Nude Yoga vs. Broga: Only One of These Gets You Closer
Asana & Sasha in Exposed & Flexible a playful practice.
By Asana
I walk into a gym yoga class and there’s a plethora of guys “peacocking” One near the wall pops into a handstand against the mirror. Another one is doing push ups, already sweating. In another corner a guy has already folded himself into an Ashtanga pretzel, forehead practically behind his own knee, eyes closed like he is not checking to see if anyone noticed. Meanwhile the women around them are just lying in child's pose. Forehead down, arms loose, doing actual nothing. And somehow winning yoga. IDK, Can you win yoga?
There is a whole genre out there for the handstand guy or gal. It’m calling Broga. (and Yes, I am casually guilty too bc you know I love a handstand.) Yoga, but make it grunt. Hamstrings and protein shakes and an instructor who says "let's get after it" during child's pose. Some guys do not even need the genre. They just show up ten minutes early and bring the energy. Maybe it’s too much caffeine, or testosterone, or you just can’t shut off and sit still. Or it might be older than that. Some animal instinct firing, the same one that grows a peacock all those feathers. Guys doing what guys have always done in a room full of witnesses, a little marking of the territory. I respect the commitment. But on this day in particular, I also want nothing to do with it, because the version I need today does not care who can do a handstand. It needs to be soft and mindful. It needs calm and care. It needs space and heart.
On this day, I was feeling a lot of stress. So, I lay there in savasana holding my partner's hand for beacause his hand was there and mine wanted it. The teacher was somewhere up front talking about releasing tension and we were just two people on the floor holding hands like it was 1997 and we had just started dating, except we have been together for fourteen years and one of us was definitely about to fall asleep.
Then there is forward fold, which we have turned into a sassy seduction. I fold forward, Then he folds forward behind me, and if I time it right, his forehead lands directly in-between my round butt cheeks. We in the yoga community joyfully refer to this as “credit carding” during a sardine packed class. The interest rate is 100%, the bill is $0, and the credit score just keeps climbing. We always laugh. It ruins his alignment completely and I do not care, because a ruined forward fold with a laughing partner beats a perfect one done alone every single time.
Asana & Sasha creating a playful & Strong flow in Toes and Arched Released
I started paying attention to what other people do when nobody is grading them either, and it turns out alot of us are doing something just as weird. A woman I know narrates her husband's tree pose like a nature documentary under her breath until he wobbles and falls over. Somebody else keeps a running game show score out loud, "6.2, stick the landing next time." A couple I heard about turned corpse pose into an actual nap and got mildly scolded by the other for snoring. There is a guy who "accidentally" farts in downward dog every single f-ing class and blames the pose, you always remember to place your mat as far away from him as possible bc it is basically his signature move.
This is the part where you close your eyes, stop managing how you look, and let something dumb happen on purpose. That is the whole trick. Closeness does not usually show up when you are trying to be graceful. It shows up when your forehead is in someone's butt and you are both laughing too hard to hold the pose.
The studio version is fun, but it is not where the real practice lives. That happens at home, on a random Tuesday, when neither of us has bothered getting dressed after a shower and one thing turns into rolling a mat out in the living room instead. This is nude yoga in its actual native habitat, no class, no room full of witnesses, just the two of us figuring out where a foot goes without anyone's voice cueing us. It looks less impressive than the studio version. It means more.
Want more fun in your practice check out Asana in Turn On Core, Legs & Arms
That is where the closeness actually compounds, not in one big gesture but in the small unglamorous repeats. The same hands finding each other in the same spot every time. The same laugh at the same bad balance. You start to trust a person's body the way you trust their voice, without having to think about it, and that trust does not stay on the mat. It follows you into the kitchen, into the car, into every other ordinary room you share.
So, what is your version. Hand holding, head butts, fake nature documentaries. What is the dumb thing you do that actually works?
XO Asana
TL;DR
Real closeness doesn't look like a handstand. It looks like laughing through a ruined forward fold and holding hands in savasana for no reason. Broga is for hamstrings, this is for something else.
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