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Show i :x i xx Yoga: An Exercise That Bridges Both Age And Sex Bea Mattes demonstrates how to take the tree position. Joyce Hill, Donna Vincent, Jan Marchant, Kaye Anderson and Carma Hamilton practice the position. By ROSELYN KIRK exercise that bridges both age and sex, according to Bea Mattes, Woods Cross, who teaches Hatha Yoga in the Community School at South Davis Junior Hi h. The Yoga classes are so varied in population that students run the gamut from a boy to an grandmother. Grandmothers take yoga to limber up their bodies and learn to sleep. Its also a terrific eay to shape up the body. While some of the members of Mrs. Mattes class have learned the discipline in yoga to help them give up smoking or lose weight, others exercise to help arthritis. She told of one student who had knee injuries resulting from skiing. This woman couldn't assume the kneeling position, but after two months of yoga, she was doing knee bends clear to the floor. Hatha Yoga is a regime of exercises based on deep breathing and asanas, or which are known by such colorful names as the postures. These postures are based on the idea that there must fish, the plow the triangle and the lotus be balance between the mind and the body. Some people get scared off because they think yoga is a religion. Its not. Although advanced classes move from deep breathing and relaxation to concentration and finally meditation, most students only learn basic positions and breathing techniques. Although the yoga class lasts for only ten weeks, with each class being an hour long, Mrs. Mattes recommends that her students exercise by themselves each day. She advises that only three conditions are necessary for yoga - being alone, working on a soft surface and not eating for two hours prior to the yoga session. Much discipline is involved in yoga. She has used it personally to give up smoking and lose weight, but she took it up originally because she was nervous. After learned yoga, my mind, not my nerves, were in control. Mrs. Mattes first began to take yoga at the YMCA on the recommendation of her doctor who said she needed a hobby. She saw a picture in a newspaper of the class, signed up and progressed from beginning to advanced classes. She taught yoga at the YWCA and in Granite School District before she began teaching in the Davis community school program, under the direction of Boyd Crowther, director of the community school. My husband used to laugh at me a lot, but now he doesnt," she says. But he wont do yoga. gues he thinks it's silly." In India, where yogis also practice meditation, only the men are allowed to do yoga. No woman can become a yogi because she is considered unclean. Yoga will do for you whatever you want. It can help a middle-agehousewife to lose weight or be the method by which a meditator finds the cosmos. People drain their energy through other nervous movements. Yoga helps one develop a feeling of calm. In the advanced classes, students learn to concentrate by beginning with a black square on a white floor. By closing their eyes, the image is reversed and they learn to concentrate on that image. If the class is advanced enough to try an abstract idea like love or peace. meditation, they must focus on one thing Most of the time the mind is going in fifty directions, observing everything that happens and editing out what the person doesn't need to react to, Mrs. Mattes said. During meditation, the mind takes over and shows the meditator the answers. Some of the mystics feel that yoga puts them in tune with the universe so they can pick up cosmic vibrations. Mrs. Mattes says for her it allows her to turn off irritation and frustrations so that you're not so drained. Yoga is an exercise for everyone, since each person does the best he can "There is no competition with another person and no athletic ability is required, couldn't do it, she laughed. Most people are not attuned to see things around them. Yoga helps them to calm down and see those things. Yoga is an - ' - -- Jan Marchant and Kaye Andersen assume the triange position which results in stretching and limbering. I Vs '.s ' v. s' ' ' s n x ' s s '' ' " ' ,Ss--'''- 'v ' I S5Cy' x ,vs ' d wmmf I Jan Marchant takes a shoulder stand position. Jan Marchant and Kaye Andersen in the yoga position called the Fish which opens up the throat and restores normal circulation. Yoga instructor Bea Mattes sits in the full Lotus position. y Joyce Hill position. stretches before moving into another yoga f PHOTOS BY FRED WRIGHT Carma Hamilton takes the Plow position which is a general toner and invigorator. It is effective for headaches. |