by Currie Jean

Created on: February 01, 2009

In order to understand many male yoga practitioners, we might first examine the legendary female yogi: lean, lithe, flexible, fit, emotionally open, "centred," and friendly. In other words? Sexy.

Women who generally fit this description make up about 95% of yoga classes.

Upon realizing this, single males everywhere raise a single eyebrow and hatch a less-than-original plan.

The plan ends with a significant percentage of female yoga fans complaining of being inappropriately propositioned by men during yoga glasses. In some areas, as many as 70% of female yoga practitioners endure pick-up lines, passes, unwelcome suggestions, and general clinginess, as men looking for a date only serve to interrupt the women's private haven, their "me-time."

Fortunately, good, assertive yoga teachers are likely to notice such propositioning and confront unwelcome oglers in private, either to give a warning, or dismiss them from the class altogether.

Yes, the flexibility and mood-enhancement encouraged by yoga can be conducive to better sex, but that doesn't mean yoga asana is in any way about getting slingle guys laid. Men who have been considering joining a yoga class just to pick up should head over to YouTube and search "Inappropriate Yoga Guy," to see just what a nuisance they might turn out to be.

Yoga asana class should be a quiet place of solice, meditation, and the occasional challenge. It is not a place for picking up - especially not when the pick-up style is the same one you use at the bar. What men should remember is that while they might try yoga because they want to pick up, picking up is the last thing on most female minds at yoga class. Therefore, horny men are more likely to be seen as a irritants than playmates.

Still, some men - like the entire LA Lakers basketball team, for example, as well as many other manly celebrities - have taken up yoga and enjoy it for its own sake. Fitness isn't merely a matter of bench-pressing as much weight as you can; it's about agility, balance, and grace, too, which is very useful in sports. Advanced yoga poses are a great way for men to enhance all of the above traits, as well as build physical and mental endurance, concentration, and relaxation skills. Yoga makes a great complement to more rigorous exercise routines.

Men who want to try yoga for yoga's sake should definitely take the step and sign up for a class. While appealing to women, it isn't women's exercize - rather, it's an artful, unisex exercise style originally introducted to North American by male Indian yogis.

What's really sexy is a man not wholly (but only partially) concerned with sex. If a man makes yoga his top priority in yoga class by paying attention, practicing introspection, following the instructor, and treating his classmates equally and respectfully, his physical appearance as well as his observable attitude become attractive.

So, guys: don't be shy. Throw on a t-shirt and sweatpants and start your yoga asana practice. It's not girly, and yes, it might win you girls - that is, if you give the asana practise itself its fair share of your attention.

Maybe you should start out easy, just as in yoga itself, and try to make a few friends first. And if you have to flirt, be subtle and watch for cues and never, ever interrupt someone else's yoga practice while trying to get her attention.

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