Practicing yoga is a great way to help lower stress levels, maintain good health and stay fit. The numerous physical poses, breathing techniques and meditation tactics can help keep your body happy, healthy, balanced and, most importantly, relaxed

Americans are gaining amazing health benefits because of yoga and so can Fordham students. Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) offers restorative yoga and Vinyasa yoga for students who are feeling tense and stressed. The yoga classes were introduced to FCLC with the help of senior Juliet Ben-Ami, FCLC ’11 who was interested in forming yoga sessions for students who wanted to relieve stress and be healthy. “Yoga helps people be more relaxed and focused as well as being in peace with everything,” Ben-Ami said.

“We used to have a wellness advisor for our floor but I tried hard to organize the yoga sessions. I helped set up the times, dates, location, the budgets, and I also talked to the Office of Residential Life about introducing yoga for Fordham students,” Ben-Ami said. Thanks to Ben-Ami and some faculty, such as assistant professor Chris Toulouse, yoga sessions now take place at Fordham.

Ben-Ami has been doing yoga for eight years and wanted students to get into the habit of maintaining good health and balancing the body properly by introducing yoga. But she is not the only student involved in the yoga classes.

“I’ve been doing yoga for almost two and a half years,” said Marissa Parkes, FCLC ’12. “I have been instructing this yoga class for about three months now.” She enjoys yoga because it helps lower her stress and keeps her body healthy. Parkes relishes the opportunity to instruct students and help them achieve more flexible bodies so they can be and stay healthy. Parkes helps students loosen up so they can properly perform the poses necessary for relaxation.

Yoga is a great way to flex your body in different ways which permits great health by strengthening, flexing and balancing your body. “I do yoga because I like to feel healthy and, not to be cliché, but it seriously de-stresses,” Parkes said. Yoga also helps stretch your muscles along with soft tissues and it also relieves pain. Other benefits of yoga are: decrease of pulse rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure; normalization of the endocrine function and improvement of posture. There is also an increase of strength, immunity, endurance, breath holding and flexibility. The medical benefits of the yoga classes are obvious, but the biggest reason students should be interested in yoga is because it can serve as a relaxant during the final exams period, as it helps improve your sleep and energy levels.

Restorative yoga sessions are held on Wednesdays at 4:30-5:30 p.m. in Lowenstein 513. Vinyasa yoga sessions are held on Wednesdays at 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the 8th Floor Lounge and on Sundays at 6:30-7:30 p.m. at the McMahon 205/206.