OoM 056： Why Every Man Should Consider Yoga with Dean Pohlman
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Summary
Yoga is not typically a word we associate with masculinity, but that is about to change. My guest today shares with us the stigma around men and yoga, how it will make you stronger, and why every man should consider incorporating yoga into his fitness regimen.
Transcript
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Yoga. It's not typically a word we associate with masculinity, but that is about to change.
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My guest today shares with us the stigma around men and yoga, how it will make you stronger,
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and why every man should consider implementing yoga into his fitness regimen.
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is
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who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Ben, what's going on today? My name is Ryan Michler and I am the host
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and founder of Order of Man. I'm glad you're tuning in today. If you haven't heard this podcast yet and
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you're new here, we talk about all things manly when it comes to your relationship with your family
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and community, your health, your fitness, your wealth, your business, and most importantly,
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how you can take care of yourself. You're going to want to tune into this one today because we
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are going to talk about a topic that we have not yet covered on the show, and that is yoga. We're
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going to cover why the stigma around men and yoga, how it's going to make you stronger, and again,
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why every man should consider adding yoga into his health and fitness regimen. But before I get into
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that and the rest of the conversation we're going to have with my guest today, I want to give you
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our weekly reminder to the elite mastermind, The Iron Council. Now, this is a mastermind. It's
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designed to stretch you. It's designed to test you. It's designed to help you grow in the relationships
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you have, your health, your wealth, your money, but most importantly, it's going to help you level
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up your life. Now, this week's topic in The Iron Council is critical if you want to get ahead in
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your life because we're talking about leveling up your network. So, if you want to surround yourself with
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more successful people, if you're frustrated or you find it difficult to articulate the value you
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bring to the table when reaching out to high performers, if you want to build confidence when
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you're in the conversation with other successful people, and if you want to become one of those high
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achievers in your own life, then this is the week that you need to join. So, head over to
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orderaman.com slash Iron Council to get all the details there and get signed up. I will personally reach
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out to you, get you tapped into the network, and we'll help you level up your own network and so much
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more. Now, I want to get into the show today. Remember, you can find all the links and the
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resources at orderofman.com slash 056. And as always, join us in the conversation we're having
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with over 2,800 men now in our Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash order of man.
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Now, my guest today is Dean Pullman. He is the founder and CEO of Man Flow Yoga, a yoga brand
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focused on the physical side of yoga without all the spiritual fluff. He is the author of the number
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one bestselling ebook, Yoga Basics for Men and contributes regularly to Huffington Post. He's
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a former collegiate lacrosse player turned fitness professional. He now focuses on making yoga more
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accessible to a wider audience through his fitness centric take on yoga. Dean, thanks for joining me
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on the show. I'm glad you're here, man. Hey, Ryan. Thanks for having me. So, we're going to talk
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about something that typically I wouldn't consider very manly or masculine. So, I'm really interested in
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having this conversation with you because I'm sure this is a conversation or at least a topic that
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it's not very manly that you get all the time. Is that right? That is the argument that I usually
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have to face. Yes. So, you are going to have to debate and teach the guys here why yoga can be a
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masculine thing and why we need to look into doing this, right? That's my job. That's usually how it
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happens. Good. Well, tell me a little bit about how you got into this line of work. I mean, obviously,
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this is something unique and you're doing this full-time. And so, tell me a little bit about how you
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got into it. Yeah. So, I played lacrosse for the University of Wisconsin. I accidentally wandered
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into a yoga studio on winter break my senior year when I was home. And I went in and I had thought
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about doing yoga for years. And I asked them, you know, what's this going to do for my body? What's
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this going to do for my physical performance? I play lacrosse competitively. You know, how is this
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going to help? And they said, well, you'll get leaner. You will get more flexible, more core strength,
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and you're going to sweat a ton. You don't have to wear a shirt for the workout. I said, all right,
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fine. That all sounds good. So, I went in and got my ass handed to me. Completely, completely got my
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ass kicked. And I, back then, even now, I'm the guy that'll go into like a CrossFit gym and just,
