Inhale, exhale. Focusing on these simple actions, you can bring your body into greater alignment, ease stress, and relax your mind.
This is the basic premise of Rollness, a gentle, breathing-centered exercise akin to yoga, Pilates, or tai chi that will be taught by Franco-American fitness specialist Shirley Marcus at the Santa Barbara Yoga Center on Sunday. Using principles of Chinese energetic meridians, the low-impact exercise fosters improvement of posture, bone alignment, and lymphatic circulation.
“The movements are easy, but they’re precise,” explained Marcus. The techniques definitely appeal to those looking for a low-exertion, at-home fitness routine or a moving meditation, or to injured athletes or yogis who want to maintain the benefits of their practice during recovery.
In fact, Marcus discovered the routine through her doctors after a car accident. She developed a following in France, where she conducted online classes, before moving here to spread the exercise stateside. Her students report great benefits, said Marcus, explaining, “Their back straightens; they’re more flexible; they’re more toned; their digestion and skin are better.”
I tried out the Rollness technique in a one-on-one session and can vouch for the benefits. Though the forward-backward, contraction-expansion exercises were small and simple, I was standing straighter afterward, and the rather chronic stress-related pains in my shoulders and hips were very noticeably gone. I practice yoga, so the principles of balance and counterbalance were familiar to me, but the exercise achieved similar effects with much less exertion. With Rollness, a little goes a long way.
Rollness is at S.B. Yoga Center (32 E. Micheltorena St.) on Sunday, February, 26, at 11 a.m. To register, call 825-7865, email rollnessonline@gmail.com, or visit rollnessusa.com.
