When you think of a yoga class, you may just think of a slow, easy stretch. However, inside the yoga room at Lexington High School, students are learning how to breathe, move through life, and understand the balance between their body and mind. For many students, yoga has become more than just another physical education class: it is a space for personal growth and reflection.
Tia DeVincenzo, a yoga teacher at LHS, focuses her class on vinyasa-based yoga, which consists of learning how to move with your breath. A typical class involves tuning into responses and triggers in students’ own bodies, gentle movement, and a series of vinyasas involving deeper stretching. Classes often end with a shavasana, which is essentially a form of deep sleep.
“Yoga started as an anatomical practice, a mind-body connection. Nowadays, what we see as yoga is Lululemon, Alo Yoga, and forcing people into certain poses,” DeVincenzo said. “But when it started, it was more just looking at anatomical alignment, working on posture, and how you move through life with ease instead of pain.”
Many students initially enter the class expecting an easy block filled with stretching and naps. However, yoga classes can also be an opportunity for challenging physical activity and personal introspection. Nyneishia Schneider, a junior at LHS, recalled how her perspective changed quickly.
“I didn’t know that it would be hard in that way, because my original idea of what yoga was was just stretches and meditation. I didn’t expect it to be hard in a lot of places. You sweat in a yoga class. And I really did not expect that to be something that we would do,” Schneider said.
Yoga is a highly in-demand PE course, particularly because of how unique a class it is. When compared to other gym classes at LHS, it has many differences that make it particularly appealing for students.
“Other PE classes focus a lot on competition: you’re trying to win the game. In yoga, you’re not really trying to compete with anyone. You’re trying to win in terms of your own personal health,” Schneider said.
The flexibility of yoga is another aspect that sets it apart from other PE courses. Yoga often allows students recovering from injuries to continue participating in physical education, since it can be more easily adapted to meet a student’s physical needs and abilities.
“I have some students that are athletes, and they are always moving, and sometimes they’re put in my class because they might have an injury. I can bring a student in that’s healing from an injury, and give them a lot of different modifications, so they’re still able to participate,” DeVincenzo explained.
For DeVincenzo, yoga is more than just physical fitness: it’s about helping students reconnect with themselves amid the pressure of schoolwork and other stressful high school activities.
“I really try to talk to students about understanding their body, their desires, their intuition, and letting go of what they think they should be doing,” DeVincenzo said. “How can we treat ourselves with respect? How can we treat others with respect? I hope my students walk away, and they feel a little bit more understanding of themselves and what they want to do with their lives.”
