WKCTC Offers 'Yoga for Arthritis' Fall Classes

West Kentucky Community and Technical College is offering a new two-part series of yoga classes for individuals with arthritis. The classes, which include Yoga for Arthritis 1 and 2 will be held in September and October. Early registration is encouraged.

Yoga for Arthritis 1 will be held each Tuesday and Friday, September 4 -28. Instructor Karen Splane will teach the classes from 9:30 am - 10:30 am in WKCTC's Emerging Technology Center (ETC), Room 109. The cost of the four-week class is $75.

Splane will also teach Yoga for Arthritis 2 in October. The classes will be October 2-26, also each Tuesday and Friday in the ETC, Room 109 from 9:30 am - 10:30 am. The cost is $75 for the four-week classes. Yoga for Arthritis 1 is a prerequisite for the October yoga classes.

"Yoga for Arthritis (YFA)" was developed at a leading research university by an interdisciplinary team of rheumatologists, psychologists, public health researchers and yoga therapists. Combining yoga practices with medical knowledge, YFA offers modifications to address the unique abilities and limitations of rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis patients.

YFA is intended to build lifetime skills in a basic structure that participants can repeat at home. Poses are repeated and reinforced to gain skill and confidence; new challenges are added as students become more comfortable in the class, familiar with yoga and physically fit.

Benefits for YFA classes are customizable to the needs and limitations of each student, as well as teaching participants:
• breathing and mental focus exercises beneficial for mental health and coping,
• supportive social connections to encourage reframing of the disease,
• low/no impact movement
• how to optimize range of movement; increase flexibility, muscle strength, stability and balance; improve bone density.

Register for classes online at westkentucky.kctcs.edu/workforce-solutions, click on Community Education, Lifestyles, Fitness & Hobbies or call 270-534-3335.

West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC) has been recognized as an Aspen Prize Top 10 Community College four times awarded by the Aspen Institute and has twice been named a Finalist with Distinction for providing students with strong job training and continuing higher education opportunity, for achieving high completion and transfer rates, and for providing strong employment results for its graduates.



• Yoga for Arthritis classes offered at WKCTC in September and October.