“Do yoga”, encourages Maxime Machenaud, Top 14 rugby player, in the preface to the book Good Men’s Yoga published by Larousse. “Beyond the mobility which has improved, he explains, it is above all an inner well-being that I have discovered”. This book, our three “good men” yoga teachers, Prosper Matussière, Samuel Urtado and Frédérik NgoDi, wrote it with the aim of “opening the door to all those who are still skeptical about the idea of yoga”. And there are many of them, according to some incredulous comments at the bottom of our call for testimonials.
Yoga good for sport, but not only
“What prevents you from becoming a good yogi? Uh… dignity? asks one of them, his shots well anchored to the body. Others among our readers have more enthusiastic remarks. This is the case of 56-year-old Philippe, a sportsman who has always been a fan of judo, cross country, football, windsurfing and trail running, for whom stretching and limbering up exercises have never been a priority. “The practice of haha yoga (a 1h30 session per week) brings me many benefits, he testifies, because my hips are blocked, my muscles stiff. It also makes me work on balance, which is essential for running, but also concentration through meditation, breathing control, muscle strengthening. I used to say that one yoga session per week corresponds to one session of osteopathy for the benefits and well-being it provides. »
Olivier, 61, is not as sporty and his opinion is more nuanced. “Yoga is great if you have a flexible body and you can have days when you don’t exert yourself too much physically,” he says. Otherwise it turns into a masochistic session. At 60, it’s dead for flexibility… Suddenly and for my part, I only kept the work part of the breath and it is very beneficial. I learned to use the breath as you tweak the buttons on your hi-fi system (for those who still have one) in order to get just the desired sound quality. I propose a static position and go. Can we still call it yoga? Not sure, but apart from the simplest ones, I would be unable to achieve all these postures which can be very elegant when you see them practiced by some people. Like our three “good men” of yoga.
In our video, yogi Frédérik Ngodi reassures: “Before adopting the posture of padmasana – a full lotus which is not necessarily accessible to everyone – you can already shift one leg, sometimes that’s enough to be ease… Why not two legs to make it easier? And if it really isn’t accessible, sitting just like that, arms around your legs, that suits me very well. The main thing is that you feel good and can practice with us. » Good Men’s Yoga is an initiation method in twenty-one days which is intended to be accessible to all and which intends to uninhibit even the most reluctant.