Yoga Beefcake a Month at a Time

The GURU 2008 Calendar is a controversial teaching tool to some in the yoga industry, and an inspirational one for others. All types of people do yoga, including men with muscles like calendar producer Matt Meko. Partial proceeds benefit The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors because we all need help to feel comfortable in our skin.

If you think Christy Turlington is the epitome today of a fit person who practices yoga, you better think again. Sure she's hot, a former model and she actually practices yoga. But a new men's yoga calendar proves men in Western society can be amazing yogis themselves -- including men with muscles. (For the novice, a yogi is someone who practices yoga.)

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Seattle, Washington-based yoga leader and media producer Matt Meko, in association with photographer Hawk Jones, created the GURU 2008 Calendar, which features revealing and graceful photography capturing the strength of men performing mind/body exercises. The local Seattle male models include yoga instructors, personal trainers, weight lifters and even a Buddhist teacher.

Meko was inspired to create this calendar after years of frustration over the lack of males represented in today's yoga media. He self-funded the calendar and the project has inspired his own yoga practice. "I'm a guy, and it's difficult to be constantly bombarded with yoga magazine marketing images of willowy, wispy women in weird poses," said Meko. "I wanted to promote yoga's teachings with pictures of people that me and my friends -- many whom are in the calendar -- could relate to," he added.

GURU 2008 is already generating controversy on international yoga blogs, a fact that Meko finds surprising and equally amusing. The community has been reluctant to embrace this project's concept, and many people have responded by saying that beefy men don't do yoga, Meko said with a chuckle and smile. The yoga instructor has also fielded questions including, "Is this just another way of using sex appeal to sell?" In response, Meko said all types of people do yoga, including men with muscles (like him). On the flip side, sales of the calendars have included mothers who said they were buying calendars to encourage their son's developing interest in yoga.

The GURU 2008 Calendar is no exception to yoga's service-related principle. Partial proceeds from this unique annual calendar support The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors because we all need help to feel comfortable in our skin.

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