Health & Fitness: Bringing Down the High Cost of Yoga

Eat, Pray, Love? No, it's more like Eat, Pay, Love according to a recent New York Times article that documented the rising costs of yoga. A pair of yoga-friendly Lululemon Groove pants can set you back $108 and some studios in the New York City can cost up to $185 for a monthly membership—on top of a one-time initiation fee.

Thankfully, various fitness studios in Maplewood and South Orange are much more reasonably priced and occasionally offer a class by donation, which makes exercising a whole lot more affordable.

Shakti Yoga & Living Arts takes advantage of the beautiful summer weather by bringing classes outdoors. Martha Peterson, a certified hanna somatic educator, offers a Somatics In The Park class on Wednesdays from 9:30-10:30am in Maplewood's Memorial Park, on the grass below the train station. 

The last class will be held on August 4. The class description states that students "will learn gentle, easy movements that will teach them how to relax and release muscles that have become habitually tight due to the stresses of life. These are the muscles that contribute to chronic back, neck, shoulder and joint pain. These muscles become tight due to compensation to injuries, poor posture or repetitive movements, like sitting at a computer for hours every day.... By retraining the brain to retrain the muscles to move again, sensation and control of muscles improves, as well as flexibility, balance and coordination....all while eliminating pain." The class cost is by donation. 

Former professional dancer and current Somatic practitioner Carrie Day offers a fun exercise class focus on hula hooping that targets your core called Shakti Yoga Hoop Jam in the Park. Held in Memorial Park on Fridays 10-11 am. Please note that the last class is on August 6. Day explains what attendees can expect: "The hour starts off with a little chatting about hooping, what hooping means to me, and I ask people's comfort levels to determine with which hoop they should use, if they don't have their own. I have a variety of sizes and weights to start out. The bigger and heavier the hoop, the easier it is to start. It may sound counter-intuitive, but the bigger hoops really do linger longer around the waist allowing more awareness for control. After we all have our own hoop, we stand in a circle, do a little warm up to bring a little more awareness to what muscles we'll be using for waist hooping. Then... we go! I help beginners, answer questions, and we all just play for a bit. We end with a cool down."

If you don't believe that hooping can be a a good form of exercise, think again. "It's a low impact aerobic activity that burns the same number of calories as jogging, about 100 calories per 10 minutes," said Day. "Waist hooping definitely tones the belly, and if you begin hooping on other parts of the body, like your hips, chest, arms, it's potentially a full body work out. It's a bonus that it's so much fun—you don't even notice that it's really a work out."

South Mountain Yoga, which practices Anusara-style hatha yoga, offers a free community class on Sunday afternoons from 4-5 p.m. According to the class description, the class will be taught by a rotating roster of South Mountain Yoga Teachers-in-Training: "These fledgling teachers are warm, enthusiastic, knowledgeable devotees of Anusara Yoga." Be sure to check the website for any scheduling changes.

Now stop reading and get exercising! It will cost you next to nothing.