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and even though I don't do CrossFit, I will, I will go toe to toe with the best people there just
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because I'm sure I'm, I'm in very good shape endurance wise, strength wise. I have, I have a
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very well-rounded fitness. Um, but that workout was the most humbling workout that I've ever done
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and it remains so. So, what made it different? What about that workout that was so different that it
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actually kicked your butt like another workout hadn't been able to do up to that point? Well,
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every other workout that I've been doing. So, for those of you who are familiar with yoga,
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this was a Bikram yoga class and Bikram yoga is a 90 minute, uh, sweat session, 105 degrees, uh, 26
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different poses, same sequence every time is sweating buckets the whole time. But the reason why it was so
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different from all my other workouts that I've done was because of the emphasis on static movement
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and the emphasis on technique. So, you know, and all my other workouts, it was okay. Sprint back and
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forth, do squats, do 10 total. And this workout was get into the pose and hold it, just write it and
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focus on your breathing and make it through and don't fidget. It was just so different from what I was
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used to. And that's why it was so hard. And I realized, wow, my body's, I have like, this is, this
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should be, I should be able to do this. It was so difficult. And that's, and that's why, uh, I decided,
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okay, well, you need to make this a part of your routine because this is clearly something that you're
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Yeah, I know. I was actually at the gym this morning and I was doing planks and hollow rocks, which is kind
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of like halfway sit up and you just hold it as long as you can. I'm sure you're familiar with it.
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Those are great. And it's amazing to me how quickly that will just destroy your abs. I mean,
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you could do sit-ups all day long, but you, you hang in that position, like static position that
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you're talking about and it actually absolutely destroys you. So I'm, I get that. I'm on board
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with that. Yeah. And that's what it takes to, to build muscle. Actually, that's static movement
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and really controlling the movement. Instead of going through something quickly, it's, it's moving
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really slowly and that builds strength. That's, that builds stability. And that's, that's what
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injury prevention is. So I think a lot of us forget that when we go to the gym and we think
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it's about finishing our reps and getting the pump, but really the first goal of exercise
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is, is injury prevention and moving slowly through the motion is what helps to do that.
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So why is it that men are so, I'm, I guess I'm just assuming, and maybe this is wrong, but
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I'm assuming that men look at this and don't want to get involved because it isn't tough
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or it isn't manly or it isn't masculine. Is that right?
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Yeah. Well, I mean, it's also just the whole culture behind yoga. You know, if you, if, if,
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if you applied the same culture that existed within yoga to, you know, to CrossFit, nobody
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wanted to do CrossFit either. Um, at least not, not as many people. Uh, it's, it's just that
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yoga is a completely different, um, the, the majority of people who practice yoga and the
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way that it's talked about on social media and, um, you know, people who market yoga is
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just a completely different, a different philosophy and a different approach. Whereas, you know,
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you go into a CrossFit gym, you go into the gym and, and lit weights, lifting weights. It's
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all about, you know, pushing yourself and going harder and, you know, yeah, I love it, you
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know, and that doesn't exist in yoga. So what I did when I created Mantle Yoga, you
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know, I've loved all this. I love working out and I love the aspect of pushing myself
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and being competitive and using, uh, the desire to be the best would be as strongest
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in the room to improve my own physical fitness. So I really didn't do anything except I took
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the poses from yoga. I took the, the workout from yoga and then I applied a different philosophy
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to it. The one that I was used to. So, so what is a, uh, what is more of a traditional
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yoga workout even look like? I'm not even familiar with what it, what it would be or
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what it would look like. And then maybe talk to me about how your philosophy differs from
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that. Sure. Well, a traditional yoga workout and it really depends because there's so many
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different kinds, but the most common yoga workout that you'll see is called a vinyasa
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quest. And that's usually referred to as a flow quest. And that typically involves one
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breath and one movement. So it's medium pace, I'd say, and that's arbitrary, but it means
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that you hold each pose for about 10 to 15, maybe 20 seconds, and then you move on to another
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pose. Um, and so there's not in that there isn't a ton of muscle fatigue. It's more about
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movement and linking your breath with your movement. So something of a moving meditation.
