MENDHAM - The temperature is ramped up to 98 degrees while a group of men and women sweat out their toxins while concentrating on their breathing.

It is called hot yoga and it is the newest twist on a timeless practice.

The latest hot yoga facility is the Inferno Hot Yoga Studio in the Mendham Village Shopping Center on Route 24. Livingston resident Dorothy Dootsie Risch, 41, opened the studio on April 14 after giving up a job as a medical assistant.

Before 2011, Risch had never practiced yoga but her arrival to the field has come at a blistering pace.

Married with five sons, Risch said that prior to opening the studio, she worked for seven years for a Roseland pediatrician. A recreational runner, she began to suffer chronic headaches and a painful, bulging disc. She was using headache medication and had an epidural shot to help reduce the pain. None of it worked very well.

Hot Yoga

About two years ago, she stopped in to a newly opened hot yoga studio in Livingston and within two weeks, she was hooked.

The next thing I was off headache medication and there were no more neck problems, she said.

Risch was so impressed that she enrolled in the Samadhi Sun Yoga Academy in Stirling. She completed a 200-hour program and was certified as an instructor with the National Yoga Alliance. Risch also gained certification in the healing art of Reiki.

She spoke with her husband, Ronald, a retired Livingston police officer, and by last fall, she decided she would open her own hot yoga studio. Risch checked the Internet and spoke with a friend from Brookside before deciding on the storefront formerly occupied by a Verizon store.

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Yoga for those who like it hot in Mendham

Abby Wills practically has me at hello. Its a no-brainer. She is about mindfulness and yoga and how it can help our youth. But as we talk in a recent phone interview, I feel myself sitting up straighter and listening more intently when the stories start coming.

She tells me of the 9-year-old whose mother was prone to yelling. The child would yell back and the situation would quickly escalate. Then one day the child came to yoga with another parent in her community. Now, a few years into it, she goes into the bathroom and does some yoga poses when her mother starts yelling. Then, when feeling calm, she opens the door and talks to her mother.

Or theres the bi-racial young woman who was being targeted by Latino and African-American gangs in her Los Angeles neighborhood because she is both. She rarely went outside over fear of being hassled and harassed. Enter yoga and a whole lot of mountain pose; learning how to be in the world with upright, confident energy to the point where it feels like protection. Now she walks her neighborhood like she belongs there and is not as frequently targeted.

Beautiful testimony.

Yoga has that effect, Wills tells me. We utilize the whole being mind, body, spirit and that translates from the mat to the community.

So many of us know this because we practice yoga and reap its benefits. But for Wills its different, deeper.

Co-founder and program director of Shanti Generation, which produces educational media experiences that bring ancient and modern practices to youth in relevant, innovative formats, Wills has gone from feeling misplaced as a youth and being bullied and pointedly telling herself at age 12 that life is not about what everybody thinks of you to having a sense of mission in adulthood. With some heavy things going on around her in childhood, she realizes in retrospect it would have been tremendously helpful to have the coping skills that yoga fosters.

Imagine something like that being available to me at every moment, she says. And free.

It was in college that she found herself drawn to philosophy and Eastern thought and it was on a return trip from an ashram in India in her early 20s when it hit her that this was her purpose. Now, at 37, living in California, Wills is steeped in experience, passion and knowledge on the topic of yoga for young people (with a focus on ages 7-16). Using her social justice and developmental education at Pacific Oaks College (Pasadena, Calif.) and more than 10 years of teaching, she has helped create a program on DVD that makes it easy for non-yoga people to use it in the classroom.

Mindful that instances of bullying are up and that these days teachers are often paying for resources from their own pockets, Shanti Generation has set up a buy one, give one program to get yoga to as many children as possible. And where Wills and Shanti Generation leave off, Leah Kalish and Move With Me Action Adventures come in with a focus on yoga for children ages 3-7 (and their own buy one, give one opportunity).

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Yoga Benefits Translate From the Mat to the Community

Some 600 breast cancer survivors and their families go through yoga exercises on the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum in downtown Philadelphia May 20 2007. They participate in the the mass yoga class annually to raise funds and awareness of breast cancer issues. (UPI Photo/John Anderson)

License photo

SAN FRANCISCO, June 1 (UPI) -- An eight-week yoga program for recovering stroke patients improved balance and flexibility and provided other benefits, U.S. researchers said.

