Relaxation is latest fitness trend at the office

KAREN LEE, a yoga teacher and therapist with Breathing Time Yoga in Pawtucket, offers corporate classes during lunch or after work. /
KAREN LEE, a yoga teacher and therapist with Breathing Time Yoga in Pawtucket, offers corporate classes during lunch or after work. /

Rising health care costs have driven businesses to look at ways to improve the health of their employees. Walking clubs, bike rides and exercise rooms all have filled niches for physical activity and helped make a difference. But one new idea in office fitness involves a much more sedate approach.
“Yoga is a fitness trend that is new to businesses,” said Claudia Bottof, an exercise psychologist and president of West Warwick-based Unique Fitness. “But it’s a great idea … because of the benefits it offers,” said Bottof.
For one, the deep diaphragm-based breathing calms the mind and body and slows the heart rate, subsequently reducing stress, Bottof said.
“When you experience anxiety, you take short breaths. Yoga makes you focus on your breathing, releasing the anxiety and stress of the day,” Bottof said.
Some companies have realized the benefits of yoga and hold the stress-reducing exercise once or twice a week for employees, during lunch or after work hours.
Hasbro Inc. in Pawtucket, for instance, offered its first yoga class on site last fall as part of the company’s extensive wellness program, and plans to offer it again next month because employees enjoyed it so much.
When the state kicked off its “Get Fit, Rhode Island!” initiative to make wellness programs available to state employees in 2005, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training started off by setting up weekly yoga classes for employees. The on-site class filled up right away and there is still a waiting list to get into the classes of 15, which is held on Mondays after work for five weeks per session, said Rick Fitzgerald, administrator of business affairs and “Wellness Champion” at the DLT.
The yoga classes aren’t just a perk for employees; the DLT benefits from hosting yoga and other wellness-program offerings like smoking cessation programs, weight watchers classes and a walking club, said Laura Hart, communications manager.
“Yoga reduces stress levels, and there is a connection between stress and sickness, so there is less sick time taken,” Hart said. “The classes also create connections between employees, and [that] creates a sense of community.”
Bottof, who has been teaching yoga for five years, can attest to that. She also leads yoga classes for organizations like LearningConnection and Tollgate High School in Warwick, and expects more businesses to catch on to the trend soon, because it counteracts all the negative side effects that today’s frazzled workers experience.
Benefits aside, yoga isn’t for everyone; its slow movements and long moments of pose-holding can be a bit boring to people who crave constant stimulation. But, Bottof said, “it’s good to be a bit bored sometimes.”
“Yoga forces you to learn to focus. Individuals are so used to over-stimulation from the outside world, they find it difficult to focus on anything,” Bottof said. “The practices you learn in yoga teach you to focus.”
A number of yoga instructors offer to hold classes on site at individual businesses. Karen Lee, an American Viniyoga Institute yoga teacher and yoga therapist with Breathing Time Yoga in Pawtucket, offers corporate classes on either an ongoing basis during lunch or after work, or as one-time staff development events.
Lee said she has held yoga classes during lunch hours and after work for businesses including Taco Inc. in Cranston, the Rhode Island Foundation and the Providence Center, both in Providence.
“They loved the classes. Everyone is so stressed, and yoga offers some practical and easy to use tools for reducing stress,” Lee said. “It is important for not only physical but mental health.” •

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  1. I find the best way to reduce stress in the office is to use a treadmill desk like the TrekDesk. It also lets me lose weight while I work without sweating, pretty amazing but simple in its application. You can view the TrekDesk at www.trekdesk.com.