Beauty and The Beast

“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.”

― Marilyn Monroe

In today’s world of peer pressure and hyper-messaging from television commercials, magazines and music videos, self-criticism and an obsessive concern with one’s outward appearance are becoming epidemic among young girls. The Canadian Women’s Health Network reports that 90% of women are dissatisfied with their appearance in some way and that 49% of girls ages 8-10 and 59% of girls ages 11-12 are concerned about being fat or overweight! In 2003, Teen magazine reported that 35 per cent of girls 6 to 12 years old have been on at least one diet, and that 50 to 70 per cent of normal weight girls believe they are overweight. Young girls are continually being exposed to images of women that represent an unnatural standard of beauty that is airbrushed and altered to perfection. By the time a girl reaches 17 years old, she will have received over 250,000 commercial messages through the media, playing heavily on her sense of self-esteem. How do we cultivate self-confidence in girls with this “beast” of a movement that is slowly eroding their self-esteem and causing them to feel like they don’t measure up?

In a culture that esteems appearance over character and that makes girls feel that they aren’t good enough, pretty enough or rich enough, arming girls with a healthy dose of self-esteem is more important than ever before. Girls who have a strong sense of self are more likely to try new things and have confidence in their abilities. They are apt to risk making a mistake in order to learn and grow; they are comfortable with the way they look and know they are not perfect but like themselves anyways. Girls with high self-esteem have healthy friendships and expect their friends to treat them with respect. They like and know themselves and know that they are unique and special.

One conscious-raising campaign, Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, has made a significant impact on beauty stereotypes and offers women and girls an alternative definition of beauty that is confident, healthy and strong…strong enough to slay the vanity beast! In a two-hour workshop for girls and their female mentors the objective of the Dove Self-Esteem program is to get girls to open up about the way they feel about themselves, how they can take steps to see their beauty and to celebrate their own uniqueness. In a format that mixes group discussion, videos and activities, girls learn how to celebrate their own uniqueness. One exercise, called My Community Garden Activity, has the girls write about the special ingredients that make them beautiful from looking at what foods they like, to values they believe in to what countries they are from and languages they speak. Another activity called the Self-Esteem Bubble has girls draw a bubble and inside the bubble write down things that make them feel good about themselves from physical attributes to character traits, such as, “I like my blue eyes,” or “I am good at soccer,” or “My friends say I am a good listener.” On the outside of the bubble, girls are instructed to write down negative influences like teasing, name-calling, beauty pressures or peer pressure to be or do something they don’t want.  The idea is the more they put into the self-esteem bubble, the stronger it will be and easier it will be to keep out negative influences or anything else that makes them feel bad about themselves. 

In addition to addressing peer influences, the Dove Self-Esteem campaign shares media secrets and tricks that transform models into looking camera-perfect. Girls learn that most of the images they are seeing in the media are airbrushed and computer-enhanced and are truly not reflections of what real life people look like. In one video called “Evolution”, we see a young woman transformed for a make up commercial. Computer enhancement changes the shape of her face by elongating her neck, raising her eyebrows, erasing any blemishes and making her eyes bigger. Magically the computer creates a completely different person, the take-home message being that instead of trying to look like the models you see on TV and in magazines, who are not real anyways, be happy in your own skin and be happy being you!

In Ontario, schools and communities are discovering another confidence building program called Girls on the Run. Designed to build self-respect and healthy lifestyles in girls ages 8-13 years old, Girls on The Run combines training for a non-competitive 5km run with an interactive curriculum that addresses their physical, emotional, mental and social well-being. The 10 week program which runs from April to June arms girls with tools to manage life’s challenges, including gossip, bullying and establishing healthy friendships. A registered charity in Ontario, Girls on The Run inspires girls to be joyful, healthy and confident through a fun, experience-based curriculum, which creatively integrates running. This two-tiered program, one for girls in grades 3-5 called Girls on The Run and one for girls in grades 6-8 called Girls on The Track, addresses age-related issues unique to the struggles and challenges faced by girls at each of these life stages.

