Veteran Officer turns to Yoga to stay Healthy

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX - Lt. Chris McClure’s knees are the reason he has become a yoga enthusiast. Ten years ago, the CCPD officer was on the SWAT team which required quarterly fitness tests. One of those tests called for running a half-mile sprint.

“My knees just couldn’t take it,” recalls the 32 year veteran officer. “So I started training with a fitness DVD called P90X and a yoga workout was a part of that regimen.”

After using this program, McClure passed his fitness tests. But his interest in yoga was piqued because it challenged him more than any other part of the P90X workout routine. He then started seeking out local yoga classes as well as learning as much as he could about it Lieutenant Chris McClure online.

“After going to yoga classes for nearly eight years, I had the opportunity to do a teacher training course, which I took to help improve my own practice of yoga,” says McClure. The Corpus Christi Police Department received a health and wellness grant from The John G. and Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation, which gave McClure the opportunity to teach yoga classes for department employees and their families.

“I never had the intention of teaching, but I had a blast doing it!” says McClure.

People who were not familiar with yoga began showing up for the class and some remarkable things began to happen. For example, there was one officer who could barely touch his toes on the first day of class but within six months he was sitting on the floor using effective poses which allowed him to manipulate his muscles so he could touch his toes. Unfortunately, last October the grant that made it all possible was no longer offered and the funding for the class stopped. But McClure’s enthusiasm for yoga has continued. He now does a variety of yoga classes for various groups and individuals. Through his role as an instructor, McClure has come to appreciate yoga’s many benefits.

“Relaxation, focus and fitness” he says, “are all things that I am really getting out of yoga.”