Breathe deep from within the belly. Relax your mind, body and stretch.

These are all the methods used in Bakersfield College pilates yoga classes.

For the first time, BC has offered evening and morning yoga courses for students this semester.

The classes are taught by physical education instructor Deborah McCormack.

“I have included yoga in the Shape-Up classes for a few years,” McCormack said. “The pilates yoga just started this semester. It’s had a great reception. So now we’re adding another one summer and fall.”

Not only is the pilates yoga course new to BC but to Bakersfield, she said.

“There are more and more instructors and classes being offered.”

BC freshman Kirtsen Lewis takes pilates with her younger sister, Patric Whaylen, 10.

“It’s a really good class I would recommend to anyone,” Lewis said. “You get a real good 40- to 50-minute workout.”

Other students, like BC freshman Staci Ekals, take the pilates course for medical reasons. Ekals suffered shoulder injuries and a case of whiplash from a car accident.

“I’m taking this class for medical reasons, and it has helped me a lot by increasing my moving ability,” she said. “I’ve done physical therapy and taken many medications. But this has helped me a lot that I’m not on medication anymore.”

Carlos Loian, a BC freshman, said he takes the pilates course for a good workout.

“Yoga is new to me,” he said. “Today, the workout in class made me sweat, but I feel so relaxed.”

Pilates combines flow and dance, which requires a lot of breathing exercises.

The benefits from yoga are flexibility, confidence and relief from stress, said McCormack.

Unlike other exercises, this type of yoga does not build muscles but strengthens and stretches the body, never leaving a muscle isolated.

“With the pilates yoga, you are concentrating on muscles,” she said. “So this is where you hear more of it because the models and actresses are using it now. It makes that longer, learner look. Often you’ll see that people, like Madonna, will do pilates.”

Aside from pilates, there are several different variations and even philosophies for yoga.

“Yoga is such a big thing,” McCormack said. “It’s like saying what’s exercise. Yoga means discipline or union.”

Yoga in general is not limited to any age nor is it limited for how long a person wants to practice it.

“You can do a 10-minute yoga session or a two- to four-hour,” she said. “It can be as long or short as you need.”

Relaxed breathing is a key element in pilates yoga.

“When you look at babies, their belly goes up and down with their breaths,” she said. “We try to get in a relaxed breathing because it sends signals to our mind and body that we are relaxed and happy.”

McCormak, 45, is from the Fiji Islands. She said she practices pilates to improve her health.

“I feel more confident again with pilates and yoga,” she said.

Classes meet Monday through Thursday in Gym 202.