Sun City focuses with classes in yoga, tai chi, qigong

By Pam Gallagher

Special to The Sun City Packet

Members of Ray Singley's yoga class lie on their backs, arms at their sides, palms facing up.Background New Age music is the sound of waves crashing and gulls squawking or alternately, rainfall and rumbling thunder.The goal is conscious relaxation and slow, deep breathing.

They have just completed 55 minutes of Hatha yoga vinyasas, or a sequence of poses, including the warrior, downward dog, sun salutations, triangles, the cobra, the plank, even shoulder stands.

Adele Denton, a Sun City renter and self-described three-generation yoga enthusiast, says afterward that relaxation is her favorite part of class."My daughter used to hate it when we started doing yoga together when she was a teen-ager," says Denton, who is trim and looks a decade younger than her 81 years."Now she's in her 50s, and it's her favorite, too."

Yoga is offered six days a week at Sun City, by both ACE (American Council on Exercise) certified instructors like Singley and resident volunteers who have studied and practiced the discipline for years.

In a 2005 study, researchers at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, determined that just eight weeks of 55-minute Hatha yoga classes three days a week significantly improved flexibility, muscular strength, endurance and balance in formerly sedentary subjects. Sun City fitness director Cherie Bronsky says yoga, along with tai chi, qigong, and meditative-type classes are the fastest growing subset in the fitness industry."There's more interest in those philosophies than ever," she says.

Bronsky teaches a free class on Tuesdays, so firmly does she believe in the benefits of yoga for all ages and ability."It's a softer form of exercise that promotes mental relaxation," she says, "and in this economy, that's something we're all striving for.It connects mind, body and spirit."

Singley recommends yoga in addition to sports or other fitness regimens to get a balance of activity."Yoga builds strength, not muscle," he says."It helps you retain what muscle you have.It's not aerobic, and there's no competition."

Residents Bob Kelly and Terry Lorenz became volunteer yoga instructors by accident.When one of the certified instructors couldn't make class, both men pitched in as substitutes.Now, the free classes they conduct at noon Thursdays regularly draw upwards of 30 participants.

Kelly, who says he was very active in sports when he was younger, was advised by his chiropractor to try yoga."I took to it like a duck to water," he says.Now, 10 years later, he combines it with bike riding and ballroom dancing with his wife Jan to stay fit.

Lorenz' interest evolved several years ago when his wife Chris gave him a gift certificate to the American Center for Chinese Studies in Charlotte.Now he's a volunteer instructor in yoga and qigong (CHEE-kung), a meditative practice that uses slow, graceful moves and controlled breathing to promote physical and mental health.

"Some doctors say it can improve a bad back, a bad leg, a sinus condition, and lower your blood pressure," says Lorenz.

"Honor your body is a typical saying in yoga," says instructor Ray Singley, who explains that children constantly engage in a range of motion that involves running, jumping, reaching, and stretching to encompass an expansive "box" of activity."As you get older you do less," he says, "so that box starts to shrink."Although yoga can be strenuous, Singley teaches "a slow progression of increasing your range of motion and the size of that box."

Finding yin and yang through mind-body exercise

Ballplayers, bicyclists, body-builders.Dancers, duffers, in-line skaters, and tennis fanatics.Newly retired weekend warriors eager to return full tilt to their sport of choice.Welcome to Sun City, where the outcome can be a morning-after wakeup call in the form of sore muscles, achy joints, and the realization you've overdone it.

Unlike punishing sports and sweaty workouts, the ancient practices of yoga, tai chi and qigong focus on self-awareness and reducing stress.

Tai chi master Mark Goldstein, 47, of Bluffton, considers himself a conduit between the ancient Chinese art and modern American science.Guiding his classes through gentle, slow-paced, fluid moves, he encourages self-awareness by putting participants "in tune with their chakras," the seven vortexes of energy located along the spinal column.

According to Indian medicine, chakras govern everything from health to spirituality.

The takeaway for Goldstein's devotees:"I want them to experience where they are in life, where they want to go in life, and help them move forward," he says.

Goldstein, who trained with Chinese masters and was an instructor at Hilton Head Health Institute, views tai chi as a center point between yoga and kung fu."I practice them all," he says.