Rina DeDonato, Executive Director and CEO of Girls on The Run in Ontario, which has been in operation since 2004, shares why she feels the program is so successful. “Running on it’s own is extremely empowering; when combined with a curriculum that addresses key issues for young girls, you have a recipe for success,” says DeDonato. “There’s a lot to deal with in a short period of time for young girls, like peer influences and following pop stars and at their age there is so much messaging from shows, commercials and magazines. It is a pivotal age where girls are very influenced by the messaging around them,” says DeDonato. “Unfortunately, girls try to change who they are because the messaging is saying they don’t have the right clothes or they aren’t smart enough or pretty enough,” she says. “What we do is try to get them to connect with their internal beauty and be able to say ‘I am OK with who I am,’ and to stay true to themselves,” says DeDonato. Girls on the Run offers a spring program that runs from April to June and due to the high demand for programming on empowerment issues, DeDonato says they are launching a fall program this year and expanding the organization to two other provinces.

Despite the heavy influences that media messaging has on young girls, when asked who has had the most powerful influence on their self-esteem and ideas of beauty, Dove researchers discovered that girls don’t say sports figures or celebrities. The majority of girls world-wide say that their adult female mentors- mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts and teachers- have the biggest influence on their ideas of beauty. As a female role model, how can you encourage young girls and young women to cultivate a greater sense of self-esteem? At a time when our daughters are heavily influenced by messaging and peer influence, we need to remind them to connect with their internal beauty, to stay true to themselves and not to change to try to be something they are not. Helping them redefine beauty on their own terms is a great first step towards cultivating self-esteem. As mothers, aunts, grandmothers and teachers, we need to remind ourselves, too, that our own messaging is being heard loud and clear. Complaining that you hate your hair, or that you are too fat or that you need to go on a diet are all corrosive comments that are being internalized by our daughters. So, as female mentors, changing our own messaging will dramatically influence girls who are looking to us for cues on how to treat themselves!

York Region schools are also to be credited with teaching children the importance of positive character traits in relation to their peers and teachers. Educators are learning that school is a lot more than learning the A,B,C’s; it’s about learning to be fair, take initiative and show empathy among other things. Children in elementary school are learning and being recognized among their peers for showing respect, being courageous, and for being optimistic. Student recognition is shifting from focusing solely on grade performance to including character evaluations, resulting in more positive peer relations. In focusing on character, schools build awareness among children about the importance of relationships and being accepted among peers for having good character instead of being accepted for their looks or fashion sense.

Kate Richardson, Grade 6 teacher at Harry Bowes Public School in Stouffville, believes that the focus on character traits in the school environment helps kids identify what their gifting is and realize what their strengths are. “Why character traits are so important is because they focus on the internal person not the external person,” says Richardson. “It makes kids think about how their gifts and talents can be aligned with their school and how they can bring them together to make a difference in the world, “ she says. Richardson encourages her class to show respect for each other by using positive talk and by learning to work together. “Kids need to respect and care for one another. They don’t have to be best friends, but they have to care. This makes the classroom a positive place and positive experience,” says Richardson. It is also a great way to prepare children for the real world.

In supporting our young girls at an age when media messaging and peer issues are at their peak, as female role models and parents, we need open up dialogue about issues of self-esteem. We need to celebrate the internal person, for their gifts and talents and character in order to pave the road towards positive self-esteem. Help slay the media beast and peer pressures that espouse being accepted for what clothes you wear or how pretty or smart you are and in turn help girls redefine what beauty means to them!

To learn more about Girls on The Run in your community, or to become a coach to help inspire young girls, go to www.girlsontherun.ca to find a link to more details and to an application to bring the program to your school or community center. To learn more about the Dove Self-Esteem Campaign, visit www.dove.ca.

Make it Stick!

Healthy Living Magazine

“Make it Stick”

At the beginning of 2012, 51% of Canadians pledged to exercise more and 35% planned to lose weight. Some resolved to do both. Similarly, this year, more than half of Canadians will resolve to start an exercise program and countless others will be looking for a quick solution to rid themselves of unwanted pounds. January 1^st marks the beginning of a new year, which inevitably spawns new lofty resolutions to make significant life changes. Unfortunately, only one week into the New Year, one third of resolutions are forgotten and by Valentine’s Day half of all our good intentions will have melted away like chocolate!

At the top of your 2013 resolution list may be to start a new exercise program and to try to stick to it…this time! You know developing a regular exercise routine is one the most important things that you can do to improve your health. You have repeatedly read undisputed research that confirms exercise can help prevent Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease and other chronic diseases like cancer; it can give you energy, decrease stress and promote maintaining a healthy weight. You know all this, but you can’t seem to get your body moving.

