Royal Oak Citizen Yoga, and Gabrielle Gagnon, show coordinator for the Pontiac-based company United Shows, joined forces to develop this “Yoga Movement.”

Gagnon said, “It’s going to be a day of excitement and the first yoga event in the history of the Detroit Zoo.”

The Yoga Movement will be based on an hour-long yoga class lead by Must, and two

Gabrielle Gagnon (left) and Kacee Must, owner of Royal Oak Citizen Yoga.

Must has been practicing yoga for 20 years. Her studio, Citizen Yoga, opened nine months ago at 500 S. Washington Ave. in Royal Oak and is dedicated to providing an alignment-based, hands-on approach to its students.

Registration for The Yoga Movement is $30 and includes a Yoga Movement class, Detroit Zoo on-site parking and Detroit Zoo admission for the day.

Event sponsors for the Yoga Movement include D.A.W.N., a Michigan based private-law firm that protects women’s rights; HAP; and United Shows. Vendors include nutritional supplement manufacturer SunDaily, I use yoga, Be Free Apparel, beauty company Saphire Soul, J House Juice, KIND and LaVida Massage of Farmington Hills.

“Whether you practice yoga or not, this is an all inclusive event,” said Must. “Everyone is welcome. You don’t have to participate in the online yoga class to attend. ... Let’s get to know one another as a community.”

Yoga May Be More Beneficial Than a Gym

Many yoga enthusiasts swear by this form of exercise over going to a gym as the best way to stay in shape and lead a healthy lifestyle. Yoga has proven its benefits with weight loss, muscle definition, and keeping a healthy mind and body. For years people have endorsed cardio as the best way to lose weight and get healthy, however that may no longer be the case. Yoga may be more beneficial than a workout done at the gym.

More and more research is coming out on how yoga is actually the best fitness program for people. Yoga can improve sleep patterns, flexibility, muscle definition, and of course be a very significant aid in weight loss. A study conducted by the University of Maryland School of Nursing tested the results of yoga compared to aerobic training. The health benefits of both exercises were examined and one area that yoga was significantly stronger in was being an excellent stress reliever. In addition to relieving stress, yoga also outperformed aerobic exercise in fields like strength, flexibility, balance, and daily energy levels.

The reason yoga is dismissed as a good exercise is because people do not consider it rigorous enough as it consists of mostly stretching. However, yoga is more than just stretching and is a great way to provide meditation as well as exercise. Yoga’s benefits of reducing stress lead to better diets. Research has shown that high levels of stress cause changes in food behavior. This could mean stress can make a person reach for sugary snack, eat more, or eat less, all of which are not good for a healthy diet. Yoga provides exercise for the body and mind and will therefore help a person lead an overall healthier lifestyle in every sense. Regular yoga practice has been linked to better diets due to the awareness that yoga causes. Practicing yoga helps create more of a physical and emotional awareness, resulting in the person being more aware of his or her emotions and choosing the appropriate foods to match those. The ability to be more in tune with emotions and therefore understand what the body wants is one reason why yoga may have more health benefits than a gym.

The practice of yoga can help the mind and body in a physical and emotional way and lead to much greater strength and flexibility. Online Yoga is a mind-body exercise, and research shows mind-body workouts as better for controlling weight, reducing blood pressure, reducing stress, and improving a person’s sleep patterns. In a study that lasted three months, participants that did yoga lowered their bad cholesterol levels as well as their triglycerides. Kevin Chen, the associate professor in the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine, explained how yoga movements and positions strengthen the body and improve flexibility by moving the body in a way that allows the person to focus on his or her mind.

In addition to reducing stress, helping with weight loss, and improving sleep, yoga has a number of other health benefits as well. Practicing yoga has been proven to boost immunity. Yoga exercise causes a change in gene expression and this in turn boosts immunity in the cells. Yoga also helps to boost immunity by improving health overall. Yoga helps a person breathe better and that causes stronger circulation which helps the body’s organs function more properly.

Yoga also has been shown to help those that suffer from migraines. Studies’ results show how those who suffered from migraines and then did yoga had fewer and less painful migraines after three months of practicing yoga. Studies on yoga have also discovered that this form of exercise can improve sexual desire and performance. The moves in yoga help blood flow increase in genital areas, which is beneficial for arousal. The breathing practices as well as the controlling of the mind also have been proven to enhance performance.

Yoga has been practiced for many years in places all over the world. It is a spiritual exercise that Boston Yoga helps the mind and body find inner peace as well as the ability to lead a healthier lifestyle. The benefits of yoga may improve the quality of life more than any other workout, proving that being healthy does not necessarily mean going to a gym.
allows the person to be one with his or her body.

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Barre @ Soul is a Melrose Yoga & Barre Studio in Melrose, MA

Yoga for the Modern Lifestyle

An estimated 11,000 Yogis unrolled their mats in order to celebrate the summer solstice this weekend at free class in Times Square, while last week the Hanuman festival in Boulder saw 4,000 yoga mats thrown down over four days of yoga classes. With the known benefits of stress reduction, detoxification and mind-body awareness that yoga gives its practitioners, yoga is growing increasingly popular among Americans.

The Hanuman Festival markets itself as a yoga festival for the modern lifestyle as it

takes place within a town and not at some remote island location, allowing Yogis from all over the world easy access to come and join in a community of peaceful and mindful individuals over a weekend event filled with classes, inspirational talks and music.

