According to The Metro, the Armathwaite Hall Hotel and Spa, near the Lake District Wildlife Park in Keswick, England, is now offering “lemoga,” also known as doing yoga outdoors with lemurs.

The lemurs already live in the nearby wildlife park, and they’re apparently very friendly and social, so they’re practically perfect yoga buddies.

RELATED: I Tried Snow-Ga and Don’t Ever Want to Go Back to Regular Yoga

“When you watch lemurs they do some form of the poses naturally — that typical pose warming their bellies in the sunshine,” said Richard Robinson, manager of the Lake District Wildlife Park, to the BBC. “It seemed to be a really good combination to encourage people to have a go and spend time with a lemur.”

RELATED: 15 Stretches You Should Do Every Day

The class is part of Armathwaite Hall’s “meet the wildlife” wellness program, which includes walking alpacas around hotels 400-acre grounds, meet-and-greets with meerkats, and special sessions with zookeepers.

RELATED: 10 Yoga Poses to Do at Your Desk

The hotel says “lemoga” is a good way for guests to “feel at one with nature, at the same time joining in with the lemurs’ play time.” They also claim the class is good for stress and reducing blood pressure, especially when lemurs are involved.

We challenge anyone not to get distracted by these inquisitive animals while they’re trying to perfect their downward dog. Frankly, these creatures are so irresistibly cute, we expect there could be more “lemoga” classes elsewhere around the world in the future.

To get our top stories delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Healthy Living newsletter

Nothing fascinates us quite like cults. Documentaries about them have a, well, cult following, and groups that are rumored to have cult-like characteristics repeatedly make headlines. This week's news, however, is about more than just rumors.

On Monday, Smallville actress Allison Mack pleaded guilty to charges related to a group called Nxivm, after she allegedly manipulated and blackmailed women into being "sex slaves" for its leader.

Nxivm is a group based in Albany, New York, that billed itself as a self-help organization. In late 2017, the New York Times published an article about a disturbing internal society within Nxivm (called D.O.S.) that did horrifying things, such as burn founder Keith Raniere’s initials below members' hips with a cauterizing device. The article also alleged that members were told to starve themselves to achieve Raniere’s standard of beauty so they could have sexual encounters with him.

RELATED: College Admissions Scandal: A Psychologist Explains Why a Parent Would Cheat and Lie to Get Their Kids Into School

Since the investigation into the society began, increasingly alarming details have emerged, especially about Mack's involvement. In April 2018, Mack was arrested by the FBI on charges of sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, and forced labor. At the time, she pleaded not guilty, but this week, she changed her plea.

As Mack tearfully pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy, she also admitted to recruiting women into the cult by telling them they were joining a female mentorship program. In addition, she confessed to forcing them to give her damaging personal information, or "collateral," so that she could blackmail them if they didn't follow her or Raniere’s orders. Now, Mack faces up to 40 years in prision. She's set to be sentenced in September. 

Sounds like it could be straight out of one of those bingeworthy cult documentaries on Netflix, right?

Mack's involvement in this skin-crawling scheme got us thinking: How does an intelligent, successful young woman get caught up in such a twisted dystopian cult? Alexandra Stein, PhD, author of Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems, has many thoughts on this, especially because she was once a member of a cult herself. 

RELATED: Jussie Smollett Lied About Being the Victim of a Hate Crime, Police Say. Why Would Someone Do That?

First, Stein says people don't knowingly join cults. "Someone might go to a yoga class, or to a personal development seminar, or to a church, all for perfectly normal reasons," she says, explaining that cults often have a convincing facade…

Cardio is great—in fact, it’s a must. But there’s another beneficial component to physical fitness that many women are ignoring: weight lifting. And we’re not just talking about picking up those little 2-pound weights and doing a few bicep curls (though there’s nothing wrong with that). Hitting the weight room—and more specifically, using a barbell—challenges your body in a way nothing else can. “A barbell forces your body into a fixed position, which is biomechanically beneficial because it creates stability on the weight load. This, in turn, gives your muscles more stability to push and pull from, and that helps them stay more engaged,” explains Holly Perkins, CSCS, a Los Angeles–based celebrity trainer and author of Lift to Get Lean.

Lifting heavy becomes even more important as you age. “Women lose muscle mass and gain an average of five pounds of fat per decade,” says Michele Olson, PhD, CSCS, a senior clinical professor of sports science at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama. “In other words, even if your body weight stays the same, if you don’t lift weights to maintain your muscle, you will lose about five pounds of muscle every 10 years and gain about five pounds of fat, which is not good for the heart or our bones.” Still not sure about entering that weight room? Read on for more benefits—plus a few strategies that will turn you into a lifting pro.

RELATED: 5 Amazing Things That Happen to Your Body When You Start Lifting Weights

4 Major benefits of barbell work

It Improves Your Overall Health. You’ve heard the saying that health is wealth, right? Keeping with that, let’s just say weight lifting is equivalent to winning the lottery. Research shows that it slashes your risk of ailments like stroke and heart disease and drastically improves bone and joint health. According to a 2018 University of Michigan study, people with stronger muscles are 50 percent more likely to live longer. And let’s not forget the mental benefits. “Strength training is really powerful for women,” notes Perkins. “It improves self-worth, self-esteem, and confidence, and it builds resilience on a personal and emotional level.”

It Boosts Your Metabolism. When you lift heavy weights, your body releases human growth hormone and testosterone, both of which help you develop lean muscle, says L.A.-based celebrity trainer Ashley Borden, creator of the AB Fit app. And having more lean muscle will naturally keep your metabolic rate fired up. “Muscles are much more metabolically active than fat,” explains Vonda Wright, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and chief of orthopedic sports medicine at Northside Hospital in Atlanta. “This means they take more calories to function, whereas fat doesn’t burn much energy.” In other words, when your muscles are built-up, you are torching more calories whether you are exercising or just chilling…