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Um, now there are types of yoga, you know, like power yoga or just even flow classes that
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are, that are taught as fitness classes where the poses last longer and where there's more
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emphasis on physical fitness, but there's still always an aspect of spirituality or there's
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still always an aspect of, of cultivating breath and body connection and, and talking about
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spirituality or stress relief or whatever it is. So what, so what makes manful yoga different is,
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is we make the poses last longer. So you're getting a better workout and you're getting closer to the
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point or reaching muscle fatigue, which is what you need to get stronger. Um, we also focus on the
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physical fitness. So we are constantly talking about the technique of the pose instead of,
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instead of being silent or instead of talking about something other than the technique involved,
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we're talking about, okay, how do you do this? What does your heel need to be doing in your back foot?
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What's going on in your front foot? Why are you doing this? What is the physical benefit involved?
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So it's just much more focused on getting results from yoga as opposed to what other traditional
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yoga will emphasize. You know, if we took yoga and then just did it in a CrossFit, uh, facility or at
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a gym and took guys who hadn't done yoga before and explained it to them in terms of a traditional
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workout that they're used to this, that's what it would be. So that's, that's what manful yoga is.
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Yeah, that makes sense. I know I'm looking at your website here and one of the things I think a
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recent post was you talk about the perfect squat and I, and I actually do CrossFit. So it's
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interesting you bring that up and that's always been one of my biggest struggles. Like how do you
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keep your back exactly straight? How do you keep your weight in your heels without falling over on
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your back? So I could see how this would be beneficial. Is that where you step in and where you're
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able to help and even enhance some of these other, uh, lifting techniques, I guess you'd say if other
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guys are doing. Yeah, absolutely. Because we don't focus, everybody knows that in order to have a good
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squat, you need to have flexibility in your hips. You need to have core strength, but how often do
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people actually take the time to focus on developing flexibility and developing this core strength or
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developing a bodily awareness necessary to be able to do a squat? And the answer is not at all
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because we're too busy putting weight on our back and just trying to go higher and higher instead
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of using no weight and just getting into a static position and checking them with your body and
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making sure that your spine is properly aligned and that your knees are drawn back and that your
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glutes are engaging. So it's slowing down and making sure that you have the very found, the very basics of
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the foundations of movement or whatever strength exercise you're doing, like a squat or a lunge or a
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plank. And then from there moving into other exercise or adding weight onto that, we so rarely take the
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time to scrutinize our form that this is why it's so important. This is why what we're doing is so
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important with, with yoga. Yeah. So it doesn't sound like it's meant to replace anything that you're
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doing outside. It's just meant to enhance and even develop some of those skills outside of the yoga
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side of things even better. Yeah. And 85% of what I do is yoga. The other 15% is making up things that
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yoga lack. Okay. So like pull-ups, um, pulling exercises, using resistance bands. I don't use
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weights anymore. I mean, I'm not 225 pounds, but I'm also not skinny. Yeah. Look at other calisthenics or
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bodyweight exercise athletes. Those guys aren't small. They just, they know how to use exercises
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in a way, just using their body weight to facilitate muscle growth and to keep, to keep their
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size. Right. And hyper-efficient in some of those activities as well. So is that what you recommend
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best? I mean, is that what goes best with yoga is, is body weight type movements and things like that?
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Or is there certain exercises that pair and compliment what you're doing when it comes to yoga?
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Well, it really just depends on what you want to get out of it. I recommend that people do as many
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forms of physical fitness as they can. Obviously, if your goal is to get to, you know, if you want to
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gain 40 pounds of muscle, yeah, you're going to have to do some weightlifting. Um, sure. You know,
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but if you just want to gain 10, 15 pounds of muscle, you can probably just use your body weight.
