Warm Up Your Week With Beach Yoga

There’s nothing like a morning stretch session on the beach to wind down from a busy weekend and gear up for the upcoming week

Kathy Navis, owner of Junction Center Yoga Studio, teaches outdoor yoga classes at the Egg Harbor beach on Monday mornings.
“Doing yoga on the beach with that beautiful view of the bay, and the sailboats coming through and the gulls overhead – it’s just the perfect combination to be able to do yoga in a natural environment,” she said.
Photo by Dan Eggert.

“Doing yoga on the beach with that beautiful view of the bay, and the sailboats coming through and the gulls overhead – it’s just the perfect combination to be able to do yoga in a natural environment,” said Kathy Navis, instructor and owner of Junction Center Yoga Studio in Jacksonport.

Navis has taught beach yoga classes for three years. She meets students on the Egg Harbor beach on Monday mornings in the summer, and classes often draw crowds of 20 or 30 people who want to stretch their bodies and calm their minds. She holds the classes on the beach’s grassy area behind the kayak rentals, and students look out on the water as they move from pose to pose.

Practicing yoga outside is a different experience than practicing in a quiet, climate-controlled studio. The wind and uneven ground make balance poses more challenging, and the bugs, rain and sounds of boat horns and beach grooming can be distracting.

But Navis said most of the aspects of practicing yoga outside are positive. Students can gaze at the horizon as they adjust their postures, and feel the sun warm their skin as it moves higher in the sky during classes.

Some physical benefits of yoga:
• Increasing flexibility
• Increasing lubrication of the joints, ligaments and tendons
• Massaging all organs of the body
• Complete detoxification
• Excellent toning of the muscles

“I think the experience of being in nature is probably one of the most spiritual, healing things you can do,” she said. “I think to practice yoga in nature, there’s really nothing more wonderful.”

Navis has found that outdoor classes are more welcoming for new students who might be intimidated by attending classes in a traditional yoga studio. Instead, heading to a yoga class just feels like a trip to the beach.

“I just think it’s an incredible experience for anyone who hasn’t done yoga before to do it in an outdoor environment,” Navis said. “We have people show up who have never done yoga before, and they just want to try it out.

One of the real perks of practicing yoga on the beach is the post-class cool down.

“It is really great to do yoga and get hot and sweaty and then go for a swim,” Navis said. “It’s the most heavenly thing.”

Beach Yoga classes are held Monday mornings on the Egg Harbor beach. Level II classes begin at 8 am and Level I classes begin at 10. Classes are $10 per session.