Top reasons Evanston men give for not doing Yoga

What do the Chicago Bulls, Cubs, Bears as well as actor Robert Downey Jr., Tennis superstar Pete Sampras, PGA golfer David Duval, mixed martial artist Phil Migliarese all have in common? They all practice Yoga. Yet if you ask a typical Chicago male if they do yoga they will look at you like you have two heads. "No, no I do real exercise" they will say or "I took a class once. It was too boring for me." There isn't just one reason that men shy away from yoga, but they can be consolidated into the following excuses. Interestingly, these are also reasons men should practice yoga.

1. I'm not flexible enough. The number one reason people in general including men give for not doing yoga is the number one reason people should be doing yoga. This is like saying I won't play baseball because I don't hit a home run every time I'm at bat. "The lack of flexibility and stability are two of the major predisposing factors in sports injuries," said Sharyn Galindo, owner of North Shore Yoga in Suburban Northfield, IL. "Yoga can help correct these shortcomings." Tennis pros Pete Sampras and Venus and Serena Williams use yoga to improve core strength, increase flexibility, improve coordination, and help heal or prevent injuries. Pro teams including the NFL’s Chicago Bears, Miami Dolphins, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants, as well as Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs, are integrating yoga into their training regimens. "We've been doing yoga so I'll be straight," Shaquille O'Neal told the Los Angeles Times in reference to a bad ankle that was quickly healing. "I'm kind of tight—not really used to stretching. But our yoga instructor is nice looking, so I'm very enthusiastic about it."

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2. Real men don't do Yoga. Ok, this is a knee jerk statement. Clearly Athletes both pro and amateur as well as our nations warriors have taken up yoga in order to improve their performance at their sport or to better themselves. If your activity requires strength yoga will add strength. If it requires power, yoga will enhance your power. If you need razor sharp concentration, then yoga will enhance your focus. If you simply want to feel comfortable in your body and relaxed in your life then yoga will provide you a path to fitness and stress reduction. According to Phil Jackson, who has been practicing yoga since the 1970’s while coaching the Knicks, Bulls and Lakers, “Basketball is a complex dance that requires shifting from one object to another at lightning speeds. The secret is not thinking…quieting the endless jabbering of thoughts so that your body can do instinctively what it’s been trained to do without the mind getting in the way.” There are few more real men that the navy seals. Retired Admiral Tom Steffens, who spent 34 years as a Navy SEAL and served as the director of the elite corps' training, regularly practices yoga at his home in Norfolk, Va. "The yoga cured all kinds of back pains," he said. "Being a SEAL, you beat up your body." Yoga breathing exercises can help SEALs with their diving, and learning to control the body by remaining in unusual positions can help members stay in confined spaces for long periods, he said. "The ability to stay focused on something, whether on breathing or on the yoga practice, and not be drawn off course, that has a lot of connection to the military," he said. "In our SEAL basic training, there are many things that are yoga-like in nature."

3. I won't be good at it. In talking to men a large number feel that they wouldn't be "good" at yoga. No amount of conversation seems to break through the shell of their concern for external comparison. Not that women don't also have this limiting perspective. Inner mental dialogs start running through their heads: "How will I look with my ugly bare feet, hairy arms, bulging.." (Well, let’s hope there’s none of that?) "What if I look like a goof, all awkward and such?" "What if the women are stronger than I am?" This response more than anything represents a fear of the unknown. Men fear change. Inertia keeps us doing the same thing. Yet Yoga can be a valuable cross-training tool to prevent repetitive motion injury and to stimulate the body towards more muscle growth and better functional fitness. "Fear of the unknown is the greatest obstacle to personal growth," Said Sharyn Galindo. An older soul Lao Tzu said, "When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."

4. It's a chick thing. This is a variation on the "real men don't do Yoga." It is true that many more women attend yoga classes than men. Men have a harder time with recognizing, understanding and balancing the yin and yang in their lives. Unfortunately in the west, yoga has developed a reputation as not being very "manly" or "macho". Ironically, Hatha Yoga is really a practice that was developed in India for men, so the majority of asana are male biased (hence the warrior, hero, thunderbolt, etc.). Ashtanga Yoga also called power yoga is a very athletic form of Yoga that was developed in Mysore India by Sri Pattabhi Jois. Most men (and women) who first try Ashtanga Yoga have difficulty even finishing a class. Former NFL player turned yogi, Sean Conley, with the help of his wife Karen (trained under known power yoga magnate Baron Baptiste), designed a therapeutic and sweaty yoga class for his Steelers students. Thanks to Garrett Giemont, head strength and conditioning coach who introduced yoga to the team, Conley has been teaching these muscle-bound fellows to lengthen and stretch in power yoga fashion for over a year now. According to Garrett Giemont, "This is something that will always be used in my program," he said. "It helps the players with balance, pro-receptive strength and flexibility. It's also a mind break." Fortunately, the increase of power yoga classes has drawn more males to the yoga mat.

