Yoga for Regular Guys: The Best Damn Workout on the Planet!

my own pace. So my attorney sent over a confidentiality agreement, which Kimberly signed, and I decided to give it a shot.

WHAT IS YOGA?

    Guys, I’m not bullshitting when I say that in my entire life I’ve never experienced a more profound and gratifying workout as those I’ve had in yoga.
    The word
yoga
actually means “union,” and the practice of yoga began about five thousand years ago. The old school yoga guys were called
yogis
—and I don’t mean Yogi Bear. These yogis were looking for different ways to exercise, breathe, eat, sing, think, and meditate in order to live vibrant, healthy lives. They even talked about celibacy, but I’m not buyin’ that part. (I’m sure there were some yoga-babes
somewhere
.) Their goal was to put together a lifestyle program that created a perfect balance of body, mind, and spirit. Theydevised an incredible exercise system called
Hatha yoga
, which produces flexibility, strength, balance, stamina, and mental focus.
    To me, the word
yoga
means balance: having a good, healthy balance in your entire life. But also, on the physical level, I’m talking about the balance of strength and flexibility. Both are important. A lot of guys are strong, but they have little or no flexibility. Trust me when I tell you this is
not
a good thing. To me, flexibility means youth. The more flexible you are, the younger you feel, and the less chance you have for injury.
    Over the years, many different styles of yoga were developed, but the three main systems are
Iyengar yoga
, which is very biomechanical and therapeutic in nature;
Ashtanga yoga
, which is athletic, acrobatic, and ridiculously challenging; and
Viniyoga
, which is a more moderate program that is based on the needs of each individual practitioner.
    My favorite kind of yoga, besides Yoga for Regular Guys, is “power yoga,” which is the Americanized version of the Ashtanga style. The term
power yoga
was originally coined by an incredible yoga-lady by the name of Beryl Bender Birch in the early 1980s. She called it
power yoga
in order to draw athletes into her Ashtanga Yoga classes. But a guy named Brian Kest really took power yoga and ran with it. He took the very challenging Ashtanga style and made it more accessible for those with a more Western body type. I originally learned yoga from Brian’s videotapes. His system is really good, but the Regular Guy might have a tough time relating to the spiritual stuff—you know, meditating and finding your inner-self stuff.
    I’ve had the pleasure of working out in Brian’s classes—he’s a very cool dude—on many occasions, and I really enjoy them (lots of yoga-babes), but I wanted to do something a little different. That’s why I decided to do this book.

WHAT IS YOGA FOR REGULAR GUYS?

    You see, most serious yogis are more about “namaste,” a spiritual greeting that means “I honor the divine light within you.” But Yoga for Regular Guys (YRG) is a little more “T & A” (which is the Regular Guy greeting to a hot yoga-babe that means “I honor the gorgeous round things that God, or possibly your plastic surgeon, has given you”).
    The yoga I’m talking about is not a religion. We won’t be meditating or chanting “Om,” and no one is going to be asked to put on a pair of footie pajamas. (That is, unless you’re intothat type of thing.) It’s all about the
workout
and getting back to where you need to be with your health and fitness. YRG will challenge you, get you in great shape, and chill you out all at the same time. In fact, if I were allowed to do only one type of exercise for the rest of my life, I swear to God, I would choose yoga because of its broad range of benefits.
    With this book, we’ve taken yoga to a whole new level. YRG is the perfect fusion of old-school calisthenics and core stability training, along with the hot new concept of slow-motion isometric strength training. We’ve taken a few time-tested calisthenics, like push-ups and squats, and we’ve turned up the heat by slowing them down into a slow-motion burn. This combination will add strength and endurance to anything you do. We will incorporate the isometric aspect into YRG by teaching you how to engage your muscles in every position for the entirety of the workout. You will be training your core from start to finish, and we’ve added some super core strength exercises if you’re up for the challenge. Power yoga is our base, which is where this entire workout comes from. We’ve