In the April issue of Runner’s World, Sage Rountree, penned a column with a yoga routine for ITB Relief.

You can watch the video sequence here and refer to the article in Runner’s World.

Come join us on Mondays from 7:00-8:30pm for more ITB relief and other focused routines for common trouble spots, injury prevention, strengthening, flexibility and fun. You do not have to be an athlete to attend the class. We have a great group of regulars and new students are always joining in.

Downward Facing Dog is a challenging pose to learn for new students because you basically can’t see what’s going on in the room. Most other poses at least you can see what is happening around you. In Downward Dog you’re looking backwards and partially upside down so it’s disorienting. When you’re a little more challenged flexibility- wise, the pose can take on odd shapes.

I remembering looking out over the room and just being at a loss for what was happening. Whatever I said in teaching or demonstrating the pose a minute ago was clearly not communicated well or understood. “What pose did I just say we should try?” I wondered. Then I realized I just had to start running around the room to the ones in the most critical shape first.

“Hold on, come down for a second, try lifting your.., left, yep left, other left, this hand here. No the other way, is it a sharp pain? let’s get some ice…”

There was just so much grunting, groaning and straining. Guys were collapsing around me. I wanted to run out of
the room and go hide behind the plant. And just when I almost lost complete control, I saw a vision of one of my teacher’s, Max Strom in the form of a giant Yoga Guy angel, saying; “backbends can be calming.”

That’s it. Bridge pose. I was going to wait until almost the end of class when we’d normally do it, but this was THE END, about 20 minutes in, one pose disastrously down. “Ok, every body let’s come back down on our back on our mats” They looked like they might attack me if I made them do the relaxing on our back breathing thing again.

“Ok, this time bend your knees, place your feet on the mat hip distance apart and lift your hips and lower back off the floor and your chest up to your chin.” When they came down, the tension of the room lifted like nothing else I had experienced before. After just one backbend, the room shifted from the competitive cauldron of masculine territorial fear and uncertainty to a room full of peaceful lions basking next to each other in the summer sun.

Over the years and each time I teach the series I really do enjoy the male camaraderie. It’s something very unique in my experience in the world of yoga. Most of the time I see myself many years ago when I first started taking yoga. It has helped me become a more patient teacher. It has allowed for special circumstances like a few weeks ago when I announced the Xavier vs. West Virginia and Kentucky vs. Cornell 2nd half March Madness scores between poses. You just wouldn’t think –ok, I would think to check, pretending to change a playlist– but not announce a score normally, in a yoga class. It would be completely out of place and awkward. But in Yoga For Guys, intentions of shining our hearts open to align our chakras with the seasonal changes of sports makes perfect sense.

End-

New Beginning: Yoga For Guys meets every Thursday – 7:30-8:45pm. Intro to Level 2

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.

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.