The headline here today is that I’m trying to decide whether to basically let this blog go dormant, sleeping on a tree branch, or else transform it.

Yoga Teacher Magazine is commanding more of my time, and we’re also in need of some blogs on that site to keep interest going in between issues.

So I’ll be blogging on YTM. Of course it will evolve in some fractal manner, but I’m thinking that’s where I’ll put my observations regarding yoga and teaching yoga, as well as any news related to the magazine itself.

Now I wouldn’t mind occasionally blogging about other stuff in my life, from just general bullshit to stuff like karate, but the one dilemma there is that this is called YogaTeacherMan. So if I decide to keep this active I may come up with a new title.

In other news, here’s a lovely article (shout out to Richard Dweck for the pointer) about the passing of Keiko Fukada. She went further in judo than has any woman ever, passing away earlier this month in San Francisco, at the age of 99. Great story, read the Times article here.

So I’m spending some time practicing a form of spiritual duty which doesn’t come easy to me: publicity dharma. Trying to, like, “raise awareness” of Yoga Teacher Magazine through, like, social media reach out.

So here on my YogaTeacherMan blog I’m going to continue, whilst grinding my teeth and cringing, to encourage you, my followers, to help me out on this. (The one factor which makes all this sales pitching less onerous is that I really do believe wholeheartedly in this product!) So here’s what you can do to become a complete follower of the magazine. And by so doing you will earn my eternal gratitude, at the very least.

1 – Visit the site at http://www.yogateachermag.com (or just click here).

2 – On the site, sign up for the newsletter. I swear you will not be inundated with all kinds of spammy news. Every once in a rather bluish moon you’ll receive a tastefully done newsletter detailing what’s going on with the magazine, recent activity and upcoming changes.

3 – You might check out the section about how to participate, if such an activity would appeal to you. It’s on the right hand column under CONTRIBUTE.

4 – On Facebook: you can like both Yoga Teacher Magazine and Ivan Nahem Yoga Vortex.

5 – Follow yogateachermagazine on both Pinterest and Twitter. I am especially enjoying the Pinterest page, so please follow! It’s fun to just relax and throw images around, and categorize them – very right-brain activity, quite soothing. Even if you’re not a member of Pinterest, you can just click here to view.

6 – Comment!

7 – Subscribe to this blog, if you haven’t already!

Thank you so much!

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Anyway, I want something that regularly reminds me to just let it go. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I hold on to stuff too hard, and fuss with it, and I just need to lighten up and let it go.

One time I was at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, an open air theater, and we were up on the grassy knoll above the seats, watching a bunch of bands, I only remember Steve Miller band. Anyway, a long time ago. And there were some black guys near us, and one of them apparently dropped a candy wrapper, like an M&M’s wrapper, and it started sliding down the hill, and he started to go after it, and the other dude said, “Let it go man, it ain’t real.” We cracked up, and I’ve always remembered that. Not that I believe in littering, mind you, but there’s some wisdom in there. Let it go man, it ain’t real.

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT EVERYONE:

my online magazine, YOGA TEACHER MAGAZINE, is up and running as of today!

Please visit at http://www.yogateachermag.com

We’ve been working on this since the summer, and I’m quite proud of it, I must confess!

ENJOY!

Respect the code of silence!

So this is a continuation of my analysis of William J. Broad’s article “Wounded Warrior Pose.”

Referring to this issue of men and yoga, Broad writes, “I stumbled on the issue after my book, published in February, laid out a century and a half of science and, in its chapter on injuries, contradicted the usual image of yoga as completely safe. The yoga establishment makes billions of dollars by selling it as a path to healthy perfection. Predictably, it responded with sharp denials.” Well, we’ll probably never know whether Mr. Broad stumbled upon or rooted around for this issue. And may I suggest one reason yoga has been able to sustain an image of safety is because it is relatively safe. Who would call any physical activity “completely safe”? As for the critiques he characterizes as “sharp denials,” I wonder does he include contemplations such as these from knowledgeable yoga teachers Leslie Kaminoff (here and on video here) and Mark Stephens (find it here)? To imply they were fueled by financial concerns, you really must be joking! And who is this embattled yoga establishment, exactly? Where are they located? Does Broad really think there’s that sort of homogeneity in the yoga world?

He then attempts to back up his provocative statements with some statistics. I’m going to do a more thorough analysis of his analysis of federal data relating to yoga injuries, because at first glance I’m skeptical. I’ll get back to you on this.

