Yoga

Once the domain of New Agers and suburban moms, yoga has become firmly planted in Baltimore's inner city, and now researchers believe the ancient practice may help elementary school students cope with the stress of growing up in impoverished, violent neighborhoods. Researchers and lay people alike think yoga may help adults reduce stress. The popularity of the practice has surged, and it's used as therapy for cancer patients and battered women, and as a treatment for back pain and depression.

It's no secret that females are generally more limber than males. While the thought of stretching the body in any number of directions might scare most men, instructor Paul Shapiro says that once you get used to yoga, it brings positive change. "Yoga is a lifestyle," said Shapiro, who holds classes at Yoga on York in Baltimore. "It helps with breathing, balance, your core and every aspect you can think of. " Shapiro started teaching a class called "Stiff Guy Yoga" in 2010, but the avid runner, biker and swimmer says he has been doing yoga for over 20 years.

Paddle board yoga became a big craze in the last few years, but the class was limited to the summer months when it was warm. But now paddle board yoga is coming indoors. Ultimate Watersports is partnering with MAC Fitness in Harbor East to offer the classes in the gym's pool. A demo of the class will be heldThursday and Saturday, and a four-week clinic will be offered in March. The class involves doing yoga on a surfboard, which adds an extra layer of balance, making the workout harder, said Hal Ashman, president of Ultimate Watersports.

Ballet classes Misako Ballet offers free classes for newcomers Monday-Saturday, April 29-May 4, at 5485 Harpers Farm Road, Suite 203. Call 410-884-9690 for times and more information. Art exhibits •"Woodland Muse," an exhibit featuring the works of photographer Jim Auerbach, fabric artist Elaine Katz, oil painter Christina Bird-Walker and watercolorist-graphic artist Jane Wall, runs through Sunday, May 12, in the Meeting House Gallery, Oakland Mills Interfaith Center, 5885 Robert Oliver Place.

As a sport, yoga is definitely not all about competition and progressing to a higher level, which is good, because it forces many of us to let go of our annoying tendencies to be competitive and drive ourselves to a higher level. Or so I thought. Semester by semester, I've been moving into a smug yoga zone wherein I started to believe I possessed core muscles that could support my actual body weight. Fortunately, last week I had a very Zen experience that brought me back to my center.

Alex Anderson tried to slowly rotate her body into a warrior yoga pose, but her legs began to tremble, her arms started flailing and she landed with a splash in the pool at MAC Fitness in Harbor East. The 29-year-old has slid into the position easily many other times, but that was before she tried it on a paddle board floating on water. She was among a small group of women at MAC taking "paddlefusion," a new class at the athletic club that combines yoga and Pilates moves on a board similar to a surfboard.

For 90 minutes, authorities say, Brittany Norwood sat inside her victim's parked car, concocting a plan to cover up the crime scene she had just created inside the yoga store where they both worked. Her colleague, Jayna Murray, lay dead, killed by items that Norwood took from a tool box inside Bethesda's Lululemon Athletica shop, prosecutors said. There was something tied around Murray's neck. There was blood everywhere. The plan that Norwood formed — as detailed in court Monday by Montgomery County's top prosecutor — involved planted evidence, phony injuries and a series of fabrications told by the hundreds.

Barbara Allen was just recovering from a long and serious illness -- fibromyalgia had incapacitated her for a full eight years -- when she decided to take up yoga as a way of "finding myself again." Allen, a former executive in the computer industry, appreciated it when her husband, Tom, an engineer, volunteered to try the practice, too. But, like many men, he wondered whether yoga wasn't basically "girly stuff." He felt more comfortable with a newer incarnation of the discipline -- partner yoga -- in which a couple tries out yoga postures and stretches as an intertwined twosome.