Arlene Schmid, rehabilitation research scientist at the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and IU Bloomington, said the men and women had completed their post-stroke occupational and physical therapy before the yoga study but continued to experience impairments.

Schmid said loss of functional strength, flexibility and endurance is common after a stroke, but it can lead to long-term disability.

The researchers said as a result of the yoga there were significant improvements in functional strength, flexibility and endurance.

The yoga activities, Schmid said, might have "improved neuromuscular control, likely allowing for strength improvements in affected limbs, sides or areas of disuse."

Schmid concluded it might be appropriate to include yoga in the in-patient or out-patient rehabilitation people receive after a stroke.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in San Francisco.

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Yoga may benefit stroke recovery patients

In or around -- who knows, for certain -- the winter of 2008, my lumbar spine separated between L4 and L5... and I went right on practicing level III/IV Iyengar yoga, and teaching, through significant pain, til even I, who had spent over half a lifetime on the mat, had to admit something serious might be wrong with my back.

Spinal fusion surgery and a year of recovery later, I returned to my daily Iyengar yoga practice. But, only now, some three years after surgery, will I return to teaching... beginners.

I could look at this as a ghastly and cascading visitation of setbacks. After all (and those of you who've read me before can attest to this fact), I am a card-carrying pessimist and doomsayer but, astonishingly, when it comes to yoga, I seem to inhabit another's skin, another's more optimistic and more reasoned sensibility, entirely.

In yoga, I tend to just go with the flow. And, many, many times, the flow in life is dammed, diverted, dries the hell up, slows to an almost invisible trickle... and you, with it.

In matters of the heart, finance, armed conflict and whoever's currently in the seats of power, I vacillate, suffer, howl and sink. On the yoga mat, however, I take what comes, even when nothing comes, even when what comes is pretty laughable... or damned unbearable.

I am two things, this-incarnation-around, a writer and a yogini, and I understand the underpinnings of only two things fairly well, writing and yoga.

Doesn't mean I'm a master or an adept, in either field. Just means I have some understanding in and of each, and that suffices.

Iyengar yogini Inez Baranay, author of Sun Square Moon: Writings on Yoga and Writing, says it well:

I do my best writing with the eraser-end of the pencil. I achieve my best asana, my most perfected yoga positions; after much tomfoolery and tinkering.

In the photo accompanying this column, you see me on a Greek rooftop, clowning around with my best friend, photographer Doris Athanassakis (always invisible behind her camera). I'm trying to get my body into Karnapidasana, a pose that comes -- sorry: used to come -- as naturally to me as breathing.

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Elizabeth Boleman-Herring: Looking Ridiculous, Giggling and Flailing on the Yoga Mat

Public release date: 30-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Arlene Schmid Arlene.Schmid@va.gov 317-988-3480 Indiana University

SAN FRANCISCO -- Researchers looking into the value of adapted yoga for stroke rehabilitation report that after an eight-week program, study participants demonstrated improved balance and flexibility, a stronger and faster gait, and increased strength and endurance.

The study, involving researchers from the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and IU Bloomington, exposed older veterans recovering from stroke to yoga. The men and women had completed their post-stroke occupational and physical therapy before the study but continued to have impairments.

The findings from two new analyses of the study will be presented on Wednesday during the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in San Francisco.

Arlene Schmid, rehabilitation research scientist at the Roudebush VA Medical Center and principle investigator of the VA-funded study, said loss of functional strength, flexibility and endurance is common after a stroke, which can lead to long-term disability. She said 5 million Americans are living with the consequences of stroke, which can alter patients' lifestyles through decreased independence in activities of daily living, limited mobility and reduced participation in society.

"Clinicians need methods to manage and improve these post-stroke physical impairments," said Schmid, also an assistant professor of occupational therapy in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at IUPUI.

Her analysis, "Physical Improvements After Yoga for People With Chronic Stroke," examined gains in functional strength, flexibility and endurance as a result of the yoga and found significant improvements in all areas. The yoga activities, she said in her report, might have "improved neuromuscular control, likely allowing for strength improvements in affected limbs, sides or areas of disuse."

Tracy Dierks, associate professor of physical therapy in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, focused his analysis of study findings on how well study participants could walk after the program.

