Sit straight and relax

Hatha yoga won't give you Hulk-like muscles.
But that's not what Shelia Hoeg was looking for when she started taking a class about five weeks ago.
"I didn't want to get into strenuous exercise," she said.
What she wanted was a healthier life.
That's why Hatha yoga was perfect.
It is a more gentle form of yoga that uses gentle motions to help improve the health of people who practise it.
Instructors Mark Nunn and his wife Alexandria moved to this area from B.C. the end of January and are preparing to open East River Meditation Healing Centre in November.
But since this summer, they've been teaching classes in the evenings in the New Glasgow Junior High School Auditorium as well as in workplaces such as at Warewell Garments.
Hoeg has been attending the program at New Glasgow Junior High.
"It's raised my consciousness of my posture and my breathing and how to relax better," she said. "It's not strenuous and it's helping me to reduce the stress level."
There are many benefits to be gained from yoga, Mark Nunn says.
"What the emphasis is in yoga is helping someone to balance, helping to let go of stress, helping them to improve their posture and improve their awareness of breaths," he said. "Often when somebody is stressed or tense, if we had a greater awareness of our breath, we would find that we are breathing very shallowly or holding our breath. That tends to just make the stress worse."
While yoga isn't going to substantially build muscle mass, it is going to promote a healthy lifestyle and that's why businesses find it's profitable for their workers to take part in it.
"The benefit is it helps companies to have more healthy workforce which means that they have less workers compensation claims, less days off sick," Nunn said. "They have more focus and concentration on the job when they're at work and they don't get so stressed."
At the end of each class, Nunn has a 15-minute relaxation/visualization period.
"That's where the students are really just relaxing," he said. "They've had all the benefits of yoga and then we have some lovely, soft, gentle music playing. And that's just a time for the students to relax and listen to the music and in their mind go to a very beautiful place."
Hoeg said she recommends the program for anyone.
"I look forward to coming," she said.