everyday yoga for the everyday man

I hate not wearing shoes, and let’s be honest here, sometimes my dogs stink..

Stepping onto the yoga mat wearing your favorite kicks is like playing dodgeball with flippers on. Even if you get pretty good at it, imagine how much better you’ll be once you take them off. Plus, you’ll receive a lot less funny looks from the other people in the room. Yoga is meant to remove distractions and excess from your range of awareness. Physically, an unobstructed connection to the world during practice helps to develop the body without the need for weights or excess props.

The quick answer here is that yoga focuses a great deal on finding inner balance. It helps to minimize the distraction between your physical body and the world around it. Yoga mat notwithstanding, it’s best to keep the socks and shoes out of your practice so you can really connect every part of your foot with the earth below it. Shoes may offer support and grip, but deaden the sensation of the floor while blocking a true connection to the soles of your feet.  Socks might keep your feet toasty, but tend to slide on most surfaces and make balancing much harder. Anyway, most studios are usually pretty warm, and the body tends to heat up fairly quickly once it starts to move (see also SWEAT).

The bottom line is that you want to give yourself a full range of motion in the whole foot, not just in the ankles or toes. See for yourself: try taking a few steps—eyes closed—with shoes, with socks, and then barefoot. Which way do you feel more sensation? Each one of those sensations will help you develop a better relationship with the world around you.

Yoga studios take all of this into consideration for your practice, but often the real reason why we’re asked to remove our shoes is so we don’t track dirt into the sacred space they’ve created for people to practice in. Consider it the yogic equivalent of the old adage “We don’t swim in your toilet, so don’t pee in our pool.”

And, bro… if your dogs stink so much you don’t want to take off your shoes, here are a few suggestions that may help:

-Get new shoes. If you can’t remember when you bought the shoes on your feet, there is a good chance that it’s time for a new pair. Bacteria and fungus love warm, dark and moist places. Consider this if you don’t like to take your shoes off very much—you’ve literally become a walking high school biology project. Congratulations!

-Wash your socks regularly. See above.

-Regularly clean your feet. We’re guys. We shave. We brush our teeth, bite our nails from time to time, and give ourselves a good once over down there every so often. What else is there to do? I’m not saying you need to get a French manicure every Sunday with the ladies, but scrubbing the soles and toes a few times a week not only feels good, but will help to cut down on stank. Bonus points if you use soap.

-Talcum powder.  Shoes and sock hold moisture in. Sweat is moisture. Talcum powder absorbs moisture. Give it a try. Just don’t apply it right before yoga. Do it in the morning, after the shower and foot scrubbing. I’m quite partial to Gold Bond’s Medicated Powder. It’s heavenly.

An old lady-friend of mine used to joke with me all the time—“girls don’t sweat, we glisten.” Well, guess what ladies? Not only do men sweat, we marinate. For some, it starts the moment we step into the all-too-common velvety humid embrace of a well-used yoga room. For others, it starts the moment we even start think about entering that room.  Nobody wants to be that guy—Johnny McSweatsalot— clumsily squeaking and slipping his way through the class while all the others effortlessly glide from one end of the mat to the other. Talk about vinyasa flow!

The first thing to remember is that sweating is good. It is one of your body’s tools for cleaning house. A large part of the physical practice of yoga is designed to purify the body through a series of folds, twists, stretches, and balances.  As the body moves, the muscles and organs release toxins.  One of the main escape routes for these toxins is through sweat. The more toxic the body, there better chance you’ll get your sweat on.  If you are a big meat-eatin’, beer-drinkin’, cigar-chompin’ average jogi, your body might have a little more to work out than others. Big deal.

Combine the fact that you’re wringing out your insides with the accumulation of heat from other bodies in a poorly-ventilated room, and throw in a dash of genetic predisposition, and we have a prime candidate for rapid perspiration.  It isn’t pretty. In fact, it can be downright laughable. Countless times I’ve found myself standing at the front of my mat, hands hotly pressed together in tadasana while fighting to observe a runaway breath, scored by the leaky faucet drip pouring off of each elbow and the tip of my nose. Oh, great. Everyone is looking at me. I know it.

My name is Johnny McSweatsalot, and I’ve been that guy for all my life. My first ashtanga teacher used to walk around the shala during mysore practice and count how many floorboards that each yogi’s pool of sweat would traverse.  I hit 15 boards once, a bittersweet victory:  “Well done, Scott. This is a new record. GROUND YOUR FEET.”

