Why Man Flow Yoga?
Why did you call it Man Flow Yoga? Why did you make the name gender-exclusive? What is Man Flow Yoga? I’m writing this article because I want people to know what, and more specifically, WHY, Man Flow Yoga is.
As a lifelong athlete, I have done more forms of exercise than I can count. I’ve dabbled in gymnastics. I was a body-builder, a college athlete, a CrossFitter, a long-distance runner, and a sprinter. I tried yoga because it intrigued me. I wanted to know what a yoga workout looked like, and I was eager to see the physical benefits. So I walked into a Bikram studio with my University of Wisconsin lacrosse swag on and told the instructor I was ready to do some yoga.
2 months later I was stronger, faster, more limber, and felt better than I had my whole life. It had to be the yoga. I told my friends excitedly about my discovery, and was dismayed when they wouldn’t join me for a session. So I did what any good friend would and made them do yoga. As the conditioning coach for the lacrosse team, I simply implemented yoga into the training program. At first there was moaning and groaning. “We don’t want to do yoga, why would that help us?” I simply smiled and said, “just wait.”
I think everyone was hooked after the first session. It might have been the immense relief that you feel after a yoga session, or it might have been the challenge of a new physical fitness, but they liked it, and they wanted more. So we kept it up the whole season. After it was all over, I wanted to keep going. I started a yoga channel on YouTube, and made up flow sessions similar to the ones I created for the lacrosse team and uploaded them to the Internet. 6 months later, I realized I was on to something.
Men all know about the benefits of yoga. They hear about it on ESPN, they see articles in the newspapers and on TV about how yoga has helped athletes. But then they go searching for this yoga and they don’t find it. Where is the yoga for the men that wants to have more control over his body, and wants to be more flexible? Enter… Man Flow Yoga.
Man Flow Yoga is not just a name; it’s call to action. It’s a sign that shouts to men, “yes, there is a yoga for you!” That goes with the philosophy as well. My goal with Man Flow Yoga is to make you as physically healthy as you can possibly be. If you are overweight, I will help you lose weight. If you are a body-builder and want to be stronger, I will help you make your muscles more flexible, recover more quickly, and increase your overall strength. If you are a runner and have lower back problems I want to teach you the exercises that will help you reduce that pain. And I’ll do it on YOUR terms, instead of making you change YOUR lifestyle in order to do yoga.
This is what really makes Man Flow Yoga, MAN Flow Yoga. Men are used to working out for physical fitness. Unless they go through yoga teacher training, read 5 books on yoga, or experience a major life event that causes them to turn to yoga to change their lives, people cannot really appreciate all there is that yoga has to offer. Man Flow Yoga doesn’t force you to change who are you if you don’t want to. Man Flow Yoga is an opportunity for you to work out as you please. Our approach is to inspire and then SHOW you that yoga is a way for you to achieve your goals (more often than not, this is simply me doing yoga in a video with my shirt off). Man Flow Yoga is a SERVICE, and as such, cater to you, not the other way around. To people who ask why more men don’t do yoga, I ask them: Do you really care about what they want, or do you just want more people to do yoga to increase the population of your community of like-minded, yoga people?
I could care less about whether you believe in the 8 chakras or not. I want you to be healthy, and I make an assumption that people themselves want to be healthy. I want you to live life the way that you want to live, and not feel pressured into changing your ways if you feel uncomfortable doing so. So how do I answer people when they ask me what Man Flow Yoga is?
It’s yoga for men. It’s yoga for athletes. It’s yoga for fitness. It’s yoga for people who want to look and feel great. It’s yoga for people who want to live long, active lives, so that they can live to see their sons and daughters get married, dance at the wedding, and then play with their grandkids when they are born. It’s yoga for you, for your health, for your life.
Hi Dean
With all the move towards gender equality, and in many areas sorely needed, yoga does not need to be mixed classes. Men are built differently and need a different approach to instruction to accommodate those differences. I, too started my yoga career in a Bikram studio. Now I combine that with men only yoga classes, and my practice has really improved significantly. Why, a guy instructor knows the challenges facing a male yogi. These men only classes are on a pre- registered set of six workshops. They are always full and tough to get into. In fact it took me almost a year before I got in; and interestingly enough many of the same guys re-enroll. A demonstrated need for more instruction in this area. Stick to your vision Dean. Guy only yoga is needed.