One of the cardinal rules of yoga is to never criticize someone else’s practice. All our headstands and warrior poses are a work in practice. With this warning in mind, let’s take a look at a phenomenon sweeping the nation: broga.
Yes, broga is exactly what you think it is: yoga for bros looking to bring some chill flow into their lives.
Once strictly the territory of ladies wearing Lululemon leggings and gaucho pants that their friends brought back for them from India, yoga studios nationwide are being infiltrated by dudes wearing sweatpants and baggy athletic shorts, Reuters reports.
Of course, men have been doing yoga in various forms for years. But men of the bro-y variety are now feeling comfortable enough to come out as yogis on Instagram.
Plaid shorts: check. Trucker hat: check. Punk rock attitude: check, check.
Crouching tiger, hidden bro.
If you’re a bro debating whether or not you should give broga a whirl, Fusion has assembled this handy flowchart. Spoiler alert: The answer is a resounding “yes.”
The official broga movement was started by Robert Sidoti, a Martha’s Vineyard-based yoga instructor who invented the trademark “Broga Yoga.” The only obvious issue with his practice is that it seems to be less about actual yoga, and more about just being a flexible bro.
“A lot of guys were saying: ‘I can’t touch my knees, let alone my toes. I would never go to a mostly women class and do things I’m no good at,’ Sidoti told Reuters.
Reuters also notes that broga is different from regular old yoga because it “celebrates the physical over the spiritual, and strength over flexibility,” allowing men to “flex tight hamstrings without hearing invocations to Hindu deities or feeling inept next to a woman twisted like a pretzel.”
In sum, broga is for the health-conscious bro with an inferiority complex.
H/T Fusion | Photo via Nicholas A. Tonelli/Flickr (CC 2.0)