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And in terms of integrating yoga with other forms of exercise, it's a perfect compliment to so many
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things, because if you're working on strength building with weights, for example, you're shortening
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your muscles, you're just contracting, contracting, contracting. But when you're doing yoga, you're
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doing the exact opposite. You're working into the extreme range of motion of your body, while
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developing isometric strength. So for example, while I'm doing what's called a warrior two pose, which
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we'll just call, let's just for the sake of ease, let's just call it a lunge. If I'm in my position, I'm
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holding up my body weight in a lunge at the extreme range of motion in my, in my hips. I'm
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developing strength in my body, but I'm also developing the range of motion. I'm working on
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flexibility. So yoga is unique because we're working on strength and flexibility at the same
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time. Um, so that's why it compliments other fitness so well, because it's getting stuff that
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your other fitness isn't doing. Yeah, I know even myself, I know a lot of guys are like this
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is I'll just wake up in the morning, I'll do a little bit in the morning, and then I'll head
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into the gym without even ever thinking about giving myself adequate stretching time or any
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of that. And I'm sure it hinders my performance. So I could see why getting the other side of
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it is extremely, extremely valuable. Yeah, I mean, well, just one way that I like to explain
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this is the, um, the Joe Dirt story. Okay. And, uh, so Joe Dirt, everyone, not everyone
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knows, but let's just say everyone should know. And Joe Dirt is flexibility. If Joe Dirt had
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brothers and sisters that were named strength, agility, and muscle size, let's say that Joe
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Dirt was flexibility. Joe Dirt was the one that was left behind because people either didn't
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want them or they didn't think it was right. So people don't think about flexibility enough.
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They don't recognize the importance, but the thing is, if you don't have flexibility, you're
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missing out on so much. Number one, you're, you don't, you lack range of motion. Your power
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equals your range of motion times force. It's force times distance. It's a very simple equation.
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And if you don't have distance, if you don't have range of motion, you're not going to be as
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powerful as you could be. The other benefits of flexibility are, um, reduced risk of injury.
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So if your muscles are used to be in the position where they're longer, if you get into that position
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as a result of, let's say being tackled or, or landing awkwardly on something, you won't be
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injured. Right. You know, Eddie George came out in, um, I think there's a book, there's a book
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called real men do yoga, which, you know, if you got that guy on the podcast, that'd be pretty easy
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for him to answer at the, your, uh, your question at the end. But, uh, Eddie George is on the cover
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of this book and he talks about yoga as something that helped him stay injury free because when he
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would get into the bottom of a pile, after we get tackled and he ended up in the bottom of a pile,
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he might be in an awkward position, but. Right. And you're stuck there for a minute.
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Right. But he's done yoga and his muscles are used to being lengthened like that. So he's like,
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well, uh, sometimes I could get injured, but because my body's used to this, I'm not as easily
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injured. Well, and not to mention, and I imagine this is a huge component is functionality. I mean,
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you might have these guys that are ripped and they look great on the beach, but at the end of the day,
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if they can't turn their neck around to check their blind spot in their car, how functional
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and how practical is that is, is that strength, right? Yeah, that's true. Uh, that's, that's another
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thing. People are, uh, people like to develop bodies that look good, but actually don't
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function. And, uh, the thing with yoga and with body weight exercises is that it teaches your body
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to function as a whole, as opposed to individual parts that kind of when put together look like,
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you know what you're doing. Guys, just taking a quick time out to introduce you to my friends
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level. We really enjoy the show and we think you will as well. Now back to my interview with Dean.
00:19:26.120
So is this something that you'd recommend guys do on a daily basis? Is it something that they can
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spread out a little bit more? I mean, I work out, for example, I'm five to six days a week of being in
00:19:36.900
the gym for an hour each time. Should I be considering doing this every single day in
00:19:41.660
conjunction with that? I think that if you spent a few minutes doing this every single day,
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that'd be very beneficial, particularly if you're going to do some exercises that help to activate
00:19:52.720
dormant muscles at the beginning. For example, doing something that would help activate your glutes and
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making sure that your core is working, making sure that your spine is aligned properly, that you have
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that proper pelvic alignment before you go right into your squats. But also doing stuff at the end
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of your workout to ensure that your muscles can relax so that you can get back to what you like doing
00:20:19.380
more quickly with less soreness and not feel as sore the next day. But yes, so a few minutes every day
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is good. I would also recommend doing at least two workouts a week, even if it's only 20 minutes or 30
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minutes of where you're just focusing on yoga, where you're just focusing on getting better at the poses
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or working deeper into your range of motion. Just like your strength, your flexibility needs attention.
