Курсы по йоге, фехтованию и медитации в GW помогут студентам снять стресс

While politics discussion sessions and statistics recitations fill your schedule and stress your mind, GW’s Lifestyle, Sport and Physical Activity courses seek to offer a relaxing respite on your hectic calendar. This semester’s LSPA classes feature over 26 one-credit offerings with courses like golf, meditation, tai chi and zumba. While some some courses require an additional fee ranging from $14 to $550 for equipment, all classes are intended for beginners to learn a new activity, relax and have some fun. LSPA instructors teaching classes this fall semester said their courses are perfect for students to destress and gain an introduction sports and activities they otherwise wouldn’t have had easy access to. Reiki with Brian Stamps Brian Stamps, an LSPA instructor, said he teaches six LSPA courses of studio strength training, cardio kickboxing, aikido self defense, kenjutsu, jujutsu and reiki, a new course offering this year. After training as a reiki master for seven years in Northern Virginia under an Usui Reiki grand master, Stamps said he hopes to give students the opportunity to experience the calming effects of reiki, an energy healing method where practitioners place their hands lightly on or just above one’s body to reduce stress and ease pain. Stamps said he first started learning martial arts and fitness instruction when he served in the Marine Corps and worked with Marines who needed assistance meeting fitness standards if they had fallen out of shape. He said he reached out to the LSPA program director in 2018 out of an interest in continuing fitness instruction and started teaching cardio kickboxing in 2019, gaining more certificates and training over the years to increase his course offerings. Unlike the strength training and cardio kickboxing courses which work in a follow the leader format, Stamps said the reiki course will resemble a traditional academic class including lectures about the methods of reiki. He said he received his reiki certification and training after leaving the Marine Corps in 2015. “I want, and I’m sure other LSPA class instructors have similar feelings, that the class should be an opportunity for students to unwind and recharge, and should be stress free,” Stamps said. For his martial arts courses, Stamps said he helps his students level up their ranks, eventually reaching a black belt status if students stay in his classes each semester to build their skills, but the progression is not a requirement. He said his classes are all made for beginners, embracing students of all skill levels to ensure everyone gets something out of the class in the end. “I have had some of the varsity students in my classes before, and you know when I say, ‘Okay, you’re going to do a minute of push-ups,’ and they may they may do 100 of them,” Stamps said. “And I had other people who have never done a push-up in their life, and they get three done. It doesn’t matter because we all started at the same time, we all finish at the same time, we all move on to the next thing together.” Yoga with Stephen Redmon Stephen Redmon, an LSPA professor who teaches five sections of yoga, said he has taught yoga and holistic health and wellness for 25 years, and his courses aim to give students the skillsets to promote lifelong health and wellness while improving their mental health. “Students come to the classes with different backgrounds and experiences with regard to yoga and meditation and fitness, and so I shape my classes, so that I meet the students where they are, and let each student progress to improve where they are with their health and wellness,” Redmon said. Redmon said he started his yoga practice at a young age, learning skills in mindfulness from his grandma that inspired him to go on to start teaching at GW in 2008 after taking yoga and tai chi classes at Colgate University in his undergraduate years. He said he also completed training programs at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts and spent two months in Nepal learning about yoga, meditation and ayurveda, a holistic health system with origins in India. Redmon said he structures his classes through a balance of physical activity and discussion, teaching students about the science of yoga, including anatomy and physiology while also following a yoga flow with instructions on the intention behind each movement, incorporating practices like mediation and breathing techniques throughout. He said he hopes his courses will help students understand the importance of movement and incorporating yoga into their everyday lives as he has seen the benefits through his own life-long practice. “It’s important because the skills that we learn and incorporate into our daily routine are things that will carry on for a lifetime,” Redmon said. Fencing with Sarah Poncet Landolt Sarah Poncet Landolt, the only current LSPA fencing instructor, said she wanted to teach the course to give students an opportunity to try a sport that they might otherwise not have the chance to try as fencing is a less accessible sport due to high cost and limited facilities in D.C. Poncet Landolt said she teaches foil, one of fencing’s three weapons typically used by beginners because of its light weight, in addition to coaching GW’s club fencing team. She said her classes focus on teaching students basic footwork, attacking and defending methods and refereeing through Olympic style instruction, ultimately putting skills into practice through competitive matches. “In the class, they’re taught general footwork, so going forward, backwards, attacking, defending, techniques and tactics to score, and then refereeing, and this is all to the Olympic level style of teaching so if they want to watch an Olympic game, they’ll be able to figure out what’s going on,” Poncet Landolt said. Poncet Landolt said she has been fencing since she was six years old and has competed in local, regional, national and international tournaments, earning her a national ranked spot in her youth. She said she joined GW club fencing as a graduate student when she attended GW from 2021-2023 and began teaching the LSPA course in 2025 after the previous instructor retired. Poncet Landolt said she structures her classes to teach students the way of thinking through the sport as fencing requires tactical thinking alongside the physical movement, calling the sport “athletic chess” as a reference to how players move backward and forward in competitions. “So the first two classes, in the course are very much movement so you’re not introduced to the sword or anything, but depending on the speed of everyone in the class and how quick they take in the material, they’ll get dressed by class three and start fighting,” Poncet Landolt said. Poncet Landolt said all the equipment is provided for students enrolled in the fencing class, except for a $25 fee, allowing students to try the typically expensive sport for a low cost. She said the fee includes equipment like masks, protective clothing and the foil swords. She said the sport combines athleticism and strategy, and students can use the course as a way to destress and have fun. “It’s an easy way to get into the sport that’s usually a pretty expensive starting cost without having to pay anything,” Poncet Landolt said.