Outdoor workouts: free yoga at Millennium Park every Saturday this summer

June 9, 3:54 PMChicago Yoga ExaminerAlison Curtis

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Photo courtsey of Millennium Park

Combine the beauty and bustle of downtown Chicago with the peaceful poses of yoga.  Each and every Saturday morning, you can participate in the 8am yoga class at no cost in the heart of Chicago!  The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, which manages and programs Millennium Park, teamed up with McDonalds to offer yoga classes to anyone willing to lay their mat on the Millennium Park lawn.  One year after the 2004 Millennium Park opening, the Chicago Cultural Center set the outdoor summer classes in motion on the Great Lawn of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion.  In 2006, McDonalds gave $5 million to Millennium Park for the specific purpose of providing fitness activity to Chicagoans.  Although most people may not associate the McDonalds Corporation with healthy living, their make quite the valient attempt to endorse an active lifestyle; Ronald McDonald stretches, dances, and sweats along with the participants!  The only thing better than a free, outdoor workout is a free, outdoor workout with a giant clown, right?

Classes offered

In addition to Yoga, you can choose from a variety of 45 minute dance, martial arts, and Pilates classes.  Instructors from the Lakeshore Athletic Club - Illinois Center will move participants through Tai Chi at 7am, Yoga at 8am, Pilates at 9am, and a specialty cardiovascular class to wake your body up at 10am.  Les Mills trainers will lead Body Attack / Body Combat / Body Jam for the rest of June.  Then, July will bring Capoiera, which weaves dance-like fighting with singing and musical instruments.  In August, Brazil via Chicago instructors will teach Samba Dance Mania.  During the last month, Zumba instructors will enhance your latin dancing vocabulary.  The Milennium Park workouts kicked off last weekend and will continue through September 19th, 2009.

Visit the Millennium Park website for more information.

If you enjoy practicing yoga in the heat, read Why some like it hot: the benefits of Bikram Yoga

To learn more about what's going on in Chicago, check out:

• Hyde Park wellness center offers FREE community classes
• Fit Kids: teach your children yoga through games
• Spring Pilates & Wellness Center adds Yoga to their new studio