Posted on 10/25/2013 8:48:00 PM PDT by nickcarraway
At a yoga studio in Washington recently, practitioners breathed, bent, twisted and stretched their way to a happier state. They left more relaxed, more energized, with better posture and a renewed outlook. But there was one curious thing: Of the 24 people in the room, only four were men.
Studio owners and teachers say that this disparity is not unusual, no matter the time of day. Typically, they say, the ratio of women to men rarely goes much below 80-20. In fact, a 2012 survey by Yoga Journal found that of the 20.4 million people who practice yoga in the United States, only 18 percent of them are men.
Why don’t men do yoga?
“My husband said he felt bored,” said Praneetha Akula, a 36-year-old Silver Spring, Maryland, resident who was visiting the studio on a day off. “He didn’t let himself enjoy it.” Akula is like many women who do yoga and want their spouse or partner to give it a try. But the many myths about yoga stand in their way: Yoga isn’t a decent workout; it’s too touchy-feely; you have to be flexible to do it; men’s bodies just aren’t built for pretzellike poses.
Adrian Hummell has heard all the excuses.
“What happens is, a guy who doesn’t know about it, he associates it with things like Pilates or aerobics, and they think of it as a chick workout,” said Hummell, who has been doing yoga for the past three years and now teaches Bikram yoga, a particularly strenuous form of the practice, in Bethesda, Maryland
“It’s almost a joke when guys say, ‘I don’t think I should do yoga because I’m not flexible,’ ” he said. “It’s like saying, ‘I’m too weak, so I can’t lift weights.’ “
(Excerpt) Read more at arabnews.com ...
The other exercise being drinking?
LOL...that’s exactly how I read that headline. “Sorry, not tonight, I’ve got to Namaste.”
I prefer tai chi.
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