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Mind-body: Yoga for men
Men can gain as much from yoga as women, but so far they have been slow to sign up. Kath Hudson reports on how clubs can position the discipline as a more male-friendly activity
Matthew Miller,
Founder,
Broga UK
There’s a massive latent demand for yoga for men, but it hasn’t been pitched in the right way in the past. However, now is an exciting time because yoga is moving away from the domain of bendy, vegan women. Sports teams are putting it into their schedules to keep them injury free and prolong their careers, which is raising the profile and making it appear more masculine. It’s no longer cool for a bloke to be inflexible. Flexible strength is the buzzword, and yoga fits that brief perfectly.
Introducing yoga to men through small group exercise classes in the functional training space is a good way of introducing the discipline to them under the radar. Play with the concept and come up with fresh approaches and sequences.
Broga has been inspired by insights into the male psyche and is built on two principles. Firstly, men like to know what they’re getting into – they want to know the goal and action, so we offer a number of syllabuses such as back, chest and tricep. Secondly, we take baby steps to work up to the more difficult asanas. Classes always end with partner work to break the barrier of individual space and build a sense of community.
The classes are 70/30 men to women. The marketing was initially aimed at the male athlete, but this made women feel they couldn’t come. That wasn’t the intention, so we’ve modified it to appeal to women as well.
Felicity Wright,
Yoga instructor,
Cadence Performance:
Marketing yoga as a way of boosting performance in their sport of choice can be a draw for men. Our cycling studio, Cadence Performance, added yoga to the mix last September because we realised it could offer tremendous benefits for cyclists.
As well as increasing flexibility and lengthening muscles, yoga can help increase stamina, prevent injury and work on some of the muscles that are neglected in cycling, especially the core and muscles that support joints. The breathing aspect of yoga is also good for building focus and concentration, which is useful in a race setting: the breath can become like a metronome and can be useful in a pressure situation.
Going forward, we’ll be looking to market those benefits more clearly to our audience and run specific half-day yoga workshops which cater for male athletes who want to work on the upper body, back and core. We’re also launching some cross-promotions with our Wattbike cycling classes: we’re expanding our current timetable to cater for a growing demand for specific yoga classes for cyclists and triathletes.
As clients, men tend to be less flexible than women, but fairly strong. Sometimes they can get frustrated and impatient and have trouble managing their egos. Teachers need to use more humour when teaching men and be kind to them, as many will feel they are in an alien setting in a yoga class.
Dean Pohlman,
CEO and founder,
Man Flow Yoga
People won’t come to a yoga class simply because you give them a list of reasons telling them why they should. There needs to be an automatic association in the marketing. To appeal to men, you need to use imagery showing a guy who looks like they want to look. Guys want muscles – they don’t want to look like the stereotypical skinny yoga guy.
The marketing material should show men in powerful positions like warrior, plank, push-ups or squats – definitely not splits or something that looks painful and that they’re not bothered about being able to do anyway.
People who aren’t currently into yoga probably aren’t interested in the culture or the way yoga has been traditionally taught. Rather, they want to know about specifics, such as if yoga can help deal with the pain in their shoulder or improve recovery after an injury.
Clubs should be making an effort to bring yoga to men rather than trying to get men into yoga. There’s too much focus on flowers and Kumbayah. Make it a different class: use poses they can do, with modifications and an instructor who can work with men. Focus on the physical aspect of the workout and take out the fluff. Make it as close to the gym experience as possible. Women are drawn to this side too.
The traditionalists might not like it, but you don’t have to live a certain lifestyle in order to do the poses – and judging is a very non-yogic attitude.
Chris Freytag,
Founder,
www.GetHealthyU.com
The way you advertise is key: if you want to attract guys, your marketing material needs to use photos of men.
Studies show that yoga appeals mostly to women; men tend to think it’s feminine, new age or hippy. You need to educate your members that yoga is not gender-specific, so consider doing a little introduction or offering a demo to take some of the mystique out of it.
Changing the name can be effective too – for example, Vinyasa for Sport can make yoga seem relevant to a broader range of people. Another option is to engage with sports coaches: lots of young men who play hockey and basketball come to my classes through these channels, and they are very open to yoga. I talk to people in the health club and explain that if they do sport, yoga is their friend. You have to ask the right questions: are your hip flexors tight? Do you want to avoid injury? Do you want to improve performance in your sport? Then you explain how yoga can help.
Adrienne Rinaldi,
Founder,
Brewasanas
After I qualified as a yoga teacher, I wanted to appeal to a different audience: to people who wouldn’t normally do yoga, perhaps because they found it too spiritual or were intimidated by a studio, or because they felt they were too inflexible.
I live in Colorado, US, where we have 225 breweries. I had connections with some local breweries so I teamed up with them: we hold a yoga class at the brewery and, included in the price of the class, participants get to have a beer afterwards.
This approach has attracted lots of beginners and lots of men. Although it’s a tough workout and I get people sweating, it’s a light-hearted, social class. It’s non-intimidating and we hang out and drink beer afterwards. If health clubs want to attract men to yoga, I’d suggest they make it more of a social event.
There have been some negative comments from yoga traditionalists, but others have supported our concept as it’s succeeding in getting different people into yoga.
