A workout. A path toward spiritual enlightenment. A hobby. The list goes on. Yoga has about as many purposes as it does yogis. But whatever your premise, there are many places to practice and prosper with the pastime in Maple Grove.
Hindu Temple
Away from the strip malls, busy streets and cul-de-sacs of Maple Grove sits a one-of-a-kind oasis to practice yoga – the Hindu Temple of Minnesota.
“I can’t tell you how many of my students will say, ‘It doesn’t matter what else I have going on in my life … I walk in the buildings and just go awhhh. I feel this amazing sense of peace and calm by walking in,’ ” says Laurie Karnes, the temple’s yoga coordinator.
The Midwest’s largest Hindu temple, which opened in 2006, offers traditional Hatha classes four days a week. Its mission is to be open to people of all faiths – not just Hindus, Karnes says: “It’s attracted a lot of people from throughout the community because the Hindu Temple is so warm and embracing and welcoming to everybody.
Classes range from 15 to 30 participants, including all walks of life and those seeking different goals. For some, it’s fitness. For others, it’s peace, spiritual health or awareness. “The whole inner peace things shows up a lot,” Karnes says.
Karnes says the asanas, or poses, are only one facet of yoga. Other subsets include control of senses and breath, restraint, observances, concentration and meditation.
“It was developed to facilitate meditation practices,” Karnes says. “Yoga keeps your body healthy so your body doesn’t distract you when you meditate. It gets energy out and calms you and prepares you for meditation. They teach meditation at the temple as well.”
Jerry Markey, a non-Hindu and retired mailman living in Maple Grove, stumbled upon the temple online and has been coming to classes since May.
“It’s a tonic for the senior citizen,” says Markey, 64. “I’ve benefited from good health, and I’m trying to keep that going well. … It’s just a wonderful thing.”
Markey says breath is one of the most important parts, and that it relieves stress without him having to resort to medication: “If you focus on the breath going in and out, in and out, you can get into the poses better, and in the end, you realize you are calmer and more relaxed.”
With gold-plated doors and shrines to different gods inside, Markey says it’s not what you’d come to expect in a suburb. “It’s an exotic experience right here in Maple Grove,” he says. “I’m not sure many in Maple Grove are aware of it.”
The temple offers classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings as well as Saturday and Sunday mornings. Drop-in visits and donations are accepted to attend a class.
“We don’t turn anybody away,” Karnes says.
For more information, visit the Hindu Temple online at , call 763.425.9449 or email.
Yoga with Dee
If you’re looking for a more personal touch, Dee James offers classes out of her Maple Grove basement. Her dog and two cats will be there as you stretch into poses, and her laughter makes it carefree.
James’ style brings in all types, from teenagers to seniors such as John Moriarty.
“She is very attuned to who is in the class,” Moriarty says. “If you are having a bad day, Dee is not tuned into poses being perfect, but getting out of the class what you can. … So people don’t feel singled out for being marvelous or being awful. No one’s that serious, including Dee.”
Each workday, Moriarty sits at his desk in the information systems department of Alina. On some weeknights for the last nine years, he has chosen Yoga with Dee to remain limber and feeling young.
“By the time I get home, I bend over like I’m an 80-year-old,” says Moriarty, 65. “I do stretches to get back to being a normal person, instead of someone who has lost two inches from sitting all day.”
When his routine back pain resurfaces, he fights it with calming yoga: “If I feel it coming on, I know how to deal with it or how to short circuit it.”
To get in touch with James, email her or call 763.494.0493 or 651.398.3003. A sample class is $9 and an individual class is $11. Packages that don’t expire include five classes for $50 and 10 classes for $90. Classes are Monday and Wednesday mornings and Wednesday night.
Maple Grove Parks and Rec
More Maple Grove residents have flocked to the city’s yoga offerings in the last four years. Attendance has jumped 30 percent in that period, says Michelle DeBace, the city’s program specialist.
“Yoga is a fitness class that a lot of adults can take, while some of our other classes … are a little more strenuous in nature,” says DeBace “That limits some participation because of how strenuous it is. In yoga, you can get a good workout at all different ages.”
Parks and Rec offers Beginner Yoga, Vinyasa Flow and Yogalates—a combination with Pilates—at Weaver Lake and Basswood elementary schools. They are offered Mondays and Thursdays.
DeBace reiterates that yoga brings people out for many reasons.
“For all of our yoga classes, they really work on the relaxation, the reduction of stress, increase in flexibility, restoration of health, positive mind, balance and an overall balanced body,” she says, pausing to take a breath.
Health benefits aside, Parks and Rec also benefits your wallet and community. Classes cost $6 and enrich the neighborhood.
“We offer our classes at very affordable rates and we have high-quality instructors,” DeBace says. “We are right in the neighborhood.”
For details, go to the parks and rec office at 12951 Weaver Lake Road, go online or call 763.420.3662.
Lifepower Yoga
With Hatha, Vinyasa, Yoga Sculpt, monthly intensive sessions and routine workshops from four instructors, Life Time Fitness in Maple Grove offers a variety of options for each yogi’s yearning.
“They can drop into any class they want to,” instructor Stef Olstad says of free admittance to all Life Time members. “We cater to all levels.”
Steve Sellner has gained flexibility from the flexible schedules Life Time offers. The Boston Scientific engineer is based in Maple Grove, but routinely travels to Ireland in addition to other activities such as taekwondo, triathlons, swimming and weight training.
“One time Stef gave me a DVD to do yoga in my (hotel) room,” says Sellner during a recent business trip to Galway, Ireland.
Sellner says the combination of yoga and other exercise has helped him shed 35 pounds since January: “I really enjoy doing different things, and yoga fits in nicely with that.”
Go to mylt.com for updated schedules and times. For membership information, contact Josh Molar at 763.420.1815.
