By Andrea Rizzo

Lifestyles Magazine [1]

It’s no secret that yoga is one of the fastest growing wellness industries. Everywhere you look there are more and more studios opening, specials airing on television, and articles publishing its many benefits. It’s no different in the Seven Cities. This past decade has seen the dramatic change from yoga being a scantily sought program to becoming a mainstream part of our community. Yoga is also a big business thanks to boomers, who are seeking it as a remedy to assist with aging. I caught up with three of our best and brightest boomer teachers that have seemingly found the fountain of youth.

Meet Angela Phillips, 50, and Gabrielle Gerard, on the cusp of boomer-dom at 43 (the boomer line officially ends with those born in 1964), two well-known area teachers who have been spreading the principals of asana, the key to holding basic but vital poses, along with the importance of prana, the body’s energy cultivated into breath work, with a healthy dose of spirituality, since 1993.

After reading Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramhansa Yogananda at age 19, Phillips started viewing the world a different way, and flowed in and out of her yoga practice for a number of years. “In some ways I came to yoga through the back door, because I came to it through more of a spiritual seeking perspective: Who I am? What is my purpose? What am I doing here?” explained Phillips, now owner of her self-named studio off First Colonial Road in Virginia Beach.

Phillips became a regular on the local fitness scene when she bought (and since closed) the aerobically-minded Body Works in Ghent, and met Gerard who was teaching there. The two became fast friends and began taking breath work classes at the Downtown Athletic Club. They went through teacher training together, and eventually developed into teaching in the format of yoga.

Phillips recalled, “I taught for over a year before I called it ‘yoga.’ I felt like taking on that title was taking on something very honorable. This is a profession of honor, this is a profession of taking care of people’s deepest selves, and I want to be prepared myself—and I want to be careful here.”

Gerard’s sister, Anna Pittman, already had a head start within the yoga arena, and the sisters began a small program at the YMCA and eventually ODU, with a dedicated group of folks. Fast-forward a decade or so, and Phillips and Gerard are an integral part of the fabric within the Seven Cities yogic community. Both teach several classes a week, in addition to private training and workshops, and in the case of Phillips, some corporate stints as well. They have witnessed the dramatic rise of yoga and have been more than prepared for the challenge.

“We’re seeing the root of that community. We’re seeing the dedication and a passion for study. It’s such a vast science,” said Gerard. “These places [yoga studios] are important places for people to come and have a sense of safety. To let go, unwind, and learn the more subtle aspects of being a human being or a spiritual being.”

Both Phillips and Gerard maintain that yoga helps us to learn how to deal with stress, which in turn helps the body age more gracefully. There are several types of stresses, which create fight or flight symptoms followed by lack of sleep, appetite, poor posture, and little to no relaxation. By learning the proper balance of the body, we can eliminate or reduce the stresses that cause premature aging.

“I used to think that if I did yoga I wouldn’t get older, but now what I realize that yoga will help me let go,” Phillips revealed.

Gerard agreed, “There’s a way to embody the natural process. With aging we tend to shrink. We can reverse the effects of aging by learning how to relate to gravity in your body, gravity in your breath. You’re tapping into a very natural phenomenon within the matrix of your body that relates from micro to macro.”

The two are in incredible shape physically and spiritually, and hone their craft by taking three to four asana classes a week, as well as seeking guidance from spiritual mentors. Like most yoga teachers, they have a deep private practice that helps design the sessions they share with their students. But as friends, they rely on each other to be honest and loyal. Gerard’s intense intuitive nature is a nice complement to Phillips’s straight-forward style.

“Yoga supports our aging naturally, and because we’re aging naturally, people who do yoga tend to look younger. I think that other people are aging unnaturally—they’re aging a little faster than how they need to be aging because they’re not handling their stress. They’re not handling their internal or external environments in a way that is supporting balance,” said Phillips. “It’s a non-attachment to the physical; we know there’s something more.” In other words, it’s okay to age.

And one of the best things about yoga? It’s available to anyone at any level—not just in shape boomers. Our community is expanding to meet the increased demand of all different types of yoga: Hatha, Ashtanga, and even Bikram, or hot yoga. As Phillips stated, “Then there’s the phenomenon of hot yoga. It’s interesting how everybody just finds what they are looking for.”

Enter Deborah Meltsner, a just-retired Old Dominion University professor after 26 years (plus an additional five in public schools), who has found her second calling as a yoga teacher, specifically within hot yoga. About 11 years ago, Meltsner began taking a variety of yoga classes as a transition from her aerobics regiment. She found there was nothing quite like it, and started getting involved with intensive training. After deciding to retire and realizing she was not ready to settle down, Meltsner thought it would be fun to try a weekend long basic teacher training class. She was able then able to coordinate a trial yoga class at ODU, and was hooked.

“It’s been interesting for me to learn having taught for so long, but now shifting to teaching something so different from a classroom where there is discussion,” mused Meltsner. “Here I’m giving queues and aligning people—very different. It’s just truly been this unfolding practice for me.”

After husband Jerry started going to hot yoga at Hot House Yoga in Hilltop, she naturally fell for hot yoga as well. Meltsner enjoys the practice of hot yoga because it is closer to the climate conditions where this sequence of yoga was first practiced in Calcutta. This allows for increased flexibility and the ability to deepen into the pose while preventing injuries. After honing her teaching skills with the level two course in Costa Rica, and a full month program in Florida with Jimmy Barkan, one of Bikram’s students, she was brought into Hot House as a teacher’s assistant, eventually gaining a few classes of her own. Now that the Hot House Yoga in Ghent is open, Deborah teaches several times a week.

“What’s really emphasized at the Hot House Yoga studio … [is the desire] to connect people in not just the physical, but really getting inside yourself, whatever that means. Whether it’s something more mental or more spiritual, but finding something that is not about the outside world but something from within.”

Like a great teacher, Meltsner relays her love of yoga through student testimonials. The first-time yogis that had an overwhelming spiritual experience in savasana (or corpse pose). Her over 70-years-old male student with a hip replacement, who is practicing daily in order to gain the flexibility needed to get back to his black diamond skiing status. And herself, when she once thought it impossible to get from the back of her mat to the front in one giant step.

“Yoga is one of the athletic realms that anybody can do. Regardless of age, regardless of body type, size,” said Meltsner. “So much of the philosophy or discipline of yoga is about a blend of body, mind, and spirit—really the unfolding we should allow in life.”

One of the very last things Meltsner revealed about her yoga journey is that she is a breast cancer survivor of 12 years. It was during this dark time that she found new strength within a regular yoga practice.

Meltsner concluded, “After going through all the treatment, I thought ‘what else can I find that I can feel good and really get some stress release too?’ And that was the magic ticket.”

As these three teachers have shared, yoga can be more than just exercise, but rather a way of life. There are many styles and studios available within the Seven Cities, and most gyms are starting to offer variations of yoga as well. You’ve heard all about the many benefits of yoga on the aging body and wandering mind; now it’s up to you to try.