5. It's not aerobic enough. This is a fair comment. Yoga in general is not aerobic. But it does develop functional strength as well as stability around joints which aids in injury prevention. In addition, the importance of the ability to focus, reduce stress and improve mental acuity cannot be understated. Yoga is a very positively metabolic exercise. It allows a man to build strength without pushing the heart to the anaerobic threshold. Exercising at or near the anaerobic threshold (+85% of aerobic max) increases the stress on the body's endocrine system and forces the body to burn more carbohydrates for fuel than fat. The focus on "no pain, no gain" by men thus can actually cause them to gain fat and reduce exercise productivity. Yoga is a vigorous exercise that helps men to burn fat and gain strength without bulking up or going anaerobic. So Yoga is an excellent counterpoise to the more aerobic forms of exercise. Yoga's internal focus centers your attention on your own body's movements and sensations rather than on an external outcome. This awareness helps men prevent injury by being aware of their bodies as they participate in athletic activities. Muscle inflexibility occurs because men invariably train in a "sport specific" manner—they perform specific actions over and over again and their focus is on external technique. This repetitive sports training or any specific fitness conditioning results in a structurally out of shape and excessively tight body. Men can use a hatha yoga practice to increase balance, strength, and range of motion. Through consistent and systematic asana conditioning, you can engage, strengthen, and place demands on all of your intrinsic muscle groups, which support and stabilize the skeletal system. This can offset the effects of one-dimensional workouts like running and cycling.

7. Yoga is cultish. Yoga is the joining of mind and body and more importantly the individual consciousness with the universal consciousness. Yoga admittedly is attracting a “cult-like” following by its advocates, but that is mainly due to the benefits they receive. Many people confuse practices that are spiritually reinforcing as religious and therefore some of the practices of Yoga may seem cultish. However, Hindu roots aside, Yoga is really a very secular tradition. In fact, one tradition of Yoga, Tantra, has a specific focus on practices that can be integrated into everyday life. The Transcendental Meditation program takes great pains to use normal language and scientific theory when teaching the TM method to would be meditators.

8. I don't have enough time. This is the number two reason for not practicing Yoga. Most guys face similar obstacles to fitness. If you're not stressing out, you're scraping up time to work out. Yoga classes often take 90 minutes which can be a challenge for tight schedules. Many men go for a quick run or do a few sit ups or pull ups and feel this is all they can do. If this is the case, then an evaluation of personal committment to health and fitness is in order. If they are already spending a great deal of time on the road or in the gym then it is simply a matter of re-prioritizing workouts. The challenge for most people who use this excuse is to make any time at all. When someone says they don't have time what they are really saying is that the perceived return for the time invested is too low. What men don't realize is that the practices of Yoga actually give you more time. The upfront investment in the class or the meditation time seems like a lot, but the downstream savings in terms of increased energy, creativity, focus and quality of life make up for it. In addition, you will spend less time dealing with nagging injuries that slow you down in all aspects of your life. Stress is the number one driver of worker absenteeism and visits to doctors. By using meditation and yoga asana practice men can reduce stress related illness and improve overall productivity at work, making time for more Yoga. In addition to physically counteracting the strains of athletic activity and life, yoga teaches the cultivation of body wisdom and confidence. As you develop a greater understanding of the body and how it works, you become able to listen and respond to messages the body sends you. With this feedback you perform your exercise and life tasks with greater precision and less likelyhood of injury. More importantly, you do it with less stress and a smile on your face. So Chicago men, Find a yoga class near you and try it out. Nameste.

I'm teaching a four week Yoga for Real Men series at North Shore Yoga Evanston.  Saturdays, September 15th, 22nd and October 6th and 13th at 4:30 pm (4 weeks total).  http://www.nsyoga.com/yoga_work.html