'A great way to start the day': Cape Girardeau’s newest yoga options incorporate paddleboards and the Mississippi Riverfront

Yoga, a mixture of meditation and stretching exercises, is used by many people for relaxation and health-related purposes.

Recently in Cape Girardeau, the Parks and Recreation Department decided to put its own spin on the spiritual discipline by offering yoga classes on Saturdays by the Mississippi Riverfront.

Christine Paige, fitness and wellness coordinator for the department, helped launch the Riverfront Yoga program, which in July began offering area residents the opportunity to come together and practice yoga as part of the department's Fitness in the Parks initiative.

"I'm trying to get the community more active in giving them more options," she said.

Paige decided to try the outdoor yoga class to offer a less daunting option than the department's boot camps and other programs, and also to accommodate a broader range of community members.

The Riverfront Yoga class is in session Saturday, Aug. 27, in Cape Girardeau.Fred Lynch

"Boot camps can be a little intimidating for some people, so I thought, well, let's bring it back a little bit, let's try something simple and a great way to start the day," she said.

The class, which begins at 8 a.m. every Saturday to the right inside the Themis Street floodgate, was situated by the riverfront to give attendees the opportunity to take part in other events also featured downtown on Saturday mornings, including the Riverfront Farmers Market.

Paige said the class is open to all types of yogis, whether novice or expert, and that the instructor works to help all class members get a good workout, no matter their skill level.

"It's a great way for beginners as well as advanced," she said. "You wake up the perfect way, start stretching, it starts the weekend perfectly."

Although the program began in July as a sort of trial run, Paige said the department continued the class through August due to its popularity. She said the department's main goal for Riverfront Yoga is to continue with the program and add more classes and maybe more park locations before the cold weather arrives. Riverfront classes will pick up again in the spring.

"Hopefully with even more classes, is our goal," Paige said.

Most importantly, Paige wants to create opportunities for the community to be active and maintain a healthy lifestyle, even while living on a budget.

"We're always trying to find ways to get the community active and let them know it doesn't have to cost money. Any activity is moving, that's what's important. And we have beautiful parks here, so take advantage of them," she said.

Paige said the program is gaining traction as more people become comfortable with the outdoor class concept.

"As it grows and people start to share it, we're definitely getting a lot more interest," she said. "At first people were pretty intimidated, they were a little nervous; I got a lot of emails like, 'I've never done yoga,' 'I've never worked out or been to a class.' Our main thing is trying to remind people this is a great way to start."

Each class costs $3.50, or a punch card for 12 classes can be purchased for $36 at the Osage Centre in Cape Girardeau. Participants are encouraged to bring their own yoga mat and water, but mats are available for those without.

"We're for the community, you know, with the taxes, so it's your money and we want to make sure you get the best bang for your buck," Paige said. "We try to make it very reasonable; everyone can hopefully afford to come to our classes."

Another alternative yoga practice in Cape Girardeau is Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP) yoga, which is offered at the Southeast Missouri State University Student Aquatic Center in the Student Recreation Center-North.

Missy Phegley, who has been teaching yoga for more than 15 years, helped make the classes available to the community a couple years ago.

"I started doing the paddleboard just because I'd just bought a paddleboard for fun, just to go out on a lake or on a river or something, and I'd seen a lot of stuff about standing on paddleboards, so I went out to Trail of Tears and I started doing yoga on the board myself, and people started talking about doing some classes, so it just kind of went from there," Phegley said.

During SUP classes, attendees stand on broad paddleboards in the middle of the aquatic center's leisure pool. Anchored by a small weight, yogis float while doing yoga poses upright on their boards.

"Obviously balance is a huge factor," Phegley said.

Although the movements mirror a typical yoga class and incorporate staple poses like downward facing dog, mountain, chair and more, Phegley said SUP is more demanding of a person's muscles.

"When you get on a paddleboard, it makes a huge difference, you can really feel it," she said. "... It just takes everything from a regular yoga class and just kind of ups it a little bit."

Unlike many other workouts, Phegley said her students see results and improvement within a few classes. Those who begin in modified positions lower to the board are able to stand and balance within several classes' time.

"When you can see that much gain that quickly, I think that's really gratifying to you and it's helpful for confidence," Phegley said.

Phegley said she believes the benefits of the SUP classes go beyond fitness, allowing participants an opportunity to relax, focus and strengthen their balancing capabilities.

"The balance work alone is huge ... really thinking about what's going on with your body," she said. "Focus -- obviously one of the benefits is the mindfulness. But if you're on a paddleboard and balance is such a key component of it, getting distracted and turning and looking, you can fall off, so you really have to keep your focus on what your body is doing."

Along with stand up paddleboard yoga, the Southeast Missouri State University Recreation Center-North offers aerial yoga, candlelit yoga and pi-yoga, which incorporates a mixture of Pilates moves and yoga poses. A semester pass for Student Recreation Center members is $40, and for community members not affiliated with the university, $80. Individual classes cost $3. For a full listing of fitness classes at the SRC, go to semo.edu/pdf/Rec-group-fit-schedule.pdf?=ver3.4. To sign up for an SUP class or learn more, call (573) 651-2105.

lyoung@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3632