A few months ago, I signed up for a ‘Yoga for Kids’ teacher training course at Pure Yoga Singapore. I was very keen to infuse these leanings into my seven-year-old son’s active and sometimes over scheduled life.
I do believe we should infuse yoga into the minds of young, energetic boys, so that they can be more self-aware of their thoughts and feelings, calm the over-stimulation and noise in their heads, and gain strength from the practice.
Some of the techniques I use are unconventional, but the overall vision of yoga to create a link between our bodies, minds and lives is still very much at the core of it.
By Puja Disha Bharwani
Frame it Right
The best way to get boys interested in yoga is to frame it according to their mindset. For my son to be remotely interested in practicing yoga with me, I initially added the word ‘warrior’ to it. He loved the fact that yoga was related to something a strong individual could do.
To maintain the excitement, I changed the theme each week—from planets to travel adventures to dinosaur names—based on the book he was reading or the circumstances he was in.
Getting his friends involved, and making an event out of it, was another strong pull, and he soon started helping me prepare for these sessions with great enthusiasm.
When a group of boys who know each other well are in a space together to do yoga, there is bound to be copious amounts of energy bouncing around. So, to calm them down, connect with themselves and have an enjoyable experience, we started with some deep balloon breathing and simple visualization techniques. Then we stood up and did some stretches and helicopter twists to warm ourselves up.
We talked about the origins of yoga, how old it was and why people did it. They thought it was “so cool” that yoga was practiced by athletes and trainers who did it to increase strength and balance. Hearing that strong athletes do yoga made them more interested in learning and trying the poses. It made them think of it as a challenging thing to do.
Don’t Fret over Flexing
With boys, it is advisable not to fret over the extent of flexibility in their poses. Challenge them in a serious way to try and hold the poses—but this has to be done without putting too much pressure on them, as it makes the session more enjoyable and non-competitive.
Combine Action with Breathing
Young boys I teach love the warrior and tiger breath exercises, and enjoy doing the simultaneous wood chopper action with their breathing. I notice they need some action with their breath movements, unlike girls who are able to sit quietly and do deep breathing.
Prepare Well
With boys, you really never know what might work, especially when they are in a group. You might have a certain exercise or game prepared, but it could fall through the cracks if they are not in the right frame of mind. For example, once I was going to give them pipe cleaners to make a yoga man—something my son normally loves doing—but I knew I was losing them, and so decided to play yoga whispers. To my pleasant surprise, the affirmation message came out succinct and clear, without much effort.
“I am a strong and positive warrior,” said my son out aloud, confidently.
This article was first published in the print edition of Yoga Journal Singapore, which is now Yogahood Online.
