Dean’s first yoga class was entirely on accident:
“I was looking for the tailor and stumbled into a Bikram Yoga studio. I had always been interested in yoga but had never taken a yoga class before that day. I asked the yoga instructor if this class would help my athletic performance. [At the time I was a lacrosse player for the University of Wisconsin.] She told me that it would help me tone my muscles and make me much more flexible. That was exactly what I was looking for. Two hours later, drenched in sweat from head to toe, feeling like I had just exited the pool, and utterly exhausted, I had just completed my first yoga class. It was, and probably will remain, the hardest workout that I have ever done. From that point on, I was sold.”
After two months of doing yoga consistently, Dean realized that the benefits of yoga extended far beyond flexibility. “My level of limberness skyrocketed, and so did my endurance, body control, core strength, and balance, just to name a few of the benefits I was experiencing. More than that, it made me even stronger in the weight room.”
Dean first began instructing yoga as the conditioning coach of his lacrosse team in 2011. That success encouraged him to take his knowledge and passion to a larger audience, and in January of 2013, Dean founded Man Flow Yoga in order to bring the physical benefits of yoga to as many people as possible. Since then, Dean has been teaching at gyms, parks, workshops, international retreats, and online. Dean is a certified 200 HR Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) through Yoga Alliance.
