Do a quick Google image search for “Yoga”.

Surprise, surprise: it is 99% women (and mostly young and slender).

Thinking back on every yoga class I’ve taken, it has been rare to find more than 2 men in the room.

And yet…

…let’s consider the benefits of yoga:

Improved flexibility

Protection from injury

Increased blood flow

Decreased stress

Sharpened concentration

Boosted immunity

**I could go on and on here!**

Don’t we all need more of that? We all have stress, sit way too much, and want to improve our health.

So, what’s going on here?

Now, there are plenty of articles hypothesizing why there are so few men in yoga, placing the blame on the practice for not being competitive or physically challenging enough.

However, I see it as a marketing issue, or a lack of understanding about what yoga can do.

You’ll see men getting massages, going to the doctor’s office, talking to a therapist, going on walks, or even meditating.

It’s not like it’s only women putting in effort to take care of their minds and bodies.

We need to stop selling yoga as an alternative to a Mud Run. There is room for both.

In the Western commercialization of yoga, it is being sold as a feminine practice, one that will make you slender and long, while our society teaches men to build muscle and get big.

That might be helpful for selling a few more yoga mats to a particular population of women, but the image they’re selling of yoga is not based in reality.

 

Let’s break down a few myths

1. You do not need to be flexible to start doing yoga. Flexibility will follow.
2. Yoga, in and of itself, will not make you lean or decrease your muscle size.
3. Yoga is for every body.

However, if you are reading this, I know you already know this, and I’m preaching to the choir.

As long as this line of marketing continues, so will the perception of the practice, and many will not venture into a studio or even read an article on yoga.

What if instead we stepped outside the studio to share the practice?

That’s what we’re all about.

We love to bring yoga to the office, but what about breweries, dispensaries, or other unexpected places?

Maybe if men, or anyone else intimidated by the studio, see yoga in a different environment, they would be more likely to open their minds and give it a try. We can keep writing these articles and make these arguments until we’re blue in the face, but what is really going to change minds is the actual experience. Let’s give it a try.