(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-19 13:49

A UK business that aims to get kids into yoga, YogaBugs, says the exercises can combat obesity and improve the health and wellbeing of young children. [Agencies]

Fenella Lindsell reckons she has struck a winning formula linking yoga poses to tales of astronauts, adventurers and animals to help combat obesity and improve the health and wellbeing of young children.

The concept is simple. Make yoga fun and take it into day care nurseries, parties, primary and junior schools for children from 30 months to 12 years.

With pose names like Dolphin, Eagle, Dragonfly, Crocodile, Elephant and Lion it is not hard to see how young children who are naturally supple and equally inquisitive catch on quickly.

"We didn't invent the names. That was done 5000 years ago by the yoga masters," said Lindsell, a qualified yoga teacher. "Our trick was to link them together into stories that catch the childrens' imaginations."

"The children love it. Within minutes they are crowding round and getting fully involved. It is one of the most exciting experiences," she said in an interview.

Five years ago property developers had just forced Lindsell to close her health and yoga centre in South London and she was searching for a way to carry on her yoga for kids programme.

This year the YogaBugs business she set up as a result with sister-in-law Lara Goodbody looks like turning over about £500,000 and they are expanding their horizons from Britain to the rest of the world.

In between they have twice been offered large amounts of money - £1.5 million in one instance just 18 months ago - to sell out but have swallowed hard, gritted their teeth and ploughed on.

"In hindsight losing the center was probably the best thing to have happened," Lindsell, 42, told Reuters in her busy office in Clapham, South London.

"It has been very hard work. But being offered all that money really drove home the point of how right it had been. It gave a huge boost to our confidence," she added.

And it is not just exercise. Yoga is a mind and body technique that promotes healthy lifestyles - crucial in an era of booming child obesity - helps ease stress and encourages inner calm.

"We probably cover about 100 poses in YogaBugs, of which there might be as many as 30 in one story," Lindsell said.

"You can't focus your mind unless you can still your body. The children learn better, sleep better and interact better," she added.

Children, even those with learning difficulties, can benefit immensely from the greater relaxation and improved concentration that come with the technique, she said.

Lindsell began by teaching yoga teachers the YogaBugs program so they could take it into schools, community centers and even childrens' parties across the country.

She calculates that there are now some 1200 of her past teacher pupils scattered round the country and that some 40,000 children have now caught the yogabug - the one bug they should catch, she adds.

But things are changing rapidly as, having negotiated finance to be able to expand, Lindsell has just published the YogaBugs book and the company is going into the franchise business nationally and, she hopes, internationally.

"America would be a great place to take this, but look at Canada, India, China. There is huge potential," Lindsell said.

"I don't want to sound too enthusiastic. But yoga is a huge opportunity to step back to the basics. Children are surrounded on all sides by diversions like electronic games. Yoga can help them be more in touch with themselves," she added.