Can you believe it’s almost the end of unofficial summer? It’s back to school time already! Well we can’t provide you with a new pair of shoes for your first day, or you know, for work or whatever you do, but hey we can help you with your back to school book list. Everybody needs one. Why does summer get to have all the reading list fun?
And so we’re excited to present to you the latest in YD Giveaways: Win yourself a copy of Neal Pollack’s Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude. We’re giving away two! Follow Neal’s own comical story of finding yoga, and his journey from a “doughy, 35-ish white man with a goatee and thinning hair” to an utter, self-proclaimed yoga dork. He’s a published satirist, Yoga Journal contributor, and unabashed man of self-deprecation and sarcasm, so really none of the usual yoga characters are safe, if you know what we mean.
“If Eat, Pray, Love had been written by a sweaty, aging, male smartass, then that book might be called Stretch, and Elizabeth Gilbert would be named Neal Pollack.” John Hodgman ~nealpollack.com
WIN: Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude by Neal Pollack (published August 10, 2010). We’re giving away 2 copies! Thanks to the publisher for providing.
HOW TO ENTER: It’s simple really. Surely there are a multitude of reasons why we’re all yogadorks. Tell us about why you, right now, in your present existence can be seen by outside eyes as a downright down dogged dork. OR if you’re in the dude category, feel free to share that as well. We LOVE to hear from the guys.
Two winners will be chosen at random and announced next week. Good luck!!
Check out the YD interview with STRETCH author Neal Pollack here…
UPDATE: The winners!!! Thanks to all who commented. You’re all inspiring yogadorks in our book.
Congratulations to #13 Jean and #30 Blissful Girl !
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Earlier…
I picked up a copy when Neal read in SF. I quite liked it, but it’s not for the overly earnest. I laughed heartily at some passages and did the Snoopy dance during others but his enthusiasm for yoga comes through, even if he and some of the trappings seem half-baked.
Hi there,
First off… I show up to yoga class wearing white ankle socks with my Keen sandals. Secondly… I’m not even sure if I’m doing this right?
Thanks,
Dave
every person that sees i’m on crutches asks if it is a yoga injury.
i have a bin full of yoga mats in my classroom and they’ve already been used 2 days into school.
I’m a yogadork (too)many times over.
-My email address has the word “yoga” in it.
-I have to go to court and appointments a lot, and end up doing “breath of fire” while I wait, which really makes me self consciously feel like it looks as though I’m trying to clear the coke out of my nose. This could conceivably lead to a need for more court dates, but damn skippy, it wakes me up.
-My counselor was an actual disciple of Yogi Bhajan, which is one of the main reasons I see her. If she can help me with sayings from a dude whose words are printed on teabags, I mean, hey, that’s like yoga magic.
Dorkiest of all? This list could keep going. Yikes.
My kids just recently got into legos and my four year old built me my own yoga studio.
Right now, my most yogadork-ish aspect is that I got up at 5am this morning so I could go and meet the students who go to a class I’ll be subbing as a yoga teacher for the next three weeks. An all-guy class, too! ;P
And to make it even dorkier, all of this is before working a 9-5 day job… yeah… I’m so dorky because I’ll take any opportunity to build on my yoga teacher experience. 🙂
I talk about it. A lot. Sometimes I annoy myself.
I got up at 4am to read your column!
can’t stop talking about yoga, to those that listen, and those that don’t. i post links to yoga-related articles on my facebook for people to read. i exchange emailed questions with my yoga teacher. is that enough? i could go on.
Easy. It’s 4:45am and I’m posting on yogadork before my practice.
I’ve been teaching my Dad some yoga. Now he tells me “he is the warrior.” I then explain to him the Sanskrit origin of the pose name.
-I fit my work schedule around my yoga practice, and most people I make regular meetings with know it.
-My coworkers tell me they can tell whether or not I’ve practiced that day by the tone of my e-mails (we work remotely).
-The chief elected official of the town I cover calls me “yoga girl” because I have a tendency to sit on the floor of Town Hall.
-Learned recently that an actual yoga teacher at the studio where I practice thought I was a teacher too because I’m there that often (Ha!).
I’m a yoga dork bc everytime my kids see anything
Having to do with yoga they stop and point and say “mommy look yoga don’t you like that”
I read numerous yoga blogs and books on my continued path to enlightment.
I have black footprints on my bedroom wall about 7 feet up. Lest anyone think me thoroughly kinked, the block gives clue to the pawprints perpertrater… The, straps, however….
*ahem*
Handstands, anyone?
You guys are freakin’ dorks! I can’t believe…oh, wait. Never mind. This is awesome.