If you haven’t been able to adhere to a regular exercise routine until now, let us help you get on the right track and make your exercise routine stick!  Learn tips from the experts on how to get active and stay motivated. This one change to your daily routine guarantees to give you unprecedented energy and promises to add years to your life!

One predictor of success in sustaining goals is willpower. Like a muscle, willpower can be strengthened with training, but also like a muscle it can be fatigued with overuse. Social psychologist and author of the book Willpower, Roy Baumeister, argues that willpower is a limited resource. The more you exercise your self-control on one task, the less you have for the next. This is why crash dieting and all or nothing exercise regimes don’t work. Apparently, we use the same muscle for self-control for many of our daily tasks, such as avoiding brownies, battling rush-hour traffic, being nice to our boss and spending an extra five minutes doing crunches. So, in order to be successful with our goals, making small changes is recommended. Your new year’s resolutions should not be a laundry list of all the things you want to accomplish in 2013, but instead one or two well thought out goals that are SMART: specific, measureable, attainable, realistic and time oriented.

Certified Personal Trainer, Erich Baumhard agrees that setting SMART goals is very important. Erich, who works at The Stouffville Leisure Centre as a fitness counselor, conducts fitness appraisals and develops fitness programs for members, knows a few things about exercise adherence. Erich recently won the “HOT” (Helping Others Too) award from York Region in partnership with The Heart and Stroke Foundation for being an excellent role model of fitness and for inspiring others to get active. “I counsel people to be specific, not vague,” he says. “It’s important to break bigger goals into smaller, achievable goals,” says Baumhard. “Pick one thing, reach that goal and then take the next step”, he says. Baumhard says he sets goals every day or any time of year, not just at New Year’s. This keeps him personally motivated. See our sidebar on “Smart Goals” to get started in the right direction!

Experts on human behavior generally agree it takes 30 repetitions of a behavior before it starts to become a habit. If you are starting an exercise program and doing a fitness class or workout at the gym two to three times per week, that equates to about three months before your new behavior becomes habit. It also takes about three months to start to see real changes as a result of your new healthy lifestyle, such as improvements in cardiovascular fitness, strength or weight loss. Sadly, at three months, 25% of new gym members will drop out, the pivotal point when change is really starting to occur!

The Mayo Clinic, renowned experts on health and wellness, advocate that including exercise as part of your daily routine is a key predictor of success. To stay motivated with your exercise program, they advise, “If it's hard to find time for exercise, don't fall back on excuses. Schedule workouts as you would any other important activity”. Try using your smartphone to set reminders to exercise or schedule exercise in your weekly calendar just like any other important meeting. See our suggestions below for phone app’s that can help keep you organized and motivated!

On again, off again exerciser Carol McKay, a Stouffville resident, mother of three and full-time career woman, says that her daily agenda planner has been the key to getting her off the coach! In the past, McKay professes she has been notorious for training hard for an event, such as a marathon, and then as soon as the event was over, she’d stop exercising completely for two to three months. “I’m an all or nothing, black or white person, so for me it was about finding the gray,” McKay recites invaluable advice that she got from her trainer. Two things have made all the difference with her exercise consistency: structure and a buddy system.

McKay lives by her agenda and she says that scheduling time to exercise in her day timer is “the path of least resistance!” So, every Tuesday night at 7pm, she has a standing date to attend a fitness class. “I’ve had gym memberships before that I never used. The scheduled class works better for McKay, because as she says, “ I have to be there at a scheduled time, as opposed to an open-ended gym membership that means you can drop in anytime,” she says. For her “anytime” translated to “no time.”

Every Saturday morning McKay also meets with a friend to go for a run. This works consistently for her because it employs “the buddy system,” which uses a like-minded friend to share a workout with. Your “buddy” acts as your conscience when you don’t have the energy to train and adds a social element to your exercise, taking the “work” out of “workout”! “Funny I chose running as my main sport, as it tends to be a “lone wolf” activity and I’m very social,” says McKay. But McKay has made running social by joining running groups and by running with a friend.

Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, makes a case for consistently exercising on Mondays because it sets the psychological pattern for the week. She also recommends exercising first thing in the morning. “As the day wears on, you’ll find more excuses to skip exercising, she writes in her blog, www.happiness-project.com. “Get it checked off your list, first thing. It’s also a very nice way to start the day; even if nothing else goes right, you’ve accomplished that,” Rubin insists.

