Yoga is Not Just for Latte Sippers Anymore

NBC11 ^ | 4/13/09

[nickcarraway]

Yoga is not just for the latte sippers anymore. The long popular exercise amongst Bay Area health enthusiasts can be enormously beneficial to people going through cancer treatment, helping cope with insomnia, the effects of medication and fatigue. The discipline is also good for cancer survivors, as they rebound from their illness.

However, those who have been through cancer treatments often can't afford a gym membership or fitness studio classes. That's why Halle Tecco started Yoga Bear, a nonprofit organization that allows cancer survivors to take classes at local yoga studios free of charge. Why yoga?

"It's the community yoga brings," says Tecco, based in San Francisco. "The principles are all about healing and finding inner happiness, and it's a really healthy environment to be in."

Some 125 yoga studios nationwide are Yoga Bear affiliates. Those interested in finding member studios can go to the Web site and click on "participants" to fill out a form that will help volunteers assign them to appropriate studios and classes (the site also has information for studios on how to join). How many free classes are available varies, depending on the studio. "We ask if they've done yoga before, and what they're looking for -- a more spiritual practice, or a style that's more vigorous," Tecco says.

Yoga Bear gives the studio background about the student before class, but students are encouraged to speak with the instructor as well to discuss any modifications that might be needed.

Tecco says that many participants are grateful for the opportunity: "They tell us that they feel great physically, that they're gaining their strength back and that it's the best therapy they've had. There are a wide variety of benefits."

[indcons]

I’m planning to start yoga - not going to pay for it though :) My parents learned yoga after they retired and teach it for free now.

Never cared for it much in the past but have seen it work - sometimes with spectacular results.

[Designer]

Thanks for the post.

yoga bump

[wally-balls]

I thought I was in good condition until I started doing Yoga with my P90X program....definitely an eye opener

[Wyatt's Torch]

I got into yoga as part of the P90X workout system. For people who think it’s just standing there breathing strangely and reciting weird chants, they are flat out wrong. Yoga is a heck of a workout and does wonders for your endurance and flexibility.

[Ghengis]

A well done yoga regimen does wonders for your strength and flexibility.

[smokingfrog]

Just don't be this guy...

[Abigail Adams]

Some interesting info about yoga here:

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/yoga.htm

Snippet:

“The practice of Yoga is pagan at best, and occult at worst. Its teachings emanate from the Eastern religions, all of which teach that self is God, only we just don’t realize it until we do the techniques. The goal of Yoga is self-realization-to look deeply within to what ought to be the temple of the one true God and to discover the alleged true Self or higher Self to be God.”

[Wyatt's Torch]

And to a lot of people yoga is just, well, exercise...........

[N3WBI3]

I actually started doing a bit of yoga as P90X and I have to say that the idea of 'Christian Yoga' is pretty stupid, kind of like 'Christian Acupuncture'.

But I don't think yoga has to be anything more than exercise. There are only so many ways to stretch the human body and yoga is basically a collection of power stretches.

Lets examine the mystical yoga runners pose:

Compare this to the stretch runners have been doing for years

Can yoga be a religion? yes no doubt if you put on trance music and meditate and use it as some humanisic 'I am the center' worship you have crossed the line.

So can acupuncture and 30 years ago people en mass thought it was this weird evil occult Asian thing.

I think this defiantly falls under the category as 'meat sacrificed to other Gods' in that one should follow their conscious.

[fishtank]

Yoga is rooted in TOROP religion.

[grellis]

I learned five or six poses, several years ago, in a desperate attempt to soothe some chronic back and hip pain. I noticed a decrease in pain in two or three days. After a month I was pain free, for the first time in over two decades.

Doesn't make me any less of a Christian.