Every morning from mid-June through Labor Day, fitness guru Gina Raheb leads yoga exercises at Narragansett Town Beach.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

NARRANGANSETT — The beach is nearly deserted at this time of day, the air chilly, the sand still damp under foot.

But the light off of the flat water is brilliant. At eye level, the surf seems to be refracted into a thousand points of light, all of them in motion. A dozen or so women dressed in sweatshirts and shorts sprawl on the sand above the high-water mark.

Gina Raheb, a petite woman in black who never stops smiling, walks up to the class. Raheb is the founder and owner of Natural Fitness, and between the hours of 8 and 9 a.m., she owns this strip of sand at Narragansett Town Beach, the Queen of Beach Yoga.

Narragansett isn’t the only place for beach yoga. It is also offered Wednesday and Sunday mornings at South Kingstown Beach until the end of August. Raheb’s class runs through Labor Day.

One regular client hands Raheb a pastry for breakfast while another complains that this is her last day of beach yoga for the season.

“Find a comfortable seat,” Raheb tells the class, which now includes two men and a couple from Quebec. “Press your backbone to the earth. Move the breath up past the chest.”

Everyone sits, eyes closed, hands resting palms-up on thighs. A ferry passes on the horizon. A few seagulls hawk, but otherwise the beach is silent except for the rub of the waves against the shore.

Raheb begins with some preliminary stretches to knock the kinks out of the neck and spine, the shoulders and lower back.

“Press both heels to the earth,” she says. “Come to a flat back. Press your tail bone back. Palms on thighs.”

As you age, the spine contracts. Yoga, she says, elongates the spine and keeps you from losing inches. At five feet, two inches, Raheb jokes she can’t afford to lose any height.

Yoga is not supposed to be a competitive sport and Raheb repeatedly cautions her clients not to push their bodies into pain. If you are smiling, she says, you’re doing it right. This is about having fun; it’s not supposed to be uncomfortable.

Raheb is bouncy, girlish, the antithesis of the yoga drill sergeant. In fact, she punctuates her instructions with silly jokes:

“Who are the grumpiest sea creatures? Crabs.” she says. “Why? They don’t do yoga.”

Or: “You know why the beach is such a friendly place? It always gives you a wave.”

The class performs a sun salutation — standing, palms against heart — then moves into the cobra, palms pressed to the ground, chest lifted. Some women can stand on their heads; others can curve their body into an upside-down U. Most seem happy with a good stretch.

Raheb reminds her class to breathe. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.

In an ideal world, yoga allows the mind to fall silent while the body slips into a rhythm. Plank. Down dog. Cobra. Warrior One. Plank. Lunge. Down dog.

When the class drops into the child pose, knees tucked beneath the body, arms outstretched, forehead to the ground. Raheb moves from one person to another, pressing on a lower spine here, a shoulder there.

“Remember, it’s all in the mind,” she tells them. “If you can move a few millimeters, that’s fine. Eventually, you will be able to move a few inches and that’s fine, too.”

Raheb came to yoga in pain, looking for relief 14 years ago. After years of competitive running, weight-lifting and cycling, she suffered from chronic tendinitis. Her vertebrae were compressed because she never stretched before or after her workouts.

“At first, all I could do was lie on the mat and do the poses in my head,” the 41-year-old says. “I couldn’t move.”

Her first teacher, Maya Breuer, from Warwick, taught her that yoga class wasn’t a competition, a foreign concept to this runner of marathons. After studying yoga for several years, Raheb began helping injured athletes recover. After a friend told her she would make a great yoga instructor, Raheb began to study for her certification. Six years ago, she opened her own studio in Narragansett, where she lives.

Raheb is a very forgiving instructor. It’s not about who has the most pliable body; it’s about how much pleasure and relaxation you are getting from stretching and letting go.

“When I started teaching, I threw the yoga pictures away,” she says. “People tell me they can’t touch their toes. I tell them to bend their knees. I tell them, ‘You will feel just as good as those bendable people.’ ”

The beach, Raheb says, is a natural yoga studio, one that speaks to all five senses. People seem to respond more deeply when they can dig their fingers into the sand, close their eyes and hear the ocean.

One summer tourist showed up at the beach five days in a row. When her vacation was over, she hugged Raheb and told her, “You can’t imagine what you have done for me.”

Tiffany Field, 66, a visitor from Miami, says she comes here every morning to de-stress: “The sound of the ocean, the feel of the sand, it’s very special.”

Barbara Keegan, 58, of South Kingstown, suffers from a digestive disorder and she says that beach yoga has changed her life.

“I stumbled onto the beach and met Gina five years ago,” she says. “Yoga gives you this balance, this inner calm. You don’t have to take medication to get it.”

Those kind words make Raheb smile. She says she has done her job if people leave feeling better about themselves.

By 9 a.m, the sun has warmed up and people have shed their sweatshirts. The class begins to wind down. Raheb tells the class to lie on their backs, knees to chest. Rock gently from side to side, she says. Inhale, rock up. Exhale, rock back.

Slowly, everyone returns to a sitting position.

“Happy day to all of you,” Raheb says.

Then she begins to chant, “Ohmmmm,” and the class joins her.

“Namaste,” she says, bringing her palms to her heart.

Namaste. Greetings. Namaste. On the beach

Attraction: Beach yoga, every morning from 8 to 9:10 a.m.

Location: Narragansett Town Beach between lifeguard stands 3 and 4

Costs: $11

What to bring: Towel, water and sunscreen

Advice for beginners: Bring a sense of humor

What’s the Web site: www.naturalfitnessyoga.com

lborg@projo.com