Yoga Center Entices Locals to Tap Their Inner Yogi

"It's like a massage that lasts all week."

That's how Susan Child says a student described the Castro Valley Yoga experience. Child, owner of Castro Valley Yoga since 2004, is an unabashed advocate for her studio, specifically, and yoga, in general.

"Everybody should be doing yoga," Child says.

The stretchy-bendy form of exercise dates back to the Stone Age and has gained momentum in recent years as a route to enhanced fitness and health. The American College of Sports Medicine ranked yoga as No. 14 on its Top 20 leading fitness trends for 2010. The Radial Group's new 2011 Health and Wellness Trend Report highlights yoga as a healthcare trend, as well as a viable business option.

Trend talk aside, for Child, 51, yoga is part of a lifestyle that breeds benefits galore. As a former dancer who was not naturally flexible, Child took up yoga in her 30s upon advice from fellow dancers. The stretching, breathing and posing helped increase her agility. But more than that, Child says, "It improved everything in my life."

"A lot of people get a lot of 'mental' from it — focus and clarity," she says. Child gradually went from yoga novice, to yoga practitioner, to yoga instructor, to studio owner.

Castro Valley Yoga used to be run by a different owner at a different locale under the name Eden Yoga and Wellness. When Child was a client and teacher there, the owner offered her the chance to take on the business. Child renamed the studio and moved it to its current location in a two-story office building at 20861 Wilbeam Ave., near Castro Valley Boulevard.

Castro Valley Yoga has nearly a dozen instructors who range in age from their early 20s to mid 80s, according to Child. And some of the students, like longtime Castro Valley resident Charile Conrad, are in their 80s, too. When asked how old he was, Conrad responded that he was "older than 29."

"I seem to be getting older," said Conrad of his reason for joining the Intro to Yoga class in early September. "I needed a little more strength and balance." Looking around the room at his classmates, most of them also older in age, he added, "We're all pretty off balance."

Another male student, asking not to be identifid, said, "The thing about us (in the class) is that we're not 21 anymore. We don't bend as much as we used to."

Child's regular, and perhaps more flexible "card-carrying" students total 115, and attend classes anywhere from one to four times per week. Classes are offered daily from beginner to advanced levels. Drop-ins are welcome at $13 per class. 

Loose-fitting clothing is recommended. Bare feet are standard. Such props as mats, blankets, blocks and straps are provided. The instructors pride themselves on the small studio's warm, friendly atmosphere and personable instruction. Most classes cater to 16 students or fewer. Child, who also works part time as a hairstylist at a Castro Valley salon, calls it "homey."

"It's actually like having people in my home," she says.

It is estimated that 20 million people in the United States practice yoga, says Johannes Fisslinger, director of the Yoga Health Foundation in Marina Del Ray. The down economy is fueling yoga's appeal as people look for a counterbalance to stress, he notes.

According to Fisslinger, yoga's health benefits include lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, improved breathing, enhanced circulation, stronger bones and joints, better skeletal alignment, and weight loss.

Mind, body and spirit are all boosted when one's inner yogi is tapped, says Child. "It's pretty awesome stuff," she adds. "It just is."