Have you ever wanted to try a new workout, yoga, or go to a new gym, but felt intimidated because of the way you look? One North Texas woman got fed up with intimidation and is now changing the face, and size of getting healthy in Texas.
As a professional photographer Carey Zarate of shoots a lot of pictures. She's constantly on the move to get that perfect shot. "I'm always bending, sitting, squatting, some way to get that picture," she explained.
But lately Zarate, who lives in The Colony, has been feeling the pain of her job. "By the end of the day my fingers are stuck… and my body's usually cramped."
To help distress and work on her flexibility, Zarate wanted to do yoga. While she says she's "not a small girl", she thinks she's "fairly flexible".
After several attempts, none of the yoga she tried seemed to fit her body. "I should be able to go find something that fits my body, not somebody else's body," said Zarate. "That's telling me I'm wrong and I need to be like that."
Austin native Abby Lentz runs HeartFelt Yoga and is hoping to change the face of yoga, by helping people like Zarate. "It's about the inner-body," explained Lentz. "I really want people of size to know, to recognize themselves and go 'I can do that'."
After training in traditional yoga, Lentz created her own system called "Heavyweight Yoga". Demonstrating a yoga position Lentz pointed out that, "You can see that my belly is stopping me from getting the benefits of the pose, because it's just not physically possible."
With her yoga program Lentz modifies each pose for bigger bodies. "The legs are either open wide, or you've got a leg in, so there's a space for the flesh to go; so you can really find the stretch."
For Lentz yoga isn't about losing weight, but finding inner-peace and comfort in your own skin. "They want to relieve their stress. They want to be more mindful. They want to improve their balance, their flexibility," Lentz said of her class participants.
Sharon Krueger takes Heavyweight Yoga classes. "Anyone who's going to be willing to work with my size and not against it, I'm gonna cheer them on!" she said.
Dawn Brooks also takes the classes and says the yoga system gives her something she's never had before - confidence. "Without it I probably wouldn't be doing half the things I do now."
CBS 11 asked Zarate to try the heavyweight yoga system and after one week she said, "I actually think I can do this. It's not focused on what you look like, and did you get the position exactly right. It's about feeling the right stretch and feeling the right movement."
Lentz will be training Heavyweight Yoga instructors in North Texas soon and hopes to begin offering classes as early as summer.
via http://cbs11tv.com/local/yoga.heavyweight.yoga.2.1517629.html
