For the past several months AmongMen has been providing you with reasons why more guys should practice yoga, and we’ve been giving you men and athlete-focused yoga tips through our Jock Yoga tutorials. This week, before we begin our next rollout of tutorials, we’d like to take a step back and explain just what Jock Yoga is.
For years, the yoga market has been dominated largely by women and/or ‘spiritual seekers’ looking for some kind of enlightenment or calming of the mind. With the physical and mental benefits of yoga being ubiquitous and abundant for everyone, a need has grown for the development of yoga hybrids to appeal to a more universal audience.
Dedicated athletes –namely men, are often initially skeptical of yoga, fearing it doesn’t improve or enhance their strength or endurance capabilities compared to other activities. Similar perceptions are common among regular gym-goers who prefer aerobics classes or pump classes, believing yoga to be too passive or requiring too much flexibility which they lack.
Jock Yoga, originally created as a class name simply to attract a larger male demographic, breaks through these perceived notions, delivering a full-body workout, building strength, muscle and mental fitness. Founded by a ‘jock’—a former marathon-runner and bodybuilder—the Jock Yoga name garnered more and more media attention—creating an athletic yoga trend. The class evolved into strength and endurance focused yoga hybrid that caters to the needs of athletes, everyday athletes (everyone) and men. Jock Yoga focuses on feeding an athlete’s strengths (providing a workout) while improving their weaknesses (lack of flexibility etc) by movement and stretching based on the principles of sport biomechanics. The class steers away from poses that require extreme flexibility, or that would promote discouragement for the average athletic or male body type. Jock Yoga also has a ‘jock’ spirit to it, and though the class can be extremely challenging, it has a laid-back vibe without flowery and ethereal yoga language.
For our purposes on AmongMen, our Jock Yoga tutorials contain the same laid-back vibe and offer helpful stretches, tips and poses/flows that are accessible to almost everyone over time. Our tutorials are written in plain and direct language and are geared toward to the average guy who wouldn’t necessarily be interested in doing yoga.
Check AmongMen.com every few weeks for our latest Jock Yoga tutorial and learn to practice our newest stretch, tip or arm-balance party trick!
For more information on Jock Yoga and Jock Yoga’s upcoming 40 Hour certification visit: www.jockyoga.com
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