News Article 

The Wait for Nude Male Yoga is Over

By Kristen Convery
The Other Paper
April 14, 2005

If Paul Fogarty had simply stayed in town for Thanksgiving, all of Columbus's male yoga practitioners would still be wearing clothes.

Instead, he visited his mother in New York City, where he found time to patronize a Chelsea business bearing the subtle name Hot Nude Yoga.

"It was a great experience," Fogarty said. "I came back and I was like, 'You know, Columbus needs that. Columbus men need that.'"

In January, he followed in Hot Nude Yoga's footsteps. In Olde Towne East, he opened Yoga Shiva, adding Columbus to the list of about 20 cities in the U.S. that offer nude male yoga classes. (Columbus doesn't have female nude yoga, which doesn't appear to be catching on anywhere.)

Fogarty admitted he was a little nervous before he taught his first nude class—not for himself, but for his clients. But when class began, he said, no one snickered or checked out the yogis around them.

"You're not there to look at people. You're there to do yoga, and it's about the energy," Fogarty said. "The overall nude thing is getting rid of—shedding—all of the walls and stuff that people have put up all around themselves."

Of course, a lot of people are most at ease with those walls in place. "Nudity is not something that Americans are comfortable with," Fogarty said.

Tom, a Yoga Shiva client who didn't want his last name used, said he gets mixed reactions when he tells friends he's doing naked yoga.

"You get a few 'cools' here and there. However, a lot of folks are hung up on what other people are going to think about their bodies. People are like, 'Well, I need to lose five pounds first,' which you would not expect a guy to say," he said.

Tom admitted he was "a bit nervous" before class, but said he relaxed almost as soon as he started stretching.

"After about five minutes, I was over it. Because I was doing yoga, I was too busy concentrating on my breathing and doing the postures. Since then I have not thought twice about it," he said.

Initially, Fogarty said, he didn't have enough interest for as many nude classes as clothed, but that's changing: "Now it's half and half."

Of about 40 nude regulars, two belong to nudist organizations, and all but one or two are gay.

He believes the life experiences gay men have—"having to come out of the closet and having to accept themselves first"—make them more comfortable in their own skin.

In the intimate Yoga Shiva studio, three long windows are covered with patterned burgundy curtains. A couple of mirrors hang on the wall, and a statuette of a Hindu goddess sits in the corner. Incense pours from Fogarty's office, filling the room with a musky scent. During classes, Fogarty draws the curtains, flicks on dimmed track lights and lights beeswax pillar candles.

"It's nice to be naked in a nice room," he said. "It's very, very relaxing."

In addition to the group classes, Fogarty teaches some private nude lessons, mainly to guys in their 50s and 60s who want the nude yoga experience but don't want to doff their clothes in front of a bunch of other guys.

While Fogarty welcomes women to one session, a clothed class he teaches each Monday, the class has attracted almost exclusively men—including many who might feel uncomfortable practicing in front of the opposite sex, even with their clothes on.

"Men have said that they feel uncomfortable around women when they're doing yoga because they think they're snickering at them in the corner," he said.

Other men? Not so much.

"It is so cool to be able to be taught by another male and do yoga around other men," Tom said.

"Women's bodies are different, and let's face it, they are just plain better at yoga. So at Yoga Shiva there are no worries about what the girls might think about me while I am barely able to touch my toes."