Yoga festival highlights women’s health
On March 28, the annual Yoga Festival featured multiple formats of yoga, pilates and barre. Multiple guest speakers informed community members about women’s mental and physical health.
“I like offering this program yearly, as it is a great way for students and community members to interact,” Dottie Kerkman, fitness and special events coordinator for the Wellness Center, said.
Kerkman believes that the event gives an opportunity for community members to do something healthy for themselves and try something new. If the event continues to have an acceptable attendance rate, then Kerkman will continue to offer it with new presents.
“The turnout was better than I expected as the registration number on the Wednesday before was only 13 and we ended with 41 registered,”
Kerkman said.
For the last several years, the attendance number has averaged around 40 people. A reason why Kerkman thinks the turnout has been satisfactory is because of the presenters and the free lunch. Students also do not have to pay for the event which helps improve numbers.
One speaker was Dr. Marysa Warnhoff, who gave a full talk on pelvic floor health.
Dr. Warnhoff is a pelvic floor physical therapist and the owner of Uprise Pelvic Health. She specializes in helping people understand and reconnect with their pelvic floor.
“When community members have access to accurate information, they realize they have options. That knowledge can be genuinely life changing,” Dr. Warnhoff said.
Many people go years or decades not realizing that the symptoms they are living with are treatable. Dr. Warnhoff pushes for more open conversation about the pelvic floor because it involves different aspects of life including movement and comfort.
“Understanding your own pelvic floor, whether it tends to hold tension or lacks enough tone, helps you get more out of your yoga practice,” Dr. Warnhoff said.
Yoga and the pelvic floor have an interconnected relationship. Yoga engages with the core and diaphragm, which work in coordination with the pelvic floor. Exercises that engage hip mobility, breathing and body awareness support the pelvic floor function. The mental health benefits during yoga has, what Dr. Warnhoff calls an underrated, but large impact on pelvic health.
“Women’s health has historically been under-researched and under-discussed, so any opportunity to fill that gap in a community setting matters,” Dr. Warnhoff said. ”When you put a room full of women together in a space that already values body awareness and self-reflection, and then open up a conversation about the pelvic floor, something shifts.”
Events like this can allow people to feel less alone and start to ask questions they’ve had for years about their own health. The willingness that the people had to engage left Dr. Warnhoff feeling “genuinely energized.”
“Yoga communities are curious, body-aware and open to conversations that a lot of people avoid, which is exactly the kind of space where pelvic health education thrives,” Dr. Warnhoff said.
