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Bio
Media/Press
New York
GQ
(Gentleman's Quarterly)
March 1995
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Personal Best: An Urban Experience
I have heard through the yoga grapevine that Noll Daniel's Urban Yoga Workout is part Eastern
stretching, part high-school gym class. As a firm believer in the functional beauty of two-in-one
shampoo/conditioners, I find it somehow comforting to think that in one class I'll be gaining both
enligntenment and washboard abs.
Once again, I can't quite figure out what to do until class starts, so I lie down and close my eyes.
Everybody else is silently stretching. Noll enters, walks around, asks me about my health and then begins
the stretching warm-ups. As usual, the postures slowly grow more and more brutal, until I'm sure there can
be no more and the class must be ending, at which point Noll cranks up the music-a mix of everything from Windham Hill to enigma
-and sounds my death knell: "Are you ready to work?" Suddenly, I'm back in the ninth grade doing stomach crunches and sit-ups.
Adding to my despair are the Karate Kid balancing poses that send me crashing ass-backward onto the floor. My conclusion:
Guys suck at yoga.
I relay my sentiments to Noll, who explains that traditionally, men are not trained to elongate-we slouch-while women are taught
posture and told to sit up straight even as children. He assures me that it's not genetic and says
"The idea of yoga is to control the breathing and be in the moment. It's about learning to be patient in life and not get frustrated and quit." Hmm.
(Excerpt from the article.)
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