Business Profiles
Build strength and beat stress with Yoga on York
By Jennifer L. Saunders
Students of Power Flow at Yoga on York stretch deeply during a drop-in class on Saturday, June 2. Power Flow is one of many styles of yoga offered at the York studio, which will celebrate its fifth anniversary on July 20.
Courtesy photo
YORK VILLAGE - There was a time when Rae Lynn Stackpoole and Jeff Peltz could not imagine that doing yoga could be as much a full-body workout as a stress reliever for the mind.
That, however, was a long time ago, and the husband-and-wife team has since become dedicated to teaching this form of exercise and its many benefits to young and old alike.
Just shy of five years ago, Stackpoole and Peltz, who are both certified yoga instructors, opened Yoga on York at 250 York St. to begin offering their "Yoga Challenge" system, which is defined as a complete workout designed to build strength, flexibility and balance while reducing stress, enhancing concentration and increasing vitality.
"There's still a lot of misunderstanding as to what yoga is," Stackpoole explained, adding that before she first tried it, "I didn't think yoga was a real workout."
What she found was a workout that provided strength training, flexibility and the time to breathe deep and let go of everyday concerns.
"That 75 minutes is time well spent," she said.
Stackpoole came to yoga at a time when stress was high in her life as she balanced her full-time career in occupational therapy and the birth of her son. Through yoga, she found a way to reduce her stress while improving her overall health, and urged her husband to try it as well.
With the back pain relief and weight loss that followed, Peltz was hooked as well. Stackpoole and Peltz left Florida for San Francisco, Calif., where they began their intensive training with Tony Sanchez at the United States Yoga Association.
"We fell in love with this style of fitness," Stackpoole said of what she describes as "the most intelligent form of exercise that I have ever come by."
Practicing yoga postures, Stackpoole explained, exercises the muscles, nervous system and organs while improving the alignment of the skeletal frame.
"Yoga postures promote strengthening and stretching of our muscles in a balanced fashion," Stackpoole said, which "keeps us limber, youthful and healthy. Our modern lifestyles tend to be restricted and sedentary, with lots of time in the car, at our desks and in front of the television, so our muscles get weak."
Stackpoole said that old adage is certainly true that "if we don't use it, we lose it." And, she pointed out, even athletes who train for sports without focusing on flexibility can find themselves with a limited range of motion.
"Yoga is great for cross-training to help athletes be able to participate longer in the sports they want to do," she said.
Other benefits include increasing muscle tone and endurance, burning calories, releasing tension, improving concentration, strengthening the respiratory system and improving circulation. All this together, she said, promotes "feelings of well-being and inner calm."
While all yoga classes work on strength, flexibility, balance, breathing and mental focus, she explained, they are not all the same.
"There are many styles of yoga, with varying levels of intensity and pace. Yoga classes can range from very challenging to gentle stretching classes," Stackpoole explained.
Yoga on York specializes in athletic styles of Yoga, including Yoga Challenge, Vinyasa Flow and Power Flow, but also offers other options such as family yoga, prenatal yoga, yoga for moms and babies and, new this summer, gentle yoga with Janet Clark. Stackpoole said plans are also in the works to offer Pilates in the future.
The Yoga Challenge class, for example, which is a traditional style of yoga hailing from Calcutta, India, is an athletic yoga workout that is both beginner-friendly and appropriate for experienced students.
"It's very non-judgmental, non-competitive," Stackpoole said of Yoga on York. "Our drop-in classes have a variety of students, from pre-teens to people in their mid-70s. It doesn't matter the age; it matters the determination."
From Yoga Challenge, experienced students may also choose to move on to Vinyasa Slow Flow, Vinyasa Flow Intermediate and Power Flow, matching their breath to the movements and using isometric exercises to build strength while creating long, lean muscles rather than bulk.
Each yoga class is low-impact, but the athletic forms offer high physical intensity.
To put it in the most simple of terms, Stackpoole said, "Yoga makes you feel better. ... To me, it never gets boring because, in each and every class, I gain new awareness of my body and mind."
For more about Yoga on York's summer classes and other offerings, call 363-9642 or visit http://www.yogaonyork.com/.