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So you can spend all five of those workouts working on strength, or you could take the time and make
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one of those workouts about flexibility. Because ultimately, if you become more flexible, you'll get
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stronger. If you can increase your range of motion, you'll get stronger. So people very often will say,
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no, I don't want to do yoga, I need to do weights today. Or like, I need to know I need to I need to
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do squat day. Well, you could keep doing lifting weight, I mean, you could keep lifting weights five
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times per week. Or you could get better results by lifting three times per week, doing yoga twice per
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week. And then right using the two to complement each other, instead of just going strength, strength,
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strength, strength, strength, strength, do strength, flexibility. And then the next day, like,
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okay, my muscles are a little longer now, I have more bodily awareness, let's go a little deeper
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and let's up the weight. So, you know, it's kind of like a, a pendulum going back and forth, that
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goes further in each direction each time. So you can get the more, the more you lift, potentially,
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the more flexible you can get, the more flexible you can get, the more you lift, and you can just kind
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keep going back and forth between those. Right? Yeah, it's actually interesting, you're talking
00:22:13.720
about this, I'm putting the finishing touches on a show that we're releasing the first part of
00:22:19.220
February, which is today that we're recording. And it's by Chris Duffin, who is a power lifter. And at
00:22:26.480
one point, he held the record for the heaviest back squat, 881 pounds was the back squat that he did.
00:22:33.080
Yeah, unbelievable. And he talks a lot about more about not, not so much weights, but more about
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the function, more about the correct movement, more about aligning your spine, like you're talking
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about, because when you get those movements correctly, essentially, and this is the term
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he used is you're unlocking your strength when you do the move correctly. And 99% of the people out
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there don't. So they're actually limiting their ability to lift heavier, which obviously means that
00:23:00.920
they'll get stronger. Yeah, absolutely. And that's exactly what we're talking about. When for example,
00:23:06.740
when you looked at my perfect squat program, that's exactly what we do. We slow down, we focus and make
00:23:11.860
sure that you're doing everything properly, instead of you just jumping straight into a movement without
00:23:17.460
knowing if you have all the proper components. I want so I want to jump into this other component of
00:23:22.560
it, which you briefly skimmed over, which was meditation. Because when I think of yoga, and I think a lot
00:23:27.340
of guys that are listening to this, especially if they're not familiar with it, kind of like I am,
00:23:30.920
think about, oh, it's this guy sitting in a meditation pose, and you just sit there and you
00:23:35.580
think about life or whatever it is. And so tell me how that plays into the type of yoga that you're
00:23:42.060
teaching. Well, the thing is, and this is where people a lot of yoga people think I'm crazy, because
00:23:47.460
I don't meditate with my yoga. 99.9% of people who do yoga combine meditation with yoga. And to
00:23:56.820
separate the two is blasphemy. Yeah, I'm sure. You know, so, but the thing is, you don't have to
00:24:05.980
meditate to do the exercises involved in yoga, you can do a warrior two pose, you can do a high lunge,
00:24:14.140
you can do a down dog without meditating. Inevitably, there starts to form a movement meditation,
00:24:22.040
because you're simply focusing on your body so much. And you're focusing on your, your breath,
00:24:29.500
that, you know, something starts to happen. But it's the same as when you're exercising, you know,
00:24:36.040
you can get kind of lost in the moment there as well. It's, it's, it's, it's very similar. I wouldn't
00:24:42.100
say that it's the same extent, you kind of have to try it to know what I'm talking about.
00:24:46.320
But in terms of meditation, I do this separately from my workouts, I do yoga, and then I do meditation
00:24:55.360
in the morning. There's, there's tons of different meditations, you can sit and, you know, sometimes
00:25:00.380
your mind will start thinking, you know, Oh, what do I, what do I, what does this mean? Or sometimes
00:25:07.560
you think about, yeah, sometimes I guess you'll think about the meaning of life. But sure, meditation
00:25:12.560
is whatever you want it to be. So for me, I like to focus on meditation for mental performance.
