Yoga is often seen as a nice exercise for ladies who don’t want to put in a sweaty workout at the gym. This is very different from the way I saw yoga being practiced while I was in India. There, it was rigorously muscular and required years of practiced flexibility. It was not about some suburban housewives looking to get an hour’s break from the kids and chores. It required huge amounts of discipline and quiet strength.
In India, I saw far more men doing yoga in this energetic and challenging way than women. Here in the west, particularly in the US, women predominate in yoga classes. As a result, the flexibility that so many male athletes need, isn’t there either. Men who are used to the rigid movements of body building and strength maintenance are severely lacking in full body flexibility. They would do well to include a yoga class in their training routine.
And this leads to the Western view of yoga as a form of exercise that confers an agile kind of strength. At one end, we see it as a great exercise for seniors and ladies who don’t want to exert themselves. And on the other end, we see it as an add-on in our busy quest towards physical perfection. Both views are missing the point of Yoga, which is the “yoking” of the spirit with the body and connecting them all to the Source Energy of the Universe, or God.
In India, I saw far more men doing yoga in this energetic and challenging way than women. Here in the west, particularly in the US, women predominate in yoga classes. As a result, the flexibility that so many male athletes need, isn’t there either. Men who are used to the rigid movements of body building and strength maintenance are severely lacking in full body flexibility. They would do well to include a yoga class in their training routine.
And this leads to the Western view of yoga as a form of exercise that confers an agile kind of strength. At one end, we see it as a great exercise for seniors and ladies who don’t want to exert themselves. And on the other end, we see it as an add-on in our busy quest towards physical perfection. Both views are missing the point of Yoga, which is the “yoking” of the spirit with the body and connecting them all to the Source Energy of the Universe, or God.
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