As Fynder’s resident lifestyle and wellness geek, I’ve tried just about every class imaginable. While I’ve loved a lot of them, I always come back to one form of training that’s gaining the attention of men everywhere – yoga. As a teenager, yoga was something mum did at home. That alone was enough to convince me it wasn’t for me. A few years later in University when I tried it out to help with back pain I crept into class not knowing what to expect and fearing the worst. Surrounded by uber-flexible girls, I spent the next hour and a half sweating, trembling, wiping my brow, sweating some more and silently cursing the instructor. This was hard! The mediation at the end was a blissful release though…and this is what kept me coming back. Years later, I still practice daily and yoga is a great companion to my bodyweight training.
Men and Yoga
A survey done by Yoga Journal in 2013 found that men represented only 18% of the 20.4 million people who practice yoga in the US. That’s consistent with most studios powered by Fynder, but we’re seeing signs of a shift as male concerns (limited flexibility, steep learning curve or that it’s not a hard enough) are giving way to broader participation by men around the world.
High profile male influencers such as Ryan Giggs and Harry Redknapp in the footballing world have been setting an example using yoga for injury prevention whilst Adam Levine uses it to help him focus. In addition, “guys’-guy” yogis including Robert Downey Jr., Colin Farrell, Gavin Rossdale, Jeremy Piven, Russell Brand and Orlando Bloom have inspired a new generation of male-focused yoga offerings including Man Flow Yoga, Broga® and Superhuman Yogi among others. These dudes focus on yoga as a physical workout, an approach which seems to appeal to their male target audience – after all, if it’s good enough for Iron Man AND Legolas, it’s easier for Joe Average to believe it’ll get him in shape!
Where’s this heading?
What’s emerging is exciting. Man Yoga has arrived and it’s spreading. It’s become cool to be ‘Yoga-ripped’ and more men are realising the benefits of yoga, including stress release, and increasing overall strength and flexibility. At the same time, we’re seeing yoga work it’s way into calisthenics: bodyweight exercises that are the answer to working out in a holistic, full-body functional way. U.S military trainer and author Mark Lauren wraps yoga up with his calisthenics workouts.
The yoga-for-men movement tends to focus on the physical, rather than the mind-body-breath connection that is the focus of the traditional yoga practices. While the fitness-only focus misses some of our favourite reasons to practice yoga, any approach that attracts men to yoga is a good first step in my book. After all, it may only take one class for a guy to find out yoga really is for all of us. It certainly did for me.
Where can I find out more?