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april / may 2017yogajournal.com.sgGetting men to identify with yoga has long been a challenge in most parts of the world. It doesn’t
matter that yoga, since its beginnings in India thousands of years ago, has been mainly taught and
studied by men.
One of the first Indians who moved to the U.S. to teach yoga was Indra Devi in the 1940s, and
she was a Russian who had learnt yoga in India. Indra Devi was championed by none other than
celebrity cosmetologist, Elizabeth Arden, who encouraged her customers to try yoga. A few years
later, teacher Richard Hittleman published yoga books and landed on TV—but always had women
perform the poses. Yoga’s next media celebrity was a young instructor named Lilias Folan, who
began teaching asanas on public television in the 1970s. Folan had a gentle style that empowered
millions of stay-at-home moms to follow right along. By the time Power Yoga emerged in the 1980s
and began attracting more men, the mainstream view of the practice had, fairly or not, taken root:
Yoga was for housewives.
This view is gradually changing, but it’s a long way before many men take to the mat. The
numbers have been increasing slowing: 18% of yoga practitioners in the U.S. are now men. In
Singapore, yoga studios has close to 15% male members on average, according to figures from
True Yoga, Real Yoga and Sweatbox Yoga.
“On average, we are seeing about 18 to 20 men per week in our studio now, compared to only
2 or 3 a couple of years ago,” says Christina Ang, co-founder of Sweatbox Yoga.
Sure enough, the first thing many men notice on entering a yoga studio is that they’re in foreign
territory. Pensive women readying for class sets as strong a tone as a locker room of guys snapping
towels. “Men walk in needing a challenge,” says Judith Lasater, who has authored six yoga books
during her 35 years as a teacher. “Women often come to the mat seeking refuge.”
Lechonczak, who consulted on the book Real Men Do Yoga sympathizes with such concerns.
Before coming to the practice nearly 20 years ago, he had a consuming business career andSOCIAL OBSTACLES: Yoga Takes a Brave Man
I practice yoga because it
brings harmony and unity to
my everyday life.- Daniel Sonic Rojas,
yoga teacher, Singapore
I almost lost my leg after a
serious accident many years
ago. But yoga gave me hope as
I focused on healing myself with
gentle stretches and breathing
exercises. My faith in yoga
began when my frequent asthma
attacks reduced as my practice
became stronger. When my leg
finally healed, I knew I had to
embrace yoga for life.- Bharath Shetty,owner of
Yoga India in Mysore
When I started yoga, it soon
became apparent it is much
more than the physical practice.
It had calming, centering
and balancing benefits, and I
realized that when our hearts
are ready to open up, there are
numerous possibilities along
one’s yoga journey.- Jian Yuan, lawyer in Singapore
was a weekend warrior who ran and played
basketball. Lechonczak thinks more men might
be willing to try yoga if they perceived it as yet
another test. Albeit a unique one. “The guys
coming to yoga have to be ready for the next
level, be ready to let down their defenses,” he
says. “They have to have a heart.”
A guy’s first act of yogic bravery, Lechonczak
says, is to introduce himself to the teacher.
“Find out if the class is appropriate,” he
advises. “Admit any fears or anxieties.”
Once the line of communication is open, a
good instructor will tailor a class for individual
students—male or female. Scott Achelis, a
general contractor in Walnut Creek, California,
began taking classes locally early last year
because his back was tweaked from decades
of construction work. The key was a positive
first experience at the Yoga & Movement
Center: a men’s only, one-day workshop
held by studio director Diane Valentine. Her
agenda? Make it fun, and let guys be guys. “It
was unthreatening,” Achelis says. “We were all
stretching and making off-color jokes.”
Achelis quickly became a regular in a coed
class. “It’s still difficult for me when I’m
partnered with a woman. I’m uncomfortable
touching anybody who’s not my wife the way
you have to in yoga,” he admits. But otherwise
being a man among women no longer
bothers him. He couldn’t care less who’s in
the room, or that some very unathletic-lookingfemales can enter poses that he can’t. “I don’t
feel like I’m doing 10 percent of something
being done by a woman next to me,” Achelis
says. “I’m doing 100 percent of what I’m able
to do.”