Seeming to sense trouble here he goes on offense: “Some yoga practitioners will surely see my analysis as unconvincing. That’s O.K. It’s the kind of topic that can only benefit from thorough discussion — as well as rigorous new studies that can rule out the possibility of false clues.”

Well, okay. Here is where I give Broad some benefit of doubt. In fact, yes, let’s talk, let’s get some actual solid evidence going! And anyway let’s talk about it, surely. There is some benefit even in sensationalism, if it gets an issue raised. Certainly the yoga community − if not the yoga establishment − can do with discussions of the particular reasons why men should be cautious doing yoga.

And yet one can’t begin every class with a lecture on different approaches that students should adopt according to their gender. I have classes where some of the men are more limber than the women. You never know what the parade will be. I truly have to question making physical types into stereotypes.

In fact I suspect that some of Broad’s skewed perception is due to the fact he isn’t in the trenches. Despite his vaunted love of yoga, he doesn’t attend yoga classes, apparently. I’ve heard him interviewed on Irish radio and I understood that he has a practice he’s stuck to for many years that he does daily, but he didn’t mention attending classes. Now a home practice is a wonderful thing, but if you’re talking about what goes on in yoga classes, attending some classes might be a good idea. Instead most of what we get with Broad is hearsay, Internet talk, about yoga.

Take this line: “Men who are breaking the code of silence are doing so with physicians in hospital emergency rooms, who in turn report their findings to the federal government.” One would think there might be a movie or at least TV series potential here – Those Few Brave Men Who Broke the Yoga Code of Silence! In fact in the reception areas and locker rooms you’ll hear your share of bitching from either sex about injuries. And where else is it protocol for a teacher to actually elicit information about injuries and conditions before class formally starts? Doesn’t happen before your Boot Camp workout, but it does happen in yoga class.

Then the solutions he sets forth to this yoga-wrecking-male-body dilemma probably took him about ten minutes to research at the keyboard. “All-male classes, by definition, avoid the flexibility gap between women and men and instead play to masculine strengths.” He namechecks some of these brands, such as Broga, yoga for bro’s.

I suppose it can’t hurt, unless one’s expectations are not met, but I wouldn’t know, I will admit to never doing a Broga class, so I can’t comment. But I also wonder about the idea of playing to strengths as a real solution. We can improve what we do well, and it soothes the ego, surely. But in the long run − and yoga is all about the long run – if we restrict ourselves to what we can do easily doesn’t that inhibit growth? I can do Chaturanga all day, but so what? I might also try for a better Parivrrta Trikonasana (Reverse Triangle).

Because what this article should be saying, I believe, is that one of the main reasons men should in fact do yoga is because they are not so flexible. If you’re already a member of Cirque du Soleil, you don’t need yoga so much. But most men really could benefit from yoga, just to keep relatively limber. Muscular suppleness is a key factor in retaining agility, and in keeping healthy, not to mention a backing off from stress. Reactions to Broad’s article in Twitter trackback contradict this objective: “I knew there was a good reason I hate yoga!!”

As I’ve mentioned we tend to continue along the line of least resistance, and so it’s fairly easy to restrict our activities in ways that isolate our talents and therefore keep us on a familiar basis with our limitations. So even men engaged with shaping their bodies will concentrate on adding strength to strength. Runners might be nurturing tight hamstrings. The true warrior looks at what his weaknesses are, and works on minimizing them; so if we are not so flexible, then what are the tools we can use to loosen up (in all kinds of ways)? In my YogaWorks 300 hour teacher training there was a bodybuilder who was there just for this reason, and he was greatly admired.

Beyond discussion, the real answer to the yoga/men dilemma is always going to be decent, perceptive instruction. Poor teaching can potentially injure even the most flexible student. Even flexibility can have its pitfalls. The teacher has to be able to assess each student, and make the effort to keep them engaged yet not force them injuriously past their edge. Anyone who teaches beginners classes must observe, must see, must sense, with safety the first concern. And teachers should be on the lookout for the safest and clearest ways to instruct the poses, with modifications for those who need them. The real answer for men, then, is not necessarily special segregated classes, but that they start with an experienced teacher in (duh!) a beginner class, and work their way toward great facility. Only the ill-advised will try to run before they can walk, and that said, sometimes mistakes will be made.

