Cooking Light Magazine

Yoga: It's a Guy Thing, Too

Jan/Feb 2003

Eastern-influenced exercise has some new adherents: men. "ten years ago, my yoga classes were 80 percent women," says Baron Baptiste, Boston yogi and author of Journey Into Power: How to Sculpt Your Ideal Body, Free Your True Self, and Transform Your Life with Yoga. "Now, it's anywhere between 40 and 50 percent men." Baptiste has watched men's interest increase from a unique perspective; he served as the Philadelphia Eagles' "peak performance specialist" for five years. "Initially there was a ton of skepticism," he recalls, "but as the players started to glean benefits, that skepticism withered away."

Since then, yoga has gained other high-profile male proponents. It is mandatory training for New York Giants rookies, and tennis champ Pete Sampras uses yoga-based breathing techniques on the court. Yoga poses improve flexibility, increase range of motion, and build muscle by using body weight as resistance-as useful for ordinary Joes as professional athletes, Baptiste says. "If you're into sports or weight training, yoga is only going to enhance all the other things you're doing. It's been amazing for men to be able to open up to that process."

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