Hayes, who scrapped a career in accounting and became a yoga instructor three years ago, opened Yoga State, 515 E. Grand River Ave., this week.

“There’s so many benefits in one exercise, which is why I stuck with yoga,” said Hayes, who first tried yoga to get back into shape after the birth of her daughter. “You’re strengthening, you’re becoming flexible, and you’re relaxing, so you feel calmer.”

Yoga State offers class sessions with Hayes and a half dozen other instructors. First sessions are often free, but customers can pay by individual sessions or with 5- and 10-session punch cards.

By the end of the year, Hayes plans to add a retail side to the business, selling workout clothing, candles, yoga mats and art.

The cork floor in the studio was designed to be more forgiving and retain heat and was built for space to host workshops for kids, fraternities and sororities.

Bending into yoga poses provides a release of tension or stress built up in the “emotional centers” of the body in the hips, back and shoulders, Hayes said.

“I tell people before a class that there are some poses where people will get into them and if they’re not used to it, they’ll start crying,” she said. “Nobody believes — they always think it will be the person next to them.”

Regular student clients at the Michigan Athletic Club, 2900 Hannah Blvd., where Hayes formerly taught classes, would tell her they needed yoga to relieve exam anxieties.

Melissa McDaniels, an MSU graduate student, has seen Hayes twice a week as she deals with the pressures of finishing her dissertation by May.

“For the next few months, my work is going to be writing, writing, writing, so it’s good for me to continue yoga,” she said. “It will be very intense.”

More often known for its stress-solving or emotional boosts, yoga isn’t typically associated with building strength, or with NFL quarterbacks, Hayes said. But while Stanton, now on the roster for the Detroit Lions, ran and threw for touchdowns in his MSU career, he and other football players struggled to lift their arms like a referee signaling a score.

Hayes said football players and other athletes tend to train with strength as their main emphasis, making them more prone to losses in flexibility, muscle tears and other injuries.

“When you use methods just for strengthening, you’re shortening your muscles,” she said.

Holding yoga poses helps athletes improve their focus and lengthen their stride or other ranges of motion, Hayes said.

Stanton went to football coaches after a class with Hayes and suggested more of the team try yoga.

Word reached MSU women’s basketball and hockey players of how it helped the team, said Angela Howard, director of athlete development for the MSU athletics department.

“(Hayes) focuses on what the individual needs are,” said Howard, an MSU gymnast from 1990-‘95 and another of Hayes’ clients. “She knows that each individual is different, and she can hit specific needs for different athletes.”