With one knee bent and the other leg stretched out behind her, Kayla Kozielek, junior, raises her arms and starts to feel a stretch in her hips as well as her legs, chest, and lower back as she stands in Warrior One pose.
After a two hour long dance class Kozielek and the rest of her dance class follows their instructors directions as they participate in yoga to cool down. Due to her over-flexible hips, Kozielek said she enjoys the pose Warrior 1 as it helps to relax her hips.
Kozielek has been dancing competitively since she was 6 years old. Through dance, Kozielek discovered yoga, as her ballet teacher would have her class do a practice.
“You kind of start watching YouTube videos if you want to do it on your own,” Kozielek said. “I have gotten to a point where I know what I like to do so I just lead my own practice.”
Kozielek practices yoga regularly to stretch, help with flexibility and get a workout in a way that’s not so intense.
“I like to start my days with it in the summer, when I have time because it helps me focus,” Kozielek said. “It’s really good with just a relaxation of your body, and stretching in the morning is so good for you.”
Riya Bazawada, senior, works at her uncle’s yoga studio, Asana Yoga and Wellness on Manchester Rd., that opened this past summer.
After helping her uncle set up and decorate the studio before its opening, Bazawada was asked to work as a receptionist. Bazawada checks people in to keep track of attendance and check memberships.
“I think it’s very relaxing. It’s not like a busy job where I have a ton of stuff to do,” Bazawada said. “It’s really only like 30 minutes when I’m checking people in, and then I have an hour to work on my homework.”
Yoga is deeply rooted in Indian culture, so Asana Yoga and Wellness tries to keep practices holistic and traditional, but modern tricks have evolved into yoga, Bazawada said.
“Yoga is seen as a very modern, fun, hip thing in America,” Bazawada said “But it does have a lot of cultural meaning and people have been practicing it for centuries and centuries. I think people kind of forget the background of it.”
In his neighborhood, Kaushik Palavayi, sophomore, helps teach yoga sessions every Sunday, and practices yoga himself regularly.
Palavayi recognizes the connection between yoga and Indian culture. Palavayi said that yoga is used as a way to connect with the super soul (God).
“As we do yoga, we’re basically stretching our body past its limits, because in Hinduism we believe that our current body is temporary,” Palavayi said. “As we go through life cycles we keep changing like we change our clothes everyday.”
Palavayi said that as he’s continued to do yoga he’s noticed that his flexibility and endurance has gotten better as well as his ability to sleep.
“When you do yoga you’re kind of relaxing your body, but you’re also stretching it, meaning that blood is flowing a little more evenly throughout the body.” Palavayi said.
Brittany Sharitz, librarian, also enjoys practicing yoga. A former math teacher at MHS, Juile Furtwangler, started teaching yoga sessions in 2021 and would ask Sharitz if she could practice teaching with her.
Soon after her lessons with Furtwangler, Sharitz became a yogi, someone who practices yoga.
“A true yogi’s mentality is that you can’t do it wrong,” Sharitz said. “You shouldn’t be insecure because everyone is unique and different.”
Sharitz likes how yoga gets her heart rate up.
Although she didn’t like hot yoga to start, Sharitz now prefers it over a regular yoga class. Hot yoga is a more intense version of yoga done in a heated room, Sharitz said. The room is typically between 80 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
“When you go consistently you realize that it relaxes your muscles and makes you more flexible,” Sharitz said. “It’s always kind of fun to see that added bonus of being in a heated class versus a non-heated class.”
