91Èȱ¬

Raise Your Game: What is so special about yoga for you?

Jenny Arthur: It just helps me in so many different aspects of my life. It's helped me not only to get fit but it's also therapeutic. It's very calming and it helps you focus. It helps you with balance and co-ordination. The benefits are endless. Without it I'd be in trouble!

RYG: How did you get into yoga?

JA: I started when I was about 22 yrs old. Before that, when I was in school, I hated physical activity for the most part. I was not into team sports and I pretty much avoided it as much as possible.

As I got older I started doing things like swimming, things I could do by myself because I didn't like to be on a team or anything with a ball because I was just hopeless. I had a friend who actually dragged me into a yoga class and that was it. I've never stopped and that was about 12 years ago.

I wish I'd started when I was younger, but back then yoga was considered very, very strange - lots of incense. But now there are even classes for teenage girls. I really think it would be the best thing for girls of that age because it also helps to develop a positive attitude towards the body which is, in the end, one of the best things you can do for yourself.

RYG: Do you find that there are some people who say yoga is too calming?

JA: Yoga attracts so many different types of people. It attracts people that are already too calm and it attracts people who really want to work hard and push and push.

It really helps whatever type of person you are, it helps to bring more balance into your life. So if you're very calm and you need a little push it helps you, or if you need to calm down, it can help pretty much anyone.

RYG: Can you give me a kind of snapshot of the types of people who come to do yoga and how you tailor classes for them?

JA: Yoga is for kids, for high school students, and it's for all ages, wherever they live, trendy types, housewives. So when I'm in a group environment class like tonight I might have a lot of different types of people.

What I'll probably do is go straight down the middle, so I'll have half the class be very active but also moving slowly enough so that everyone can keep up and I'll make it challenging enough so that for the people who are stronger it's challenging.

RYG: How do you set about motivating the variety of people coming to your classes?

JA: Well to just get here they're pretty motivated already, so it's just kind of a combination of trying to inspire them with some humour, trying to create an atmosphere that's welcoming and encouraging.

For most people it's hard because with anything physical you've got to get yourself to do it, but once they're on the mat it starts to feel so good. When you start consciously breathing you realise how much better it makes you feel, then after the first 15 minutes you're into it.

RYG: And for a complete yoga novice like myself, do you really have to get into these very hard postures?

JA: It's not true. A lot of people say to me 'I can't do yoga - I'm not flexible.' I say 'well that's exactly why you should - it helps you gain flexibility.' It's not just for flexible people, it's for everyone. Say you're stiff and not flexible - you're probably really strong. If you're flexible you're probably not very strong. So it combines both of those things, it's working on making you strong and flexible. I was the stiffest person you've ever seen when I started. I couldn't touch my toes to save my life so, it's a success story!

RYG: For young people who were never picked for team sports, what advice would you give to them about the benefits of taking up yoga?

JA: Yoga is for everyone, and I wish more than anything that I'd started when I was younger. If I'd started at 14 or 15, which was such a hard time for me, I think I'd have probably avoided a lot of the things I went through in terms of my own self-image and I just recommend it highly.

RYG: How do you go about learning yoga postures and moves?

JA: That's one of the beauties of yoga - it's a very individual process because everyone goes at their own pace. It's step by step and everything is broken down when you learn how to do a posture, like a head stand.

You just learn slowly how to strengthen your arms and shoulders and how to support your neck then how to go upside down, then it's for one minute, then it's for three minutes, then five minutes. You can never get to the end of it - there's always something else.