x
Breaking News
More () »

Adventure Arkansas: Yoga Hike

Black Friday is known for being one of the most chaotic times of the holiday season. It doesn’t have to be! You can have a relaxing adventure instead! A local y...
promo304192830

Black Friday is known for being one of the most chaotic times of the holiday season. It doesn’t have to be! You can have a relaxing adventure instead! A local yoga studio is taking the relaxing exercise outdoors into the soothing sounds of nature. 5NEWS Meteorologist, Sean Bailey, tags along on a yoga hike in this week’s Adventure Arkansas.

 Black Friday, the chaos of the crowds, or instead you can have the calmness of Nature. Instead of deals and steals, Fort Smith yoga instructor, Terri Hargrove, is incorporating the healing of the outdoors with her Yoga hike at Lake Alma.  "It can be quite soothing to how we feel. It can help us slow down and remind us to just breath. That we don’t often realize how short and shallow our breath is and how much it stresses us out and feel anxious."

The hike starts off with yoga stretches then it’s off to hiking around Lake Alma.  After doing yoga as a family for a few years, this is the first time Tina, Issac, Miles, and Gary Udouj have taken their mats outside the studio. Issac says it was a unique experience. "The meditation section we did I felt. You just really have a moment to abandon your worries for a minute and just forget about the world a around you and take it all in."

The Udouj family has seen the benefits of yoga especially helping Miles manage symptoms of autism. Having an activity everyone in his family is enjoying is the best part of this adventure for Issac. "You get to go out, and you get to just hike together and be with your family. It’s just the right amount of distance, the 4 mile trail here in particular. You get to go out and experience nature, and that’s the greatest adventure of all."

With breaks for meditation and snacks, the 4 mile walk around Lake Alma isn’t about exercise as much as it is just about awareness of your surroundings. "When we come back outside, we can be easily distracted with how beautiful the trees are or how pretty the songs of the birds are or ooo look there’s a butterfly. You’re just so into it. You hear the rustle of the leaves, and you’re like 'is it a squirrel is it a bunny, what is it, I hope it’s not a snake. You’re very aware and more in tune I feel like."

This yoga hike is designed for anyone of any level of yoga.  "We meet ourselves on the mat wherever we’re at, no matter our previous experience, whether we’ve done some stretches or no stretches. Ultimately yoga is breathing and we’ve all breathing so we just breathe with more awareness and breath with more attention."

The sounds of the simplest exercise to help keep calm and carry on through the holidays. For this week’s Adventure Arkansas, Namaste.

Yogaterrium’s Black Friday yoga hike starts at 10am on Friday morning and lasts until about 1pm. Mats and water are provided by Terri!

The cost for the outdoor hike is $10.

Yogaterrium also hosts plenty of special events both inside and outside their studio in Fort Smith

For more information and class times, check out Yogaterrium’s site.

Segment Sponsored by: Adventure Subaru

Before You Leave, Check This Out