Volunteer instructor teaches free classes in Kensington with Yoga 4 Philly

KENSINGTON (WPVI) -- Paid Sponsor Partnership: Philadelphia Corporation for Aging

Every Tuesday, volunteer yoga instructor Lorenzo Thomas leads a class with Yoga 4 Philly called, 'Stretch & Strengthen'.

"The idea is fitness for adults," says Thomas. "We usually get into some Vinyasa movement."

The free class is held at The Core Fitness in the Esperanza Health Center in Kensington.

"Yoga 4 Philly is really focused on making yoga and meditation accessible to everyone," says Thomas. "So we do yoga in public places like this."

Thomas volunteers his time teaching, after a career in education.

"I am a retired school district superintendent," he says. "My job now is to serve the people."

To make the class even more inclusive, Thomas can teach yoga in Spanish as well as English.

"I just love doing it," he says.

He starts with a warmup, then they go on to stretching the legs.

"There's always some ab work, some strengthening work, often boat pose crunches, sometimes planks," he says. "I have a class plan in my mind, but I alter that based on what I see and hear."

Thomas says one thing gained from doing yoga is proprioception, which is "awareness of our own bodies."

His hour-long sessions will clear your headspace. He asks his classes to focus their minds on their breath.

"People can use their body and their breath to calm the mind down and find some sense of peace and tranquility," he says.

Thomas says that's what drew him to yoga in 1997.

"My son had died in Seattle in '96," he says. "I took a bicycle ride across the country."

He says he started in Seattle and rode home as a way of "healing and spending time with my son in my mind."

"And so, one of my friends told me, you really ought to do yoga after this," he says.

He did a 10-day yoga immersion when he returned home and then trained to teach others. He started in Iyengar yoga, which he calls a "very postural kind of yoga." Then, he found his way to Vinyasa yoga and Hatha yoga.

"And I've done trauma-informed yoga training," he says.

Ultimately, Thomas says he wants to make yoga inclusive and fun for the community.

"Movement, moving, it's meditative and I just find that really wonderful," he says.

For more information:

Lorenzo Thomas - Yoga 4 Philly
The Core Fitness at Esperanza Health Center
Yoga 4 Philly Classes

The Core Fitness
3222 H. Street
Philadelphia, PA 19134