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Real men do yoga too

Rebekah Hammond - Science & Tech Editor

Yoga isn't just an exercise regime for women.

The word 'yoga' may conjure up images of women drinking non-fat lattes, wearing Lululemon clothing, carrying brightly-coloured yoga mats, but it's a physical discipline both men and women benefit from.

"We have a misconception that [yoga's] primarily a female fitness program, where truly it is a universal lifestyle that is really driven by men," said Cylynne Abdullah.

Abdullah teaches Piloga (a combination of pilates and yoga) at TRU every Tuesday and Thursday evening with her husband, Mohd. Their mentors for pilates and yoga are both men and highly respected.

Abdullah likened it to North American views on cooking where "the kitchen is the women's domain, yet our most well-known chefs, bar none, are men," she said. "It's the same with yoga and pilates."

Yoga has helped TRU student Federico Davicino increase flexibility and body balance.

"I was introduced first by a friend in Denver, Colorado this Christmas and I got interested in it," said Davicino who's been doing yoga for three months. "I thought if was just a simple relaxation exercise but it was tougher than I thought."

"It works things like flexibility and balance that many other sports don't do," he said. "It's a good complement for whatever you do."

Hot yoga is another form of the discipline in which the stretching is done in a specially heated room with increased humidity.

"It's not just sitting on the floor, looking at your belly button for an hour and a half," said Trina Redman, co-owner of Kamloops Hot Yoga, the newest studio of its kind in town. "Men come to the yoga classes by coming with a spouse and then they're sort of hooked because they discover how intense it is and that it's very physically demanding."

Kamloops Hot Yoga's room is heated to 105 degrees fahrenheit with humidity at 45 degrees, said Redman. The heat enables the body's muscles to stretch deeper and works the cardiovascular system while the sweating detoxifies the body of chemicals.

"People have a lot of fear about heat for some reason or doing exercise in a warm room, but once the body becomes acclimatized, there's not the fear anymore," Redman said.

Redman has climbers, skiers and other athletes - both men and women - attend classes.

"A lot of people who are in the [adventure guiding] program come because they get a lot of the strength building, but they become very inflexible," said Redman who tries to accommodate students' budgets by offering student rates.

The benefits of yoga go beyond increased flexibility and strength, according to Redman, Cylynne and Mohd.

"The other benefit, especially of yoga is the mind-body connection," Cylynne said. "When I can have mindfulness and unmixed attention at the task at hand, I'm going to heighten my performance."

Ability to build focusing capabilities through yoga helps with other physical sports.

"If you're in those really high intensity sports, if you're competitive, the psychological aspect can be a problem if you don't have some mental clarity and grounding that comes from somewhere else," said Redman. "Yoga is very effective for that."