BroYoga

A friend recently commented on one of my Instagram posts "Bro, tips for starting a home practice newb? Who do I watch? Rodney Yee not cutting it...." One, I love that my friend is reaching out about yoga. Two, I love that he is looking to start a home practice in this lockdown. This global pandemic is horrific. But it is making a lot of us pause and find different ways to take care of ourselves. At home yoga is a great way to do that. Yoga can be intimidating for lots of people. Especially guys. I have been lucky. My wife introduced me to yoga 20 years ago in Danville, CA. It was a gift. At the time I wasn't so sure about it. But we did it as a date. Date yoga I called it. She had learned Bikram Yoga at a studio in SF before we had kids. She loved it. When we moved to Danville Pam discovered a completely different style of yoga. The style was Iyengar and was not heated. I have done both heated and non-heated yoga. I like both. For me it is more about the teacher than the style or the studio. My reluctant beginnings with yoga blossomed into a full on love of it. 

I need physical outlet to be sane. When I was young it was hockey, lacrosse and then martial arts. Once I discovered martial arts it was pretty much all over for team sports. I took a deep dive in my teen years and college years. I got a bit obsessed and honestly it was not healthy. When we moved to SF I took a break and discovered cycling. Yoga in California predictably was a bit on the hippy side. I have always liked hippies. Yoga just made me love them more. In Danville I would say I dabbled in yoga. But it was a nice thing to do as a couple. And it certainly helped me through some tough times. Yoga as I was about to find out can help with all the repetitive stress injuries cycling inflicts on us. Who knew cycling is actually bad for our bodies. Let's be honest it is. How many of us have bad backs, wrist pain, neck pain, hip pain. I love cycling but the position and the movement needs balancing. Yoga is perfect for restoring balance.

So fast forward to me and my family moving home to Boston. My wife once again discovered yoga for us. My wife started doing Pilates as a way to help her chronic neck pain. And the pilates studio also had a yoga studio. It was a fantastic community with some truly gifted teachers. I can't count how many times I dragged my broken body into that studio to heal what cycling had done to me. We have been going to Hyp Studio for 14 years. It is truly a place of healing and worship for the two of us. But back to the original question. How do you start a home practice. It is very simple really. All you need is a mat. Honestly you don't even really need a mat. But a mat is nice. And I like a few props. Maybe a block. A candle. To learn yoga I picked up a few books and videos way back. But now with YouTube it is at your fingertips literally. Yoga with Adriene is a wonderful resource. What I love about her videos is that she breaks it down to the basics. They are great for beginners but also awesome for people who have been practicing for a while. And she has a dog...

The other wonderful part of this lockdown and shelter in place is so many Yoga teachers are posting up online videos or streaming classes. Hyp Studio is having regularly scheduled classes which has been an amazing gift. I have stumbled across a few other cool teachers online as well. So to my friends who are thinking of adding in a home practice I applaud you. Find a space you can make your own. No one needs their kids mocking them as they are doing Supta Baddha Konasana. Although it could be fun to drag the whole family into home yoga. I know my family likes yoga. They are a bit reluctant yogis but you throw a goat or two into the mix and they love it. The beauty of yoga is no one is "good" at it. This will be very hard for my cycling friends to process. Everything we do is competitive. No drop group rides just mean another chance to own your best friends and crush their spirits. With yoga it really is a journey. One day you may feel great, others you may feel like trash. But it is the days when you feel like trash that are the most important ones to roll out that mat.

So here is the deal. I am not a yoga expert. I need yoga regularly or my body hates me. Hit me with your yoga questions. I hope this at least gives you a launch off. Check out the resources I spoke about. Then just show up. One of my favorite teachers has a saying. He likes to break it down to the 4 Ps. Four positions to him are critical in a practice: Pidgeon, Pyramid, Plow and Plank. That sounds like a solid practice. I personally would throw in Downdog, Childs pose and some type of meditation.  Light a candle. Put some crystals out. Good luck and let me know how it goes. Namaste