Still doubting that your willpower or calendar will suffice to get you off the coach? Consider Erich Baumhard’s suggestion. He believes the key to sticking to your exercise program begins with defining what you are passionate about. “Everyone is passionate about something,” says Baumhard. Erich, who in addition to being a personal trainer, is on the Board of Directors for the Durham Mountain Biking Association and is both a recreational and competitive cyclist. “I’m passionate about cycling. Trying to define what that is for you is key,” he says. It may not even be something related to fitness directly, explains Baumhard, but may be something that extends to other areas of your life that becoming healthier would impact. “As a parent, you’re setting an example all the time. If you’re a parent and you’re passionate about your family, you would be a better parent and role model if you are exercising and eating right,” Erich explains. Maintaining your health gives you energy that extends to countless other areas of your life, including your family, job and personal hobbies.

On a final note, “surround yourself with people who are like-minded,” says Baumhard. “Tell the people closest to you about your goal and be really passionate about what you are doing,” he says. Eric is a true believer that if you’re really committed and passionate about your goal, your closest friends and family members will act as your cheerleaders!

For those of you with busy family lives, McKay’s advice to you is that it’s important to carve out time for yourself. Carol works full-time, has three kids and hockey practices and games almost every night and still finds time to exercise. “It’s like the Wealthy Barber, you have to ‘pay yourself first”, or there will be no time for yourself,” she says.

So, if you’re either just starting an exercise routine, are a yo-yo dieter or an on-again off-again exerciser, try setting SMART goals, wielding a little willpower and making exercise and healthy eating part of your daily routine by locking it into your agenda, and hopefully this will be your year to “make it stick”!

Setting SMART goals will more likely guarantee success

Specific: Define your goal by saying you want to experience more energy and create a scale from 1-10 that is a daily measure of your energy level. Maybe currently you would rate your energy level as a 5 or 6, and your goal is to consistently be closer to an 8. Do this instead of stating vague goals such as you want to be healthier.

Measurable: If your goal is to improve muscle strength and endurance, meet with a fitness consultant or personal trainer to give you a baseline measure of your current fitness level so you can measure improvement.

Action Oriented: How are you going to achieve your goal? Will you join a gym, hire a personal trainer, join a Zumba class?

Realistic: Making sure your goal is realistic is so important. Looking for a quick fix to loose weight? Beware that crash dieting in which you loose weight drastically can wreak havoc on your metabolism and doesn’t create lifestyle changes. You should be skeptical of any weight loss program that recommends weight loss of anything more than 1 to 2 pounds per week.

Time Oriented: Set a realistic time goal. Don’t make the mistake of trying to fit in a size 6 dress for a wedding that is a month away if you are a size 10 today! In our culture of immediate gratification, we forget that some things require time and commitment. This explains the U.S. annual 20 billion dollar weight loss industry (diet books, diet drugs and weight-loss surgeries)!

What's in a Drink?

Healthy Living Magazine Article-What’s in a drink?

Water or Gatorade? Coffee or tea? Energy drink or vitamin water? Juice or milk? Which beverages should we be reaching for to quench our thirst and which drinks offer the most health benefits? Many of us don’t realize the number of hidden calories, sugar, additives and chemicals that are in the liquid calories we are consuming on a daily basis. What we choose to drink can have a profound impact on our health and body weight, so it’s important to know “what’s in a drink?”!

A substantial proportion of Canadians’ daily calories come not from what we eat, but from what we drink. This is particularly true for children. According to results from the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), beverages accounted for almost 20% of the calories consumed by children and teens aged 4 to 18! This surprising statistic reminds us just how important it is for us to make healthy choices with every gulp. As a country, we now consume an enormous amount of liquid sugar amounting to an average of 300 calories per day! Every time you reach for a soda, sports drink, fruit juice or other popular beverage, you consume calories derived entirely from sugar. Most of these sugary beverages contain the equivalent of 11-12 teaspoons of sugar per bottle! Would you ever put 12 teaspoons of sugar in your coffee or on your cereal?! Of all the steps that you can take to improve your health, dumping unhealthy sugary drinks from your diet offers the single greatest return for your efforts.

