Robert Sidoti tries to get his pupils to work up a sweat in his Broga class. (Image by Doug Tribou/Only A Game)
Broga: the new yoga for spiritual guys
By Avalon Doyle, Contributor
Yoga for men has landed here in the Lower Mainland, and it’s all about dudes getting in touch with their inner bro-ness. What started as a fad in yoga studios across North America has turned into a movement to get guys fit, flexible, and filled with inner peace. While you might think that a room full of flexible, scantily-clad females would be a draw for most men, it turns out that woman-focused traditional yoga classes were scaring some men off. Enter Broga.
Two American yoga instructors, Robert Sidoti and Adam O’Neill, who wanted to introduce more men to the benefits of yoga, originally founded the registered brand of Broga yoga. The ideology behind the movement is to help men find more tools to cope with the daily stresses of life and work, while enhancing their strength and endurance regiments—much like regular yoga, just with a masculine focus to its branding and marketing.
The trend has caught on here in Vancouver, with advertisements for yoga studios around town promoting bro-friendly classes. This particular style of yoga is unique in that it focuses on the strengthening of the arms, shoulders, back, and chest—areas that usually concern men the most. It also focuses on training flexibility in the hamstrings, lower back, and hips, areas which tend to suffer the most from strength or endurance training.
Many people seem to think that yoga is just for women, which is something the Broga founders say is false. The effects of the controlled exercise are not limited to just female participants, and many male athletes have been supplementing their training with yoga for years, even before the bro-friendly version.
Flexibility, mobility, and core strength can help to improve any athlete’s game, which is reason enough to give it a try. While popularity is growing, there are a limited number of studios that have classes just for men—Bikram Yoga Tri-Cities said they had never even heard of Broga, but all the classes they offer are co-ed. But if you’re feeling intimidated at the prospect of going into a yoga class and—very likely—being the only guy in the room, there are a few studios in Vancouver specializing in men’s yoga. “Yoguy” offers classes in four different locations (check out yoguy.ca) including Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. on Agnes Street, just across from the Douglas College’s New Westminster campus.
So grab your bromantic partner, eat some brogurt, and try a Broga class!
