Ice yoga warms up winter-loving yogis

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This article was published 03/02/2018 (3121 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Yoga instructor Ash Bourgeois had some unusual advice for the students in her Saturday morning class.

“Your mats, they will become frozen if they haven’t already,” Bourgeois told the group of about thirty chilly yogis as they began the day’s movements.

“And that’s fine for poses when you’re sitting down or lying down, but when you start to stand up, if you find that you’re slipping it’s okay to move off onto the snow.”

It was a far cry from hot yoga. Bourgeois’s class took place during an extreme cold warning, with the mercury reading -22°C before the windchill.

Kneeling on the frozen surface of Lake 3, one of the artifical bodies of water at the FortWhyte Alive nature centre, Bourgeois used a PA system to help her students hear her instructions through their toques and fur-lined hoods.

“The point of it is to be outside,” said Bourgeois, who runs the “Fire + Ice” yoga classes to help raise money for outdoor education programs for youth at FortWhyte Alive.

The stillness of nature, she explained, allows for a special kind of yoga experience.

“I get everyone tuned into the quietness of being outside, especially in winter. Kind of getting into sensations of cold noses and the light winds, and then the water bubbling up under the ice. And then from there we move into some light movement, and then some more heat-building work,” she said.

“We goof off in balancing work, which is a different ballgame on snow and on ice, and then from there we do — I mean, I want to use the word ‘cool-down,’ but not really, it’s more of a grounding. And then a meditation, and we close with some fireside tea.”

Winnipeg sisters Meghan and Lindsay Waters were at Saturday’s ice yoga class for the second year in a row. Last year’s class, said Meghan Waters, “wasn’t terribly cold once you got moving.”

Compared to non-frozen yoga, she said, “you’re not as flexible, because you’re wearing more clothing, and it’s awkward, and I definitely did a couple faceplants in the snow. But it was really fun, and just a neat thing to do in Winnipeg.”

“It just seems so Canadian to just be out here doing something that you normally do indoors, in minus thirty degree weather,” said Lindsay Waters. “And we pride ourselves on being Canadian women.”

Winnipegger Michelle Michayluk and her father Kevin Michayluk was also attending their second annual ice yoga class.

“I made him come with me last year because my friend bailed, and he kind of liked it,” she said.

“I like being in nature for it,” she added. “I always have a better time when you’re doing yoga actually in nature, instead of in a little studio.”

Sharon Desrosiers of Winnipeg pratices yoga weekly at a St. James studio — “but I’m not insane about it,” she said.

“Today, I think I might be,” laughed Desrosiers.

“The Manitoba winters can get you staying in the house way too much, and I thought, ‘You know, if you’re going to embrace it, just embrace it.’ “

Instructor Ash Bourgeois said her ice yoga students are “really awesome adventurers, so they’re pretty stoked.”

“At the end of the day, they really like it, and they seem to be really loving it. I mean, they keep coming back, so that’s a good sign.”

It’s important for people to get outdoors in all seasons, Bourgeois said.

“Being in nature, I think it’s integral to our well-being,” she explained.

“And I think nowadays… we’re always plugged in, right? You have your cellphones, tablets, all the things. And when you get to be outside, the benefits are astronomical for your mind, they are able to help release stress and help release tension. Being in nature brings a level of being present.”

solomon.israel@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sol_israel