00:25:19.820
I actually didn't start meditating because of yoga, I started meditating because I heard of people
00:25:25.920
like Tim Ferriss and Dave Asprey, and other people who are focused on, you know, kicking ass and being
00:25:32.960
successful people, hearing them say, Oh, I meditate for this. And so when I meditate, I do it from I do it
00:25:41.460
for mental performance, I do it to clear my head, so that I can focus more on what I need to get done
00:25:47.800
instead of thinking about frivolous crap. Meditation for me for mental performance, that starts out all
00:25:54.600
there's no thinking about life or thinking about the meaning of life. It's simply focusing on your breath
00:26:01.020
and your body and focusing on the relationship between the two. And then whenever you start to think
00:26:07.720
about something else, you know, when you have a thought, so to speak, you don't, you don't hit
00:26:13.340
yourself and say, Oh, no, I had a thought. Ah, fuck, I messed up. It's not about, you know,
00:26:20.340
in meditation isn't about not having a thought at all, because that's impossible. We all rank a
00:26:25.600
meditation, meditation involves you recognizing that you had a thought, and then returning back to your
00:26:32.120
breathing. So your inner, your inner dialogue for meditation to be, okay, I'm thinking about my
00:26:38.320
breathing. I'm inhaling, I feel my chest expanding, I feel my neck lengthening, I feel my core tightening,
00:26:45.020
I'm exhaling, I feel my body going lower, going lower. Okay, now I'm thinking about going into the
00:26:52.140
pool and swimming. Oh, wait, I'm thinking about why am I thinking about the pool, go back to your breath.
00:26:56.800
You know, and that's meditation. It doesn't mean thinking about, again, it doesn't mean thinking
00:27:02.780
about, you know, your philosophy or your meaning or the meaning of life. It's, it's, uh, it's really
00:27:08.420
whatever you want. So to answer your question, meditation, uh, on a very basic level, it's focusing
00:27:14.100
on the relationship between your breath and your body to help clear your head. What, uh, let's talk
00:27:19.080
about, let's shift gears a little bit here and talk about nutrition. Obviously you look at your
00:27:22.680
pictures, you're a guy who's in great shape. Uh, what does your nutrition regimen look like? And
00:27:27.200
how do you build that into your, the workouts and the yoga that you're doing as well?
00:27:31.860
My nutritional guideline to, to the kind of the one principle that I follow is what are you putting
00:27:40.700
in your body in terms of what your body is currently doing or will do later or what has been just done?
00:27:47.460
Um, so it always depends on the situation that I'm currently in, what I've just finished or what
00:27:54.380
I'm preparing to do. If it's breakfast, it means eating protein. If it means, if it's lunch, it means
00:27:59.880
having something that doesn't slow me down, but gives me energy without sugar. If it's evening,
00:28:05.020
it's having lots of fats and lots of protein to make my body tired. You know, I don't count macros.
00:28:10.500
I don't count calories. I, I actually wrote a diet. It's called the man flow diet. And that's,
00:28:17.480
that's what I personally do. But to sum it up, it's a combination of diet influenced by Tony Robbins,
00:28:26.900
by paleo principles, and also by Dave Asprey and the Bulletproof diet. So it's, it's a lot of fats.
00:28:36.480
It's complex, complex carbs. It's healthy or well-sourced proteins, mostly salmon and grass-fed
00:28:46.640
beef or organic chicken and eggs. It's simple. And I don't, I don't count things. Right. It's
00:28:54.360
really simple. Well, and I think here's, what's interesting when it comes to diets is what I'm
00:28:58.200
running across is I think the more complex the diet is, the more that people believe that it's
00:29:03.700
actually going to work when in all reality, everybody knows what they should be eating and
00:29:08.540
what they should be doing. I really like when you talked about the way that you feel. I remember
00:29:13.320
three years ago, I was really, really out of shape. And just over the past two and three years,
00:29:17.220
I've started to get back into shape. And I remember at lunchtime, I would go eat a big greasy burger
00:29:21.980
from Burger King or wherever it was. And I would come back to the office and I would be just exhausted,
00:29:27.600
just so tired and lazy. And I just want to sit there. And so I really liked the concept of thinking
00:29:33.500
and of how your body will respond to that food when it comes to making decisions about what to put
00:29:38.320
into your body. I mean, it's weird. Once you, once you start not weird, but it's awesome. Once you
00:29:43.480
start realizing what your, what food does to your body and how you feel, once you, once you can draw
00:29:49.300
that connection, then you don't want to eat crappy food anymore. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Good point.
