Nineteen guys were there. Only one was missing—he who suffered a very guy-like injury of burns to his hands after catching himself from falling into the campfire if you can believe that. I can. I’ve seen it happen. More than a few times even, but it didn’t matter, 19 or 20. It should have been 10 at the most. This was clearly a case of too many “dudes” for a first class of this type.

I was a pretty new teacher at the time and the pressure was just too much. Just by observing the room I knew I was in trouble.

Right away, I started making bad decisions by having everyone try to sit with their legs crossed. Question calls out from somewhere in the corner “what if you can’t bend your knees? Then a chorus of “me too” went up. “Well, sit with your legs straight, I guess, if you can.” I offered.

Naturally then we moved to the part where you go around the room, say your name and what injuries you have. Instead of the usual handful of people it was everyone. Basically, they were your normal representation of men ages 25-68. Young, old, stiff, injured, stressed, fit, out of shape, strong, weak, recovering from a stroke and everything imaginable in between. The room picked up a heavy, gloomy groundswell of energy as we went around saying what ailed us, serious or not.

Mistake no. 2 /3 was not getting the group up and at least moving to change the momentum. Instead, I slowed everything way down.

“So great, now let’s lie on our backs and close our eyes”… (and let this heavy blanket of negativity smother us) I think I thought we could “breathe through it”, is my only guess.

Yes, don’t start men on their backs like this and tell them to relax and breathe deeply. Similar to the maxim of nature where animals won’t expose their stomach (vital organs) because of vulnerability to predators, men don’t like to close their eyes and take deep breaths next to a bunch of men in a yoga room where they have no idea what they’re doing there or what’s going to come next.

The deep breathing was making everyone feel more anxious. With all the coughing, sighing and shifting around uncomfortably on their backs. I’m surprised someone didn’t yell out. “What the hell is this sh**?!”

“Ok, last one and now let’s come to the top of the mat”

This only helped lift the uncertainty of possibly being attacked. Now something potentially much worse could happen. Standing at the top of their mats meant facing directly across from another man. And not just to drop the puck in a faceoff. In yoga, this could mean direct eye contact and a sharing circle. Scary stuff.

A bit of a reprieve as we started to inhale our arms up and back down. Simple, effective, distracting. Then more trouble when it became “exhale touch your toes”… They all sort of bent over but not really. “What?! your toes…how the heck?!” someone asked. Everyone laughed. “Sorry I meant ‘knees’, touch your knees. Inhale the arms up and exhale touch your knees.” Good, better, but we can’t do this forever.

The room was getting warm from lifting our arms up and down, but it was about to become downright hot, confused and scary as I decided, yes, downward facing dog would be the first real pose we would try.

End of Part 2.

We just finished the first series of Yoga For Guys. It’s been almost three years since the class was offered and it was nice to be back in the atypical situation of being in a yoga studio where there are only men.

There is a unique camaraderie that forms when men get together to practice yoga. Some of it I will tell you about, some you can use your imagination, and some will remain sealed in accordance with the constitution of the Yoga For Guys secret society.

You see, I’m just a regular guy in Yoga and this is just one of my stories. To understand where we are as Men in yoga today, it’s important to understand how we got here. Today is Part I of 3.

Yoga for Guys was first offered in San Francisco at Bernal Yoga when we first opened the studio in 2002. Savonn and I were trying to find a way to get more guys interested in taking a yoga class so we decided to offer a series for “Guys” only.

Back then we observed that the guys who came to Bernal Yoga to pick up their wives behaved similar to how a cat does when you bring it home for the first time. They would first timidly peer in through the window a couple times. Then they would pace back and forth until a safe time opened when they would dart to the corner of the room and hide behind a plant. Fortunately, none of them ever crawled underneath the sink and stayed there for two days as I remember one cat doing growing up. But it was curious behavior to say the least. What was so scary about the yoga studio?

Well we (and I) were about to find out. The first series was full of men who definitely did not sign themselves up. First of all, they HAD yoga mats with them. The mats were tucked under their arms with names like Lisa L. written across the top. A sharpie drawn butterfly replacing the dot above the i in Lisa.

They were polite, quiet and efficient as they waited to sign-in for class wearing the same expression one has going into a prostrate exam. “Nope, no questions for me, let’s just go ahead and get this over with shall we.” Follow me please.

end of part 1.