The Office of Recreation and Well-Being’s (Recwell )Shake the Winter Blues Week included a long list of activities for students to stop by and learn about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Recwell started the week with tabling in the Baugher Student Center concourse to enlighten students about the “winter blues” and offer solutions to combating the symptoms of SAD.
Events were held every weekday from Feb. 17–22. The other activities included a visit from K-Pets therapy dogs in the upper lounge of the Bowers Center, a comfort food cooking demonstration in the Bowers Center demo kitchen, a dance class taught by the Elizabethtown College Dance Team, a book nook with bean bags and books and a hot yoga class at the Wild and Free yoga studio in Elizabethtown.
RecWell covered the cost for 34 students to experience the heated yoga class instructed by Sam Gustantino who began teaching classes at Wild and Free in February 2024. The experience lasted an hour with temperatures rising to 90 or more degrees Fahrenheit and music to get students into the flow of their movements.
Gustantino started the yoga class by telling a story of two lumberjacks. She said that both would work the same hours each day, but one would take an hour-long break and somehow get more wood chopped than the other. Gustantino then told the class that getting rest even for just an hour can help you accomplish more than not taking a break.
The class flowed through various motions and postures to the speed of your breath. Gustantino first led the class with the directions to every posture before turning up the music and letting the class work at their own pace.
If students are looking to take another class similar to this at Wild and Free, it would be their Power Yoga classes which are their signature class at the studio.
“Our Power Yoga classes are a high energy, vinyasa style class set to the backdrop of dynamic music. The space is heated to 90+ degrees,” Gustantino said.
In addition to Power Yoga, the studio also offers Slow Power classes that are similar to their Power Yoga classes with a little less heat and more time in poses. Wild and Free also offers Candlelight Yin classes.
“It is a tension relieving class in a warm, candlelit space. We go deep into the connective tissue through passive postures held for several minutes,” Gustantino said.
Wild and Free has collaborated with the college on a few other events this academic year. The studio led Sunrise Yoga in August for Etown’s New Student Orientation, Candlelight Yoga in September for Suicide Prevention Week and Restorative Yoga in November. Hot Yoga was the second class the Wild and Free hosted at their studio in Elizabethtown for RecWell.
So, for those who are looking to start their yoga journey, just do it!
“Give it a try! We are here to welcome you with open arms and will always encourage you to just breathe, be you and belong,” Gustantino said.“The hardest part about taking on anything new in life is making the decision to do it and actually showing up. Showing up for yourself and investing in your peace, your mental health and your quality of life is a necessary thing for all of us.”
In March, Wild and Free has “Bring a Friend Month” which allows those with a membership to bring a friend (for the first time) for free and get entered to win prizes. The studio is also hosting free classes every second Sunday of the month at Troegs Independent Brewing in Hershey at 11 a.m.
More information about Gustantino can be found on her Instagram page @sam_gustantino_yoga. For more information about all the classes Wild and Free offers and to see their different membership packages, visit https://www.wildandfreepoweryoga.com/.
