As soothing music played, they stretched on their exercise mats, and Michelle Stephens told them to breathe in and out through their nose.

With every move they made during the session, she said it should never pinch, burn or hurt.

“It’s all about feeling comfortable,” she said.

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After she showed them the basics of yoga, she said they shouldn’t have to think about anything for the final 10 minutes. They should let all of their worries and troubles go away.

By the end of the class, all of the participants were in a relaxed state of mind.

That’s exactly what Stephens wanted to see while recently teaching yoga to Special Olympics Indiana Jackson County athletes and volunteers.

“My big thing, especially in yoga, is I hope my students walk away with a little bit of relaxation, not really worrying about anything, just worrying about what you are doing right now in your class,” she said.

The class was conducted during a unified fitness club meeting. Year-round at 6 p.m. Thursdays, Special Olympics athletes and volunteers meet to walk and socialize for an hour. The meetings currently are at Girls Inc. of Jackson County in Seymour.

Since July, the organization has partnered with Anytime Fitness in Seymour with trainers coming once a month to lead athletes and volunteers through a workout.

It was looking for another local partnership, and Stephens agreed to teach yoga.

She has taught yoga to special needs students at Seymour-Redding Elementary School, but it was her first time teaching Special Olympics.

“This meant the world to me. It really did. I enjoyed it so much,” Stephens said. “I take away just a proud feeling that I’m able to show everybody — all types of people — how to do yoga. It makes me feel like I’m giving back because you do so much with yoga. It’s not about the money. It’s about the feeling that I can give to anybody that they feel calm.”

Stephens said she learned yoga three years ago, but it wasn’t until last year that she became certified to teach it.

“Being involved in fitness and being a mom and then being a businesswoman, I needed something to relax because I was always on the go, and I didn’t have enough time for my own self just to relax,” she said.

She started going to Project You once it was opened in downtown Seymour by Kelley Gillaspy, who Stephens had known for 20 years.

“She had opened up the studio, so I thought, ‘You know? I’m just going to go in and try it out and see if I like it,’” Stephens said.

She fell in love with it.

“I started doing it, went to classes all of the time, went to (Gillaspy’s) workshops that she had,” Stephens said.

Then in 2017, Stephens decided she wanted to become a yoga instructor. That was a big step because it required her to go to CITYOGA School of Yoga and Health in Indianapolis from 5 to 10:30 p.m. every Tuesday for 22 weeks.

“It’s a lot of dedication, and I knew my kids were gone (from home), and I knew this was the time to do it,” Stephens said. “(Teaching) is something that I’ve always wanted to do once I got into it.”

Stephens and the other students learned the anatomy and different flows.

“As soon as we got that, then you have to find something that you’re passionate about in yoga, so yoga can be for anything — meditation, it can be for anxiety,” she said. “You find one certain thing that you want to incorporate. I did meditation as a project.”

Stephens had to talk about meditation and lead the class through a session.

Students also had to lead a warmup session of deep breathing in and out and lead the basic class. Plus, they had to take classes three full weekends Friday through Sunday and at least 20 extra hours outside of classtime.

“Then at the end, you were graded on your full class, so you had to do it from beginning to end,” Stephens said. “Then you had to go to yoga classes that you could grade the teacher, not so much grade but watch what they did. They wanted to know about the technique. They wanted to know about what type of yoga you went to because there are so many different types of yoga.”

Those range from slow flow, like what Stephens did for Special Olympics, to fast yoga to hot yoga.

One of the biggest takeaways Stephens had from becoming certified is the importance of stretching.

“Stretching is so big, especially with the athletes,” she said. “They don’t stretch enough. I know they don’t because not a lot of athletes stretch enough, so we tell people all of the time, ‘Take a yoga class.’ It’s super-important.”

Athlete Alysha Sandlin said she had never done yoga before the recent session with Stephens. Her favorite part was rocking and rolling on the yoga mat.

While she usually is sore for a few days after workouts with the trainers, Sandlin said she felt relaxed after the yoga session.

Beth White, who participated in the yoga session with her daughter, Kayla White, said she had a good time.

“It was fun. It was relaxing,” Beth said. “I can definitely see doing it on a regular basis would be very beneficial. I could get to a little bit better stretch just by the end of the class.”

Stephens said she plans to work with the Special Olympics group during other unified fitness club meetings in the future. She also teaches yoga two nights a week at Snap Fitness in Seymour and is getting ready to teach at Project You again.

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The Special Olympics Indiana Jackson County unified fitness club meets from 6 to 7 p.m. every Thursday at Girls Inc. of Jackson County, 956 N. O’Brien St., Seymour.

The club gives athletes ages 8 and up and partners an opportunity to walk and do other activities together once a week year-round. Clubs are formed using the Unified Sports model, pairing people with and without disabilities.

On the first Thursday of each month, trainers from Anytime Fitness lead attendees through different exercises. Other local partners occasionally lead sessions.

Before participating in the unified fitness club, athletes and partners must turn in all of the forms required by Special Olympics Indiana. Athletes must fill out an application for participation and a medical form, and partners must be a Class A volunteer and complete the online training.

Forms may be obtained by emailing county coordinator Crystal Ackeret at [email protected] or downloaded online at soindiana.org and clicking on “Resources.” Partners also can visit the same website to do the online volunteer training.

Special Olympics Indiana is a not-for-profit organization that provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in more than 20 Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

Information: facebook.com/jacksoncountyspecialolympics

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