Oh, Boy!

Ladies, have you ever walked into a room and felt every set of eyes fall on you? Did you look around and notice a ton of men, getting that sinking feeling in your stomach, thinking, "Oh God! Am I the only woman here?" Maybe you have. Maybe you haven't. But imagine how vulnerable you would feel, how singled out you would be. This is how men feel about Yoga.
For years, I have been trying to get men to do Yoga. I have offered classes in my home. I have begged my husband to go to a class with me. I have even baited his friends to my house with promises of lunch in exchange for an hour of Yoga with me. Every offer has been met with a fervent resistance. But why? This 5,000 year old practice was once practiced by MOSTLY men.

It's because women can be hard to do Yoga with. Let's be honest...we are all guilty of competition at some point in our Yogic path. My moment was during Prenatal Yoga when a woman came in every week with her high pony tail, and her perfectly pedicured feet, gliding gracefully into each Warrior Pose while I lay in Balasana on my mat next to her, heavy and bloated with twins. But when a man walks into a studio full of women, how does he feel?
To find out, I got on Reddit.com and posted a request for men to tell me about their experience in the Yoga world. The answers were staggeringly similar. "Women always make a big deal when I go to a Yoga class." "I get dirty looks like I'm only there to try to score." "I'll be viewed as a sexual predator." HOLY SHIT! Is that how we are making men feel?! They feel dirty, they feel uncomfortable! Most of the men said that they would only be comfortable if a friend came with them to 'validate' and 'protect' them. So ladies, what can you do? One  redditor gave me this advice to share - "Don't freak out when I come into class. Don't give me weird smiles or dirty looks. I am there to do Yoga, I am not there to harass you so please don't harass me!"