Charm City residents looking to tone up for beach season have a number of options. They can hit the treadmill, take up yoga or start dancing off the pounds with Zumba. But there’s another, more extreme way to get in shape that’s gaining popularity in Baltimore: training with cage fighters. At Ground Control Academy in Canton, where some of the area’s top mixed martial arts fighters train, owners are seeing an increasing number of members who never plan to step foot in a cage, but value what the intense MMA workouts can do for their bodies.

I am flat on my back on a blue vinyl mat in a gym that smells vaguely of yesterday's karate class, listening to haunting flute music, staring at the ceiling, exhaling breaths deep enough to fill sails, pressing my body into the earth and thinking . . .This is exercise?An hour later even my toes are trembling as I stretch oh-so-placidly to pose my body into positions that existed before some civilizations were born, witnessing my muscular tensions and my preconceptions drain away.This is exhilarating.

Main Street is finding its inner peace. After opening Gogo Guru, a women's yoga and fitness clothing shop, in Historic Ellicott City in November 2012, Hilary Brich expanded her operation with a yoga studio in February. Brich's original plan was to simply provide the shop's patrons with information about where in the neighborhood they could practice yoga. But with most of the studios being more than a few miles away, she noticed a problem. “People kept asking where to do yoga but didn't want to go farther away than they had to,” says Brich.

Inez Watson is a two-time breast cancer survivor and grandmother of 13 children. She says her resolve stems from her faith, which she shares with her Praisercise workout class every Monday from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Calvary Baptist Church in Baltimore. The group does yoga stretches, aerobics, mat- and chair-based Pilates, and hand-weights training, all to praise music. The exercises improve body mobility, cognitive skills and overall health, Watson says. "Each initiative gives the body a different measure of strength," said Watson, a former administrator in the medical field.

Alex Anderson tried to slowly rotate her body into a warrior yoga pose, but her legs began to tremble, her arms started flailing and she landed with a splash in the pool at MAC Fitness in Harbor East. The 29-year-old has slid into the position easily many other times, but that was before she tried it on a paddle board floating on water. She was among a small group of women at MAC taking "paddlefusion," a new class at the athletic club that combines yoga and Pilates moves on a board similar to a surfboard.

On Saturday, Eddie Hall of Cockeysville will stand on a stage in New York City wearing skintight shorts. He will tuck his foot behind his head, push both hands against the ground and lift his body into the air, staying still and at peace even as his body is twisted like a pretzel. The posture, or asana, is called Om. Then he will untangle himself and move on to the next one. This is yoga asana, and it might be the most fascinating sport you didn't know existed. After first-place finishes in last month's regional championship, Hall and Allison Kinter of Baltimore will represent the Baltimore region at the sport's national championship beginning Saturday.

Paddle board yoga became a big craze in the last few years, but the class was limited to the summer months when it was warm. But now paddle board yoga is coming indoors. Ultimate Watersports is partnering with MAC Fitness in Harbor East to offer the classes in the gym's pool. A demo of the class will be heldThursday and Saturday, and a four-week clinic will be offered in March. The class involves doing yoga on a surfboard, which adds an extra layer of balance, making the workout harder, said Hal Ashman, president of Ultimate Watersports.

When Gwen Taylor turned 50 this month, she wanted to celebrate the milestone with something other than the typical dinner and drinks. So one recent Saturday afternoon she and about a dozen girlfriends and relatives headed to a Catonsville fitness studio to sweat and burn off some calories in honor of Taylor's half-century. Dressed in black fitness tights and brightly colored sport tank tops, they shimmied and shook at Taylor's Zumba birthday party. The women are part of a growing legion celebrating life's important moments with fitness.

I played tennis, but switched to racquetball because I couldn't serve. I ran 10K races and 10-mile races, but switched to power walking when everyone else did. I did aerobics in one of those cute little spandex outfits, and moved up to step classes with the fitness herd. I have swum laps and lifted weights. I mastered the Stairmaster, and then I spun off into spinning classes. Now, I have added yoga to the list of fitness regimes that I expect to abandon. I generally renew my commitment to physical fitness with a change of disciplines and some modest shopping.