The lights are dimmed. Sounds of calm, soft music fill the room. The students lay flat on their mats, backs to the earth, as the Yoga Fit class begins at the Ames Community Center.

Kris Mach, certified fitness instructor and yoga teacher for the community center, said she takes time at the beginning of each class to explain to students that yoga is a very personalized activity, and students get out of it what they want to get out of it.

“Each day, each pose is unique,” she said. “There is no perfect pose. The perfect pose is where you are at this moment.”

Mach encourages students to lay with their backs flat to the earth to begin class in a resting pose. She reminds them to check in with their bodies and allow their breath to move through their bodies completely.

“Yoga is all about learning how to use breathing as a calming mechanism,” Mach said.

The first half of each yoga class is spent allowing students to relax and focus on breathing. In the second half of the class, students become more active, Mach said. They begin standing on their feet, trying out different poses and reaching and stretching their bodies.

“Students spend some time in the downward-facing dog pose, which is an in-between pose,” Mach said.

Toward the end of the session, Mach encourages students to catch their breath and refocus their energy.

“Lay with your backs flat to the earth, allow your body to melt and become heavy, while you bring your mind back to the present,” she said.

The Ames Community Center, 515 Clark Ave., offers Yoga Fit four times a week. Three of its classes are filled to capacity.

“Yoga focuses on flexibility, strength and the mind-body connection,” said Nancy Shaw, health and wellness coordinator for the center. “This is more of a fitness yoga. It is a bit more intense, and there isn’t as much time spent on the poses. There are just a lot of things in traditional yoga that aren’t safe, some of the poses are hard on your neck and spine. We have moved away from some of that and more towards the fitness and flexibility aspect.”

The Lied Recreation Center also will start offering yoga sessions Nov. 1. They will be offered Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays at a variety of times.

Lynn Spivey, fitness program coordinator for the Lied Recreation Center, said the decision to offer yoga classes was made after survey results indicated it would be a popular new class.

“We did a survey to see which programs participants enjoyed and which ones they would most like to see offered,” she said. “Yoga came up more frequently than any other recommendation.”

Spivey said the Lied Recreation Center also will offer a fitness-based yoga.

“This class will also be a bit more intense than traditional yoga,” she said. “This focuses on body strength, cardiovascular conditioning and several different flexibility components.”

Spivey said the fitness yoga classes will attract several types of students, as the class is aimed to benefit all ages and is safe and effective for all fitness levels. Shaw said the same reasoning was behind the community center’s class choice.

“We switched to Yoga Fit this past fall to reach more people in the fitness industry,” Shaw said. “And so far, our results have been great.”

Despite stereotypes, the activity is not solely for women or a specific age group, Mach said.

“Because this is such an individual, non-competitive activity, it can easily benefit both males and females of all ages,” she said.

“There are a variety of people taking Yoga Fit for a variety of reasons,” she said. “Some students take it because it helps them sleep, others want to work on flexibility, and it also helps some people deal with stress and become more calm. The benefits of yoga are endless.”

Although students only attend one yoga session a week, Mach said she encourages her students to do it on their own as much as possible.

“Even if it is five or 10 minutes a day at home the more practice you get, the more comfortable you will be doing it,” Mach said.