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Apr. 11--Ma'lena Walley has struggled with weight her entire life. She has tried every diet. Not a day goes by, she says, that she doesn't think about being fat.
She would like to lose 50 pounds, and get her blood pressure under control without medication.
Still, though, the Spokane woman says:
"I am more fit than most people, fat or otherwise. Under this fat is a lot of muscle."
In fact, Walley, 52, is a yoga instructor who teaches a "Yoga for Round Bodies" class at Harmony Yoga, 1717 W. Sixth Ave. She also teaches restorative yoga. She likes going for walks. And she works out at Curves, too.
Walley sits squarely in the middle of a debate that has raged in both research and cultural circles in recent years: Can you be both fit and fat?
"I guess it would depend on what they're looking at," says Janet Beary, a clinical assistant professor with the exercise physiology and metabolism program at Washington State University in Spokane. "There's metabolic fitness, there's cardiopulmonary fitness and muscular fitness â?¦ In my opinion, weight cannot be the indicator of who's fit and who's fat. You have to really look at the individual as a whole person."
A study in last month's Journal of the American Medical Association found that heavier women â?? even if they were active â?? were more at risk for cardiovascular problems than thinner, inactive women.
The study, which looked at more than 27,000 healthy women, found that regular exercise was beneficial to all women. Women of normal weight who did not exercise were also at increased risk of heart problems.
"Somebody can have ideal weight, but they could be very limited in muscular strength," says Judy Knuth, a clinical instructor with the WSU-Spokane program. "Their cardio-respiratory assessment may be poor. They may look healthy, but truly they're not."
Even losing five or 10 percent of one's total weight can make a big difference in overall health, like lowering blood pressure or reducing cardiovascular risk factors, Knuth says. "I don't want to give people the impression that their weight isn't important because I believe it still is important â?¦ because it does reduce those risks of chronic disease."
People who haven't exercised should start out slowly, of course, and gradually work up to 30 minutes a day, Knuth says.
Walley says she knows she's not as fit as she could be if she got down to a healthy weight. But she says she feels better than she has in years.
She suffers from ulcerative colitis, a disease that causes ulcers to form in the lining of the colon. Some days, during a flare-up, she barely had the energy to get out of bed. Medication to help treat the disease made her gain weight, she says.
She had tried yoga in her 20s, but Walley rediscovered the practice about seven years ago. She could take only a few classes, though, before getting ill again and having to drop out.
Then she started taking classes with yoga instructor Brit Penberthy, who teaches at Harmony. Penberthy helped find ways for Walley to modify poses so that she could do them comfortably and safely.
"She's a strong little thing," Penberthy says. "She has really nice poses. â?¦ She has been a really great teacher to me in what's possible."
Using chairs, blocks, straps and other props, Walley discovered she could get into all sorts of yoga positions.
"I saw immediately yoga should be for everyone, not just skinny people," Walley says.
She studied yoga in San Diego and recently became a certified instructor.
"It is completely transformative," she says. She feels more at home in her body, she says, and her colitis has been in remission for almost a year.
She knows yoga does not burn enough calories to take off pounds, so she does cardiovascular exercise as well.
"It's a mistake to look at yoga as exercise," Walley says. "What it's going to do is give you a sense of your body and a sense of your spirit."
At a recent yoga class, Walley swayed back and forth, low to the ground, like a speed skater.
"This is where we get to be grateful for having such thunder thighs," she said. "Because this pose feels pretty good."
She used a strap to help stretch her leg muscles and a chair for extra support in bending forward.
Practicing yoga has brought her more in touch with her body, Walley says, something she shied away from for years.
"Who better to reach out to than people who need to make a cellular connection with their bodies?" she asks.
"Yes, I know I'm fat. And I'm strong. And it's a process."
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
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