Last month, I climbed the stairs of one of our local yoga studios here in Vancouver with nervous anticipation. As I approached the door, I caught the faint odour of incense wafting through the air. I entered the studio and was greeted by a well-toned, attractive young lady wearing the latest outfit by Lululemon.

At this point, I started to feel intimidated but she quickly put me at ease and asked me if it was my first time. I said yes, and she offered me the two-week special for first-timers – all the yoga you want for two weeks at a cost of $30.

After I paid, I proceeded to go in for my first class - 90 minutes of Vinyasa Flow … so, how did it go?

Putting it mildly – I got my ass kicked! I’ve been working out for over 15 years with free weights and consider myself in decent condition, but I have to tell you, I was sweating profusely after only a few minutes. It was a full-body workout, from head to toe - bum, stomach and back … whatever body part you can think of, I think I worked on.

What benefit did I get?

Well, the problem with traditional working out is that it is very easy to form imbalances. We all favour certain exercises and this can lead to certain muscles getting stronger than others, which can also lead to chronic pain and possible injury.

Yoga really appealed to me because I really wanted to tone up my body and fix my ‘imbalances.’ Yoga accomplishes this by ‘flowing’ through different positions such as ‘downward dog’ or ‘plank’. Within minutes your heart starts to race as your body struggles to maintain balance and uses long-dormant muscles that you didn’t know you had.

Yoga is not just about the physical but also the mental. We focused on breathing and clearing our thoughts and during the class, the instructor helped out with positive mental affirmations and anyone (mostly me) who needed help with the positions or poses.

Several days later, I still felt energized and I have to say, my posture was much better and best of all, my mind was much clearer.

I definitely think more guys should do it – I would say about 80% of the class was female. We guys tend to focus on things like getting bigger muscles and increasing our strength, but as we get older, it just isn’t practical. I can definitely see myself doing yoga even when I am much older.

What about the free weights?

I’ll still be going to my regular gym but I think yoga will be an excellent addition to my fitness regime for the foreseeable future!