Consumption of sweetened beverages such as soda, sports drinks and energy drinks are on the rise and are sadly now the number one source of calories in our diet. Sugary beverages have been linked to weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. In a report from the well known Harvard Nurses’ Health Study, researchers tracked the drinking habits of over 51,000 women from 1991-1995. Study subjects who increased their intake of sugary beverages, such a pop, sports drinks or fruit juice to one or more per day gained over 10 pounds during the four-year study!

Energy drinks are the fastest growing U.S. beverage market with 30-50% of youth reporting that they regularly consume these highly caffeinated, sugar-laden drinks! An average energy drink has 50-200mg of caffeine per can, which is up to 2 & ½ times the Health Canada recommended daily maximum caffeine intake (of 85 mg) for youth aged 10-12. Widely available in convenience stores, gas stations and grocery stores, “energy drinks” are often seen a convenient thirst-quencher often substituting sports drinks. Indeed, energy drinks should not be confused with sports drinks such as Gatorade or Powerade. Sports drinks rehydrate the body and replenish electrolytes. Energy drinks on the other hand, may mask signs of dehydration because of their caffeine content and they also lack electrolytes. Notably, energy drinks also carry considerable health risks, including irregular heartbeat, nervousness, anxiety, agitation, irritability and insomnia.  But before you reach for the sports drink as an alternative everyday pick-me-up to energy drinks, think again.  You should be saving the sports drinks for athletes or for when you’ve had a hard-core workout! Sports beverages are designed to give athletes carbohydrates, electrolytes, and fluid during high-intensity workouts that last an hour or more.

Leslie Beck, registered dietician and leading Canadian nutritionist, in her book Foods That Fight Disease makes a case for how easily liquid calories can lead to weight gain. She says that research suggests that we don’t register the calories we drink as well as we do the calories we eat. Therefore, liquid calories add to rather than displace food calories, resulting in an increase to our total daily caloric intake. To prevent consuming too many calories from beverages, she recommends limiting beverage calories to no more than 10% of daily caloric intake, which equates to about 200 calories if you follow a 2,000 calorie diet.

There are many options for what to drink, but without a doubt, you should make water your beverage of choice. It's calorie-free, and it's as easy to find as the nearest tap. Water is the body’s most important nutrient, second only to oxygen as a substance necessary to sustain life. The body uses water for just about all of its functions since every cell in the body relies on water to carry out its functions, including regulating temperature, transporting oxygen and nutrients through the blood, as well as digestion and absorption of food. Fluid lubricates joints and moistens tissue in the eyes, mouth and nose. With such an important role in our body’s functions, you want to be sure that you are consuming enough water for maximum health benefits. Recommended intake of water is 9 cups per day for women and 13 for men to replace what the body loses through breathing, sweating and excreting wastes. Hot, humid weather and physical activity will increase your body’s demands for water.

Find regular, plain water unsatisfying? Before you gulp down a bottle of Vitamin water or artificially flavored water as an alternative, think again. A 591 ml bottle of Vitamin water contains about 33 grams of sugar almost as much as a 355 ml can of Coke, which contains 39 grams. The added vitamins in Vitamin water don’t do any actual harm, but here’s the problem. It confuses consumers into thinking that this beverage is a “healthy’ choice, when in fact it has plenty of added sugar. As for low-calorie waters flavored with artificial sweeteners, these may actually promote weight gain! Laboratory studies have found that artificial sweeteners can interfere with the body’s natural ability to use sensory cues to gauge caloric consumption. Translation-artificial sweeteners can actually incite hunger! Instead, try flavouring your water by adding a squeeze of lemon to your glass or a splash of cranberry or orange juice. Television personality and author Jamie Oliver suggests mashing up a handful of strawberries or raspberries with a fork and adding it to a jug of water. Another suggestion he offers is adding slices of cucumber or orange segments to your jug of water.

Even though water is your best choice, you can also meet your body’s hydration requirements by drinking milk, soy beverages, coffee, tea, vegetable juice or small amounts of fruit juice. A smoothie can also go a long way towards satisfying thirst as well as daily requirements for fruit and milk! See below for our list of “Ten Healthy Drinks” and “Banana Berry Wake up Shake” smoothie recipe. In summary, you are what you eat...and what you drink. Making healthy choices with every sip can offer you the single most important step to improving your health and wellness. Now that’s easy to swallow!

