Relax with Yoga

College life can be stressful, and in the search for new ways of relaxing and calming the mind, some students go to 6th Street, play Halo or eat too much junk food.

But there are healthier ways to deal with the school pressure that don't involve destroying one's GPA or getting a belly pooch. Practicing yoga might be the solution for the anxious.

Austin offers a variety of different yoga academies in many different styles and price ranges, including donation classes, in which each yoga practitioner contributes with the amount they want to.

Austin Community College offers two levels of yoga in the Health and Kinesiology department.

Helene McCandless instructs both classes at ACC with a blend of both Hatha and Iyengar.

Hatha, a style used to prepare the body for long periods of meditation, originated in 15th century India. Iyengar is a a modern style that emphasizes correct alignment of the body parts in each pose.

McCandless instructed aerobics at ACC for over 20 years before she started to instruct yoga in 1993.

Before each class, McCandless plays relaxing music, while her students arrive at the Austin Recreational Center behind Rio Grande Campus. She doesn't asks her students to chant "Om" together. She starts her classes in an accelerated rhythm that make even her younger, healthier yoga practitioner sweat.

Students that complete one yoga class at ACC earn one credit hour. The tuition for that one hour costs $42 for in-district residents, $150 for legal state residents and $288 for out-of-state and alien residents, plus a $3.10 insurance fee.

Austin Yoga Institute offers Iyengar style yoga from beginner to advanced levels. Patti Gagne, who also instructs yoga at ACC, teaches a fundamentals class every Saturday morning, perfect for students with tight schedules. But be prepared for a intense class, she is not scared of upside down positions.

"I tell my students at ACC to take a yoga break when they are studying hard, and do a twist or a forward bend. Do a pose with the head grounded and that will help improve focus. The inversions also bring more blood flow to the brain, so it helps with study," said Gagne.

Austin Yoga Institute shares a studio at the Lamar Shopping Center with Seva Yoga, a charity yoga that offers Ashtanga and Dharma Mittra, two of the most intense yoga styles for a suggested $10 to $15 donation per class.

East Side Yoga offers free classes every fourth Friday of the month in celebration of Fourth Friday on E. 11th Street and charity classes every Sunday, where all yogis are welcome to join the class and donate any amount for charity.

Steve Ross, owner of East Side Yoga located at East 11th Street, offers a gentler form of yoga in his studio, in contrast with the sweaty and hot power yoga offered by many academies.

For people interested in a funner and less time consuming way of relieving stress, the Nintendo Wii Fit video game uses the motion sensing remote control that allows for a variety of physical activities including yoga that promises to make gamers leave the couch and sweat over the balance board that has a sensor surface in which the gamer stands over while playing. Among the other functions. The Wii Fit offers yoga poses instructed by a virtual male or female trainer.

The game is fun and the balance is so sensitive that the Wii will detect cheating. The need of maintaining equilibrium over the board and observing how the sensor is reading your position on the screen doesn't allow for a full yoga experience and the amount of poses available is very limited.

The Wii Fit Plus accessories and the software bundle needed for the practice of gamer yoga costs $99 and it requires the $199 Wii console.