The truth is, yoga can work with any body; the constricted, the stiff, the injured, the limited. Often the obstacle to a healthy practice isn’t the male body but the male ego. And I use the phrase with some discretion because this so-called male ego, this over-competitive drive, is itself gender bending these days. I see lots of competitive women in life and in yoga class. Broad reports: “Women say men push themselves too far, too fast.” Perhaps there are women who say this, but loads of women push themselves, too, look in the window at Jenny Craig. The need for the wow factor is ramping up in the studios, and yoga practice is becoming more intense, more rajasic.

So here are some things men really do need to know as they start practicing yoga. You are starting from a flexibility deficit. Don’t worry about it. This is an arena where women will more naturally shine, where they will most likely grab the brass ring faster than you. Don’t worry about it. Let it go. Some of those women, as well as some men, will shine, and you can admire that. Come back into your own body and see what you can do. Pay attention to your body, your instructor, your instructions. If a teacher pushes you too far, find another teacher. Yoga will improve your body slowly, it will improve your strength and your flexibility, but you’re not there to show off. Let it go. Letting the ego go, that is the ass-kicking yoga.

If you are very worried about safety, go Iyengar. It’s all about proper ways of doing yoga. Stay away from Bikram and Ashtanga. Investigate, research.

We can thank Mr. Broad for bringing up this subject matter in a passionate way, and for the notion that men and women need to respect disparities in typical talents. However the good news is that this isn’t too difficult to avoid yoga injury. If you are into extreme sports, running ultra marathons, for example, you are in a sense courting danger (not that that’s necessarily wrong). But unless you are way overzealous for your age and ability, yoga is pretty darned safe. It’s low impact, and it should be slow enough to allow for adjustments in the moment. It’s actually pretty tough to injure yourself, and Broad has to begin to understand this, and represent truly. I’ve been teaching steadily for nearly six years now, and to my knowledge, and knock wood, I haven’t injured a single student, beyond aches and pains the following day, and I’ve had scores of students tell me about how much relief they’ve experienced from all kinds of suffering. I know this doesn’t make for super controversial headlines, but it is, after all, the truth of the matter, which is that yes, yoga does present unique challenges for the typical male body, but we needn’t be so alarmed. It will work out. Come to class and see for yourself.

My regular yoga student Bob told me about an article in the Sunday Times about how men injure themselves doing yoga. Instantly I suspected it was another William J. Broad cry for attention and indeed it was.

One definition of broadside: “A nearly simultaneous firing of all the guns from one side of a warship.”

Another broadside by the Grey Lady.

My previous comments on Mr. Broad’s infamous “How Yoga Wrecks the Body” earlier in this year which limps to a close can be accessed here.

So this one is called “Wounded Warrior Pose.” If you access it on the web, the URL is http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/sunday-review/the-perils-of-yoga-for-men.html?ref=yoga … Note that “peril,” classic yellow journalistic trope.

And speaking of journalism, with all due respect to William J. Broad as a yogi and a seeker, one of my concerns about his brand of it is that he seems to want to come off as the white knight, protecting yoga from itself for its own good. Oh God bless ‘im. If only it rang at all true.

As a senior science writer for the Times it is clear he is primarily a journalist, and one can nearly hear him stiffling his grunts with ujjayi breath as he struggles once again with how to turn his familiarity with yoga into another controversial headline. It is my contention that given the material (and there is indeed material here!), there could be ways to explore it which would benefit the yoga community. And other ways, well-demonstrated by Mr. Broad, which really don’t do any of us any good, because they are not rooted in truth (satya, in old school yoga), but rather in pandering to an imagined audience of yoga spectators/Times readers.

So in approaching this nasty beast, I would first throw a few bones. Yoga does in fact wreck your body… if, that is, you do it without guidance and without discrimination. And as for this latest brief, yeah sure man, yoga presents unique challenges for the typical male body.

Should we be alarmed? I don’t think so.

Take a slightly deeper than usual breath. and proceed.

Okay, I believe it’s true that women are generally more set for yoga. As Broad says, “Science has long viewed the female body as relatively elastic.” Well landsakes, I’ll bet it has!

So people tend to do what’s easy for them, starting at a (relatively high) baseline and working up from there, so this is one reason you do find more women engaged in yoga.

However, there are a few of us guys. Broad: “Guys who bend, stretch and contort their bodies are relatively few in number, perhaps one in five out of an estimated 20 million practitioners in the United States and 250 million around the globe.” Oh, so that’s only 50 million worldwide… nothing really.

He goes on to say, “The subject of male risk merits discussion if only because the booming yoga industry has long targeted men as a smart way to expand its franchise.” Actually the subject of male risk would merit discussion whether or not it might be a business concern, in fact that’s quite irrelevant. And my gosh Bill, we must be living on different planets, that’s all I can say. Where do you find this targeting, please tell me? I did some Google searches on terms such as “yoga targeting men” and I got about three hits, two of which referenced Broga, see below.

