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april / may 2017yogajournal.com.sgInvestment manager Ron Bernstein was
certainly ambivalent about stretching—until his
80-hour workweeks caught up with him. Back
in 1998, Bernstein, a former competitive high
school golfer who works for a large investment
firm in New York, realized that “everything
hurt,” he says. “My wife was doing some yoga
and suggested that stretching would be good.”
Bernstein went to a class in lower Manhattan
and muddled through. “On my walk home, my
back felt so much better. All those Upward and
Downward Dogs really worked.”
Today a more limber Bernstein is religious
about his one-day-a-week private sessions. He
attributes his daily vitality and still-strong golf
game to Warrior Pose variations that open his
shoulders, hips, and back. “My handicap was 10
as a kid and I’m still at about 13,” he says. “Not
bad for a guy who works all the time.”
“Sports such as weight-lifting, cycling, soccer
and rugby may make the body undeniably
stronger, but it also makes it tighter and
immobile,” says Saumik Bera, owner of Real
Yoga in Singapore. “Yoga helps create the
balance with stretches to counteract the kind of
PHYSICAL BENEFITS Of Yoga For Men
sports that men prefer.”
Elasticity also helps men who are
determined to play all day. More than sports,
every body these days is taking the weight of
responsibility and stress, not to mention the
constant need to be in touch with everything
that’s happening in the world. Stress levels
have hit the roof.
“Male and female professionals in the
corporate world experience similar back,
shoulder and hip problems after years of
sitting in front of their computers,” says Manoj
Deshwal, owner of Trust Yoga in Singapore
known for his ‘Indian Traditional’ classes.
“Mobile phones and wrong postures can
lead to misalignment of the cervical vertebrae.
Yoga helps to ease knots in affected areas, and
regular practice keeps those tension points
away.”
New England’s Broga studio
(https://brogayoga.com/)may have a playfulAny man who develops a regular
yoga practice can look forward to
several benefits.
Learning breathing exercises
reduces high anxiety levels, which
are the root cause of illnesses
such as high blood pressure,
Type 2 diabetes, heart disease,
heart attack and depression. Men
who strive for a long term health
program should consider yoga as
one of the best option to add to
any daily routine.- James Figueira, owner of
Yoga Shala, Singapore
Yoga has been proven to be
the best and most cost-
effective alternative to
counter the aging process.
I have been practicing
yoga for the past 28 years
and I realise it has made
me a better human being.
I am happier and healthier
than ever before.- Saumik Bera, owner Real
Yoga, Singapore
name (that’s “bro,” as in “brother”), but
co-founders Adam O’Neill and Robert Sidoti
are dead serious about attracting uninitiated
men to their studios. For starters, Broga classes,
which are about 75 percent male, might begin
and end with tunes from Radiohead rather than
recorded sitar music and incense. The classes
typically blend vinyasa yoga with fitness-type
movements such as lunges and squats.
“It’s not dumbed-down yoga,” insists Sidoti.
“We’ve designed Broga to work from the
familiar to the unfamiliar. Once our students are
in a positive place, we give them the deeper
stuff.”
Yoga studios in Singapore too are trying to
attract more men to the mat. Yoga Instiinct, co-
owned by Brandon Chong (the guy who started
#sgbrogis on Instagram) is planning to run a
monthly yoga class for men at the 1925 Brewing
Co. Restaurant where guys get to enjoy beer at
the end of the session.nd
LA