Boys and yoga go together like….pizza and football! Our job as yoga teachers and parents is to know how to reach them where they are.
For many years, I have been a champion for bringing boys into yoga. And while boys like many of the same parts of yoga that girls like, they have advised me that there is WAAAAY too much talk of rainbows, butterflies, flowers and hearts in kid’s yoga for their liking.
What’s cool in boy’s yoga:
- Power Rangers, Star Wars, Legos®, transformers, robots, knights and dragons, dinosaurs, volcanoes, supernovas, swords (light sabers?), virtual worlds….and of course YOGA WARRIOR CARDS!!
- Self-Competition: “Last week we did this exercise/pose for 20 seconds, let’s see if we can double that this week!”
- Focused breath: Strong moving poses (crow squats, frog pose) with Dragon Breath, which is a strong exhale through the mouth…think Darth Vader.
- Less is more: Communicate in brief and add humor.
- Poses that inspire strength and focus: Archer, Warrior, Down dog to Up dog, Front and Back Platform, Bow, Wheel. Let them call out the pose and count to ten while holding (or do ten breaths).
- Most of all…. Look for what’s going well and be a cheerleader for that.
The boys thank you for honoring the ways of the warrior!
Radiant Child Yoga's Blog 
Wonderful article – will share. We couldn’t agree more that there needs to be a focus on making yoga more accessible to boys. Thank you for creating the cards – we are happy to carry them in our boutique. You might also be interested in an article we wrote on the subject of yoga for boys a couple of years ago: http://www.thekidsyogaresource.com/2009/11/yoga-for-the-boys.html
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