10/09/2026
Walk into most yoga classes and you will likely see far more women than men. Even much of the conversation around yoga and wellbeing tends to center on women’s health more than men’s.
But men’s health deserves just as much attention. For generations, many men have been taught to “man up” to be strong, to be masculine, to be in control, to suppress emotion, to keep going, expected to perform beyond their limits, not only physically but in every role they take on: from professional, to work environment, to working out, to relationships, to financial success.
After teaching yoga for more than 6 years, I have worked with men in both private sessions and group classes, and I noticed something that stayed with me: many men would come to a group class once or twice, then quietly disappear.
Looking back, I realize I was part of the problem too, unknowingly asking men to do yoga like women, to fit into the same expectations their bodies weren’t built for.
Through my recent studies in Yoga Therapy for Men’s Health, one sentence from my teacher has stayed with me since: “We should never try to make men flexible.”
Yoga isn’t about making men flexible. It’s about supporting their overall health and well-being, on their own terms, not by asking them to match someone else’s practice. It’s about working with the areas where they can genuinely benefit, more mobility, less stiffness, less pain, while respecting who they are.
Keeping that principle clear in our head as a yoga therapist, that male and female s*x hormones differ, helps us work with the male physical body whether they are dealing with a physical issue that day or not.
That sentence made me reflect on 6+ years of teaching: what I was doing, why I was doing it and what I could have done differently.
Now, when I work with men, I meet them where they are. And maybe that’s where yoga for men needs to begin, not with flexibility, but with understanding. 🧘🏻♂️
