Yoga approach uses put-hands-here mat

In this March 7, 2014 photo, Elizabeth Morrow poses on her specially designed Yoga by Numbers mat in Bow, N.H. The mat gives true yoga beginners a step-by-step roadmap to learn poses at their own pace. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
In this March 7, 2014 photo, Elizabeth Morrow poses on her specially designed Yoga by Numbers mat in Bow, N.H. The mat gives true yoga beginners a step-by-step roadmap to learn poses at their own pace. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

Combine Twister, paint-by-numbers and the popular practice of breath control, meditation and poses, and you get Yoga by Numbers.

The approach - complete with a numbered mat - was designed by a Boston woman whose own health scare inspired her to put yoga in reach for people with physical limitations and tight schedules.

Her oversize yoga mat is dotted with numbered circles that look like the target in a rifle scope. An accompanying DVD gives true yoga beginners - those who wouldn’t know a downward-facing dog from a Chihuahua - a step-by-step road map to learn the poses at their own pace.

Elizabeth Morrow was an athlete, a skier and soccer player who, two years ago, found herself hospitalized with a right lung full of blood clots, the lower lobe completely collapsed. When she was strong enough to start exercising again, she found attending even the easiest of yoga classes too taxing. She didn’t have the stamina for an hour, couldn’t hold the poses the way the instructor wanted.

So the 32-year-old started thinking of ways to make it easier.

“I was thinking about a paint-by-number kit where you don’t need to be Picasso or van Gogh, you just follow what they tell you and you’ll come out with something,” she said. “I just wanted something that felt really accessible and doable for people. The image of the mat just popped into my head: ‘Wow, I can do yoga by numbers as well.’”

The DVD tells users which circle to put their hands and feet in and allows for advancement to more challenging poses.

Yoga by Numbers has been compared to Twister, the popular game with giant colored circles, a spinning wheel and crazy, cross-limbed poses. Morrow’s cool with that, even when it comes from critics.

“I think it’s awesome when they have that reaction because to me, that means they get it and they know how to use it,” said Morrow, a certified yoga instructor.

Morrow has sold to people who live far from a yoga studio, those with tight schedules who need to squeeze in practice whenever they can, and people with health conditions that make visiting a yoga center difficult.

“People who are older are using it because the DVD really focuses you on not contorting yourself into Cirque du Soleil-style acrobatics,” Morrow said. She demonstrated the mat recently at her parents’ house in Bow, N.H., about an hour north of Boston.

Janet Lark teaches yoga in Ogden, Iowa, and had a bad experience with a poorly cut, astringent-smelling mat, so she started doing some research. She came upon Morrow’s mat and was struck by how simple it was for novices.

“It truly was a ‘Duh! Why didn’t anyone think of that sooner?’ moment,” she said. “It is fantastic to notice how quickly the clients start to focus on making sure they are properly aligned.”

Morrow does hear from critics.

“My response is that this is not a mandate,” she said. “I think that if you’re already practicing yoga and it works for you, that’s great and I’m really excited for you. I’m interested in hearing from people for whom the system doesn’t work.”

A spokesman for the nonprofit Yoga Alliance, which represents teachers, schools and studios, said the ideal situation is to learn from a master teacher in private classes, but time and cost can be barriers.

“Any tool that helps people practice yoga is a good thing,” said Katie Desmond. “And so we applaud Elizabeth’s ingenuity in spreading the power of yoga by helping to make the process of learning yoga as a beginner more accessible.”

Morrow patented the idea and sells the mats, made in the United States from sustainable rubber, for $119.95 including DVD and carry strap.

ActiveStyle, Pages 25 on 03/31/2014

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