One of the best things about having a festival center and cultural hub at the base of Queen Anne hill are a few of the fun and unexpected perks that come along with the large crowds drawn to the city center and utter lack of parking during Folklife and Bumbershoot. I’ll give you a few examples. One, there’s almost always something going on. And two, often times that something is fun, and free!

This month Seattle Center has brought back one of those perks: free summer fitness classes mid-morning to early afternoon on Tuesdays and Wednesdays on the North Fountain Lawn Space throughout August. Every Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. there will be free Tai Chi on the lawn with the folks from the Wallingford School of Oom Yung Doe. At 11:30 a.m. on Wednesdays there will be yoga with the Home Yoga and Wellness Center (don’t forget to bring your own yoga mat).

The Center offers the program as “a lunchtime opportunity to stretch, breath, build muscle and develop balance” in the middle of a crazy and hectic day. Here’s a little more about the two classes:

Tai Chi is a form of Chinese exercise created to improve health and well-being. Movements are slow and graceful without using force or power. The speed of the breathing matches the speed of the movement. By improving the respiratory and circulatory systems, basic joint and muscle flexibility and overall muscle tone, Tai Chi helps to release stress that accrues in daily life.

The weekly Hatha Yoga class offers stretching, balancing and strengthening, mixed with fun. The practice of yoga, around for thousands of years, originally developed to keep the body strong and healthy so that practitioners would be able to sit for long periods of meditation. Individuals now participate in yoga to exercise, deal with stress, and heal injuries.