KIMMY VALENTI
Staff Writer
The need for relaxation among busy and overloaded Americans has created a cry for help, causing them to turn to an ancient solution. The latest trend in physical and mental health, known as yoga, has become an epidemic in fitness among college students. This is no surprise when looking at the benefits found through research and practice of yoga on the mind and body.
Originating as an ancient East Indian practice, the exercise was restored and has evolved into many forms which are used today. The word yoga means “union,” and the purpose of yoga is to unite with the divine. Different forms of yoga exist depending on its types of practices. These include Hatha Yoga, incorporating the physical aspects; Raja Yoga, focusing on meditation; and Bakti Yoga, which is about devotion. In the United States, Hatha Yoga is used most frequently for a more strenuous physical workout.
A typical yoga session would consist of exercises that slowly stretch the muscles, including holding the body still while stretched into positions. Balance and flexibility are achieved as the body moves into poses that stretch the muscles, then holding those poses. Breathing patterns are emphasized during movements and poses, and the rate of exhaling and inhaling coordinate with body movements to create relaxation. During yoga, one moves slowly from one position to another while taking deep, slow breaths, and holds poses mostly while sitting or laying on a floor mat.
Yoga was not intended simply for adults or women, and can be beneficial for different age groups and genders. Some yoga classes teach children, or mothers with young children. There are also classes for pregnant women that are meant to calm the mothers, allowing their babies a soothing feeling as well. Men and women can take classes together, and yoga has been recently gaining more popularity with males.
Many overly-stressed college students found it beneficial, mainly as a way of releasing stress and anxiety while relaxing the mind and strengthening the body.
“I feel that yoga really centers me, and even if I am having a really stressful day, it relaxes me and makes me feel totally calm and self-aware,” said Tiffany Murphy, freshman at Pepperdine. Murphy, working two jobs and involved in several broadcasting programs on campus, found time within her tightly packed schedule to participate in yoga classes offered at Pepperdine. Many students utilize the yoga group exercise class, as it is offered as a weekly campus recreational program.
Sara Thompson, visiting instructor of sports medicine at Pepperdine, researched yoga with a specific focus on its effects on self-reported anxiety, resting heart rate, and blood pressure in college students. Her project included about 35 college students involved in an eight-week yoga program, as compared to a control group of about 35 college students not participating in yoga.
“I found that there was a big decrease in their self-reported anxiety, a very significant difference,” said Thompson of the group involved in yoga. “There was no difference in heart rate or blood pressure with either group.”
Thompson has taught yoga classes and also practices yoga regularly. She has found through instruction, study and practice of yoga that its main benefits include stress reduction, strength and flexibility. She taught variations of yoga, including “restorative,” which consisted of sitting in one position for long periods of time, with relaxing poses. This did not provide so much of a physical work out, but provided a way to relax the mind and body.
“In my research I found there to be a huge improvement in flexibility of the students doing yoga, whereas the students not participating in yoga experienced no changes in any of these areas,” said Thompson. “It seems like there is a time period right after a yoga class when you really feel the best, and I would say this feeling of relaxation lasts maybe only 24 hours, rather than yoga necessarily creating long-term changes. You have to keep doing it to get that feeling of relaxation.”
Yoga centers can be found off campus in the surrounding area of Malibu. Malibu Yoga is located just a few miles south of campus down the Pacific Coast Highway. Specializing in Vinyasa-style yoga, the instructors teach a more upbeat and physically intense type of yoga.
Ted McDonald, one Malibu Yoga instructor, incorporates meditation to clear the mind with faster and more difficult poses and moves that work up a sweat. This process allows a workout of both the mind and body.
Yoga is not only beneficial to the body, but creates a sense of balance and mental clarity. With yoga conveniently located both on campus and in the close vicinity of Malibu, it is obvious why college students are being drawn to the growing health trend.
12-15-2005