In "The Effect of Balance Exercise Therapy on Gait Parameters in Individuals With Chronic Stroke," he reports that after the yoga program, the study participants showed improved balance and faster gait speeds with longer steps or strides. But, while the veterans could walk faster, they were unable to sustain this faster speed for the duration of the six-minute test.

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Study: In-patient, out-patient stroke rehab might benefit from yoga

Washington, May 31 : It might be beneficial to include yoga in the in-patient or out-patient rehabilitation people receive after a stroke, researchers have suggested

A study looking into the value of adapted yoga for stroke rehabilitation found that after an eight-week program, study participants demonstrated improved balance and flexibility, a stronger and faster gait, and increased strength and endurance.

The study, involving researchers from the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and IU Bloomington, exposed older veterans recovering from stroke to yoga.

The men and women had completed their post-stroke occupational and physical therapy before the study but continued to have impairments.

Arlene Schmid, rehabilitation research scientist at the Roudebush VA Medical Center and principle investigator of the VA-funded study, said loss of functional strength, flexibility and endurance is common after a stroke, which can lead to long-term disability.

'Clinicians need methods to manage and improve these post-stroke physical impairments,' said Schmid, also an assistant professor of occupational therapy in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at IUPUI.

Her analysis examined gains in functional strength, flexibility and endurance as a result of the yoga and found significant improvements in all areas. The yoga activities, she said in her report, might have 'improved neuromuscular control, likely allowing for strength improvements in affected limbs, sides or areas of disuse.'

Tracy Dierks, associate professor of physical therapy in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, focused his analysis of study findings on how well study participants could walk after the program.

He reported that after the yoga program, the study participants showed improved balance and faster gait speeds with longer steps or strides. But, while the veterans could walk faster, they were unable to sustain this faster speed for the duration of the six-minute test.

'The gait findings from our study have the potential to greatly impact clinical practice for gait recovery. The yoga intervention was designed to improve balance, not gait; we did not focus on improving gait at all. Yet we saw major improvements in most clinical gait measurements. But one often overlooked deficit remained: the inability to sustain gait speed for endurance,' Dierks said.

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Yoga improves recovery in stroke patients

International Nonprofit Aims to Host 200 Events in 20 Countries During 24 Hours-Donating 100% of Money Raised

SYDNEY, Australia, May 31, 2012 /CNW/ - Yoga Aid Foundation, an international nonprofit that raises funds for charities through philanthropic yoga events, announced it will host a one day around the world yoga tour benefiting 20+ charities internationally. On September 9, 2012, The Yoga Aid World Challenge will unite yogis around the globe to raise $1million with 100% of proceeds going to the selected charitable organizations.

Starting in Sydney Australia, the 24-hour yoga relay will travel around the world and end sundown in Los Angeles. The Yoga Aid World Challenge will bring together renowned teachers, studios and students in 20+ countries, creating a united community, focusing on raising money for charity. During these events, yogi participants will embark on a yoga practice as a way to celebrate the funds they raised for the charity partners.

Unlike other events, all expenses are supported privately - ensuring 100% of donations go straight to the charities.

The Yoga Aid World Challenge supports select charities in each country. This year, the Yoga Aid World Challenge chose three charities that embrace the power of yoga to support the Canadian leg of the relay:

"The Yoga Aid family is calling on the entire international community to band together and host at least 200 events in 20 countries and raise more than $1 million for charities during the 2012 Challenge," said Clive Mayhew, Co-founder, Yoga Aid Foundation.

Those individuals inspired by The Yoga Aid World Challenge are encouraged to signup and become Community Ambassadors. Ambassadors bring The Yoga Aid World Challenge home to their communities by creating, organizing and hosting a local event, in a nearby park, studio or community center. Furthering Yoga Aid's commitment to giving, the Foundation will provide all of the necessary event tools and funding for the creation of any local event scheduled during the September 9th 24-hour global yoga-relay.

"The Yoga Aid World Challenge is more than just our way to give back - its an international charitable platform uniting all yogis for the greater good and activating a sense of joy in giving back to the world." Eriko Kinoshita, Co-founder, Yoga Aid Foundation.

For information on Yoga Aid or to become a Community Ambassador, please visit: http://www.yogaaid.com/

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Yoga Aid Foundation Announces 24-hour Global Yoga Challenge

Emily Lane feels powerful when she stands in the warrior pose.

