Villagers were given the opportunity to try a paddleboard yoga class Thursday in the Wellness Center pool.
The second free demonstration since January is what Tellico Village Property Owners Association Recreation Director Simon Bradbury hopes will eventually lead to a summer class on the lake, with the promise that demonstrations will excite people about paddleboard yoga.
“I’d like to do a monthly class at least, if not more,” Bradbury said. “But in order to get people involved you’ve got to show what it is. ... What I’m looking at is getting cutting edge kind of things going on, exciting sort of things. I want to do some more outdoor recreation here.”
Class was conducted by Four Winds Yoga of Tennessee instructor Brian Howell, who said paddleboard yoga is beneficial for working core muscles and increasing balance challenge. The activity is also just fun, he said laughing.
“The big misconception is that it’s only for young people,” Howell said. “Particularly with the yoga as well, that you’ve got to be physically super fit to start this or you’ve got to have super balance and none of that’s true. The types of yoga that I teach go everything from this, which can be athletic, down to chair yoga for people who are confined to wheelchairs.”
Bradbury has taught paddleboard yoga for four years. He said teaching the activity on the lake enhances the experience. The POA recreation director has a location in mind for classes and hopes to announce it in the future.
“People think, ‘I can’t possibly do that,’ but it’s very — the learning curve’s really quick. Most people pick it up in about five or 10 minutes,” Bradbury said. “When they first get on the board it’s very scary to balance. Your brain’s trying to figure out, ‘How does this work?’ And before long you’ve got it and now you’re standing on a board and it’s lightweight and easy to move back and forth. Some are inflatable, you can just put them in your car. It gives you access — you’re standing up like Huckleberry Finn paddling down the lake.”
The biggest fear people have is falling off the board, Bradbury said.
“Maybe 20 percent of people actually fall in and then once you’ve fallen — it’s the big fear, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to fall in’,” Bradbury said. “Then you fall in, what happens? You get wet, it’s usually warm outside so it feels good. But it’s just kind of how we’re wired. Another thing about it is the balance. It really helps your balance. And this is a way of doing things that are better for your body and mind in a fun way. Some folks like to stand on a treadmill or elliptical for hours at a time. I’m saying when it’s nice out why not go outside and enjoy the outside? It’s another dimension to recreation.”
Villager Tami Douglass has been doing yoga for about five or six years, but had only been on a paddleboard once. She initially visited Thursday to watch but ended up participating.
“I’ve been interested in it because I love yoga and I think it would be just great physical exercise that works everything, not just arms or whatever,” Douglass said. “So that’s why I kind of want to check it out and see what they’re going to do.”
Unlike Douglass, Villager Mary Pat Hall came to participate. Having already done both activities separately, she said combining paddleboarding and yoga sounded like fun.
“It increases your flexibility,” Hall said of yoga. “You can get a good bit of cardio workout depending on the type of yoga it is, and definitely strength. It doesn’t require anything but time.”
No timetable has been set on when another demonstration will occur, Bradbury said, noting he’s “taking it as it comes.”