Tomorrow, hopefully!

Well, I started on a post. This is how far I got:

Because I was giving more thought to context I brought in more candles this morning which made the mood with the rain outside. I warmed up the microwave heating bags on the radiators and let them put two of them under their lower back arches, above the sacrum, and that’s how we began therapeutic class today. There were happy sighs.

So that’s yesterday’s post. After my second class yesterday a student asked me about the William Broad article in the Sunday Times, so that’s the subject of today’s post, which is not yet ready for prime time.

So today I’ve been thinking about stripping down in my teaching, and wondering what that could mean. A few weeks ago I watched an interview with Johnny Ramone that I came across on Youtube. He’s always been kind of a weirdass bugger, but he had some things to say and one was that in the early days the Ramones decided they would never appear weak or confused onstage. Now of course that’s kind of a macho stance by definition, and kind of plays into that superhuman performer idea, but I thought, you know, I could use some of that. Now truthfully teaching a yoga class sometimes I do like to appear human, and warm, and connected, so it’s not macho that I’m looking for, but on the other hand I want to be definite and I don’t like appearing confused, that’s not much fun for anybody. So I’ve been thinking about how to implement this kind of decisiveness in my presentation.

Then Helen gave me “How Music Works” by David Byrne. So sort of coincidentally, another voice from that punk era. “The range of pre-existing performative models from which to draw on was overwhelming… So the only sensisble course was to avoid all of it, to strip everything back and see what was left. Some others in that scene had similar ideas. The Ramones didn’t allow guitar solos…It was mathematics; when you subtract all that unwanted stuff from something, art or music, what do you have left?” (As I was typing this out, a David Byrne song “Everything That Happens” came on iTunes through the shuffle function.)

Of course the idea of going minimal is not entirely new in art (Duchamp, Hemingway, Cage spring to mind), but the application can be new.

So I was thinking about how to apply it in terms of leading a yoga class, what can you strip out? I know there are teachers, like say Baptiste or DDP, who advertise the fact that they strip out the spirituality from yoga. And I suppose that’s valid for some people, but for me that would be throwing out the baby with bathwater. Just for starters I have always very naturally tried to strip away the saccharine, over-affirming, soft spirituality, because I don’t believe in it, often it’s really a buffer against reality; a truer spirituality looks at life full on. What else can be stripped away? Too much teacher talk; too much conceptualization…

Anyway, these are just questions for me (and perhaps you) at the moment, I could say more but that’s enough for now.

I will admit that from the beginning I didn’t like the “Never, Ever…” video at all; even on my first viewing, I thought a) there’s something fishy here; and b) it’s slick and schmaltzy, which just isn’t my cup of tzy.

So here’s the stuff that seems off to me. First, we’re supposed to take him at his word that he “can’t walk.” There’ s no proof of this. He is hobbling around in the quick videos from that time, but anyone can do that. This is a sticking point with me, because if you’re going to be running at cameras on those knees, like he does at the end of the viral video, if you’re going to be doing an advanced Padangustasana…

well, I’m not a doctor but I’m fairly certain there can’t be a lot of structural damage before the rehabilitation. Tough power yoga is not going to repair your bone for you. It can make severely damaged knees stronger, if done well and cautiously, but real structural damage would require magic to heal so entirely.

Then he claims he tried to find a yoga teacher, however everyone but Dallas turned him away. “A lot of other yoga teachers wouldn’t work with me because I couldn’t stand, I couldn’t move…” Really? Really!? Just where the heck was he (supposed to be) looking? There are tons of therapeutic yoga classes. I teach one myself; they’re quite popular. I’ve worked with people in real wheelchairs, for real, doing yoga, and lots of people have. I find this quite insulting to the profession, that we’re expected to believe that someone like a beat-up veteran would be turned away by yoga teachers! On some level I admire DDP and his chutzpah, but this is just the kind of cheap trick that people use to get the naive to think they’re the only game in town when the reality is far from it. In fact I have never heard of a yoga student being turned away by a studio – referred to a different class, yes, but not turned down cold. So I think Diamond Dallas and Arthur need to tell us just who these heartless yoga teachers were. I’m also skeptical because Arthur then tells the story this way as well: “I was up late, I was on search engine, just typing in different things and I typed in ‘yoga’ and ‘broken back’ and up popped Dallas Page.” So is this how he nonchalantly kept looking for guidance after all the teachers turned him away… or was he perhaps connected to DDP before he sought these other teachers out?