00:29:55.620
So I'm going to share my ignorance on this subject a little bit with you here in that I'm curious if
00:30:01.960
there's some mistakes that people make as they consider implementing yoga into their, into their
00:30:08.640
life. Is there some things that we should be aware of or some red flags that we need to avoid? Talk to
00:30:13.400
me a little bit about that. Sure. Um, so in my experience with people who integrate yoga into their
00:30:19.580
life in a, let's say less than positive way is, is people who go into a yoga studio and try to replicate
00:30:29.000
what everybody else is doing. Hmm. So there's a big problem with people. And this is kind of
00:30:35.900
particularly what, what I do. There's a, there's a big problem with people who go into a yoga studio
00:30:40.260
and expect to do what someone with a completely different body type is doing. And also yoga
00:30:49.000
instructors who don't know how to deal with people who have different body types of the people they're
00:30:55.340
used to teaching, um, or who lack anatomical knowledge or being able to cue people correctly
00:31:03.760
into poses. So my, my biggest caution to people who want to start yoga is to be careful about the
00:31:14.640
type of yoga that you're going to and do your research on the instructor beforehand. So make sure
00:31:22.880
that the person that you're going to is someone who fits your goals. And if you're listening to this
00:31:28.260
podcast right now, and you're thinking like, I already have flexibility. I already have core strength,
00:31:33.140
but I'm kind of interested in learning how to be more mindful, or I'd like to seek a more stress
00:31:39.380
relieving type of yoga, then find a yoga for that. I'm not bashing it at all. It, I think that has a
00:31:45.340
great place. I think that sometimes it's, it's what people need. Um, you know, you'd be surprised,
00:31:52.500
you'd be surprised about what you want, what you think you want until you actually go in and try and
00:31:58.560
realize what you want or what you need. So there are tons of different kinds of yogas and there are
00:32:04.780
lots of different teachers with many different approaches. So just be aware of that and find an
00:32:11.360
approach that works for you and what you're seeking. Right. So are there some resources?
00:32:16.800
Obviously we can go to your site and check that out. And I'm going to give you an opportunity to
00:32:19.440
share that because I think it's a valuable resource, but are there some other things that
00:32:23.020
we need to be aware of? So somebody is listening to this and they're saying to themselves,
00:32:25.700
I really like this. I like this concept. This makes sense. This resonates with me.
00:32:29.200
What do I do now? Where do I go from here? So last month I launched the Manflow Yoga members area.
00:32:37.920
And this is my, this is where I put everything that I can in terms of what I promote. So teaching
00:32:45.940
people how to do yoga for physical fitness with specific workouts, focusing on hip flexibility,
00:32:51.720
focusing on core strength, focusing on proper core engagement. And that is where you can go to
00:32:57.320
create a workout program and to get the resources that you need to talk about all the benefits that
00:33:03.640
we've been discussing this whole time. This is what Manflow Yoga is for. This is so that you can get
00:33:08.840
all the benefits of yoga without the other BS. This is a no nonsense, no, no frills approach to physical
00:33:16.600
fitness of yoga. So, and I think that makes a ton of sense. I mean, that's obviously we're talking
00:33:21.700
to men on this podcast and the name of your brand is Manflow Yoga. So it makes sense. Generally
00:33:26.040
speaking, this is what guys are looking for. They don't want a lot of the fluff and the BS. They
00:33:29.960
just want to get to work and see the results. Yeah, exactly. I love it. And if you, again,
00:33:35.360
if you do, if you want to try it out in person, if you, if you want to experience for yourself in terms
00:33:40.480
of finding a yoga studio, find one that's local to you, look at the website, look at the bio of the
00:33:45.280
instructors, see what they like to chat about on their Instagram or on their social media.
