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February 6, 2009

USA Today: Yoga is 5,000 years old, great way to meet women. [Yoga Journal]

Why are more men doing yoga?

USA Today goes deep on the more-men-doing-yoga-trend. Excerpt:

 

Guys are spending more time on the mat, according to an end-of-year study by the Yoga Journal. About 700,000 more men are practicing yoga than four years ago — 16.5 million up from 15.8 million, according to the study.

Despite the perception that predominantly women do tree poses, traditionally only men practiced yoga in India, says Dayna Macy, communications director of Yoga Journal. She jokes that yoga is a “great way to meet women,” but in actuality the overall popularity of the energy workout has grown tremendously in the past four years.

The study found that the number of Americans who want to try yoga has tripled to 18 million since 2004, and Macy said it’s because people are discovering that yoga is not simply a cool trend, but a great workout.

“Yoga is not a fad. It’s 5,000 years old. And while people will come and go, the number of practitioners has remained pretty consistent in the last five years simply because it works,” Macy said. “It strengthens the body and calms the mind. People need to ground and calm themselves when life around them is unstable.”

Yoga Journal took a statistical sample of 5,050 people, what it felt was representative of the American population, and based its conclusions on that sample.

As everyone is trying to cut back this season, Macy suggests free podcasts and live-streaming classes available on the internet. She also suggests DVDs, if you can’t afford classes.

 

 

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