With fall classes starting, students will be too busy focusing on new school schedules, work schedules and life schedules. Well-intended resolutions will be unacknowledged, only to be renewed four months from now, at the height of New Years 2011.
One of these resolutions almost always includes going to the gym.
Eastern Michigan University offers interesting PEGN classes, which students looking for extra credit hours and fluffing the holy GPA casually take. Although some students breeze into physical activity classes as often as the wind blows into a room with no windows, it takes only one class to permanently shape a life.
For EMU adjunct instructor Holly Vogtmann, that class was yoga.
“Ten years ago, when I was an undergraduate at EMU, I took my first yoga class and I fell in love. I remember asking the instructor how I can become certified in yoga,” Vogtmann said. “Yoga helped me clear my mind. It brought me into the present moment. I was always worried about school and what came next. I was always pushing the future and dwelling on the past.”
Shortly after the class concluded, Vogtmann became certified, which allowed her to teach at studios and community centers. After receiving her master’s degree from EMU in Physical Education, she came back to EMU where she is teaching Yoga (PEGN 180), Figure Fitness Inline Skating (PEGN 177) and Lifetime Wellness and Fitness (PEGN 210) this semester.
After the fight for adjuncts’ union rights these recent semesters, Vogtmann, who feels much better now that it is solved, said, “I am just thankful to have a job. I was new winter semester and I didn’t want to get involved because I felt so new. I try to stay out of the drama, and whatever happens, happens. I’m here for the students.”
Vogtmann is not part of the EMU Federation of Teachers, the union that now includes adjunct lecturers.
She is often wearing yoga gear, which she makes fun of herself for wearing, which relieves the stress students put on themselves to achieve a pose (in a class to help relieve stress).Questions like,” ‘What is the crazy lady in the weird pants saying’ (she often wears black yoga pants with a oversized daisy completely covering her leg) precedes more serious questions to help bring students back into the present moment that holding a pose can help with.
“I am hoping I offer you tools that will help you with the stress handed to you,” Vogtmann said. “Hopefully, with the questions I ask during class, you’ll learn some tools to coming back to what is going on inside of you and ‘why do I feel this way’, and ‘how can I deal with it positively’?”
One of the stereotypes Vogtmann wants cleared up is yoga is not a religion, it is a way of life. It is about becoming self-aware and becoming a better person. This means that if people are Christian, practicing yoga would bring them closer to the Christian religion. The person on the next mat, who is practicing yoga, could belong to another religion. Yoga is derived from Sanskrit, meaning union.
“You learn about yourself in the poses,” Vogtmann said. “You ask yourself questions and you realize ‘oh, my ego is getting bruised because I can’t get my left foot behind my head.’ How quickly we get wrapped up into that. I learned about my reactions through yoga. My practice on the mat is what I try to take off the mat, so that I am aware of myself and how I react to things when I am not practicing yoga.”
Yoga can be expensive; with some class bundles running higher than $200 for fewer than 15 classes. However, just like EMU’s prominently publicized 0% campaign demonstrates, it pays to be an EMU student. For those who don’t want to sign up for PEGN 180, the Rec/IM offers Yoga Groove, a $50 package for 14 classes. In downtown Ypsilanti, Ypsi Studio, the new fitness center on 208 W. Michigan Ave. offers EMU students a 20% discount off any of their yoga classes with proof of a valid EMU I.D.
