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| SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 2019
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I see more men
yoga
now practicing mostly as they get older because they want to maintain other things – basketball or running - or they can’t do them at all and they need some outlet,” - AaronVega who estimates that about 30 percent of his students in any class are men.
Twenty years ago, Holyoke State Representative Aaron Vega knew nothing about yoga. By Anne-Gerard Flynn
Special to The Republican
“She said come do yoga and we all went with the guy attitude, ‘Yoga. What is this going to be like? This can’t be that hard,’ and then, ‘Oh, this is actually hard and challenging.’” Vega added, “I thought it was amazing to take an hour and not think about anything else and have a teacher guide you.” “Physically it resonated with me, but it was also challenging internally,” he said of the practice that incorporates stretching, sequences of poses and awareness of breathing as well as body positions into the workout. “Yoga had the pace that I like and also the mindbody connection. So many of us move through the day, move through life not really thinking about what the body is doing. We get up, we just go. If something hurts, you just ignore it. It will work
itself out. Yoga reminds me, Don’t ignore it. Your body is telling you something. We are so disconnected because we have to go to work. We have to get in our cars. It is go-go-go. Yoga says, Slow down. Listen to your body.” He added, “Yoga draws upon thousands of years of history.” “There are real clear postures of putting the body in certain positions for benefit. To open up blood flow, open up the way air flows through you, the way energy flows through you,” Vega said. “There is an energy system in our bodies and that energy system gets displaced through injuries and stress and what we put our bodies through, like if we sit a lot or have hard jobs.” Vega, who also plays golf and does CrossFit training, said some people do yoga as strengthening exercise for
another sport or to heal from an injury or as a way to keep the body fit with age. “I see more men now coming to yoga mostly as they get older because they want to maintain other things – basketball or running - or they can’t do them at all and they need some outlet,” said Vega who estimates that about 30 percent of his students in any class are men. “I see a lot of men coming to yoga because they have gotten injured and their doctor recommended it.” He said it is important to see the practice as “not a competitive sport” but rather “a competition or challenge to yourself.” “People see the photos of a 27-year-old woman with a foot to the back of the head and looking all blissful while she is standing up and her arms pulled back while she holds onto her toe and most
Today he happily credits the practice that he now teaches with why sometimes people tell him he looks much younger than his 48 years. And, oh yes, he met his wife at a yoga retreat center in Mexico where they were both on vacation. The two had their own yoga studio for nine years in Holyoke and now operate VegaYoga Mobile bringing the practice to senior centers, office workers and even military personnel. Vega’s Saturday morning classes at Holyoke’s Wistariahurst Museum and Sunday morning ones at its historic Steam Building are open to drop-ins and include longtime followers. He sees yoga as a practice with benefit to everyone and says more men are becoming practitioners with age. “I started when I was a film editor with Ken Burns up in New Hampshire,” Vega said. “I didn’t know anything about yoga.” He was then in his 20s, not as much of a “gym rat” as during his college years and aware his pizza consumption was beginning to show on the scale from “sitting in front of the Steenbeck film editor all day and not moving for hours on end.” Vega said he and two other male editors accepted an invitation from fellow editor Sarah Hill to attend what turned out to be an advanced weekly yoga class at a community center in neighboring Bellows Falls, Vt., and found the challenge turned their initial skepticism to appreciation. “She had been practicing for awhile and she took the three of us – former gym rats and one guy played baseball,” State Representative Aaron Vega in his Holyoke office (ANNE-GERARD FLYNN PHOTO) Vega said.
people say, ‘I can’t do that.’ I say, ‘I have been practicing yoga for 20 years and I can’t do that.’ That is not what it is about,” said Vega who taught yoga as a form of fitness for four months to military active-duty personnel at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee. “Within yoga because there are so many sequences and poses you are going to find things you can gravitate to or things that are more challenging. So, the person next to you can do a handstand in the middle of the room and you can’t, but yet their hips are tight and they can’t do a Scorpion pose and you can because you have open hips. You find your weakness and you find your strength. It goes back to that awareness.” Vega said he encourages everyone new to yoga to start with a beginner’s class. “If you don’t take those
beginner classes to learn the foundation you are not going to be able to do it right and you might get hurt even if you are active and in good shape,” Vega said. “Get the structure and fundamentals down. Some people will advance out of that faster, some people like to hang out in the beginner classes longer. It depends on what it is for you. A lot of runners take yoga as a supplemental to their running. Running is their main thing, but they need to stretch out their quads and hamstrings. They don’t need an advanced yoga class. They need a class a couple times a week to be more restorative. Yoga may be the main thing for someone else and they want more challenge.” Vega did 500 hours of training to become certified as a yoga teacher and the form he teaches, Hatha, encompasses most yoga postures and incorporates the breathing exercises. While challenging, Vega stressed practice brings improvement even if done once a week and that all postures can be modified. “Yoga can be frustrating at times,” said Vega who sometimes does chair yoga in office settings to avoid the need for mats and concern over different physical abilities. “It is what we bring to the mat. I couldn’t do that pose. Why? Because I have shoulder issues and that pose did not work for me. OK, it is the pose, and not where you are at. Let’s figure out how to modify it.” Vega said his basic class is usually an hour to an hour and 15 minutes with advanced classes often a “full 90 minutes.” “Basically, the class is broken up into a three- to seven-minute opening. Typically, this is in a seated position, but sometimes I start on the backs as that is easier for people especially in a beginning class. Crossed legs can be tricky on the low back and knees for some people,” Vega said.
SEE YOGA, PAGE D2