00:33:50.280
And then you can determine, you know, what you want based on that. Right, right. Well, Dean,
00:33:56.080
we're winding down on time. I'm going to ask you a question that I ask all of my guests. And that
00:33:59.540
question is, what does it mean to be a man? It's a good question. So I think some people,
00:34:06.740
when they say, what does it mean to be a man? I shy away from using the phrase real men, because
00:34:14.560
in actuality, real men don't listen to statements like that. I think real men have the independence,
00:34:24.660
have the drive, have the respectfulness to determine a philosophy that works for them,
00:34:34.560
to determine a course of action that works for them, and have the drive or the fortitude
00:34:42.720
attitude to act on their thinking. I think that a lot of guys get distracted by thinking about what
00:34:51.900
they should be doing, and don't listen to their intuition enough, or don't implement knowledge
00:34:58.420
that they've taken the time to learn. So I think that a man is someone who's confident,
00:35:05.240
who does what he feels is the right course of action, and acts upon his thoughts. That's short,
00:35:13.840
and you know, that's a long topic. But we could go, and I'm 46 episodes into this podcast. As of
00:35:21.420
today, by the time your podcast is released, it'll be about 50. And we're not even scratching the
00:35:27.380
surface on what it means to be a man and masculinity. But I do appreciate your answer and a lot of valuable
00:35:32.240
information in there. So Dean, you shared with us a little bit about what's on your site, but you
00:35:36.120
didn't tell us where to go. So tell us how, if we're interested in connecting with you,
00:35:39.620
learning a little bit more about what you do, how do we connect? How do we reach out to you?
00:35:42.900
Sure. Well, you can go to my website at manflowyoga.com, M-A-N-F-L-O-W-Yoga.com.
00:35:52.380
And if you visit my, my giveaway there for your contact information is my book,
00:35:58.840
The Road to Yoga Ripped. And that is a, an ebook with tons of different articles on a variety of
00:36:07.840
subjects that basically gets you into the mindset of what it means and what it takes to get yoga
00:36:15.060
ripped. Um, and then of course there's also my eBooks on there, the members area, seven day free
00:36:23.000
trial. And I didn't mention this, but I wrote an ebook called Yoga Basics for Men published it
00:36:28.760
on Amazon that went number one in four categories when it was released. Really? Yes. Well done.
00:36:35.720
Thank you. Um, and that was over a year ago, but if you're looking for the basics to yoga and you'd
00:36:44.420
rather not watch a video at first and you just want to use a book to learn how to do it, what's the
00:36:51.220
benefit? What is it targeting? And some helpful notes along with demonstrations. Yoga Basics for
00:36:58.140
Men is the best way that you can learn yoga. So that ebook, um, is a really awesome tool.
00:37:07.560
Well, Dean, I appreciate you coming on the show, taking some of your time. This is a, uh, a topic
00:37:11.000
that I am interested in. I've never discussed it before. So what you've shared with me has been
00:37:15.840
valuable and I'm ready to look into more. So I appreciate you taking your time and sharing with us
00:37:19.080
today. Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me on the show. There you have it, man. Mr. Dean Pullman
00:37:25.500
sharing his insights into how and why every man should consider implementing yoga into the health
00:37:30.440
and fitness routine they have going on. Again, I want to personally invite you to join me and the
00:37:34.680
rest of the men in the iron council this week alone, where we talk about leveling up your network
00:37:38.640
will provide more than enough value to cover your investment. In fact, the strategies that we're
00:37:44.220
covering this week as the same strategies I've used to be able to connect with so many amazing guests
00:37:48.900
for this show. So head to order of man.com slash iron council to get started right away. And again,
00:37:53.960
all the details of the show can be found at order of man.com slash zero five six. You can also join in
00:37:59.260
the conversation we're having about masculinity in our Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups
00:38:03.920
slash order of man guys. I look forward to talk with you next week, but until then take action
00:38:08.860
and become the man you were meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast.
00:38:15.100
You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.
00:38:19.140
We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.