Clint Eastwood: The Good, The Bad, The Manly Man’s Yogi

If this is true call us Dirty Harry and make our day! Rumor has it, or as he admits in the new GQ, notorious tough guy Clint Eastwood enjoys himself some yoga! (UPDATE: Rumors are true. Here’s the GQ article, Clint is Man(ly yogi) of the Year. scroll to bottom of this post for the full yoga bits).

In between pumping iron and crying about a deceased cockatoo (who are these interviewers anyway?) the “icon of macho movie stars” packs in a little quiet time in meditation:

…the Oscar-winner says that, while he still pumps iron, he also meditates twice a day.

“It works great,” Eastwood says. “Because it just gives you a chance to gather your thoughts.

“I’m religious about it when I’m working.”

…and also gets in some stretchin’:

“[In the evening] I’ll pump some iron,” he says. “And I stretch.

“Sometimes my wife [Dina] and I go on vacation and she’ll wanna do a yoga class, and Ill say: ‘Yeah, I’ll take it with you’.”

Yeehaw! It’s almost like you don’t have to be a wuss just because you practice yoga! Kidding. Really, by now if you think you’ll lose your macho man status doing some pranayama and downdog we direct you to this quote from the manly man himself:

“In this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig yoga. You dig.”
Clint Eastwood
The Good, The Bad and The Yogi*

You heard the man.

*not an actual movie, unless you count the one in our dreams.

[source]

UPDATE cont’d – Full yoga bits here:

Do you still meditate?
Twice a day.

How does that work for you?
It works great. Because it just gives you a chance to gather your thoughts. I’m religious about it when I’m working.

So how…
I visualize whole sequences in the morning, before I go. I believe in whatever self-help you can give yourself, whether you believe in Buddha or whatever. I used to be much more of an agnostic. I’m not really a person of an organized religion. But I’m now much more tolerant of people who are religious, because I can see why they got there. I can sympathize.

So meditation with me was just a self-reliant thing. I’ve been doing it almost forty years. But I don’t go out and sell it. A lot of other people find meaning some other way, screaming in the street or whatever it is that gets it for you. Or checking out the girls. [laughs] No, I’m past that. I’m living in my state of monogamy quite happily. I never thought I’d get there, but I did. It feels good. I like myself better than I did.

So you still work out every day?
In the morning, I usually get up and do the elliptical. I try to do thirty minutes on that. And then, in the evening, I’ll pump some iron. And I stretch. Sometimes my wife and I go on vacation, and she’ll wanna do a yoga class, and I’ll say, “Yeah, I’ll take it with you.”

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