MARDAANA YOGA

Did you know more male athletes are turning to Yoga as a form of body conditioning? Some of the best basketball stars – LeBron James & Shaquille O’Neal – practice Yoga as a way to counter their injuries and refocus themselves during seasons and playoffs.

So let us break the misconceptions of men doing Yoga:

1. It is a female-dominated sport.

If you think it’s just “stretching and breathing”, you are highly mistaken. Yoga poses and sequences are designed to strengthen and open up every muscle in your body. So if you go to the gym to work on your chest or arms, you’re targeting only those muscles and not fully improving the muscle mobility. Yoga, however, targets both your muscles and mobility.

E.g. The downward dog pose – looks simple doesn’t it? However, while holding your body up, you gain strength in the shoulders, the calves and lower back are stretched, and the same time, you workl your lower abs as you bring your belly button close to the spine.

 Can your gym equipment do all that in one go? We doubt so.

2. It is not a “strong” workout.

Try a Power or Ashtanga Yoga class and then tell us whether or not it was a “strong” workout.

Both are fast-paced, vigorous and physically-challenging styles of Yoga. How vigorous are we talking about? It’s like doing static work-out and weight training at the same time in an hour. You train yourself to be more aware of your body and your breath as you flow through these sequences.

3. I’m not flexible enough.

Not being flexible can actually be a good thing because your body needs time to adapt to the deep stretches as you learn the poses. As a new Yogi, being naturally flexible can actually lead to injuries if your body is not conditioned yet and you push it beyond its limit.

4. I don’t know the terms used in Yoga.

That’s the idea of being a student, learning something new. That is why we have Yoga instructors who will teach and guide you, not only telling you when and how to transition from one pose to the next. You don’t immediately know all the driving terms before you actually take a driving class right? Same concept applies here.

Check out our Mardaana Yoga classes and discover these for yourself!