PE classes take break from CrossFit to try yoga

Walk into the weight room on any given morning, and the sound of weights hitting the ground during a dead lift, or the voice of PE teacher Peter Jordan calling out the workout of the day can be heard.

In early November, however, the weight room was filled with a different sound: calming music, as a local yoga instructor Dana Schwartz taught students the proper technique of a sun salutation. Schwartz normally teaches teen yoga classes at the Yoga Center of Los Gatos.

Jordan said he hoped the variety would improve the physical education program.

“We’re always looking for ways to improve the program,” Jordan said. “When she offered the opportunity to bring yoga here, we thought it was a great idea, and we spent a lot of time talking about how it was going to work.”

Schwartz even came up with minimum standards for the four semesters of PE that the school requires.

Schwartz says she hopes the week of reflection, slower movement, and concentration on ”connecting the dots between their minds, their physicality, and their hearts” will help students be more thoughtful as they go about their days on campus.

“[I want] to give the kids an opportunity to get in touch more deeply with themselves, help them slow down enough so they can feel emotions that they have, while they are, at the same time, strengthening their body,” Schwartz said.

The classes moved much slower than the usual managed mayhem of CrossFit workouts. In everyday PE, students have to hurry through the workout to ensure enough time to change, but while doing yoga they had time to relax and concentrate on their movements.

“We weren’t rushed through activities, unlike normal PE where we actually have to rush through so we can get everything done,” sophomore Katie Burns said.

Not all students enjoyed the more relaxed nature of the classes, though.

“It was a learning experience, but I thought it was a little bit boring. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would,” freshman Rohit Rao said. “I enjoy normal PE a little better.”

Contrary to what many students expected when they heard they’d be having a week of yoga, many of the exercises were surprisingly difficult.

“They can take it seriously, especially if I try to make it challenging for them,” Schwartz said. “Then they think it’s hard, and if it’s hard, they should be able to rise to the occasion.”

Burns agrees that some of the exercises, while difficult, were helpful in the long run. Many of the poses the students learned were to build up to the “sun salutation,” a series of movements that was the semester standard.

“The planks [balancing on the elbows and toes, and using core muscles to keep the body flat] are difficult to do, but the more we do them, the better we get at them,” Burns said. “They’re actually really helpful when we do the sun salutations, and it keeps us strong and healthy.”

PE teachers are hoping that Schwartz will be willing to come back and teach future classes.

“The idea would be that she would come back three more times over the next couple of years and add to what the kids already know, adding some more complex movements,” Jordan said.

Jordan is continuing to have his students practice the yoga they have already learned as part of the daily workout, although his classes will not be focusing specifically on it throughout the year.

“This sequence of movements that students have learned could for example be a warm-up, or a cool-down activity,” Jordan said.

Students interested in learning more about yoga outside of class can also attend sessions Schwartz teaches specifically for teens at the Yoga Center of Los Gatos. These are held from noon-1:30 every Sunday afternoon.

“Hopefully, yoga week can turn into yoga life,” Schwartz said.