Then there’s all the bad acting. The Arthur of the video is shown trying to do some yoga poses, apparently early in the process, and struggling with it, and falling numerous times. Now Arthur has claimed that “a man with an M.D. behind his name” at the V.A. hospital told him that he should accept that he would never walk normally again. (It would be interesting to see a copy of this assessment!) So how, and why, is this guy with these bad injuries throwing his body around? In the short viral version are we supposed to be thinking he’s filming himself? Because it’s all obviously staged for the kickstarter movie project.

So then if we go the website for “Inspired The Movie” which is advertised along with the viral vid, we find out that Arthur was part of a documentary about how people change their lives; actually it’s about people going from plus size down, or as they put it, “…solving the worldwide obesity epidemic.” And the footage of Arthur shown in “Never, Ever…” is apparently mostly from this movie “documentary.” And the Arthur of the movie, from the middle period between obese and rail thin, says he teaches people with disabilities, and looks like one mighty fit dude.

And during this same sequence in the long-playing version Dallas is there with him. So I think this was all staged. And he’s nearly crashing into a cabinet. If he were truly injured and was getting some help learning yoga, would he not be a) instructed how to do these poses, and b) using his props properly (come on, that chair???), and c) more damned careful? It really seems like bad acting to me, I’m sorry.

I ‘Googled’ Arthur and found that he’s been on a Google+ site for at least three years; there’s a picture of him (the guy in the promo video) and he’s really, really skinny, a yoga instructor working with DDP, and no mention in his posts at all several years back, of any injuries or rehabilitation or anything like that.

And his chat from back in 2010 is all very breezy and easy, he’s having a fine year.

So that’s quite strange, for what it’s worth. The short video made me think this had all happened recently, but in other videos DDP says Arthur first came to him in 2007 and has kept the weight off since then. I guess it took them a long time to get it started, to get all the right footage.

Basically, there’s so much that doesn’t seem right, I’m even wondering if this Arthur Boorman was really in the Army; if he really couldn’t walk; if the whole thing is a publicity stunt. Of course some might argue that even if it’s faked up, it’s still good for yoga, in demonstrating such miraculous changes. It’s an interesting question. Some people have no doubt been inspired to do yoga of some sort through the video and through DDP, and that could surely be a good thing. Yoga is a good thing, and it can help you achieve flexibility and strength, it can restore strength, it can help you lose weight when combined with lifestyle changes; I’ve had students, and so have my peers and teachers, who can attest to all of these.

But Boorman’s condition seems exaggerated and the campaign for the video and the kickstarter movie indicate it’s more of a calculated publicity engine for DDP, at the expense of yoga. Dallas Page says the “Never, Ever…” video “changed my whole business.” I’m sure it did! But isn’t true yoga is about being straight on, being truthful, seeking the way, all that yama stuff which is just the kind of yoga “mumbo-jumbo” that DDP decries? I realize Dallas claims he got backed into using the word “yoga”, but I’m not even sure if I believe that. All in all I don’t know quite what to think. In a sequence from the movie trailer for Inspired the Movie inspirational messages float past: “Faith”… “Accountability”…. I think that in this case we need more of the latter, to make the leap to the former.

Contemplating getting down to Seane Corn’s convocation in Atlantic City this coming Saturday for Sandy relief, but not sure how I would get there. Anyone going down from NY area, or know about buses, or willing to share expenses if I rent a zipcar?

Classes going well. Very much enjoyed Gentle Yoga class yesterday morning – my mood seemed to fit with the day (cloudy, drizzly) and the people. Satyajit asked for a gentle class with twists, and that was fine by me.

In terms of approach, I’ve been going back and forth between solidifying my sequences, getting more orderly and forthright, and on the other hand needing more looseness and letting go, bringing the spontaneity. The soft/hard approach again, I guess!

Speaking of which, working on my seiunchin kata, almost have it down, starting to refine. Sensei Andy says this kata embodies the essence of Goju style; indeed it is so deep.

Working on a screed about the Arthur Boorman viral yoga video, essentially how much it irritates me. I might have something up on it here today; soon, anyway, so I hope.

Wrote an article called “Top Ten Irish expressions an American ex-expat can’t relinquish,” which will be published on IrishCentral “over the holidays”.

Also on radar is the online magazine that we’re working on, but at the moment we’re finessing the design, so it looks like another couple weeks…

Cheers!