Real Men Do Yoga

In Canada, as many as 27.7% of yoga practitioners today are men and the trend is growing! Studio owners are seeing an increase in the number of men rolling out their mats to join in a practice that is making them stronger, more flexible and less prone to injury. Once deemed the domain of their wives and girlfriends, men, too, are becoming aware of the many benefits of yoga practice. Male athletes are turning to yoga to give them a competitive edge in sports, to prevent injury and create muscular balance, and regular Joe’s see yoga as a way to build a little Zen in a busy, over stimulated “vida loca”!
Men have typically shied away from yoga classes, most likely intimidated by the flowery metaphors, use of Sanskrit language to describe postures and the slower, meditative pace of the classes. Today, many studios are catering more to men by offering Power Yoga, Men Only, and Bikram (hot yoga) style classes that offer a more intense cardiovascular workout or bigger sweat!  And there’s no doubt that reaching out to men is good for business in an industry that is booming and continues to grow. In 2008, Americans spent $5.7 billion on yoga products, equipment and clothing, an 87% increase over 2004, according to a study from Yoga Journal Magazine. Nearly 14 million Americans report that a doctor or therapist has recommended they practice yoga, excellent advice for many type-A, workaholic men needing a little Yin in their lives!
Yoga has become the new form of cross-training for men who are active in other sports and want to improve their mental stamina, flexibility and overall muscular balance. Jocks are discovering that yoga is the secret to avoiding injury in their regular sports and activities. Many sports teams that have traditionally taken their training to the gym are rolling out their mats to discover that yoga can alleviate tightness, and prevent injuries and structural imbalances that plague their game. Yoga can also give them the mental focus that translates to a better head-game, and breathing techniques that help them find calm in the chaos of a competitive game scenario.
Craig Donovan, Head Coach of the Junior “A” Stouffville Spirit hockey team attests to the fact that yoga improved his players’ game. Last year, the team attended yoga class every second Wednesday at The Fitness Institute as part of their training. “No doubt, it improved their overall fitness,” says Donovan. “They weren’t sure what they were getting into at first, but then they looked forward to it,” he says. “The guys’ reaction initially was that it was going to be easy, but when they did the workout, they found it to be very intense. They were exhausted by the end of it.” says Donovan.
Yoga’s focus on core training and flexibility is what athletic coaches like Donovan are recognizing to be essential for their players’ game. In the past, hockey players focused more on traditional gym workouts, doing exercises simply for strength such as bench presses and biceps curls. “Twenty-five years ago, it was all about being big and strong,” says Donovan. “Training has changed a lot. Now the focus is on core and joint strength,” he adds. That is why this year, the team also incorporated functional training into their program, using medicine balls, resistance and agility training exercises through the Gary Roberts High Performance Training Program. Today, it’s not about being big and strong, but instead about being light and strong.  That is why trainers and coaches like Donovan recognize yoga and functional fitness as an integral part of training high performance athletes.
Fitstudios Wellness Center in Markham, which specializes in functional, integrated training for its’ clients through group “Boot Camp” sessions and one-on-one personal training recently hired two qualified instructors to teach yoga classes. Fitstudios owner and President, Adam Theodorou, is an ex-bodybuilder and is at first glance not a guy that you would guess is practicing yoga! The truth is that Theodorou built his training business on what he defines as the three pillars of fitness: stability (core strength), strength and mobility. He defines mobility as “maintaining or improving range of motion and mechanical function of our body parts. Theodorou feels flexibility training is highly important, which is why he promotes yoga and flexibility training for his clients. “The majority of people spend most of their day in a seated position and have tight medial gluts, hips and hamstring muscles,” says Theodorou. For his clients who are regularly doing intense boot camp workouts, yoga is also a nice compliment to their training to help increase blood circulation and to relieve sore, tight muscles. Theodorou recommends practicing yoga once a week minimum and adding a 15 minute cool down mobility component to each workout. So, for those of you who skip the stretch component of your workout, think again! You are missing a key component of your fitness that promises to keep you mobile and injury-free over time!