Sweating is a double-edged sword. We want the sweat because we feel the benefit of the practice. We don’t want the sweat because we’re vain. We do want the sweat because it’s healthy. We don’t want the sweat because nobody likes their hands and feet to slide across a sloppy blue sponge which at one point used to be a yoga mat, or the feel of a soaking wet shirt clinging to body hair. At least I think nobody does….

What To Do?

–Don’t panic. You aren’t the first average jogi to sweat profusely, you won’t be the last, and it’s safe to say you probably aren’t the worst.  If you freak out, you’ll probably just sweat more. The most important thing to remember is that it is perfectly OK to sweat during yoga. Don’t let it stop you.

–Wear proper clothing. This is a whole other Q&AJ. The long/short here is to find what works for you. Light, loose-fitting clothing that allows the skin to breathe will be the best. If you go cotton, expect that cotton to soak up sweat. If you wear sports gear, that gear will become very smelly. Avoid business suits, denim jeans, wool anything, and polyester everything.  If it’s appropriate, consider not wearing a shirt. There, I said it. You don’t have to be the first guy to run into the studio bare-chested and ready for asana, but if you’re cool with it, give it a try.

–Bring a towel. This seems like a no-brainer, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten into my first downward, only to feel the familiar drip of sweat run down my spine and realize that I left my towel at home. It’s OK to wipe your brow every so often. Hand towels are great for this. If you are in a class where the teacher gives adjustments, bring a bigger towel and make sure it’s readily available—not only for you, but for the adjuster.  It’s polite, yo.

–Use a yoga rug. Years back, I purchased a yoga rug from YogiToes and it literally changed my life. I was tired of playing slip-and-slide every time I stepped on the mat. Essentially, it is a thin beach towel with lil’ plastic nubs on one side that grip into the yoga mat. What really got me was that it doesn’t really start working until it gets moist. Most people would spray theirs down before class. I just laughed. The other alternative is looking into a Mysore Rug, a thicker rug spun from wool. Both yield definite results. I call mine my magic carpet, and it makes me feel like a yoga ninja when the going gets moist.

–Flip your mat over. Ok, so things are starting to get slippery. You’ve only got a few more minutes to go before shivasana. Wait for the right time, quietly step off of your mat, flip it over, and then drop back into the class. Don’t make a big deal about it. Just do it. There, isn’t that better? Your hands don’t hate you anymore.

–Grab a yoga strap. It’s looking pretty grim. You’ve forgotten your towel. Your shirt is completely soaked through. That yoga rug thing you’ve been meaning to order online hasn’t arrived yet. It’s only been 25 minutes, you’ve already flipped your mat over, and your hands are skating around like Disney on ice. Drastic times call for drastic measures. Grab a yoga strap and lay it across the top of your mat, running a few inches parallel to the front edge. When in downward dog, place the base of your palms below the strap, and the knuckles above it. It doesn’t look good, it doesn’t feel that bad, and it gets the job done.

–Clean up after yourself! If you really want to be that guy, I suggest leaving a few puddles on the floor after class. Bonus points if you don’t hang or wipe down a borrowed mat. Soon enough, you’ll be getting noticed for all the wrong reasons. Proper studio etiquette prevails here. They don’t swim in your pool, so… don’t sweat… on their mat. Yeah.

–Use your own equipment. Let’s face the facts. The idea of rolling around in sweat can be a little gross sometimes—especially if it isn’t your own sweat. Of course, we like to think that yoga studios clean their mats regularly, and most do. Usually, the surprise of unrolling a loan mat to find a rorsharch blot of two clowns fighting over a donut left by the last person using it isn’t a good one. Using your own mat has many benefits, ranging from hygiene to function. Most of the free mats get slick after a few drops—go buy yourself a fancy non-slip situation, and see how your practice benefits.

–Keep practicing and eventually it won’t matter. So what if you sweat profusely? Big deal. Yoga isn’t about how you look; it’s about how you feel. These tips should help you feel a lot better once the heat rises and the sweat starts to fall. Whether your body eventually sweats less or you end up getting used to that perpetual shine, the most important thing to remember is to keep going. A little sweat can go a long way.