Inhale.

"How do you feel after your first sun salutation?" instructor Nora Gyarfas asked the group doing outdoor yoga.

"Hopefully good -- because we've got 49 more."

Exhale.

The St. Cloud State University senior led about 40 students and community members in 50 sun salutations at Barden Park over the lunch hour Sunday. A sun salutation is a sequence of yoga poses traditionally used to greet the new day.

SCSU's Campus Recreation Group Fitness put on the event in a grassy area of the park as part of National Yoga Month. Yoga mats covered the grass and there was a light breeze.

With participants wearing a range of clothes from full yoga attire to jeans and T-shirts, the event drew a variety of people.

Icephine Johnson said she has been doing yoga for more than 30 years.

"I enjoy doing yoga," Johnson said.

She said participating in group yoga was a new experience for her, and she enjoyed the outdoor aspect of Sunday's event.

Gyarfas and other instructors led the group at varied paces and offered different positions for the more experienced throughout the 90-minute session. (Think swapping "extended puppy" for "downward dog.")

Some stretching, inhaling, exhaling and a "corpse pose" later, the group members rolled up their mats and went their different ways.

"It was exactly how I wanted it to turn out," Gyarfas said.

Follow Marta Jewson on Twitter @martajewson.

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