Lake Worth Yoga Lounge underway at casino ballroom

The start of the Sunday morning yoga class in the Lake Worth Casino
Ballroom. Notice the disco ball hanging from the ceiling.

Troy Mills has a dream for the city's new casino ballroom: Create a Sunday morning destination for yoga.

He and partner Valerie Vermeulen are establishing the Lake Worth Yoga Lounge in the ballroom space above Mulligan's at the city's newly refurbished beach.

"It will be a Sunday morning event," he says. "I see it blossoming to about 100 people who come from all over the county" to see the beauty of Lake Worth. He hopes that after the class is over, students will go out to eat together or perhaps stay to help clean up the beach.

Mills, who previously taught yoga at the now closed Soma Center in downtown Lake Worth, says he's used a grassroots effort to get publicity for the Yoga Lounge. That effort includes setting up a Facebook page, sending texts to his yoga students and posting a few large flyers in select downtown Lake Worth restaurants.

That's how I heard about the Yoga Lounge and decided to check it out on a recent Sunday morning.

Here's what I found:

Spectacular view from the ballroom

Instructor Brooke Joy Waszak ably filling in while Mills and Vermeulen were out of town. She teaches a gentler style of yoga, perfect for beginners. She adds variations of each pose for more experienced students.

Waszak (standing) believes in the power of touch.

Students do downward dogs while Waszak gently helps one woman
with the position of her hands. The pose is supposed to be relaxing
and a break from the more strenuous ones.

Runners lunges are part of the practice. When bringing up the back foot
to meet the front foot, Waszak advised: "Think pelvis, pelvis and not
foot, foot," to get the proper alignment.

The chair pose is used in a yoga flow of positions.

Waszak (front) does a twisted prayer position.

Spinal balances are added at the end of the practice.

Own mantra 

Waszak guides the students through three rounds of a mantra that she wrote for herself:

"I am perfect, whole and complete (inhale).

"I surrender that which no longer serves me (exhale)."

After the savasana (relaxation pose), the students end the
90-minute session with a traditional round of om.

Drop-in fee

While the Yoga Lounge is building a following, the per class fee is $10, Mills says. Packages will be available later this year. Sunday classes start at 9:30 a.m. Students bring their own mats, water and towels.

He thinks the Yoga Lounge offers the best experience of yoga at the beach, especially when the doors are open and breezes flow through the ballroom.

Yoga on the actual beach would be difficult to do because the sand is always shifting, Mills says. Plus, at the that hour of the morning, one hour in the sun may leave a student with a sunburn. "And if it's windy, you can't hear the instructor," he says.

Then he mentions what he thinks is the ultimate attraction of the ballroom: the disco ball hanging from the ceiling.

And now, for my numbers

I had my best walking day last week on Monday, July 1, 2013, when I walked:

Steps: 10, 356

Miles: 5.2