Look beyond the Lululemon-stamped nylons and cold-pressed vegetable juices. Push past the regalia of heavily heated rooms and personal foam pads. Behind the paraphernalia associated with yoga’s culture, you will find an athletic discipline with roots as thick as millennia. Yoga is for everyone. Normal dudes have as much to gain from it as experienced women. Anyone can benefit from using deep breathing and stretching as tools to develop strength.
Yoga is hard. A successful class will carefully show your body’s current limits. Thankfully, Toledo has instructors that can safely guide you through how challenging—and rewarding—yoga can be.
Flexibility and Strength
After the fifth push-up back to plank position, I began to wonder how many more I could do before I threw in my sweat-drenched towel. I thought I was strong? I rocked the bench press the day before at the gym. My bicep curls, I thought, were on another level. But here I was, with no weights and David Gray quietly playing acoustic rock on the background radio, and I was concerned about whether I could keep up with the group.
Sharon Kripke has practiced yoga for over twenty years. Her appendages do whatever she wants them to do. She jumps into headstands and handstands with nonchalance. She stretches her legs over her shoulders as simply as I would tie my shoe. She constantly demonstrates what years of yoga practice can do for the human body.
Kripke teaches a strain of yoga called Hatha Vinyasa. Each body pose flows into the next. Her class pushes each student as far as they can go on that day. Back rotations and leg extensions contort the body into formations that test flexibility and strength. Her students are never pushed too far, as she designs modifications of positions for each student’s particular comfort. “The most important thing is making sure that everybody feels wonderful when they leave,” says Kripke.
The men in her class look like football players, steady-waisted and broad-shouldered. Dressed in gym shorts and old T-shirts, they dive into difficult yoga positions with force. “It’s an endorphin release,” said Mark Ford, one of Kripke’s students. “When you think that’s the limit to it, there’s more.”
Sharon Kripke teaches at 5:30pm on Mondays at Paulette’s Studio of Dance, Drop-in classes are $15, with package rates and private classes also available. 4853 Monroe St. 419-345-3964. dancetoledo.com
Like a Rocket
“I eat steaks. I indulge in some beers,” said Ryan Gregory, a yoga instructor at It’s Yoga, located in the Davis Building downtown. Gregory is in his mid-20s, dark-haired and trim. He is convinced that yoga has made him a better rugby player, and that yoga could help anyone seeking to cross-train. “Yoga accepts all forms of people,” said Gregory.
It’s Yoga teaches “The Rocket,” their own form of Vinyasa. “It gets you there faster,” said Gregory. Gregory conducts his classes like he is attempting to induce a trance. His speech is soft and calm, with the consistent cadence of a Zen monk. Incense burns while he walks around a carpeted room that remains at a therapeutic 80 degrees.
After some long, lunging stretches, Gregory matter-of-factly asked us all to try a headstand. I can barely balance a hat evenly on top of my head, let alone my entire body. He demonstrated the necessary hand position, told us to focus on our core muscles, and let us go. I swung my legs up from behind me, and they came right back down. I threw them up again, and before they could fall, Gregory caught my ankle and shifted it to the right just an inch. A third time I tried . . . and I did it. I have no idea how or why, but my clumsy body held my feet stretched towards the ceiling.
There are people who dedicate their lives and Instagram profiles to yoga. Outside of the apostles, however, there lies a phenomenal workout that anyone can enjoy. As Gregory told me before class, “If you do yoga, everything else will be okay.”
It’s Yoga. Drop-ins are $16, with package rates and memberships available. 135 N. Michigan St. 707-934-5818. itsyogatoledo.com
Dorian Slaybod is 27, a local attorney and happily living in Toledo.