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Auraria’s Healthy Moves program offers free yoga classes Monday through Thursday to help students discover the personal benefits of yoga.
Anne Hart, who has been teaching at Auraria for six years, teaches classes that are characterized as “yoga flow,” which links poses with breath.
Hart, who is often asked about the benefits of yoga, encourages inquisitors to experience it for themselves. In brief, she said, “yoga works on flexibility, strength, endurance, and balance.”
To keep students focused and interested, Hart goes beyond simply demonstrating yoga postures.
Hart said, “holding poses may build muscle tone, which enhances physical well-being and protects joints against injury.”
Tyler Carpenter, who began taking the classes this semester, said he’s seen some benefits already: “The downward dog position helped me release the tension in my lower back.”
Yoga also aids the body because, as Hart learned at school, it “promotes better drainage of the lymphatic vessels, the body’s waste-removal system.”
Yoga aids more than muscles, though. Lifting the hips higher than the heart, gravity directs blood flow to the chest and throat which is where the thymus and thyroid glands reside,” Hart said. “The thymus gland has a lot to do with your immune system, so this pose is invigorating your immune system.”
By providing these extra insights, Hart hopes to give students the knowledge to practice on their own and the ability to appreciate the postures and their little known benefits.
“The additional information that Anne includes gets us past our day-to-day stretches,” said Chris Brignola, who is also new to the classes this semester.
Five yoga teachers, in addition to Hart, each instructor teach a different style of yoga. Classes are open to practicioners both old and new.
For a schedule of classes and their descriptions, visit the campus recreation center or www.ucdenver.edu/life/services/campus-rec.
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