Not many workout classes strengthen your body while making stressful thoughts of homework disappear. Even fewer have been passed on for thousands of years, and there’s only one that you can attend for free at school.
A new yoga group meets once a week on Thursdays in the weight room, weight room supervisor Jim Ryan said.
Ryan said that he started the group after taking yoga classes at the Jewish Community Center.
Eventually, he asked yoga instructor and Bexley parent Maria Tarantino to come teach the class on a voluntary basis.
“I started taking yoga a lot, and I found out the benefits of it for overall physical and mental health,” Ryan said. “Yoga is very strenuous but very relaxing. You can perform better athletically when you stretch like that.”
Tarantino also said that yoga is beneficial for people who play sports.
“For student athletes it enhances body, breath and mind awareness,” Tarantino said. “It helps to balance our physical and mental energy.”
Senior Ellen Cavallaro said she gets a good workout from yoga and is excited to find out how much it improves her performance this spring.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how this will help me with track season,” Cavallaro said.
Though yoga is helpful physically, Ryan said it isn’t just for athletes.
“I would encourage anyone to give yoga a try,” Ryan said. “The mental benefits are outstanding.”
Cavallaro said she also enjoys other benefits from her workouts.
“It’s a way for me to relax after the crazy school week,” Cavallaro said. “It’s the one time I don’t have anything on my mind.”
Senior KT Sarvas said she also finds yoga to be very relaxing.
“My favorite part of yoga is at the end when the instructor tells us to lie down and relax,” Sarvas said. “She tells us to release our mind and feel the whole body relax. You get so into it that you drift away and feel like you sink into the floor.”
Yoga differs from other workouts in many ways, Tarantino explained.
“Yoga both strengthens and stretches,” Tarantino said. “It does both sides of the body and is noncompetitive. The movements are slow and controlled. Also, breathing techniques are important.”
The Hindu origins of yoga also make it unique, though Tarantino said that yoga should not be considered a religious activity.
“In yoga we say ‘one truth, many paths,’” Tarantino said. “It’s more a science of the unification of the mind and the body and the unification of the individual with the universal consciousness.”
Though the class currently meets only once a week, Ryan said it might begin to meet more often.
“If there were interest, we’d try to get someone else to come,” Ryan said.
He also urges everyone to come try yoga because anyone can do it.
“Nobody is perfect at yoga,” Ryan said. “You do what you can do. It is an exercise for all levels. People’s bodies are different. One person may excel at one stretch and someone else will at another.”
Sarvas also encouraged more people to come to the class.
“Students should try yoga because not only does it relieve the stresses of the school day, it also gives you a new way to look at life,” Sarvas said.
Published January 2008. Digitized 2025.
