Yoga takes root

BIRMINGHAM -- Sweat drenches the shirt of Detroit Lions defensive end Tracy Scroggins as he raises his hefty upper torso from the floor in a move called the Upward Dog. It's not a new football play.

Scroggins, like hundreds of other Metro Detroiters, has discovered the benefits of yoga.
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''It's strenuous, especially for a guy my size, to get in some of those positions,'' says Scroggins, who is 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 273 pounds. ''Some of those poses are difficult to hold.''

But the benefits -- including increased flexibility and reduced stress -- are worth the effort, he says.

Other Metro Detroiters will get a chance to sample those benefits, and many more, when the Midwest Yoga and Wellness Conference opens Wednesday for a run through Sunday at the Michigan Union and Michigan League buildings in Ann Arbor.

The conference, in its second year, will feature a keynote address by alternative-medicine pioneer Deepak Chopra Friday at Power Center for the Performing Arts and classes by 32 renowned instructors in a wide variety of yoga disciplines, including strenuous kundalini and tantric techniques, gentler hatha yoga, and breathing and meditation methods.
Classes for teachers are scheduled Wednesday and Thursday; classes for the general public run Friday through Sunday.
The conference's existence reflects a global yoga boom, with pop stars such as Madonna and Ricky Martin and supermodels such as Christy Turlington as avid practitioners. Metro Detroiters have joined the craze, with yoga classes offered not only at a couple dozen local yoga studios, but also at health clubs and YMCAs. Many of the more than 100 yoga teachers who belong to the Greater Detroit Yoga Association have waiting lists, says Khaya Davidson, the group's president.

Tracy Scroggins understands the attraction. He first tried yoga three years ago to ease the pain of pulled muscles, and then noticed it reduced stress, too.
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Fellow yoga class member Duane Utech of Rochester has signed up for conference classes in ashtanga yoga and something called the Five Tibetans. A former long-distance runner and tae kwon do devotee, he finds yoga an endless challenge and great stress reducer and says it has dramatically reduced his migraine headaches.

"You go to a different edge each time you come to class -- the legs, the arms, the breath," Utech says. "Since starting yoga, I've quit drinking and smoking. Yoga becomes your addiction."
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Conference organizer Jonny Kest, owner of Birmingham Yoga and Center for Yoga in Southfield, expects the conference enrollment to exceed last year's 1,000 attendees, who came from Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, California, Alaska and Russia. That's because he hopes to attract more yoga newcomers with the conference's new emphasis on general wellness, with yoga classes addressing back pain, weight loss, menstrual cycles, emotional health and stress relief. There are even classes in how to teach yoga techniques to children to help them calm down and improve reading retention.
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Still, some yoga purists feel many Americans take a lopsided approach to yoga, focusing on the physical aspect and neglecting the mental and spiritual discipline it offers. That's another reason for holding the conference, Kest says. With classes in chanting and meditation included, it offers an expanded view of this ancient art.

"Most people come to yoga through the physical door and wanting to look good," Kest says. "But as they do it, they get a deeper understanding of yoga's essence, and the internal well-being it produces. I know that eventually they are going to understand at a deeper level."
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Midwest conference in Ann Arbor is set to shed some light on ancient art form