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tgrear2008
Joined: 14 Apr 2010
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 Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 8:58 pm Post subject: Any men do yoga here in Seoul? |
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From what I understand, mostly women do the yoga, and it's not really for the guys here in Korea. Maybe I'm wrong. I'd like to do some yoga a few times a week to increase my flexibility. This would add a new dynamic to my road running through the week. I think it would also help during those work dinners when everyone sits on the floor. Talk about painful.
I live in Gwangjin-gu so I wouldn't want to travel all the way over to the west side of the city.
Any thoughts? |
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Koreadays
Joined: 20 May 2008
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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yoga takes discipline .
if you are disciplined then download some DVD's and do it at home.
just a thought.. cheap and at your own leisure. |
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myenglishisno
Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Location: Geumchon
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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Yoga is just stretching. It's a waste of time.
Do some Hapkido or Taekwondo. It will give you the flexibility you're after and you won't have to worry about being the only dude around. |
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RMNC
Joined: 21 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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Stretching AKA Flexibility isn't a waste of time. Everyone should do cardiovascular exercise, strength training and flexibility stretches. It's all part of the complete health package.
That said, Yoga and Pilates are two different things. I like Pilates because it doesn't have any of that nature/mother earth/connection to nature B.S. that Yoga seems to espouse. |
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myenglishisno
Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Location: Geumchon
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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| RMNC wrote: |
Stretching AKA Flexibility isn't a waste of time. Everyone should do cardiovascular exercise, strength training and flexibility stretches. It's all part of the complete health package.
That said, Yoga and Pilates are two different things. I like Pilates because it doesn't have any of that nature/mother earth/connection to nature B.S. that Yoga seems to espouse. |
I took yoga lessons and we spent 80% of the time talking about chakras.
I'm sure yoga has plenty of benefits but as you said, it's often laden with hogwash about spirituality and all that fluff. I'd just skip it entirely and do a martial art or something. |
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chungbukdo
Joined: 22 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 2:34 am Post subject: |
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| RMNC wrote: |
| Stretching AKA Flexibility isn't a waste of time. Everyone should do cardiovascular exercise, strength training and flexibility stretches. It's all part of the complete health package. |
1. What you described are aspects of fitness, not health.
2. Why should one do direct flexibility work? You didn't make a case except allude to health. What aspects of disease does it prevent? |
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Caffeinated
Joined: 11 Feb 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 3:02 am Post subject: |
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You need to be flexible to do a standing kick to someone's head, for example.
Stretching exercises are essential for getting back full range-of-motion to injured joints, for example.
Stretching is a good idea for maintaining muscular balance and posture. Those bent-over ajummas would have much better posture had they done regular stretches to their hips along with lower back exercises among many other activities. |
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chungbukdo
Joined: 22 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 3:18 am Post subject: |
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| Caffeinated wrote: |
| You need to be flexible to do a standing kick to someone's head, for example. |
Everybody who needs to do standing kicks to people's heads put up their hand! You gotta realize that is not important to most people. I'm one of those people who appreciates a good kick though.
I've fought Muay Thai professionally and have poor hamstring flexibility. Just getting your roundhouse kick form down gets you to most people's shoulders. Since I'm taller than most Asian sparring partners I can kick them in the head. A Thai roundhouse kick consists of a lot of bending at the waist.
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| Stretching exercises are essential for getting back full range-of-motion to injured joints, for example. |
There's a place for stretching in some instances of injury. I'm not sure I agree with you about injured joints, but muscle pulls definitely.
| Quote: |
| Stretching is a good idea for maintaining muscular balance and posture. Those bent-over ajummas would have much better posture had they done regular stretches to their hips along with lower back exercises among many other activities. |
Those women are deformed from malnutrition during the war. You think people who grew up slightly after the war all have stretching to thank for their upright posture?
If you want to work on your posture, direct posture work is much more efficient I think. Probably 99.9% of the population has the needed muscular flexibility to stand properly in the first place. What they need to do is correct their postural habits. I mean, does anyone feel a muscular stretch while they are standing? For me when I'm standing, flexibility is not my bottleneck. It's my poor habits. Especially my seated posture, where I put my hips forward and slide down my chair. |
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littlelisa
Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 3:28 am Post subject: |
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| chungbukdo wrote: |
| Caffeinated wrote: |
| You need to be flexible to do a standing kick to someone's head, for example. |
Ah, okay everybody who needs to do standing kicks to people's heads put up their hand! You gotta realize that is not important to most people.
And, I've fought Muay Thai professionally and have poor hamstring flexibility. Just getting your roundhouse kick form down gets you to most people's shoulders. Since I'm taller than most Asians I can kick them in the head. A Thai roundhouse kick consists of a lot of bending at the waist.
