Yoga and Men

I have been taking yoga classes regularly at Sunset Yoga and my gym and I have found that nearly 70% of the students are women. Men are far and few. When I was in Pune last year and took classes at Guruji's institute, I found that there were a lot more Indian men in the class. There seemed to be more international students who were women as well. I wonder why in the western society acceptance of yoga is so low amongst men. I know we men are not as flexible and working out at the gym and doing cardio, pumping weight is more masculine, jockish. Its what men are meant to do. Trying to do some of the poses with our tight hamstrings is obviously harder, more painful and we look like wimps while the fairer sex nail these difficult poses with perfection. It hurts our ego.

EGO! Thats it! Its the male ego that comes in the way of us men accepting yoga in higher numbers than women in our society. So I wonder if we can let go of our ego so more of us can benefit from yoga. I know my teacher Terry Peterson would love to have more men in his class. I am one of his two male students in his advanced class at Sunset Yoga and I am not a regular. He is always happy to see me in his class to add some additional testosterone to the mix. Maybe its time to find a class called "Yoga for men" or how about watching Tara Stiles' video appropriately called "Yoga for Jocks" for some inspiration.