Although yoga was practised almost exclusively by men for much of its history in India, in the West we tend to think of it as predominantly a pastime for women. And whilst the benefits of yoga are universal, here are the 5 main reasons why I believe that more men should be practising yoga.
1. Yoga improves our flexibility
Without wishing to generalise or resort to cliche, the majority of men (at least the ones I see in class) struggle with their flexibility to a greater degree than women.
This is probably largely due to their history of movement and exercise. It’s more common for women to have practised movement modalities such as dance or gymnastics in their youth and to incorporate yoga and other stretching practises into their training.
Conversely, most men have a legacy of participating in sports that place much less demand on flexibility - and often tend to prioritise strength building programmes.
Some studies suggest that there may also be a genetic component to flexibility (with men coming off second best!) and it’s certainly true that as we get older, our flexibility naturally starts to decrease as our connective tissues (muscles, tendons, fascia etc.) become less supple.
As a result, many men reach middle age feeling chronically ‘stiff’. Yoga is a great practice to start addressing this by training our nervous system to increase our ‘stretch tolerance’ so that we gradually become more flexible over time!
2. Yoga helps us to move better
Another physical benefit of yoga is that it helps us to improve joint mobility, stability and strength, helping us to move better by developing greater control of our body and joints through full ranges of movement.
This has many carry-over benefits such as improving athletic performance and mitigating against injury…or simply keeping up with our children in the park (one of my private students, an ex-rugby player of 30+ years, was delighted that he was finally able to sit cross legged at a picnic for the first time in his life!)
Many of the practises of yoga also challenge and develop our core stability and once again this allows us to move more efficiently by developing ‘proximal stability for distal mobility’ - i.e. we’re able to transfer force more effectively from our centre throughout the kinetic chain.
And when we consider the improvements to balance and proprioception (awareness of the body in space) from practising yoga we have pretty much the complete package for moving with greater ease and efficiency.
3. Yoga helps us to manage stress more effectively
It’s perhaps not an over exaggeration to say that we’re living through a mental health crisis. With so many environmental triggers - Covid, climate change, rising costs of living, social media etc. - many of us are increasingly struggling to maintain our mental health.
And whilst this impacts women at least as much as men, the way in which men deal with stress, anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges has led to a situation in which men are over 3 times more likely than women to die by suicide.
Society’s (and internal) expectations that men stay ‘strong’ and in control often makes it difficult for men to talk honestly about their mental health struggles, or to ask for help, with the result that they often resort to unhealthy coping mechanisms that exacerbate the issues.
Yoga provides many simple techniques, from mindful movement, to breathwork and meditation, that can help us to address both chronic and acute stress when it arises by shifting attention ‘out of the head and into the body’.
Moreover, simply having time out from the pressures of life, from the need to do, achieve, compete or perform can be a powerful antidote to stress by offering the space we need to ‘reset’.
4. Yoga improves how we breathe
Chronic patterns of breath dysfunction are endemic - reverse breathing, paradoxical breathing, mouth breathing…the list goes on.
Whilst this may not sound critical, the impacts of these faulty breathing patterns can in fact be significant and pernicious - elevated stress levels, increased heart rate (and lower heart rate variability - a key indicator of health), increased blood pressure, and inefficient delivery of oxygen to our muscles, cells and organs.
Yoga can help us to address these issues, firstly by bringing awareness to how we breathe and then by retraining breathing biomechanics through exploration of the many breathing and pranayama techniques that are a core feature of the practice.
Over time these practises will help to increase mental clarity, improve athletic performance and decrease stress levels, leaving us feeling calmer and more centred so that we can move through life with just a little more ease.
5. Yoga improves overall health and wellbeing
I’d say that as a general rule most men are not that great at taking care of ourselves…but yoga can help.
Yoga practice can be a great refuge from the constant overstimulation of modern day life and an opportunity to ‘down-regulate’ our chronically stimulated nervous system.
This helps to shift us from a ‘flight, fight, freeze’ dominant state by stimulating the ‘rest and digest’ parasympathetic nervous system response, and this has many benefits, such as:
Improved sleep
Improved mental health and wellbeing
Improved immune system response
Enhanced memory and cognitive abilities
Lower blood pressure
Improved Heart Rate Variability (a key indicator of nervous system health)
Improved ability to recover from the strenuous exertions of exercise and sport
So there we have 5 key reasons why I think more men should be taking yoga classes. The benefits of the practice are manifold and extend to all areas of life - home, work and sporting endeavours.
So if you know a man who might need a little nudge to take the first step on their yoga journey (or maybe that person is you?), then do point them in the direction of this post, or encourage them to get in touch to discuss one to one teaching sessions so that we can get them started on the right foot.