Yoga offers chance to relax, release stress for students

Pitt junior Timothy Deer is channeling Gwyneth Paltrow.

“I heard Gwyneth Paltrow did yoga,… Pitt junior Timothy Deer is channeling Gwyneth Paltrow.

“I heard Gwyneth Paltrow did yoga, and I just want to be so Gwyneth,” Deer said in an e-mail. “OK, I’m kidding — I got interested in yoga because I’m a really stressed-out person, and so I wanted to be more Zen…I figured it’d make me calmer.”

Deer isn’t alone. Yoga has taken off as a form of exercise and meditation across the country, and it is becoming popular at Pitt, too.

Pitt offers several one-credit yoga classes every semester. According to a search of the schedule of classes through the University’s PeopleSoft system, there will be three yoga classes offered next semester — Yoga 1, Yoga 2 and Yoga and Pilates — two of which are already full.

Sarah Foster, a Pitt junior, said she uses the classes Pitt offers for credit and takes yoga classes during the semesters and practices it at her local YMCA during the summer.

“I started [doing yoga] around ninth grade and it’s probably because I swam, and with swimming came certain stretches [that are] similar to the practice of yoga,” Foster said in an e-mail.

Foster said that she practices yoga for health, flexibility, meditation and a good workout she can feel for days. She said that combining exercise and relaxing cuts out the need to run or make time for another workout.

The Pitt Program Council also occasionally offers yoga classes to students for a fee.

“We try to offer one every term,” Tom Misuraca, adviser to the Pitt Program Council and events specialist, said, but the classes are dependent upon whether or not there are qualified instructors to teach the course.

Misuraca said that the courses usually cost around $30 per term.

If taking a yoga course on campus isn’t an option, there are several other yoga studios in the area that offer classes and are just a short bus ride from campus.

Schoolhouse Yoga, which has studios in both Squirrel Hill on Murray Avenue and on Smallman Street in the Strip District, offers several different types of yoga for different levels of fitness and health.

“We have a number of students from Pitt, CMU and other universities,” Leta Koontz, owner of Schoolhouse Yoga, said.

She said that Schoolhouse Yoga offers a variety of classes that would be appropriate for college students to do as exercise or meditation.

“If you’re in good health, you can start right away in a challenging level,” she said.

Koontz’s studio also offers Ashtanga yoga, the type of yoga popularized by celebrities like Madonna, and Kundalini yoga, “a very esoteric type of yoga with a focus on chanting,” she said.

She said that people do yoga for different reasons — from alleviating stress to relieving pain to strengthening and toning muscle.

Pitt student Jennifer Kurtzman, a freshman, said that she does yoga because it’s “a great way to work out and relax.”

“After a good yoga class, I don’t feel like I’ve worked out at all — I feel relaxed and centered, but during the class I worked really hard,” she said in an e-mail.

Joseph Alter, an anthropology professor at Pitt who teaches medical anthropology courses, said in an e-mail that yoga can yield “good results in treating asthma, diabetes, arthritis and hypertension, although there is a great deal of disagreement about why and how.”

Another off-campus studio is Breathe Yoga Studio, located on East Carson Street in the South Side.

Breathe offers different levels of yoga ranging from introductory to advanced. They also offer Iyengar yoga, a slower-paced, therapeutic yoga that can help with back pain, according to Kristi Rogers, director of Breathe.

Rogers said that people do yoga for different reasons.

“I think the main reason that people are attracted to [yoga] is because it’s a physical activity,” Rogers said. “But when you take classes a little bit more…you have a better outlook on life – you’re calmer.”

“It’s great for stress,” she added.

Breathe has a student discount rate of $8 on a drop-in basis or $65 for an unlimited monthly pass.

“We definitely have gotten a good response from Pitt students,” Rogers said.

Breathe also holds donation-based “community classes” every other Friday, and anyone can come and take the class with a donation of whatever they can afford.

Once a month, Breathe donates the proceeds from the community classes to charity.

It might be a stretch for Deer to channel Gwyneth Paltrow, but he might be breathing easier for it.