Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Yoga Bears: Kent Bond helps Rebecca Firestone demonstrate a yoga pose.
Local yoga studios add a new twist to Glenites' daily exercise programs
From Hollywood to WG, yoga has become the workout of choice
By Chantal Lamers
Yogis don't define youth by age, wrinkles or gray hair. Yogis define youth by the flexibility of one's spine.
Kent Bond, owner of Willow Glen Yoga, says people can begin practicing the art at any point in their lives. He gets a little bit of everybody in his studio, he says, including triathletes, teenagers, dancers, busy Silicon Valley executives, expectant moms and seniors. "It's never too late to make a beginning," Bond says.
Yoga has become the trendy way to loose weight and relax, but Bond says that is only because it works. Many practitioners are finding that yoga is the not-so-secret fountain of youth that keeps them feeling vital and healthy. Some even say that yoga helps them keep their cool when life gets hectic.
Author Joel Kramer wrote in Yoga Journal that yoga is a powerful, therapeutic tool for correcting physical and psychological problems: "It retards aging and ... gives strength and flexibility for other physical activities; it can enhance your looks, posture, skin and muscle tone, and vitality; and it can give you a sense of grace and overall well-being."
Loretta Camarano took up yoga four years ago when Bond opened his studio in downtown Willow Glen. "I think I just wanted to explore different exercise opportunities, rather than aerobics or working out in a gym," she says.
Before she began practicing yoga, Camarano noticed that she wasn't as flexible as she had once been. But since she's made yoga a part of her weekly routine, she has good workouts and has increased her flexibility. "I felt like I was working out all of my muscles."
Yoga students at WGY practice Hatha yoga. Bond said it's the practice of bringing two opposites, mind and body, together. "It's like trying to build a bridge between the body and the mind." Bond says the exercise allows people to go inward and listen to their internal feedback system.
Irene Smith has spent the last three years taking yoga classes. Smith, who spends five to six days a week in the gym lifting weights and taking aerobics classes, wanted to try moving her body in a different way.
Smith, 39, heard about pop star Madonna's experience with yoga and decided to give it a try. "She's in incredible shape--she said it was the best workout she ever had." And Smith agrees; she says the hour-and-a-half yoga workouts get her heart pumping. "I sit up taller, I'm much more sensitive to signals my body gives me. I feel like my workouts are better, faster."
Smith, the mother of a nine-month-old, practiced yoga throughout her pregnancy. Bond modified the exercises to accommodate her growing belly. Smith says yoga may not help make labor easier, but she'd still recommend it for healthy, expectant mothers.
Bond explains that yoga is not goal oriented. He tells his students not to compete with one another and not even to compete with themselves. "Your body is different every day," he tells them.
Bond says there is such a drive to make money in Silicon Valley right now that people don't always take the time to take care of their bodies. "You need to exercise [and] eat right, or later on down the road you'll become a blob."
Those who consistently practice yoga will reduce stress, strengthen bodies and gain clarity of mind, Bond says. "It allows you to find a way to reconnect with yourself."
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
