Yoga

The buzzing of exercise bikes fills the air as eager participants begin warming up for the Soul Ride spin class at 8 a.m. Saturday at Bare Hills Racquet and Fitness Club. The instructor turns on her headset microphone and cues up the playlist she has created for the session. Then she kills the lights. The buzzing from the bikes gets louder as the class begins to fight through varying speeds and levels of resistance. She calls out instructions as the bass pulses through the speakers in the dimly lit room.

At an open-air studio in Rishikesh, India, Allison Korycki fell in love with yoga, participating in her first class as monkeys hung on the doors of the classroom. Now, the 25-year-old Korycki, who lives in Charles Village, is the director of operations at Charm City Yoga, where she teaches three classes a week. She took a breather to tell us her feelings about Meat Loaf and her favorite yoga pose. What's on your iPod? The Phish set list from Bonnaroo 2012. I had a blast! Song are you loving right now?

Some of the newest fitness classes around Maryland involve warrior drills based on "The Hunger Games"books and practicing the downward dog yoga pose on a paddleboard in the middle of a lake. Others take a twist on conventional aerobics classes from the Jane Fonda era - SPRI Step360 is the latest incarnation of the step class. Then there are the ones that combine elements of other classes, such as piloxing, a combination of kickboxing and the ab-focused Pilates workout. The classes are the latest ways gyms are trying to keep people inspired with fresh workouts that take a page from pop culture trends and offer a new challenge.

The headless figure in the "cow face" yoga position, made of porcelain clay, still needs its arm fixed and a few touch-ups before Lauren Siminski hollows it out and sands it. For now, it sits calmly on a table, surrounded by other projects in Century High School's art room, awaiting its time to be baked and glazed. The figure will be the largest of the eight statues of women doing yoga poses that Siminski will create for her AP portfolio, and it'll be the one she presents at the end of her high school seminar at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. "It's going to be on display, and I didn't want it to be really small," said Siminski, 17. "Most of the people are doing paintings.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Feel better? Good. At Peace Yoga in Bel Air, owner Heather Gagnon is aiming to help women and men alike lead healthier and less stressful lives through a variety of yoga classes. “Women are natural nurturers, but it's really important that we take time for ourselves as well,” Heather says. “You may come in stressed out, but once you take time for yourself, you'll notice you're better able to deal with the stresses of daily life.” Beginners are welcome to take Yoga 101 or Yoga Basics and more advanced “yogis” can opt for Vinyasa, also known as flow yoga, which encourages strength training and endurance.

Brittany Norwood's journey from supposed victim to brutal killer ended Wednesday when a jury convicted her of first-degree murder in the slaying of a co-worker at an upscale Bethesda yoga-clothing store. It took Montgomery County Circuit Court jurors less than an hour to reach the guilty verdict in one of the Washington region's most sensational murder cases, which became known for both its savagery and surprises. The decision culminated a six-day trial during which prosecutors detailed the gruesome March attack against Jayna Murray, 30. The woman endured at least 331 stabbing, cutting, beating and choking wounds before she succumbed in a back hallway of the Lululemon Athletica store.

Tim McFadden stepped outside his glass-blowing studio to cool off. At 3 p.m., the temperature along that particular stretch of Eastern Avenue was only 96 degrees. "It feels like it's about 70 out here," he says. And no, McFadden wasn't joking. Inside his studio, the thermometer on the "cool" wall, the one farthest from the kilns, was pushing 120 Fahrenheit. Directly in front of the roaring ovens, where McFadden spends much of his afternoons and evenings spinning molten glass the color of cotton candy onto metal rods, it was even hotter.

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.

There are always studies showing how many people are obese and overweight. Well if more places around the world had free classes, such as yoga or biking, more people would be out getting into shape. It all comes down to money: People who have enough money can buy memberships in order to work out, but people that lack money are unable to do so. When one doesn't work out they will only gain weight. No matter how healthy you eat, there are many factors that contribute to how healthy you live in life.

Bring your karma and your chameleon to the KarmaFest this weekend at Oregon Ridge Park in Cockeysville. In its sixth year, the festival is the work of Patricia Hawse, a Red Cross volunteer who found solace in meditation during her time in Louisiana, where she helped victims of Hurricane Katrina. Afterwards, Hawse vowed to spread the word about the benefits of yoga, meditation, holistic medicine and the power of the pysche. Whether you're a master of the downward-facing dog or simply a poseur, it doesn't matter because by the end of the week we could all use some good karma.