By day, a builder. By night, a yoga teacher. Colin Clarke may not be the typical yogi but he is on a mission to help other men derive the same benefits from this ancient practice. Rebecca Erskine finds out more.
Colin Clarke is proof, if any were needed, that yoga can appeal to anyone, in any circumstance, at any age.
“I was pretty much an accidental yogi” he explains. “My wife, Lauren, was advised by her physiotherapist to try yoga to help overcome a series of health issues. It was nearly twenty years ago when we found a nearby class in a gym hall. As Lauren can’t drive, I had two choices – sit and wait in the car or join the class! I chose the latter.”
A builder by trade, Colin was facing his own health issues – not uncommon in any job requiring repetitive work (in his case, contorting his body into cramped corners of buildings for prolonged periods). At the point he found yoga, aged 35, he was suffering from almost constant, crippling back pain and remembers being bent double over the shopping trolley during the weekly shop. “I wasn’t unfit – far from it!” he explains. “I’ve always been a keen skate and snowboarder, but my lack of flexibility had started to catch up with me.”
Despite being an oddity as the only male in class, the weekly yoga turned out to be transformative. Such was its impact on Colin’s movement and wellbeing that he resolved to become a teacher himself and encourage other men to take up the practice. “It often surprises people that, when you trace yoga’s origins back to thousands of years ago in India, it was designed to help men, not women, to discover spiritual discipline and control over body and mind.”
Colin’s teacher training with the British Wheel of Yoga (the national governing body for yoga in England and Wales) proved intense but Lauren, who also enrolled on the training, was there as moral support. The teaching covered the fundamentals of asana & pranayama (posture & breath), meditation, dynamic vinyasa (flow) sequences, static poses, breathing, mobilisation and relaxation techniques. With over 500 hours each of teaching practice, the husband-and-wife team were awarded the BWYQ4 Level Diploma in Teaching Yoga for their efforts, with additional certificates in Advanced Yin Yoga, Sports Therapist, Somatics (understanding the body’s sensations), Menopause and Pregnancy.
The pair put their qualifications to good use by setting up Saltergate Yoga in 2015, in a 600-year-old barn on one of Chesterfield’s most well-known streets. Warm and inviting, it was home to their often-daily classes for some eleven years. When the opportunity arose to move to larger premises in Glumangate last year, they opted to replicate the same open-plan loft space, capitalising on Colin’s joinery skills to introduce a new mezzanine floor.
Practising yoga allows humans to truly connect with both body and mind, identifying whether the left or right side is the strongest, how each part of their body connects with the next, and truly understanding where tension might lie. Colin’s following of male devotees bring a varied kitbag of needs – runners with stiff joints, the medically retired, seized up with arthritis, those seeking to escape for an hour so from a busy home life, or battling anxiety. On the latter, he thinks men tend to internalise their worries and need a helping hand although yoga’s benefits apply equally to both sexes.
“If you’ve yet to try yoga, it’s reassuring to know there’s a pose for everyone. A runner, for example, may tackle the one-legged balances with ease but tight hamstrings might make forward bends harder. On the other hand, someone with a low level of fitness may prove to be flexible in their movements which can spur them on to make improvements to their fitness elsewhere. It’s not a case of ‘being good’ at yoga. We are all imperfectly perfect and what one person finds easy, another will find difficult – sometimes even torturous! For me, it’s anything that requires bringing arms together like Eagle Pose (a standing, one-legged balancing pose designed to stretch the shoulders). We often talk about “sitting with discomfort”. Yoga should never be painful but often it’s those poses that people find the most uneasy and challenging that they need to do more of.”
It is also a selfish activity. “Whether your neighbour’s leg is stretched out straighter or higher than yours or if they can do the perfect back bend and you can’t, should be of no interest to you! Yoga is about what you get out of it and where it takes you – not what the person on the mat next to you is doing. Although I guess attending a class means people put in more effort than if they were practising alone with no-one watching!”
Sessions typically start with ‘checking in’ with all parts of the body, beginning with ankle rotations and strengthening exercises for soles and arches. “Our feet do an incredible job of supporting our entire body weight and balance. Very often, the pain or discomfort we feel elsewhere in our bodies can be attributed to a problem in our feet.” Sessions end with the universally loved pose of Shavasana. This Corpse Pose offers all the benefits of a deeply relaxed meditative state, lowering heart rate and stress levels, and affording time to ‘simply be’. It is an important activity for a society that has forgotten patience.
“We all lead such busy lives and expect everything – food, reward, information – immediately. Even if it’s for only ten minutes each day, yoga presents a welcome opportunity to find peace. Once it becomes a natural extension of your self, it no longer requires conscious effort. It really does become a way of life – standing on one leg brushing your teeth, push-ups against the work top as you wait for the kettle to boil or, in my case, introducing yoga to the most random of environments – even if that is a building site!”