One Man’s Story: Why More Men Should Practice Yoga

It won’t come as a surprise that men represent less than 20% of total participants in Australian yoga classes. This is often due to yoga studios being perceived as women’s cultural spaces and the practice of yoga being less suitable for, and therefore less accessible to, the male body. These barriers can often be overcome by providing inclusive studio spaces and men’s only classes where men can build confidence and overcome the hurdle of being a minority in mixed classes.

The majority of men who practice yoga regularly report that they were first drawn to the practice for its physical benefits such as increasing flexibility and improving posture. As they continued with regular practice, they found that the benefits extended to their mental health and reported that they were better able to self-reflect, remain calm in stressful situations, and overall, gained a more optimistic outlook on life.

Ross Adams, Byron Yoga Centre retreat host, and Level 3 Registered Teacher with Yoga Australia, has been teaching yoga since 2013 and facilitating retreat groups at Byron Yoga Centre since 2016. Below he shares his journey about how he used yoga to assist in overcoming depression and anxiety and how this led to a passion for sharing these benefits with others.

Ross’s Story

“I remember lying on my mat at the end of my first yoga class in Melbourne in 2010, wet with sweat (it was an Ashtanga class – and I was fairly unfit at the time), and I realised that this was the best that I had felt for years. My mind felt quiet and settled, my body was buzzing from the movement and breathing. I was hooked.

For about 5 years leading up to this I had been on antidepressants, the only tool I had up until that point (other than running) to combat the crushing depression and anxiety that had begun to overwhelm me in my early to mid twenties. This had been preceded by a downward spiral of growing drug and alcohol abuse (my previous management plan for anxiety and depression).

When my sister introduced me to mindfulness and then yoga, I began to learn some new tools… and these came with some startling insights. “I am not my thoughts?”, “life does not have to get more difficult and stressful with every passing year?”.

Years later after doing a 200 hour yoga teachers training, and moving to Byron Bay, I was invited to join a men’s group. Sitting in a circle with men, sharing and listening about what was REALLY happening in our lives (not just what we wanted others to see), was one of the most cathartic and beneficial experiences of my life.

At this time, I was also attending retreats and finding that allowing time and space for myself to just be, and to enquire into who I really am, and what is important to me… was not lazy or indulgent as I once might have thought…but was deeply healing, and was helping me to become a better, truer version of myself.

Since then, I have devoted my life to teaching yoga and mindfulness, hosting retreats, and creating safe and non-judgmental spaces for men to share and express themselves.

Men (as we all do) play a hugely important role in the health of society. Men are often responsible for the most detestable acts of violence and hate. Men can also be hugely inspiring and inclusive leaders, artists, teachers and lovers. So many men, like me, are still grappling with confusion and traumas from their childhood.

In my experience, yoga, mindfulness, men’s groups and retreats can all offer men wonderful opportunities to let go of old baggage and boyish self-centredness and evolve into the men that they truly are. I feel confident that any man who engages regularly with the practices and principles of yoga and mindfulness, will be happier, healthier and more whole and at peace with themselves and the world. This is something that I want to see more of in our world.”

3 Day Men’s Health Retreat

Ross, alongside John Ogilvie (founder and owner of Byron Yoga Centre) and Daniel Stephenson, will be facilitating the upcoming Men’s Yoga and Mindfulness retreat at the Bryron Yoga Centre.

The retreat is being held on the 1st-3rd November.

20% of each booking will go directly to Movember, helping to fund projects supporting mental health, suicide prevention, and prostate and testicular cancer research.