Yoga can be a tremendously powerful tool for improving one’s health. Depending on the type practiced, it can improve cardiovascular health and increase strength and flexibility.
Some of the most significant benefits of yoga are not just physical, but mental. Yoga can help manage stress, encourage relaxation, and process trauma. For Vicky Hoffman, owner of Mecca Wellness in Washington Township, educating people about the many ways yoga can improve their life is a calling.
“I fell in love with yoga when I was 16,” she said. Hoffman has continued this love by becoming a certified yoga instructor, and she is currently working on her yoga therapy certification. She opened the doors of Mecca Wellness in April of this year.
Mecca Wellness targets practitioners with various needs and goals. “Our intention is to meet people where they are,” she said. Offerings include prenatal yoga geared to trimester, yin yoga for improving range of motion, restorative yoga for stress relief and relaxation, meditation classes, and a variety of classes for different physical needs, including chair yoga for those with limited mobility and advanced yoga for those seeking a physical challenge. A staff of yoga instructors with different specialties makes these options possible.
Hoffman plans to offer a variety of short-term classes with special focuses, like gearing up for tennis or bicycling or dealing with arthritis. She will also offer yoga therapy and coaching that can cover a range of needs, from dealing with stress and anxiety to dealing with hormonal and physical changes in the periods before, during, and after menopause. “Women tend to not take the time to care for themselves,” she said. Carving out the time to care for physical and mental health with yoga can be an important part of an overall healthy lifestyle.
Mecca Wellness offers both in-person and online class options to accommodate a range of needs. All of the classes, however, benefit directly or indirectly from the passion that Hoffman brings to her work every day.