Lorne King, trainer with Advantage for Athletes, an 8,800 square foot modern training facility in Markham, with 30 qualified personal trainers, agrees that yoga training is excellent for his male clientele, 50% of which are athletes. Advantage for Athletes, which specializes in “three-dimensional training”, a training method that encourages an integration of muscle movement on multiple planes, now offers yoga classes twice per week. Unlike working on machines which works only one muscle group, three dimensional training works the whole body, much like yoga. He’s found that there is an increasing demand from his athletes for yoga for this reason. His male clients are much more interested in yoga than they used to be. What’s great about yoga says King, is that “it’s portable, low-tech and can adapt to any fitness level. My clients like how it can improve their focus, flexibility, and even improve their game,” he says. King says that for most men, it really is an eye-opener. “They are surprised as to how hard it is!” he says.
For A-type, desk-bound guys, the yoga studio offers a retreat from stress and anxiety related to work. Jeff Carew, a Stouffville resident and president of one of Canada’s largest call centers has discovered not only how great a workout yoga can be, but also how excellent a stress reliever  it is. “I had an enormous amount of stress in my life last year with work. When I started yoga, the first few classes were foreign to me, but I started to really enjoy it and felt calmer,” says Carew. Jeff started attending yoga classes on the suggestion of his wife, Jackie, who kept telling him how intense yoga is. More at ease at the gym with his routine mix of cardio machines, spinning and weight lifting, Jeff was sceptical at first. His impression was that yoga was just a stretch class, but after one class he says he was proven wrong. Today, Jeff says that he still goes to the gym, but has shifted his schedule from one to three yoga classes per week and spends less time at the gym. “When you go to the gym, you’re looking to get bigger biceps, but in yoga, it’s more about how your whole body feels and less about how you look,” says Carew. “And the gym was not a stress-buster for me, not like yoga,” he adds.
 For Jeff, yoga has had multiple benefits, including better self-awareness, greater stamina and focus, less stress, more energy and a greater sense of calm. Jeff says when he leaves a class, he feels like he’s worked his entire body. He loves how his yoga practice is a combination of strength, flexibility and balance and that it really challenges his core stabilizer muscles. But what he really finds refreshing about yoga is that there is no ego. “It’s just me and my mat,” says Carew. “No one is judging you at yoga. It doesn’t matter if the person beside you is 17 or 70,” he says. Jeff’s advice to other men is to try a five class pass and experience different instructors and classes before passing judgement that it’s not for “real men.” Most importantly, he advises to put ego aside and enjoy the ride!
Every year after the age of 35, we lose 1 percent of our flexibility. By age 65, this translates to our bodies being 30 percent less limber unless we practice flexibility training. According to Tony Horton, creator of the P90X series, which has sold over 20 million DVD’s to date, “flexibility is the fountain of youth.” When asked if he could only do one form of exercise for the rest of his life, what it would be, Tony answers, “yoga.” “You can be strong and you can be fast and you can look good in your clothes, but if you want to get your mind, your spirit and your body in a place that is going to take you to the end of time, you have to do yoga, says Horton. At 50 years old, he says, “I’m Gumby.”  “If you want to be the Tin Man in 20 years, go right ahead. Because if you don’t do yoga and you keep exercising, something is going to break; your elbow, your knee or your back,” he says.
Lisa Moine, owner of Moksha Yoga in Stouffville has witnessed a 20% increase in male attendance to her studio since she opened her doors two and a half years ago. Usually, guys come to try a class because it’s been recommended by their doctor, she says, or by their girlfriend or spouse, who raves about its’ benefits! Lisa highly recommends yoga for men, “It is a distressing process. Once you implement yoga into your everyday life, you’re happier, you have more energy and less stress,” says Moine.  Flexibility for guys is terrible she admits, which makes yoga great because the poses are challenging for men and gives them something to work towards. “The really nice thing about yoga is that the ego seems to disappear, “she adds.
A woman’s only studio in Toronto, called Vital Steps, with a primary focus on customized training for women, now too offers a male only yoga class on Wednesday nights. Certified personal trainer and programming and marketing manager, Michelle Gillis-Saltzman says that pro-athletes credit yoga with improved performance and less injuries and that she is seeing a major shift in men’s interest in yoga. “Yoga forces men to slow down and breathe and to focus. It is a compliment to everything else they are doing,” says Michelle. “A lot of men don’t want to spend time stretching, “she says. “Yoga is great because simultaneously you are doing functional training, working core, upper body and leg strength and stretching,” she says.
So guys, do you think you are man enough to try yoga? Certainly, we are seeing the trend towards more men discovering the amazing benefits of yoga, including improved mental stamina, reduced stress, improved flexibility and reduced injuries. With more and more men rolling out their mats, yoga can no longer be deemed your girlfriend’s workout! It’s for real guys, wanting to get real about being flexible, having amazing core strength and a balanced state of mind!