Broga With Your Man

Believe it or not, this is one yoga class you and your partner will want to attend again and again.

Portrait of Tammy Strobel
Believe it or not, this is one yoga class you and your partner will want to attend again and again.
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How many times have you walked into a yoga class that’s dominated by females, with a few men clustered in a corner? The benefits of yoga extend to everyone, whether you’ve got balls or boobs.

For one thing, it’s a great form of bodyweight training, and also improves body awareness as you move through poses with your breath.

Sadly, yoga is often portrayed as being about backbends, handstands, arm balances and splits, alienating those without a strong core or flexible limbs. Search #yoga on Instagram and you’ll get the idea.

No wonder men – mostly stiff everywhere – shy away from yoga studios, preferring to lift weights at the gym.

With Broga, though, the tide is about to turn.

Bro-what?

An amalgamation of “bro” and “yoga”, Broga was created and co-founded by Robert Sidoti in 2009 to encourage more men to take up yoga.

“Yoga is widely seen as a feminine sport for those who are flexible. How it’s being offered isn’t super-appealing to the men I know. Every guy thinks: ‘I can’t go to yoga, because I can’t touch my toes,’” he says.

With that in mind, Robert designed a fitness routine that incorporates fundamental yoga poses, functional training as well as high-intensity interval training, and coined it Broga Yoga.

Since then, Broga Yoga has taken off , with just as many women signing up for classes as men.

“Broga is like a bridge to yoga.