Reaching Your Peak: Real Men Do Yoga

BY JOHN CAPOUYA

Slowly, deliberately, the slender man raises his arms overhead, stretching high for a Salute to the Sun. Concentrating intently, he moves to the rhythm of his breath, now tilting his upper body forward, parallel to the floor, while balancing on one leg. Minutes later the 59-year-old performs a difficult backward bend called the Wheel. Feet and hands planted on the mat, he presses his belly skyward for 30 seconds before gently lowering himself to the floor.

Then he goes back to trading bonds.

This is no ashram; it's a Marriott workout room in Newport Beach, Calif. And this yogi is no Eastern mystic or a New Age seeker. He's Bill Gross, chief investment officer of the Pacific Investment Management Co., or PIMCO. The "Bond King" is hypercompetitive and ultrasuccessful--and he does yoga to keep himself that way. "To me, yoga is great physical training, not something spiritual or religious," Gross says. "I want to be as effective as I can in my job. It's results-driven. And the results have been remarkable."

Lots of lower-paid guys would agree. American men are now flocking to the yoga mats where once, it seemed, only women dared to tread. A new Harris poll commissioned by Yoga Journal suggests that men now make up 23 percent of America's 15 million enthusiasts. "Two to three years ago I think the number would have been 10 to 15 percent," says Kathryn Arnold, the magazine's editorial director. At Town Sports International's 130 East Coast sports clubs, yoga classes now draw three times as many men as they did three years ago. And in Nashville, Tenn., yoga teacher Hilary Lindsay says her early-morning classes are often two-thirds to three-quarters male. "They're businessmen, entrepreneurs, real-estate guys," she says. "And almost all of my private clients are men."

Yoga scriptures, or sutras, describe an eightfold path to samadhi, ecstatic union and enlightenment. But most American yogis (the title refers to any male practitioner) would just as soon leave the samadhi to... samadhi else. They're in it for the exercise and the physical benefits--hold the chanting and the New Age vibes. "Men tend to favor the more athletic, fast-moving styles such as Vin-yasa and Ashtanga [sometimes called power yoga]," notes Michael Lechonczak, who teaches at New York's Equinox gyms. And many use yoga as complementary cross-training. Lower-body stretches like the Downward Dog loosen hamstrings winched tight from running, for example, while upper-body openers like the Cobra help unlock chests and shoulders stiffened by bench-pressing.