guys, listen up. Yoga. Seriously.

This is the 3^rd in a series on Yoga misconceptions. Check out parts 1 and 2!

“Imma guy. Guys don’t do yoga.”

Well, they kinda do.

I’m not sure how it came to be that, in the West, it is mainly women practicing Yoga. But historically, Yoga was a mainly masculine pursuit. All dudes. All the time. Somewhere, somehow, we lost that here.

But that’s changing.

While I don’t have oodles of guys in my classes, I have had a few. And they’re often diehards. Cuz they get it.

Yoga helps athletic performance, job performance, workout performance, mental performance and just about any other performance you can think of.

Yep. That one too.

And at the very same time, Yoga is noncompetitive, and when practiced with that intention, helps you to stop sweating the small stuff. Helps you get over the fact that you didn’t get that thing you want. Helps you to let go of those things that you want to let go of. 

But you gotta actually do it.

Male Yogis tend to have one major complaint. They walk into a class and No. Men. Anywhere. They’re the Token Yoga Guy.

And at first it can be intimidating. No, I’m not a guy, but I do have a frame of reference, as I’ve been the person with the largest body in the class. Looking around at a group of people that look nothing like me and thinking:

“Uh-oh. Not sure If I’m in the right class.”

That odd-man-out sensation can be a doozy.

And dudes, I can tell ya, that I have been to a few (extremely few, thankfully) classes with a teacher that didn’t know how to work with me. And that’s okay. I’ve been through amazing classes that, if I’d given in to my fears, I would have ran away from.  There are so many yoga teachers  that understand every single body works a little differently, and while we have many structural similarities, we are all also strikingly different.  

In my class, I’ll ask you to move, to lengthen, to feel the tissues of the body, and their relationships to each other (muscles to bones, muscles moving across muscles). I’ll talk about breathing.  I’ll ask you to let go of your expectations. I’ll ask you to relax a little. Maybe take yourself a little less seriously.  You sure don’t have to do any of these things, but I will ask.

So, to recap.

1. Men have done looots of Yoga in the past.  

2. Yoga makes you a rockstar (PERFORMANCE!).  

3.It might be intimidating to be the only male in class, but it’s really freaking worth it to stick it out.  

Here’s the part where I challenge you. You’re here reading this because you’re a guy, you know a guy, or you just like to read. 

Be brave, and step into a Yoga class. Just to step up to that uncertainty, that dareisay fear. It might be a little awkward at first, but learning something new always is. Give it a go. You’ll walk out of class taller, relaxed, and ready to face the next thing that comes at you.