Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

When Marine 1st Lt. Alan Zarracina finally did the splits after months of struggling with the difficult pose in Nancy La Nasa’s yoga class, the limber women around him clapped and gave encouragement.

Zarracina, a 24-year-old Naval Academy graduate and flight student in Pensacola, Fla., admits he’d have a hard time explaining the scene to other Marines.

Each class ends with a chant for peace, and La Nasa hands students incense sticks as a gift for completing 90 minutes of backbends, shoulder stands and twisting their bodies into complicated positions.

“I’ve tried to drag some of my [military] friends to class, but I get made fun of. It’s not necessarily considered masculine,” he said.

But the popular classes, based on ancient Hindu practices of meditation through controlled breathing, balancing and stretching, are catching on in military circles as a way to improve flexibility, balance and concentration.

The August edition of Fit Yoga, the nation’s second-largest yoga magazine with a circulation of 100,000, features a photo of two naval aviators doing yoga poses in full flight gear aboard an aircraft carrier.

“At first it seemed a little shocking — soldiers practicing such a peaceful art,” wrote editor Rita Trieger.

Upon closer inspection, she said, she noticed “a sense of inner calm” on the aviators’ faces.

“War is hell, and if yoga can help them find a little solace, that’s good,” said Trieger, a longtime New York yoga instructor.

New York yoga master David Life created the Jivamukti Yoga method, which focuses on practicing yoga to attain enlightenment. His students teach the method at studios in Toronto, Munich and London, and celebrities such as Sting, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and designer Donna Karan are among his clients.

While the martial arts are rooted in yogic practices, modern warfare has become so high-tech that service members have lost contact with these traditions, Life said.

“I feel the interest in yoga from the people in the military shows that a professional warrior is not a mindless nervous system with a finger on the trigger. It goes back to the day when the warrior was calm and self-assured because they found that calmness within themselves,” he said.

Life said he hopes yoga can help troops in their roles as “peacemakers” by teaching them the techniques of achieving an inner peacefulness.

Retired Adm. Tom Steffens, who spent 34 years as a Navy SEAL and served as the elite force’s training director, regularly practices yoga at his home in Norfolk, Va.

“Once in a while, I’ll sit in class and everyone is a 20-something young lady with a 10-inch waist and here I am, this old guy,” he joked.

Steffens, who said the stretching helped him eliminate the stiffness of a biceps injury after surgery, said the benefits of regular practice can be enormous.

“The yoga cured all kinds of back pains. Being a SEAL, you beat up your body,” he said.

Yoga breathing exercises can help SEALs with diving, and learning to control the body by remaining in unusual positions can help service members stay in confined spaces for long periods, Steffens said.

“The ability to stay focused on something — whether on breathing or on the yoga practice, and not be drawn off course — that has a lot of connection to the military,” he said. “In our SEAL basic training, there are many things that are yogalike in nature.”

Zarracina learned about yoga from a former SEAL while at the Naval Academy. It has helped him improve his posture and become more comfortable while flying.

“Sitting in an airplane for two hours with a harness pulling on you, you will feel a hot spot around your back,” he said.

But he said mastering difficult stretches such as the splits wasn’t easy despite being in top physical condition.

“For the first two weeks, I didn’t like [yoga class] because it was painful. … Yoga taps into those core muscles that people don’t really use,” Zarracina said.

At the Army’s Camp Rudder on Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., Army Ranger candidates go through the final and most difficult stage in their grueling training regimen. Army Capt. Jeremiah Cordovano, a Rudder instructor, said yoga isn’t a part of Ranger training, but some use it to build flexibility.

“It’s still something that is sort of catching on, but a lot of guys have done it. I have done it quite a few times. A friend introduced me to it and I was surprised. At first I was just smiling, but after five or 10 minutes you really start to work out your muscles and stuff,” he said.

But Cordovano said the peaceful meditation techniques and chanting taught in yoga classes don’t necessarily transfer to the combat zone.

“I spent 14 months in Iraq and I didn’t see anybody doing yoga while I was over there,” he said.

And Life, the New York yoga master, said people shouldn’t confuse someone who has the physical strength to master difficult yoga poses with someone who uses the practice to reach enlightenment.

“Someone could be able to do every asana [pose] perfectly and still be a demon on this Earth,” he said. “But I do not think it is a coincidence or a fad that people are turning to yoga during these difficult times.”

— The Associated Press