Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times DUDE YOGA Jason Wachob, an ex-trader, at a class in Manhattan.As I tilted my body into a triangle pose last week and stole a glance at those behind me at Jivamukti Yoga Center in Union Square, I noticed a lot of guys in the room. Not quite half the class, but close.
Lately it seems that the number of guys stretching and twisting beside me — at least in some studios — has risen quite a bit. And I mean the kind of guy who advertises his jock credentials and shamelessly checks out the women in class. The sort of dude who not too long ago derided yoga as a chick thing — like going to see “Eat Pray Love.”
Statistics bear this out. In 2008, men made up 27.8 percent of yoga practitioners, an increase of 5 percent from 2004, according to a survey of 5,050 respondents conducted by Harris Interactive Service Bureau on behalf of Yoga Journal.
Dayna Macy, a spokeswoman for the magazine, suggested age as one factor. “As men get older, yoga becomes much more attractive,” she said.
In the past few years, athletes like LeBron James, the powerhouse basketball player, and a smattering of football and hockey players have started to go public about how yoga has helped them stay focused and supple.
Some instructors, like Jai Sugrim, a former celebrity trainer who taught the class I attended at Jivamukti, gear their classes specifically for men, with tougher poses and less chanting or talking at the start of class.
Mr. Sugrim, who was a massage therapist and one-time trainer for the Yankees, described himself as a onetime “meathead who couldn’t touch his toes.” He ran marathons and lifted a lot of weights in the gym. “But it didn’t feel complete,” said Mr. Sugrim, 35. After he made a trip to India — his parents are from there — his girlfriend took him to Jivamukti (the girlfriend-yoga connection crops up a lot). He soon switched his allegiance from the gym to the yoga studio. In yoga, he said, he found a fusion between spirit and body. That was in 2007, and he was one of three guys in the class.
Now Jivamukti holds seminars just for men, and some classes can be about 40 percent guys, give or take. “I see more and more athletes,” he said. “The resistance is breaking down.”
Athletes find that yoga greatly increases their suppleness. Old injuries heal; new ones are avoided. “I’m an ex-college basketball player, a fraternity guy, a Wall Street guy — I don’t fit the profile of the average yogi,” said Jason Wachob, 35, who played basketball for Columbia University in the 1990s before becoming a trader. After he stopped playing college ball, he slavishly hit the gym, lifting a lot of weight and jumping on the elliptical.
But too many sports for too many years made his body rebel: He suffered a dislocated shoulder, disk injuries, bad knees. “My back was really, really bad,” he said. “The gym wasn’t an option, and playing basketball wasn’t an option.”
After Mr. Wachob retired from Wall Street, he shifted his attention to Internet start-ups. His latest is mindbodygreen.com, which focuses on healthy living and a greener lifestyle. That got him thinking more about yoga. Since February, he and his wife, Colleen, have been regularly laying their mats side-by-side at Strala Yoga in Manhattan. At 6-feet-7, he is hard to miss.
“In my prime I was very strong,” he said. “I think I’m right back there.”
Mr. Wachob has recruited some of his friends, but getting the men in the door is not always easy, he said. Fear of embarrassment keeps some away, which is why choosing the right class is crucial.
“A lot of guys worry that if you go into the class, you are going to look like you don’t know what you are doing,” he said. “That’s a guy’s worst nightmare.”
Guys also like to “measure things,” he said, like how much weight they can lift and how quickly they can run. “I don’t know if a guy is going to be happy saying my breathing has gotten a lot better,” Mr. Wachob said. This is why inversions and other tough poses come in handy.
“I was so happy when I could do a handstand,” he said. “But I think the people around me might have been scared.”
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