I love to read true/fiction yoga themed novel type books. The excitement of seeing yoga fast forwarding (then rewinding) through the commercials or in a movie, and exclaiming YOGA to my husband. About to delete a lousy movie not long ago I fast forwarded first to see something in the ending and caught a yoga scene, had to stop and watch the yoga scene of course! “The Christmas Clause” for all you other yoga dorks, ;o).
@Neal Pollack If we’re dorks, then so are you! 😉
Sweet, I looked at this book in B&N last weekend. I looks like one everyone can enjoy.
yoga TTC (trying to conceive) acts: I do naked shoulderstand, halasana, and bridge after doing the deed to help the little spermies travel. Once done while chanting “VAM” to my 2nd chakra. Have also done naked chaturangas and backbends ON my husband to try and get him in the mood. Anyone have any other suggestions? 😉
I accidentally evangelize by talking about how good yoga makes me feel. I practice on the floor of my very small office during the workday and have been known to take conference calls in tree pose.
I write angry diatribes about Lululemon because they won’t make overpriced shit in my size. (That might just be sad, not dorky.)
I keep my setup for supported shoulderstand out in the living room as it is how I have gotten accustomed to watching Letterman’s top 10 list.
I will out myself for a free book!
been feeling dorky as some days I wonder why I am even on the mat moving my body into all these crazy positions, then I remeber it’s the only think currently keeping me sane – how crazy is that?!
For sure my dorkiest yoga moment of the morning was trying to quote Neal to my partner right after waking up… “There’s no I in team, and no team in Ashtanga…” I chuckled before even getting the sentence out. She groaned.
I was really yoga-dorking until two weeks ago..working on my breath and energy body. My practice was so strong. Then….two weeks ago I adopted two puppies. Practicing is difficult for me right now. I can’t focus. I come home from class, let the little buggers out of their cages, let them nibble on my arms and legs, have some fun watching the cats scare the dogs, and immediately all I want is a MARTINI! I am not sleeping very much. Need to focus on my breath…but my mind wanders. I could use some sarcastic yoga humor right about now.
I feel like a dork when I go to yoga with my white feet and tan legs. I always wear short white socks in the summer. Lately I’ve been going out back and sitting on the patio, in the sun, trying to tan my feet. I think that’s pretty dorky. At least something I never did before yoga. 🙂
I am a yoga dork! My phone number is xxx-xxx-YOGA!
I do yoga at my desk regardless of who may be passing by while my bum is high in the air
I drag all of my friends from Denver to the mountains to do yogas – regularly!
I love doing sun salutations while the sun is rising – nothing better than a freezing cold snowy morning on top of a mountain in the dark doing padmasana
I forgot to add that I am a yoga dork because I regularly accidentally wear my yoga pants inside out. I also am extremely uncoordinated and not very athletic. The mental aspect of my practice is much stronger than the physical.
I’m a yoga dork because 3 months in, I still can’t say correctly ashtanga, Iyengar, savasana, or chaturanga. Hell, i’m lucky if I even managed to spell them correctly. Even the ‘anusara’ trips me up. I’m a lost cause.
First I didn’t realize that I’m probably a yoga dork. But my response to any kind of problems for most people in my neighborhood is to start practicing yoga. Well, it works for me, why shouldn’t it work for you 🙂
I read yoga books and favorite yoga blogs daily
I listen to yoga playlists while walking the dog.
I wear anything with Om or Ganesh on it.
I show up for class early and hang out after class to talk about yoga.
I quote other Yoga Dorks in class
I’m a yoga dork because I like some of my yoga blog friends more than some of my real life friends.
“I write angry diatribes about Lululemon because they won’t make overpriced shit in my size. (That might just be sad, not dorky.)”
I actually stopped doing that. But that is because 1992 called incessantly. That year kept calling and telling me it wants Yogini# back. To the mellow class that was attended by just a few people. No candles, no incense, no hype, no circus sideshows before class by the teachers/teachers as students, and no visiting rock stars …
And that’s just what I did. I went back.
And in doing so, I went forward.
I once showed my dad how to do Down Dog, and now half the time I talk to him he asks if I’ve been “done the Downward Dog lately.” My teacher keeps urging me to go for 200-hr training, which would be pretty dorky if I can swing it. While waiting in the airport last month, I did yoga.
I just redecorated my bathroom to match my yoga mat and it has pictures of Chakras, Ganesha, and Om symbols all over it.
My vehicle proudly sports a #yogadork bumpersticker.
I created the #yogadorks Twibe.
I’ve been known to say, “Just a second. Take a Vinyasa and I’ll be right with you.”
I have a Sanskrit mantra tattooed on my arm.
