HEALTH & FITNESS
on the cover/wellness
WHY THEY DO IT from page A21
Teen-age daughter Nicole
urges her to go to yoga "be-
cause it puts me in a better
mood. - Goodman says. It sets
the tone for the whole day. -
When Lauren Kepes of Bloom-
field Hills practices yoga once
or twice a week, she comes away
feeling "empowered."
Its popular among her friends,
says Kepes, a recent graduate of
Frankel Jewish Academy in West
Bloomfield who is headed to
Indiana University this fall. "It's a
good way to calm down and get
a good workout."
Mel and Myra Jacobs of West
Bloomfield can be seen on adja-
cent mats — or not — a couple
of times a week, with Myra also
attending class on her own.
You sometimes don't even
sit next to each other," she says.
"It's such a personal kind of
experience. I found it to be just
miraculous. In the year I've been
doing it, I've lost 15 pounds."
The Jacobses, who are grand-
parents. recently ran/walked
a half-marathon (13.1 miles).
"Yoga has increased our endur-
ance," says Myra, who is found-
ing director of the National Bone
Marrow Transplant Link. "It's like
a spring board to everything."
Mel, an independent commer-
cial real estate appraiser, finds
yoga relaxing. challenging and
mentally riveting, When you're
concentrating on breathing and
doing the poses, you can't really
think about much else," he says.
"As difficult as life gets, yoga
gets you through it," says TV
personality and part-time yoga
teacher Lila Lazarus. "Yoga gives
you such community.
It lets you feel like you are
in touch when the world seems
so out of touch," says Lazarus, a
Commerce Township resident.
"It lets you feel like you're in bal-
ance when the world seems so
out of balance."
Laurie Brooks cemented her
switch from aerobics to yoga,
by opening her Blue Lotus yoga
clothing store in downtown
Franklin two years ago.
"I get so much more out of yoga
than just the physical part," says
the Bloomfield Township wife and
mother of two. "I take spiritual and
emotional things from each class
that I try to put into everyday life.
A22
2009
FLIGHT OF YOGA from page A21
"I really feel happy that yoga is reaching so many people" - Jonny Kest
and Hannan Lis in Yoga Shelter,
Brian Granader, of Red Lotus Yoga in
Rochester Hills and Aaron Fenton. of
(Ashtanga) Yoga Room in Birmingham
were Kest's students.
Paskel. in turn, was Feldman's teach-
er before they opened Yoga Shelter in
West Bloomfield. Birmingham, Royal
Oak and Grosse Pointe.
"Every studio in this area came from
Jonny, - Feldman says.
"Jonny once actually said that he
wanted to see more yoga studios on
corners than bars," Fenton relates.
"I really feel happy that yoga is
reaching so many people." says Kest,
who sold his Rochester Hills studio to
Granader in 2003.
Indeed, women and men of all ages in
sockless shoes and slinging rolled-up
rubber mats (yoga is generally practiced
in bare feet on a 24 x 68-72-inch mat)
are a frequent sight in the parking lots
of malls. strip centers and main streets
in the Detroit suburbs.
"Yoga is very
comm.:nal,
People come
to be with other
people, Our
communit
so strong
ana
rTh
— Jonny Kest of the Center for Yoga
But yoga classes also are a draw at a
myriad of local sports clubs and gyms
as well as in specially set-up rooms in
private homes.
"Yoga is a counter pose to what's
going on in the economy," says Gail
Mondry. who teaches both privately and
at Center for Yoga.
"I think it's become popular because
a lot of us Baby Boomer jocks couldn't
continue to exercise the way we used
to," the Franklin Village wife and mother
of three says. "It appeals to athletes
and to people who have never done any
athletics in their entire life."
And as the Motor City and its sub-
urbs experience the deepest economic
downturn in the United States, Mondry
says we can be proud of the yoga that is
practiced here. "When I go out of town
to teach. I'm like a rock star." she says.
"What happened in this town is not
happening anywhere else," she says.
"Yoga here continues to grow and
morph."