The vendor village is a hub of yoga studios, clothes and healthy food merchants. Yogis play on slack-lines and hula hoops as others sit in the shady lounge tent and enjoy listening to live music. Hanuman Festival attendees can practice under the protection of tents outside with the babble of the Boulder Creek just 20 feet away from where they have set their mats. Offering world-class instructors such as Richard Freeman and Kathryn Budig, it’s no wonder that this four-year old festival is growing rapidly each year.



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Learn the Basics of Paddleboard Yoga

Paddleboard yoga is gaining popularity

Paddleboarding is hard. I don’t know from personal experience, mind you. I only assume so because I’ve seen many a fit, perfectly capable looking person fall repeatedly off a paddleboard into the ocean during the summer, while I engaged in the somewhat less strenuous activity of floating, toes up in the surf or looking for sea glass and shells with my kids.

When I think beach, I think sand, salt air, the cry of gulls overhead, the crashing of waves, and I like to imagine myself reclined, preferably with a book and a cold drink. I also do not think of yoga, though I have done that, and find it to be relaxing (at least the last 10 minutes of it when you are face down on your mat and ready to fall asleep after the workout you just survived).

But I most certainly would not think of putting the already-difficult paddleboarding and yoga together. Are there humans that can really do this? The answer is surprisingly “yes,” and it is only becoming more popular as instruction for this sport increases.

SUP (stand up paddleboard) Yoga combines paddleboarding (which originated in the Hawaiian islands in the ’30s and ’40s) with Online Yoga and creates a challenging fusion of sports that requires both a great deal of concentration and a good sense of humor. One must be willing to fall off the board, and likely often, as even the best practitioners are subject to the whims of Mother Nature. But for daring souls willing to try it, SUP Portsmouth Barre offers the body a terrific cross-training workout and the mind a new view of gorgeous New Hampshire coastline.

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The Ballet Barre Workout

I half expect to relive a combination of "Flashdance" and high school drill team when I head to Pure Barre one weekday morning.

Because that's likely not the case, I leave the leg warmers and bodysuit at home, which is just as well, because 20 or so women are stretching in the south Fort Collins studio, mostly wearing stretchy capris, sports tops and ankle socks.

On the especially limber of the group, long, heel-covering leggings are telling of their dancer pasts.

While Pure Barre, its competitor Bar Method and a handful of classes offered at gyms and fitness clubs around the country all tout a workout designed from dance conditioning, practiced while standing at a ballet barre, they are not dance classes and they are not created for dancers.

"That's one of the biggest misconceptions," said Stephanie Spalding, Pure Barre Fort Collins owner and former dancer for the Washington Wizards basketball team. "We've taken ballet conditioning and made it safer and more effective for fitness and the general population."

At the core of each class are a series of isometric movements — all very slight, targeting one muscle group at

a time — followed immediately by stretches, to create a "long, lean physique."

Some of those movements and stretches are reminiscent of Pilates and yoga, while others incorporate that unique dancers' practice. Hands holding the barre for support or resistance, while standing beside or sitting under it, there are a lot of small tucks and dips, lifts, squeezes and pulses.

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For more information on Barre Training in MA, visit www.BarreSoul.com.

LeBron James credits yoga class for helping alleviate cramping issues in Game 2

After debilitating leg cramps took LeBron James out of action during the final minutes of Game 1, both yoga class at the Heat’s team hotel in San Antonio. I imagine there was some surprise among the casual yogis who entered the makeshift studio to find James — a 6-8, 250-pound behemoth — knocking out a firefly pose as a warm-up.

James and the Heat were more proactive in readying his body for the rigors of Game 2. That included, among a more extensive hydration regimen, James’ decision to attend a Sunday morning

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Yoga and Flexibility

Just as strength training makes you stronger, yoga makes you more flexible. Whether holding a stretch for 2 to 4 minutes, enjoying short stretches or lightly stretching out at the end of a power North Shore yoga class, your connective tissues are being stretched a little more each time and your joint are being lubricated by synovial fluid, which allows your bones to gently move over each other.

Maintain Flexibility

Having a regular yoga practice is enough to create and maintain results, but if you are able to add more, it is recommended to practice 5 - 7 times per week. If you are practicing power yoga, always mix gentle yoga between your power practice days.

Flexibility in Day to Day Life

Greater flexibility allows for a greater range of motion throughout your body. If you sit at a desk all day, your yoga practice will help your spine lengthen and your shoulders rest below your ears, creating greater posture and alleviating back pain. If you enjoy running, yoga will create more flexibility in your hip flexors and extensors, allowing a better stride and better posture, and reducing pressure on your knees.

So, the next time you feel too inflexible to take a online yoga class or you hear someone else say they are, remember that yoga makes flexibility, rather than flexibility making yoga.

Boston Kicks Off Fitness Series at Local Parks

You know that proud feeling you get when someone asks where you’re from and you get to say, “Boston!” Well here’s another reason for you to brag: The Boston Parks Summer Fitness Series.

This three-month-long series of free exercise classes will be held in parks across Boston. Classes will be held in 18 neighborhood parks throughout the summer with offerings ranging from boston yoga to salsa dancing to Tai Chi. A full list of classes and locations can be found here.

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