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Bio
Media/Press
New York Daily News
May 30, 1994
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The Spreading Yoga Culture
More and more folks, especially men,
are getting bent into shape
For years, Dave Kleckner, a director of waste management for the Sanitation Dept., suffered from mysterious,
chronic sore throats and a scratchy voice. He visited doctor after doctor, with each offering a separate, not-very-accurate
diagnosis. Kleckner, for his part, thought the problem grew out of the stress and muscle tension he brought home after long days at the computer terminal.
So, two years ago, he began taking yoga classes with Noll Daniel, an instructor who teaches at Manhattan gyms such as Crunch and Apex,
and who recently opened his own studio, Urban Yoga Workout. "I found it very relaxing and stress-relieving," says
Kleckner, who had read about yoga in a book on relaxation techniques. On this day, after a soothing
class with Barbara Joseph, Daniel's partner at Urban Yoga Workout, Kleckner is refreshed, sore throat-free and sweaty. "people don't realize," he explains,
"that yoga can be a very athletic workout."
Kleckner has joined the ranks of men like Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Tommy Tune and ex-New England Patriot Richard Villella who have turned to yoga to help
relieve stress, increase flexibilty and muscle tone and, yes, give a boost to their inner peace.
New Image for ancient practice
Across the country, yoga is shaking off its granola reputation and welcoming new, body-concious
adherents. In New York, gyms have been adding yoga classes to their roster of step and strength-training classes,
and new yoga studios are sprouting up like shoots of grass.
Men, long resistant to exercise classes, are fast becoming yoga proponents. They find the discipline offers them stress-reduction and a good workout,
with no sandals or love beads in sight.
"A lot of guys are finding that they want more flexibility," says Daniel, whose yoga
workout can leave students as red and sweaty as any aerobics class.
"And I see more and more men who want to start learning how to use their body in an integrated manner,
to be more in touch with themselves on a physical and emotional level."
At any given class in Daniel's studio - a large, airy space with impressionistic paintings decking the walls and a lighting system that changes the room's ambience by
changing the color and intensity of the light - nearly half the students are men.
For Daniel and Richard Villella, now an instructor and co-owner of Yoga Zone in
Manhattan, getting men to consider yoga involves exploding myths about the 6000-year old practice.
"One belief is that it's a passive, sedentary thing," notes Villella, who has dropped 50 pounds
since his football days and now moves with catlike grace.
Villella says he launched himself into bicycling and running after leaving the Patriots 10 years ago,
"because I was trying to be a real person again. With all that weightlifting, I couldn't wear normal clothes." But neither sport gave him
a full-body workout, nor did they help him reduce stress. "There was a lot of pounding on the body," he recalls.
"Another preconception about yoga is that it's purely religious," Villella observes,
adding that his first yogic experience, with a turbaned swami, alienated him because none of the positions
were explained. As an instructor, he prides himself on demystifying yoga by describing the physical benefits of each position.
The stockbrokers, gallery owners and other businessmen who attend his classes "are really coming for a good toning session and a good workout.
But end up getting much more than that."
"Yoga does bring about a spirit," enthuses, Daniel, "but its a human spirit; it's about your own essence. It's
easy to go to the gym and lift weights and I agree with all that, but it's more about surface. With this work, along with the strengthening, each individual opens
up and ends up feeling more alive and connected."
Daniel describes how a hulking, weightlifting student who could not do pushups came to his
yoga class: "You'd think a guy built like a linebacker could do pushups, but he was grunting and groaning. he had no sense
of integrating his whole body, that he didn't have to use so much force. Instead, you learn to use breath and
muscles in a more balanced manner.
And as Daniel and Villella point out, the flexibility and concentration that come from yoga help with
other sports and activities in men's lives. Stockbroker John Spitalny, a Villella student, says his golf game is vastly improved since taking up yoga.
"Everything you do in life changes," says Daniel, "whether it's working, walking, dancing, exercising or making love. Guys can still be strong and work out,
and at the same time be flexible and graceful."
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