Yoga aims to help with recovery, wellness

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Yoga no longer is only for the young, the flexible and those few who look good in spandex.

Known as an activity that encourages relaxation of the mind and a good deal of flexibility, yoga slowly is becoming a supplement to programs targeting both physical and mental recovery and wellness.

Psychology junior Sarah Tarnowsky is part of a group leading the way with such research in Yoga Medics, a medically based therapy center offering yoga classes to those who have medical conditions, but would still benefit from the act of doing yoga.

“We’ve done everything from knee surgery to brain trauma to any type of disability,” said Tarnowsky, who spent the summer interning at Yoga Medics, which is based in Michigan, doing research on various treatments and their goals, comparing them to the results of yoga.

“The thing about yoga is that it’s more than physical,” Tarnowsky said. “You’re allowing your mind to let go of everything so it decreases stress…it re-energizes your body. It’s more than solely a muscle building, muscle strengthening.”

Yoga instructor and kinesiology doctoral student Erin Kussel said she agreed yoga can be beneficial to a wide spectrum of issues, as opposed to treating a single problem.

“Physical therapy deals with a wide range of injuries; yoga balances out the entire body,” Kussel said. “It’s a nice compliment to what physical therapists do.”

Yoga Medics is not centered in one place, but offered in six locations, as well as hospitals and other facilities.

The program also has the ability to visit clients at home if they are unable to make it to a class.

Sarah Fink, co-founder and president of Yoga Medics, said the company’s results so far have helped to boost not only the support for the treatment, but the creditability of the program.

“Doctors are supportive of what we do,” Fink said. “It’s really been pretty well accepted, we were able to prove to them that it works.”

Fink said she first got the idea while working in health care when she realized the system needed something more holistic.

She combined her love of yoga with her career and started Yoga Medics in 2007, collaborating with a variety of different doctors to put the program together and offer different aspects than experienced in a typical medical treatment.

Since beginning the classes, she estimated a couple hundred people have been helped.

“The people who needed yoga weren’t getting it because yoga was for the young and healthy — I wanted to get it to the people who could really benefit from it,” Fink said.

Certain classes, such as ones for spinal problems, do not require a doctor’s referral and can be taken by anyone.

Yoga Medics also is going beyond physical recovery and is in the process of developing yoga to help people cope with mental disorders as well.

The group plans to include programs for individuals dealing and recovering with eating disorders, alcoholism, ADD, ADHD and Asperger’s syndrome.

“(We) focus on teaching people concentration, teaching people how to focus and slow down their minds and thought process,” Fink said.

Medical technology junior Kelly O’Donnell said she has experienced the benefits of yoga even though she didn’t attend to better a medical condition.

“Toward the end of class, you feel a complete calm over your body that helps you to really refocus,” she said.

Tarnowsky added that she has seen proof of yoga’s positive effects on those who came into the program with, or for, a medical condition.

“A lot of people said a few weeks into Yoga Medics they didn’t have to take their (medicine) as much,” she said. “Some said they didn’t have to take them at all.”

Those interested in learning more information about Yoga Medics or wanting to enroll in a class can visit its Web site at yogamedicas.net.

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