Jenny Gore works full time as a police dispatcher. Her shifts are long-- sometimes twelve hours--and she鈥檚 often on the road. It鈥檚 a hectic schedule, and there鈥檚 no shortage of stress in her life. Still, she tries to make room for yoga. In fact, she鈥檚 surprised at how important yoga has become to her.
"I think you see the whole OMMM meditation thing [laughs]," says Gore. "I had no idea that it, you know, it was stretching and toning, and the breathing was a big thing too, learning how to breathe, and doing it with the motions. I finally just went to a class, and just fell in love with it immediately. I was like, yes, I鈥檝e definitely got to stick with this."
Despite yoga鈥檚 increasing popularity across the United States, few yoga classes can be found in rural areas. Gore takes yoga classes whenever she can at the YMCA in Carlisle, Kentucky. She is grateful to have access to this class, in a region where staying healthy is a challenge. The smoking rate is high, life expectancy is low. The county鈥檚 hospital closed in 2014. Many residents travel twenty miles or more to see a doctor. Gore has a friend whose doctor is in Lexington, an hour away.
"I have a best friend who鈥檚 been going through the breast cancer thing, and she had it in her lymph nodes, and her doctor told her that she needed to do yoga. I鈥檝e always tried to get her to exercise with me, but it鈥檚 easier for me, she lives in Fleming County, quite a ways, but she did say she鈥檇 like to come to yoga in Carlisle. It just hasn鈥檛 happened for her yet."
With a population of just under 2,000, Carlisle is lucky to have its own YMCA. Nine students fill the small room during this Thursday lunch hour class. Jennie Lee, the yoga teacher at the Carlisle Y, has to drive almost an hour from her home in Robertson County to get here. She says she feels as if she lives in a 鈥測oga desert.鈥�
"I鈥檓 teaching currently, but I don鈥檛 teach in my home county. I have to drive a couple of counties in either direction to teach. We鈥檝e lived here for a year and a half and I鈥檝e spent a lot of that time puzzling over the best way to introduce people to yoga," says Lee. "A lot of folks around here, if they鈥檙e lucky enough to have a job, it鈥檚 in a factory that鈥檚 a county over, and they probably work a twelve-hour shift, and then they鈥檝e probably got a farm. For people who are working at least two jobs and trying to raise families, there鈥檚 no space in their day to day life where yoga really fits in very well."
Lee herself lives on a farm, and made a living as a farmer before becoming a yoga teacher.
"I know that during my truck farming days, if I鈥檇 had yoga, I would have been a lot more comfortable. There鈥檚 a lot of repetitive use tensions that you create when you鈥檙e hoeing 400 feet of carrots or whatever," she says.
Most of the people in Jennie Lee鈥檚 yoga class at the Carlisle Y are retirees. She鈥檚 happy for their presence in her class, but is always thinking about how to bring yoga to more people. Especially those who may not know they need it.
"I鈥檇 love to do a yoga for farmers class, but I don鈥檛 think anybody would come."
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