Yoga has taken over the world. Take a stroll up a street and more than likely you might catch a bunch of slinky, yoga-pant-clad women exiting a class looking a little sweaty but a lot sexy.
Out of the 20 million people that practice yoga in the United States, only 1 out of 5 men have dared venture down that path. Odd isn’t it, considering hot jocks, rock stars and music moguls like Shaquille O´Neal, Adam Levine and Russell Simmons all like a little slice of that sweet, sweet yoga pie.
The question is, do real men do yoga? Go zone, or shame zone? I’ve done you men a favor by breaking down the pros and cons of taking that leap of faith.
Cons:
Walking into a yoga studio is a little daunting. Women in tight pants and semi-see-through, sweat-soaked tops giggling in pairs create a reverse locker room effect. All that estrogen and minimal clothing could potentially turn even that most sexually confident male into a trembling mess of insecurity. Particularly that moment the instructor tells you to spread-eagle while lying on your back. You would not have known such vulnerability.
Most men aren’t terribly flexible, and all the years of working those guns may have resulted in old injuries you might have been too macho to think about and is now creating wreckage with your downward facing dog. Yoga will potentially be a painful, frustrating and terribly demoralizing experience. Just giving you a heads up.
Pros:
Yoga is a GREAT compliment to other testosterone-fueled activities like weight training. It helps to lengthen and stretch out fatigued muscles, and in the long run prevents you from looking like an oiled up muscle bound dickhead that can’t hang his hands comfortably by his sides. In just the same way men don’t like painfully skinny women, most women think overly muscle-bound men have small penises. Fact.
Certain postures help to regulate the production of cortisol in your body. If you don’t know what that is, it’s the nasty thing that causes your body to store fat around your belly. Yoga: Keeps middle-aged beer guts at bay.
Two words, core strength. That scene in Dirty Dancing where Swayze lifts Jennifer Grey up in the air? Women dig it. With your newfound core strength, your knees won’t buckle next time you try to pull it off. Trust.
