Women make up slightly less than half of the NFL's fanbase. They're going to college in larger numbers than men. They're the Senators grabbing the legislative branch by the collar and dragging the country away from fiscal precipice. And yet! it's still weird for us when we try to use the weight room at a new gym. When it comes to gender segregation, the gym is the final frontier.

In a piece for the Washington Post, Eric Niiler examines why yoga a practice historically embraced by men in India is so female-dominated stateside. Short answer? IT'S NOT MAAAAAANLY ENOUGH.

[...]many myths about yoga stand in [men's] way: Yoga isnt a decent workout; its too touchy-feely; you have to be flexible to do it; mens bodies just arent built for pretzellike poses.

Adrian Hummell has heard all the excuses.

What happens is, a guy who doesnt know about it, he associates it with things like Pilates or aerobics, and they think of it as a chick workout, said Hummell, who has been doing yoga for the past three years and now teaches Bikram yoga, a particularly strenuous form of the practice, in Bethesda.

Its almost a joke when guys say, I dont think I should do yoga because Im not flexible, he said. Its like saying, Im too weak, so I cant lift weights.

So they don't like doing yoga because they're simultaneously afraid of turning into a weak-ass woman (bad) and not being able to hack it as a weak-ass woman even though, as Niiler explains, yoga is great for men. It can help prevent sports injuries, it increases flexibility. Yoga good. Yoga make man strong so man play XBox Live harder than ever.

The unfortunate male/female exercise divide persists in gyms, too; as an avid-ish gymgoer I haven't been a member of a single health club that didn't host a creepy invisible line between the "girl" side (ellipticals! stair climbers!) and the "boy" side (MUSCLES!). And crossing the line leads to social penalties for either sex. Women side-eyeing each other as a man climbs onto the elliptical next to them. Men sighing impatiently as they wait for women to finish a set on the bench press, like they have more of a right to use the equipment even though they're both paying for the same gym membership.

Once at a gym to which I no longer belong, I was working out on an assisted pull up machine (shut up) when I noticed out of the corner of my eye a beefy male trainer and his male client standing off to my side watching me. It was very distracting. I'm not a person with a ton of upper body strength and I laugh at everything, so I can't work out with a partner, and I especially can't work out with two dudes standing there watching me for no reason. I'll get nothing done.

So I finished a set and asked them what they wanted. Are you almost done? the trainer asked. I said I'd just gotten to the equipment, so I'd be awhile and they should just bypass me. I got back up and started my second set. They just stood there, watching. The gym was basically empty because it was early morning, there was plenty of other equipment to use and they just stood there. I ended up telling them to stop because it was creeping me out.

Read the original here:
Yoga Isn't 'For Ladies' and Weights Aren't 'For Men'