The sounds of heavy breathing and dripping sweat fill crowded rooms as groups of people achieve heightened levels of physical and spiritual bliss.But students are demanding more.
Requests for more yoga classes have led the management of UF's Department of Recreational Sports to increase the number of classes the group fitness program offers.
Jasmine Abad, facility manager of the UF Student Recreation and Fitness Center, said the program offered only one or two yoga classes when she started working three years ago but has added three new forms in the past year.
Five forms of yoga are now available, each benefiting the body in a different way, said Kenny Sterner, building supervisor of UF's Student Recreation and Fitness Center.
Several classes are held throughout the day at the Southwest Recreation Center and the Student Recreation and Fitness Center, he said.
Mallory Mooser, a UF business management junior, has practiced yoga for six years.
"In my hometown, I went to a yoga studio every other day to get my fix," Mooser said. "I was so happy when I came to UF and found out that there are yoga classes offered right on campus."
Rick Schnecker, co-owner and instructor at Big Ron's Yoga College, said he knows the importance of exercise and physical activity from personal experience.
"Yoga took me from a beat-up train of an old man to perfect health," Schnecker said.
Big Ron's Yoga College exclusively teaches Bikram yoga, which is not offered at UF recreational facilities. Bikram yoga is practiced in a heated, humidified room.
Schnecker said he supports students doing any form of yoga for the total body benefits it provides.
"College students spend a lot of time in front of computers, which can be bad for the spine," he said. "To me, the most important benefit of yoga is its ability to manipulate and realign the spine, which controls the whole body."
Schnecker said yoga is a lifetime commitment, but one that you can and should do every day.
"It just makes life better," he said.
