Steve Arcos is confused. The native Angeleno and longtime Echo Park resident is a beginning yoga teacher and, to give back to the community that he grew up in, he's been offering donation-based yoga classes three times a week at the newly re-opened Echo Park Lake.


So when Arcos came across an angry complaint on the Echo Elysian Forum (a Yahoo group)[1] that accused him of profiteering from public grounds and compared his classes to "guys on blankets selling used clothing," he felt blindsided.


"No one's ever come up to say anything to me except to say something positive," said Arcos in a phone interview with HuffPost. "That's why I was so shocked to hear someone was upset about it."


Hyperlocal news site Eastsider LA first reported[2] on the Yahoo group thread.


Arcos sets up shop in a corner of the park three times a week. He puts a small donation box next to a bowl of fruit and asks for donations in the zero to ten dollars range -- in other words, whatever participants can afford to give.


"People think I'm charging everyone," said Arcos, "but if you were to count how many people come compared to the amount of money I get, most people don't seem to pay."


And that's just fine with Arcos. He teaches at two other yoga studios around LA and thinks of his Echo Park sessions as something good for the neighborhood. They started gathering once a week in July and then twice a week in August. Now, at three times a week, Arcos' park classes attract as much as 20 students per class. And Arcos isn't the only person exercising at the park, he pointed out -- running groups and other exercise classes can be spotted around the lake from time to time.



Currently, the park is first-come, first-serve, and no permits are being issued for group activities on the lawn, confirmed a rep with LA's Department of Recreation and Parks to HuffPost. Which means that for now, Arcos and other exercise groups are free to run their classes on the lawn.


"There used to be not a good crowd there," Arcos concluded. "To see it like this now, renovated and beautiful and a great place to be, why wouldn't you want a positive group of people to be there?"


While Echo Park Lake is just beginning to grapple with its new popularity among community members and exercise groups, Palisades Park in Santa Monica has been dealing with the issue for a year. Earlier this month, the Santa Monica City Council voted to enact a year-long pilot program issuing permits to trainers and confining them to designated sections of the park, reports the local site Santa Monica Lookout[3] .


The vote came after some Santa Monica residents requested that the groups be completely banned from the park, which overlooks the ocean.



Also on HuffPost:




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  • Antigravity Yoga


    It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's -- yoga, in a suspended hammock?

    Antigravity Yoga (also referred to as Suspension Yoga, Upside-Down Yoga and Aerial Yoga) is not for the faint of heart. The practice incorporates traditional yoga poses mixed with acrobatics in a silk hammock suspended from the ceiling.

    What are the benefits of yoga off the ground? Kayda Norman, <a href="http://news.health.com/2012/08/07/aerial-yoga-learning-to-fly/" target="_hplink">who documented her Aerial Yoga experience for Health.com</a> writes, "Aerial yoga allows you to stretch further and hold positions longer than other types of yoga. Suspension yoga also helps to decompress tight joints and relieve pressure."

    Alexandra Sifferlin, a reporter for <em>Time</em>, <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/22/we-tried-this-aerial-vinyasa-or-upside-down-yoga/" target="_hplink">also shared her go with a Suspension Yoga class</a>. She <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/22/we-tried-this-aerial-vinyasa-or-upside-down-yoga/" target="_hplink">reported in a video of her experience</a> that the aerial class was helpful for "better controlled movements as you strengthen your core muscles."

    And for those without the strength and control for traditional inversions like headstands, Aerial Yoga gives us a chance to try these out.




  • Tantrum Yoga


    Tantrum Yoga can help you access your inner child: the grumpy one, who needs to throw a tantrum to get back to center.

    It isn't violent; instead, it's an outlet -- a release -- that combines traditional yoga poses, dancing and, yes, some yelling.

    <a href="http://www.hemalayaa.com/" target="_hplink">Yoga teacher Hemalaaya </a>developed this therapeutic kind of yoga as the next step in her fusion-focused classes. And, as <a href="http://www.hemalayaa.com/?p=1629" target="_hplink">she puts it</a>, throwing a little tantrum works to relieve her own frustrations. She encourages her students to release stress by yelling, chest-pounding and laughing.

    "I believe we are emotional beings and there are times we need to express in order to let go of emotion, especially old stuff that is sitting in there, festering. Otherwise it gets stuck in our bodies and could turn into stress, disease, etc." she told <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/food_coach&id=8666290" target="_hplink">ABC News</a>.




  • Wheelchair Yoga


    Perhaps it is Wheelchair Yoga that best demonstrates the versatility of the yoga practice.

    Many of the actions performed in Wheelchair Yoga (or, similarly Chair Yoga) are traditional poses adapted for those who are in wheelchairs. The <a href="http://www.livestrong.com/article/319124-yoga-exercises-for-someone-in-a-wheelchair/" target="_hplink">Cat Stretch, Cow Pose and Eagle Pose</a>, for example, have all been modified to be performed while sitting.