Her sometimes crippling anxiety -- over tests, classmate cliques and the overarching bubble of stress that looms in the classroom -- melts down her legs and sinks into the floor. It is replaced with a sense of calm and self-confidence, she says.

"I was expecting to have a class where everything was based around yoga and exercising," she says. "I didn't expect that it would be such a personal and deep experience."

Emily, 17, attends Silver Creek High School in Longmont. She has autism. And she takes 90-minute yoga classes every week to help her cope with social challenges that cause her anxiety.

The autism spectrum spans a variety of neurological disorders

Trevor Parent (left) and Paige Kinnaman (right) try to balance during yoga class at Temple Grandin in Boulder. ( MARK LEFFINGWELL )

"Yoga offers tangible, attention-building practices that help them learn to harness their mental and physical energy in helpful ways," says Abby Wills, program director with the Shanti Generation, which makes yoga DVDs specifically for youth.

Take the tree pose, she says. Kids can tune into their breathing, centers and foundation. They feel their feet firmly connected, their abs activated and their breath flowing, giving them a chance to feel in control -- "something they very much desire and often have a hard time accomplishing," Wills says.

On the social level, yoga promotes interaction with other participants and the teacher in a non-competitive, low-stress environment.

Some studies claim regular yoga classes improved imitation skills, non-verbal communication, reception to verbal commands and the comprehension of spatial commands ("Lift your right hand") among participants with autism. Other studies showed that it changed children's play patterns with toys and other children, and it led to increased eye contact.

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Advocates say yoga is 'ideal' for people with autism

Paola Loriggio Special to the Star

It can help ease anxiety and insomnia, relieve back aches and arthritis pain, nurse injured limbs back to health and prevent them from getting hurt in the first place.

But yoga, often touted as a gentle workout and an alternative to more intrusive therapies, can cause as much damage as it is proclaimed to heal.

And those who most need yogas restorative effects older people with underlying conditions, for example are often the most at risk, some experts say.

Many forget that yoga is, first and foremost, a form of exercise, one with the same dangers as any other sport, says Angela Growse, a Toronto physiotherapist who has experienced firsthand the unfortunate consequences of a misstep.

People completely underestimate the potential for injury, she says.

Its easy to move beyond the physiological range of the body while performing postures, which can aggravate muscle imbalances and other weaknesses, she adds.

Torqued knees, snapped ligaments and pinched spinal discs are some of the agonizing results of a yoga class gone wrong, leading to months of misery and rehabilitation, possibly even surgery, she says.

Some damage is irreversible: for example, overstretched back ligaments cant always bounce back, Growse says. That laxity can limit the ability to do other activities, she says.

Part of the blame lies with a competitive culture that spurs people to shun beginner classes in favour of more hardcore advanced and intense sessions, she says.

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Yoga has healing and hurting powers

Some people think that Christians shouldn't practice yoga. One article tells of how dangerous it is to participate in the following:

yoga

hypnosis

astrology

Native American dream catchers

They article tells of how participating in these things opens doors to spirits and puts the participant in danger. While I agree that Christians should not engage in hypnosis and astrology, I highly disagree with yoga being harmful to Christians. I will highlight four reasons why I believe yoga to be safe for everyone, including Christians.

#1 Many Christians participate in yoga

In two of my previous articles I wrote about Holy Yoga for Christians and yoga raves, both of which are centered around Christianity. Not all Christians believe it is wrong to enjoy yoga, myself included.

#2 Yoga is only a spiritual or religious act if you choose to make one

One does not have to engage in the religion in which yoga originated in order to enjoy the poses (asanas). Meditation is not even necessary when practicing yoga. Asanas are an excellent way to relax the mind and body, become more flexible and build muscle. Nothing about that invites evil spirits into ones life. The author of the article that says yoga shouldn't be practiced by Christians states, "A person may enter into a seance or hypnosis or yoga with innocent motives. That doesn't solve the problem. When you open a door to spirits, you place yourself in harm's way....unless you are turning to the Holy Spirit. No born again believer should utilize yoga or hypnosis because of the spiritual dangers associated with these practices." I highly disagree with this mindset and feel that is very narrow minded. Yoga doesn't invite evil spirits into a person's life or home, playing with a Ouija board does.

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Commentary: Is it Dangerous for Christians to Practice Yoga?