Despite the perception that predominantly women do tree poses, traditionally only men practiced yoga in India, says Dayna Macy, communications director of Yoga Journal. She jokes that yoga is a “great way to meet women,” but in actuality the overall popularity of the energy workout has grown tremendously in the past four years.
Yoga Journal took a statistical sample of 5,050 people, what it felt was representative of the American population, and based its conclusions on that sample.
The study found that the number of Americans who want to try yoga has tripled to 18 million since 2004, and Macy said it’s because people are discovering that yoga is not simply a cool trend, but a great workout.
“Yoga is not a fad. It’s 5,000 years old. And while people will come and go, the number of practitioners has remained pretty consistent in the last five years simply because it works,” Macy said. “It strengthens the body and calms the mind. People need to ground and calm themselves when life around them is unstable.”