And I’m totally feeling slimy about trying to “out dork” anyone. I’m a dork, you’re dork, we’re all dorks, and that’s just dorky!
Because I’m here, reading all these comments from other Yoga dorks, really enjoying it and thinking “this is the way to go”, despite the fact it is Sunday and outside we have blue sky and sunshine 🙂
Why am I a yoga dork? Because I go to bed early on Friday nights so I can make it to my fave class at 9AM Saturday mornings.
I am a total dork. When I wake, I think about the yoga book I read before going to bed; when I’m standing still, I am up on one leg; and when I reach for the dog bowl, I drop into a standing split. And if that isn’t pathetic enough, I post articles on friends’ Facebook pages when they complain of some malady that can be helped or prevented by performing yoga.
Aside from the dorkiness, I wanted to say that I was excited to come across Neal’s blog. Up until then, I had no idea that there were other dudes out there that shared a similar perspective on the world of yoga. (I am the only dude at the studio that I go to.) I look forward to reading Neal’s book.
I am a yoga nerd because i am always being teased by my youngest son about how he had to un twist me when I was doing my first yoga dvd and got stuck and couldnt move until he un twisted me it was crazy i was stuck for over a hour unti. he got home from school and was truly stuck and if it wasnt for him getting home when he did I might have started to cry , but i am better at it now and do not do positions I cant handle
have a pink rainbow day
georgia stewart
http://www.youtube.com/mypinkrainbow
I’m a yoga dork because even though I’ve been taking a yoga hiatus lately, I feel guilty EVERY SINGLE DAY that I’m not on the mat.
Isn’t it amazing how even after you’ve been doing (Bikram) yoga for about six months, you can still have those days where you feel like it’s your first class? Yesterday I was dripping sweat all over the place, had to sit down several times during the standing series, and then almost fell asleep during half-tortoise pose. I’m a Yoga Dork like you can’t believe: totally in love with the practice, avid blogger about it, and already dreaming of teacher training. I love your blog and I’m excited that you’re featuring this giveaway!
Thanks,
Rachel
I’m even more of a middle aged than Pollack but no less of a dork.
My yoga journey started two years ago when an old friend persuaded me to give it a go “It will be really good for you”. Foolishly my first foray into yoga was an Ashtanga for “intermediates” DVD which needless to say proved impossible but it did teach me my first yoga lesson – I duly enrolled in some local beginners classes and booked some private lessons with a British Wheel of Yoga accredited teacher who told me before my first lesson that her teaching would be about the yoga which included the mind body and spirit….. “yeah, whatever”
My first impression of my new teacher was … “hippie” My impression now is of an enlightened, spiritual and talented teacher who has helped guide me along a path of complete dorkness. My journeys around the world on business have changed _ whilst I used to search the best bars and restaurants to visit whilst in a city I now look for local yoga classes . Thank you Google and Google maps I have no idea what I would have done without you. My classes have taken me to village halls in rural England, trendy classes in Bethnal Green where I have been the only un-tattooed yogi in the room, and to my second “home” in the city of London. I’ve tried Bikram classes in the Southern states of the US and some particularly smelly places in London. Ashtanga classes in New York, Hot Yoga in Singapore when I was at least a foot taller than everyone else in the room and about a quarter as bendy. I’ve listened to an Indian teacher telling me “Donfurhetinyur brethin” which I originally thought was a Sanskrit name of an Asana I hadn’t heard of but later realised was in instruction for me not to forget to breath. I’ve had a silicon enhanced teacher in Florida lean over me in a Hot Yoga class and say to me “ COME ON LONDON. YOU CAN GO DEEPER THAN THAT ……..YEAH!!” whilst learning over me and pressing my back down in Janu Sirsasana and depositing about a pint of her own sweat over me in the process – not all bad that one. I’ve been in Germany not understanding a world of what the teacher was saying apart from “Daz iz good – ya?” and classes in Indonesia which were pure bliss. Amongst it all I have found periods of peace, patience, a sense of well being and a transformation into a more yogic attitude and way of life.
My reading material on my daily commutes now includes not only the latest thriller but also Light on Yoga, The Essence of Yoga, Hatha Yoga Pradipika…… the list goes on. Still got a long way to go – I think the Toesox themselves are ridiculous but find myself strangely drawn to the pictures. Oh, and my family have eventually stopped taking the piss out of me – about the yoga anyway!
Dorky enough for you?
It’s not dorky to have yoga books all over the house, yoga mats all over the house, always wearing yoga clothes, and breaking into asana at any moment in time…is it?
I feel like a dork everytime I wear my “om” symbol necklace and ppl ask “what does ’30’ mean”?