Dean Pohlman - Yoga Fitness for Men: Build Strength, Improve Performance, Increase Flexibility

Lets get straight to it. How can you improve your fitness with yoga? Yoga helps guys like you to move, feel, and look better. I believe in a fitness-centric approach to yoga so you can learn the techniques, understand the benefits, and know what you should (and shouldnt) be feeling in your body. Thats exactly what you get in this book.

Yoga Fitness for Men was created with three types of men in mind, and theres a very good chance you identify with one of these profiles.

You are an athlete or fitness enthusiast and know yoga can boost your performance. Yoga will complement your existing workout routine to make you stronger, improve your athletic performance, and prevent injury.

You have back, shoulder, or other joint and soft tissue problems, and you think yoga may be able to fix your body and help you avoid more serious problems. Yoga will strengthen the areas that cause daily aches, restore a functional level of fitness, and promote both physical and mental longevity.

You want a sustainable fitness regimen without the stress of high-impact exercise or weights, and you think yoga can make you stronger while being kind to your joints. Yoga will keep you active, build muscle, manage your weight, and help you feel great without the stress of cement sidewalks, plyometrics, or fast-paced weight lifting.

This book gives you the knowledge and tools to immediately begin an at-home yoga regimen, safely and effectively. It includes:

55 yoga postures step-by-step explanations of each, what you should and shouldnt be feeling, specific benefits for every posture, and modifications to meet every fitness level

25 workouts a variety of yoga routines created for your specific fitness goals, with beginner and advanced tracks

3 yoga programs structured, progressive plans that make it easy for you to start a yoga practice, and feel noticeable results in weeks, or often in just days

It doesnt matter if youre a competitive athlete or a couch potato. I wrote this book so any guy would be able to get stronger with yogaand that includes you! If youre ready to get started, keep reading.

Dean Pohlman
Founder & CEO of Man Flow Yoga

Yoga makes you stronger in new ways by targeting aspects of fitness that traditional exercisesuch as weightlifting and cardiodoes not. The benefits carry over to non-physical performance areas as well, including better focus, lowered stress, and even improved internal body function. Theres arguably no type of exercise that is as accessible as yoga and also effectively addresses so many aspects of your health.

Yoga improves core strength, balance, and flexibility, all of which boost athletic performance. Whether you want better rotation for golf swings, more flexible hamstrings for smoother running, or a stronger core for more power, regularly doing yoga helps fill the gaps of your existing fitness regimen to make you a better athlete.

In addition to the physical benefits typically associated with yoga, such as flexibility, breathing, and balance, the postures also build endurance, power, and isometric strength. Its a workout thats kind to your body, particularly your joints, thanks to its no-impact nature. Its no wonder the best collegiate and professional athletes are using yoga to gain a competitive edge.

The practice of yoga also bears non-movement benefits. If you incorporate yoga workouts regularly into your life, with patience and discipline, youll notice a long list of benefits to your health: lowered stress, improved mental clarity, better decision-making skills, heightened quality of sleep, increased mindfulness, better body awareness, improved hormone levels (including lowered cortisol and higher testosterone), improved mood and confidence, reduced blood pressure, better immune function, and improved blood flow. The list goes on and on.

Practicing yoga enables you to approach daily movement with confidence. The slow, controlled exercises improve overall muscle activation, which increases your bodys mechanical efficiency. The more regular your yoga practice becomes, the stronger you get. You wont have to think about everyday movements, whether its squatting low to pick up something off the ground, reaching for that top shelf, or bending over to tie your shoeit will all feel natural and easy.

STRENGTHEN JOINTS AND RELIEVE ACHES

Yoga makes your muscles more mobile and flexible, relieving the pressure on your joints that causes aches and pains. It lengthens the muscles, reducing tension on the joints caused by pulling of the attached ligaments and tendons. This helps to immediately relieve discomfort, and also reduces the risk of common soft-tissue injuries in tendons, ligaments, and muscles.

Yoga even minimizes the chance of more significant injury to your spine, hips, knees, ankles, shoulders, and neck. Less pain and greater mobility are crucial for health as you age, especially if you live a mostly sedentary lifestyle. With daily practice, youll find increased mobility through yoga is the foundation that helps you to move, feel, and even look better.

YOGA MYTHS: BUSTED

Its time to separate fact from fiction. Most of what people know about yoga is based on what they learn from popular culture, which doesnt always present an accurate picture. These pages dispel some common misconceptions that might hold you back from getting the most out of your yoga workouts.

MYTH: YOGA IS JUST STRETCHING

Some of what you do in yoga is stretching, but the majority of it is more than that. Stretching typically refers to passive lengthening of the muscles, but yoga is actually mostly active engagement. It involves balance postures, lunge and squat variations, core and spine strengthening postures, breathing work, isometric exercises, and more. Yoga combines many aspects of fitness into an efficient workout, including strength, endurance, core stability, mobility, flexibility, breathing, recovery, and, yes, stretching.

MYTH: YOGA HAS TO BE SPIRITUAL OR RELIGIOUS

The term yoga refers collectively to a group of spiritual, mental, and physical practices, but you can easily focus on just the physical aspects: the postures and the breathing. So, while yoga can be much more, its perfectly fine to focus on the physical aspects of yoga without engaging in chanting, meditation, and spiritual practice.