    Chair Yoga prioritizes breath-work and physical postures and can be incredibly beneficial for those with limited mobility. The activity can help to <a href="http://www.ncpad.org/disability/fact_sheet.php?sheet=345&view=all" target="_hplink">decrease physical pain and tension</a> and it promotes the many benefits of physical activity to those with disabilities might not otherwise have access.




  • Harmonica Yoga


    Harmonica Yoga is a form of Raja Yoga (yoga for both the body and the mind). Harmonica playing and yoga are both based on the control of the breath, making this a fun way to work on mindfulness.

    "Harmonica is the easiest and most accessible way to practice breath control," <a href="http://www.davidharp.com/" target="_hplink">David Harp</a>, the founder and originator of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=David Harp&ie=UTF8&search-alias=books&sort=relevancerank" target="_hplink">HarmonicaYoga™</a> and HuffPost blogger wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. "This allows practitioners to short-circuit mental patterns such as fight or flight responses, and thus develop mindfulness," he continued.




  • Laughter Yoga


    If laughter is the best medicine and yoga touts countless health benefits, the combination of the two must be infallible.

    In this silly practice (its founder, Sebastien Gendry, <a href="ttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/06/laughter-yoga-benefits_n_1478960.html" target="_hplink">called it "bizarre" and "weird"</a>) you might find yourself clapping joyously, milking imaginary cows and pretending to be a lion, just as <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/06/laughter-yoga-benefits_n_1478960.html" target="_hplink">Catherine Pearson did in her Laughter Yoga class, as she reported</a> in HuffPost's Healthy Living.

    Laughter Yoga incorporates much less of the physical aspects of yoga and much more of the social and mindful aspects. Still, the physical benefits are not completely lost: laughter has been found to <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16652129" target="_hplink">burn calories </a> and <a href="http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/26/5/1651.full" target="_hplink">lower blood sugar levels</a>.




  • Karaoke Yoga


    Karaoke Yoga, developed by Los Angeles-based yoga instructor <a href="http://jenniferpastiloff.com/" target="_hplink">Jennifer Pastiloff</a>, gives people the opportunity to stretch their limbs <em>and</em> their vocal chords.

    The class is equipped with a TV screen to display song lyrics and, luckily for those with stage fright, there are no solo performances. You can expect to sing along with the whole class to songs from Adele, Elton John and Journey.

    The focus of the class is joy, not the perfecting of poses. "It's not about alignment, it's about connecting to your joy," Pasiloff <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/food_coach&id=8713322" target="_hplink">said in an ABC News interview</a>. Though not about the yoga, per se, it's still about the workout: "It's longer exhales, it's sweating, dancing," she insists.

    Pasiloff wrote in a<a href="http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-5085/What-the-Heck-Is-Karaoke-Yoga.html" target="_hplink"> blog post for <em>Mind Body Green,</em></a>"It is connecting some of the greatest pleasures I know of in life: dancing, singing, yoga, connecting and good old fashioned rock 'n' roll."




  • Yoga Raves


    Yoga Raves bring the yoga studio to the club -- so don't forget your glow sticks (and glitter).

    Combining music, movement and meditation in a single space, Yoga Raves also promote drug-free fun. Many of these raves begin with a guided meditation as a warm up, to lead into a more free movement.

    According to the not-for-profit movement's website <a href="http://Yoga Rave" target="_hplink">Yogarave.org</a>, "The Yoga Rave Project will bring the spiritual element back to celebration and the way we have fun, offering a drug free alternative for our youth to gather and release their energy and tension."

    <a href="http://www.artofliving.org/us-en" target="_hplink">The Art Of Living Foundation</a>, which funds and organizes <a href="http://Yogaraves.org" target="_hplink">Yogaraves.org</a>, is not the only initiative propelling the yoga dance party. <a href="http://www.jivamuktiyoga.com/" target="_hplink">Jivamukti</a> and <a href="http://www.laughinglotus.com/" target="_hplink">Laughing </a>Lotus are among the yoga schools supporting the combination of yoga and "getting down."

    <a href="http://www.yogadork.com/news/grab-your-glow-ga-sticks-yoga-raves-all-the-rage/" target="_hplink">Yogadork.com might have said it best:</a> "The Yoga Rave: a place where you can totally trip out drug free, get friendly with your fellow man/woman and wake up in your own bed the next morning (if you so choose)."




  • The World's Oldest Yoga Teacher


    And just for fun, here's a video of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/14/tao-porchon-lynch-93-worlds-oldest-yoga-teacher_n_1515579.html" target="_hplink">the world's oldest yoga teacher</a>, 93-year-old Tao Porchon-Lynch, showing off all she's got.




  • Seane Corn on The Benefits of Vinyasa Yoga


    Yoga instructor Seane Corn explains the benefits of Vinyasa yoga.