Downward dog. Mediation. Stretching. These are the things that typically come to mind when students think about yoga. But the reality of yoga is much more complex and demanding than students realize.

 White Station students will have the opportunity to discover this for themselves with the addition of a yoga class to the 2020-21 school year. This class was added largely based on the influence of Molly Oster, English teacher, who has completed a yoga teacher course and will teach the White Station class. 

“Mostdays it will be an exercise class because it’s a P.E.class. I know that most people traditionally think of yoga as just sitting there… But we do primarily what’s called ‘powerflow’,” said Oster. “Some of the time we’ll do stuff like the philosophy of yoga and learning sanskrit and the names of the posses, some anatomy stuffーjust a variety of things.”

Powerflow yoga is a form of physical fitness which has students rapidly switch poses while focusing on their positions and breathing. Oster believes that yoga will be a very different experience than taking a traditional P.E. class. It will provide students not only with exercise and time to process but a noncompetitive environment. 

 “The mentality of yoga is very much ‘don’t compare yourself to other people.’ Everybody’s at different places. Some people atomically will never be able to do what other people can do because of the way their body is built,” said Oster. “I think for a lot of people, since this is such a competitive school, it’s important to have a place where there’s an understanding that what happens here is not a competition.” 

The yoga class was overwhelmingly popular, with far more students signing up than there are spaces available. The potential of reducing stress was a major motivator for Rudi Palm (11) to choose the class. 

“I feel like it’s more connected to mediation than normal P.E.and that calms the nerves. I need a relaxing time from all the stress I’ve been having and… It’s something different than just writing something down and studying for a test,” said Palm.