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| Stretching exercises are essential for getting back full range-of-motion to injured joints, for example. |
So there's a place for stretching in some instances of injury. I'm not sure I agree with you about injured joints, but muscle pulls definitely.
| Quote: |
| Stretching is a good idea for maintaining muscular balance and posture. Those bent-over ajummas would have much better posture had they done regular stretches to their hips along with lower back exercises among many other activities. |
Those women are deformed from malnutrition during the war. You think people who grew up slightly after the war all have stretching to thank for their upright posture?
If you want to work on your posture, direct posture work is much more efficient I think. Probably 99.9% of the population has the needed muscular flexibility to stand properly in the first place. What they need to do is correct their postural habits. I mean, does anyone feel a muscular stretch while they are standing? For me when I'm standing, flexibility is not my bottleneck. It's my poor habits. Especially my seated posture, where I put my hips forward and slide down my chair. |
Stretching prevents injury if you do any kind of exercise or movement. I know I should do more stretching after I dance, though I get lazy.
Anyway it's funny that yoga seems to be a women only thing, since its roots were men only. I don't do yoga, but I have friends (of both genders) who swear by it. |
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chungbukdo
Joined: 22 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 3:41 am Post subject: |
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| littlelisa wrote: |
Stretching prevents injury if you do any kind of exercise or movement. I know I should do more stretching after I dance, though I get lazy. |
No, it doesn't. Not static stretching anyway.
There was a huge meta study that got a tonne of press a few years back (and another one done that verified it) that static stretching has no effect on injury rate except possibly a slight increase in injury for athletes (due to the fact that people injure themselves during the stretching itself). |
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tgrear2008
Joined: 14 Apr 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 3:45 am Post subject: |
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I did a yoga class in college for 10 weeks and I found it to be beneficial. There was no hippy BS about it. Right now, I'm up to about 20 miles of running each week, and I think yoga/stretching would reduce the pain in my legs and body. I think it would increase blood flow to my muscles. I think it would decrease the chance of injury as I train for longer runs.
I just wanted to hear from any guys that have signed up for classes in Seoul. I dont want to come off as a pervy weigook, if it's not what guys do here. |
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tatertot
Joined: 21 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 5:32 am Post subject: |
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| tgrear2008 wrote: |
I did a yoga class in college for 10 weeks and I found it to be beneficial. There was no hippy BS about it. Right now, I'm up to about 20 miles of running each week, and I think yoga/stretching would reduce the pain in my legs and body. I think it would increase blood flow to my muscles. I think it would decrease the chance of injury as I train for longer runs.
I just wanted to hear from any guys that have signed up for classes in Seoul. I dont want to come off as a pervy weigook, if it's not what guys do here. |
I attended a class at my gym for about 6 months. I never missed a class, and in all that time only one other guy attended a class. He showed up two times before quitting. In Korea, yoga classes seem to be for women only. I'm sure you can find a class where men are accepted, but I don't think it is generally considered a men's activity. |
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Caffeinated
Joined: 11 Feb 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 6:00 am Post subject: |
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| chungbukdo wrote: |
| Caffeinated wrote: |
| You need to be flexible to do a standing kick to someone's head, for example. |
Everybody who needs to do standing kicks to people's heads put up their hand! You gotta realize that is not important to most people. I'm one of those people who appreciates a good kick though. |
Sounds like your sparring partners could use every little inch of reach. Not all kicks require as much flexibility as standing kicks, of course (I wish I could do them nowadays. At work, especially), but the effectiveness of any kick would be compromised by the lack of dynamic muscle flexibility.
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| Stretching exercises are essential for getting back full range-of-motion to injured joints, for example. |
There's a place for stretching in some instances of injury. I'm not sure I agree with you about injured joints, but muscle pulls definitely. |
By joint I include the muscle, tendon, cartilage and bone as a functional unit (common practice among trainers in my past). Flexibility exercises helped my joints get back to (almost) full functionality after a broken bone and few sprains so I can't cavalierly dismiss them.
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| Quote: |
| Stretching is a good idea for maintaining muscular balance and posture. Those bent-over ajummas would have much better posture had they done regular stretches to their hips along with lower back exercises among many other activities. |
Those women are deformed from malnutrition during the war. You think people who grew up slightly after the war all have stretching to thank for their upright posture? |
There's also the post-war ajumma who get to that state from lots of manual labor leading to muscular imbalance. Another example would be guys with overdeveloped pectorals causing their shoulders to roll forward giving them the appearance of a hunched back (recipe for neck and shoulder pain). The point is strength training exercises should pay attention to muscular balance and that flexibility exercises could help in that regard.
I'm not into the spiritual aspect of yoga myself, but I'd be interested in doing since it's not only about spirituality and flexibility but for the muscular endurance and relaxation aspects as well. The yoga studios I've asked about seem to be all-female affairs, however. |
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Triban
Joined: 14 Jul 2009
Location: Suwon Station
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 3:58 pm Post subject: |
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| My flexibility is horrid at the moment. Can anyone suggest some video to download at home or exercises to do in order to improve both upper and lower body flexibility? |
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