Naked Yoga Fantasy?

Never in recorded history have so many read so much and found so little.

Please allow me to apologize to the memory of Winston Churchill for this crude paraphrase....but when it comes to the much ballyhooed-naked yoga there is so much sizzle, so little steak.

A quick Google search reveals (no pun intended) 4.2 million mentions of "Naked Yoga" including even a Wikipedia definition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_yoga stating that the practice is becoming popular in Western societies. Really?

Certainly, there are oodles of websites and presumably places for gay male "Hot Nude Yoga.".....Good for them, but what about women and straight males?

In many ways, the Naked Yoga phenomenon got off the ground with super coverage of co-ed Naked Yoga classes http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/24/DDG9FCSNDS1.DTL at the One Taste Urban Retreat Center in trendy San Francisco www.onetastesf.com. Alas, One Taste didn't want to be the "Naked Yoga" place and the program was abandoned and slow sex and orgasmic meditation classes took its place.

There are still outposts where one can find coed-nude yoga including the Phoenix Temple in downtown Manhattan www.nakedyoganyc.com with classes on Monday nights and Friday lunchtimes and also in Austin, Texas www.austinnakedyoga.com

The biggest issue as always is gender balance. Most conventional yoga classes...there are an estimated 16.5 million yoga practitioners in the US....are weighted to the female of the species. Not true for Naked Yoga.

Writing for the Austinist, a Central Texas on-line publication, http://austinist.com/2009/07/29/hello_my_name_is.php an unidentified female wrote about her trepidations and pleasant surprises about taking naked yoga. "Maybe heightened awareness due to my nakedness made this realization so intense, or maybe it would have had the same effect even if I were clothed," she wrote. "I don't know, but it felt like an epiphany. It was about so much more than yoga: the balance of effort and ease, of lightness and heaviness... It was so thought-provoking that I completely forgot I was naked."

And the end analysis?

"I waved goodbye to Naked Men Numbers One and Two and sat in my car for a good ten minutes before I felt balanced enough to drive," she wrote. "On the way home, I did a quick cost-benefit analysis of the whole experience, and believe it or not, the proswon out. Or maybe that was just the chai talking."

And no story would be complete without the box score. Gender: 18 males; 5 females; Likelihood I would do it again, 7.5 out of 10; Average penis size, average and most awkward naked yoga pose: happy baby http://www.tracis.info/tracis.info.pictures/Happy%20Baby%20Pose.jpg

So Godiva must ask....Can we save Naked Yoga? Can we ever expected real gender balance? Should we restrict the number of males participating in a co-ed class? Should we even care? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Comments

[Godiva]

Luben, The gender balance issue is the heart and soul of why Naked Yoga is virtually all sizzle and no steak. The One Taste Urban Retreat Center in San Francisco really offered a thriving Naked Yoga class, once with 17 men and 15 women attending...but then the center didn't want to be the "Naked Yoga Place" and the gender balance fell off, and with that, the class as well. There really has to be a concrete effort to give women not only incentives, but a feeling of safety, security and fun. It can be done.

[Luben Spiridonov]

The only naked yoga class I have ever found enjoyable was a generally all women's class I was invited to, which I took as a sign of respect. All others have either been fronts for gay dating or out of gender balance and populated by disappointed straight guys looking for female company.

[John]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here for a minute. Playboy is in the sex business, albeit they're extremely tame compared to what's out there. I have nothing wrong with that... but do we really want the sex industry to promote people going nude? I'll give it to Playboy, their model has good form (http://www.playboy.com/articles/playboy-naked-yoga/)... for me, there's just something off though, maybe it's the music, the framing of the shots, etc... I would love to see real yogis get out there and promote this, but doing some more googling, it seems there's a bit, if not a lot, of resistance to nude yoga.

[Godiva]

Yes, I really believe that a Playboy video would do more good than harm. My reasoning is that the proliferation of hard-core porn has made Playboy almost tame by comparison. And many classy women have posed, and the helps with normal, every-day women. The Playboy Naked Yoga video would create a buzz and may reawaken the interest in Naked Yoga. Right now there is a lot of sizzle about Naked Yoga, but very little steak.

[John]

Do you really think that a Playboy video would help? I'm interested as to why you think that. I'm not a woman ;-) but I would think that many would view it as sexed-up nudity.

Getting naked yoga into the main stream is a whole different game... being naked has it's own problems and now you're asking people to do a downward facing dog...
You're completely right, the male gay community has naked yoga cornered. There isn't anything wrong with that and I applaud them for shedding their inhibitions. But a co-ed dvd or something would really help us home practitioners-- esp my wife who's on the cusp.

BTW, great blog!
I've always wondered why there isn't a complete, one-stop place for the nudist lifestyle on the net. It may be just me, but the whole nudist movement seems pretty disorganized online-- and not very young adult friendly (i'm in my mid-20s).

[Godiva]

Thank you for your comment on whether "Naked Yoga" will ever branch from the dominance by the gay community (not saying that is good or bad ... just stating a fact). Believe it or not, a Playboy video on Naked Yoga may actually help because it will obviously feature women in the nude. Coed naked yoga usually withers on the vine because of lack of gender balance. If women can be encouraged to stick with it beyond a few sessions, then it could make it in enlightened outposts (e.g. SF, LA, NYC, Austin, Portland...). Godiva does not imagine that Naked Yoga will become a widespread fad or reach global acceptance. It does have the potential to get off the launching pad. And that is a start.

[John]

With being naked already a huge taboo to begin with... I don't see much hope for naked yoga-- and that's sad because I think yoga is a great gateway into naturism. I wouldn't consider myself a naturist/nudist, but I was researching yoga one day and discovered that ancient yogis would practice in the nude. Obviously I hit up google for more info... not a heck of a lot out there. But, Playboy is making a naked yoga video... well I think it's safe to say that naked yoga is now dead.

But my wife and I now practice yoga in the buff and afterwards we find ourselves keeping the clothes off for longer periods of time. Go figure.

So... I hit up google again... bad place to look for nudist/naturist info. I imagine it leaves a bitter taste in the mouths' of hardcore veterans like yourself.