WHEN Lurgan singer Conleth Kane began taking dance lessons as part of his Performing Arts course in London, his teacher gave him a valuable, though stinging, piece of advice.
Taking the uncomfortable teen to one side, she asked him if he was intending to land the "funny fat" actor roles in the West End and, rather shockingly, urged him to "ditch the spuds".
But the tactic worked. Conleth, who describes himself as having been 'a bit podgy' back then, took a look around his class and realised he was at odds with the lean, athletic, gym-honed dancers. So he decided there and then it was time to shape up. It took him a couple of years to find an exercise class which appealed to him and suited his needs but since 2007, he's been a devotee of Bikram yoga.
“I was never into fitness before I discovered yoga,” Conleth says. “At school I hated football. I found it all a bit too macho and avoided it like the plague. As a result, anything sports or fitness-related became a real taboo to me.
“When I started at ArtsEd in London, we had to study singing, acting and dancing in all its forms – ballet, jazz, tap, street commercial. There I was, this wee fella from Lurgan with no training at all. I felt so intimated by my classmates, most of whom already had dance training, so I was the one hiding at the back of the class.
“I remember so well my dance teacher telling me that if I continued to eat the way I was eating at the time, I'd end up the funny fat actor but no doubt, would get lots of work in that role. She gave me a choice 'get fit or get fat'.
“To be honest, I knew it was coming. I was living on a tight budget and eating bad food. I was a stone or two overweight, compared to the other lads. I'm only 5ft 7ins so when I carry extra weight, it really shows. I decided there and then to get fit.”
Daily dancing certainly helped and when Conleth returned home at the end of first term, his parents commented that he was "half the size" he'd been before he left for London. Losing weight spurred him on and, keen to continue with his fitness journey, he signed up for his first Bikram yoga class. He hasn't looked back since.
Bikram yoga is a type of hot yoga with its own specific set of rules. Classes are 90 minutes long and feature a repetitive sequence of the same 26 poses. The studio is ideally heated to 35C–42C and while a gentle form of exercise, it is also intense and challenging.
After just one class, Conleth was hooked. A regular attendee at The Hot Spot Yoga, Parsons Green, Conleth aims to get along three to four times a week. If he misses a session, he feels lethargic. Mentally, it helps makes him stronger too.
“Hot yoga has made a massive difference to my life,” Conleth says. “Initially I went for the health benefits; to lose weight, tone up, get more flexible. But now I go for the mental benefits as well.”
The 35-year-old, who has recently launched a Go Fund Me campaign to help towards the costs of his new studio album, says the beauty of Bikram is that it suits people of all ages and abilities.
Conleth says that in recent years he's noticed a huge spike in the number of men coming to the classes. He puts that down to an increased respect for the discipline among men, who now realise just how tough a class can be, and more openness around male mental health.
“At one of my first classes, the Welsh rugby player and former Strictly Come Dancing star Gavin Henson was on the mat beside me,” says Conleth. “When I started there weren't that many men going but I've seen a massive increase in recent years.
“Yoga is a great stress relief, there's so much focus on breathing and just being still. Lots of guys who come to the classes work in highly pressurised jobs. Then for 90 minutes the only person they have to be in contact with is themselves.”
Every morning, when Fergal Donnelly wakes up, he takes to the yoga mat on the floor at the bottom of his bed and devotes at least a few minutes to the practice.
Setting time aside to focus on his breathing and stretches prepares him for the day ahead in his job as a horticulturist and his part-time role as a teacher of Vinyasa flow yoga at Flow Studio in Belfast.
Vinyasa is a style of yoga characterised by stringing postures together so that you move from one to another, seamlessly, using breath. Known as 'flow' yoga, classes offer a variety of postures and no two classes are the same.
An active participant in sports when he first took up yoga 15 years ago, Fergal, who is originally from Donaghmore, Co Tyrone, had picked up a back injury and yoga was recommended to him as something that might help. He managed to talk two pals into going along to a class at Botanic Primary School in south Belfast, near where he lived, and enjoyed it so much, decided to stick with it.
“I was doing Taekwondo, playing football and working in bars at the time, so was always throwing myself about a bit,” Fergal says. “I had wear and tear in my back and a girl at Taekwondo suggested I come along to her yoga class.
“Men doing yoga was virtually unheard of back then. The only blokes in the class were me, my housemate and a guy from next door, then an older man at the front of the class.”
When Fergal (45) moved to London in 2008, he began attending Bikram yoga classes and found them very different to what he'd been used to but he loved it and kept up the sessions until he moved back home.
A year and a half ago Fergal, a regular at Flow Studio, which runs classes in Hill Street, Malone Road and Holywood, decided he'd like to train as a teacher. He currently takes Mellow and Beginners classes, with twice weekly classes at Malone Road and occasional ones at Hill Street.
While living in London, he noticed high numbers of men practising yoga there, which he puts down to a larger catchment area and more open attitudes but has seen a rise in male attendees in Belfast in recent years. However, he would like to see more.
“It would be great to see more men coming along and more men teaching yoga as well,” Fergal says. “Men need to learn to control and understand their emotions. I'm not saying that yoga is a panacea for everything but it's a great stepping stone to finding something suitable for your physical and mental wellbeing.
“We hear so much now about men and their mental health. The theory is that men go and sit in their cave while women do the talking. But men are becoming more open about mental health and there's a growing acceptance that yoga is good for stress.
“Maybe some men are intimidated by the thought of going to a class which is mainly made up of females but a lot of sportsmen, including Ryan Giggs, get what yoga is about and its benefits for both physical and mental health.”
Fergal says there are many advantages to his daily practice of yoga. He particularly likes its meditative aspect and likes to keep his practice 'slow and deliberate', marrying up each movement with his breath. He feels less inclined to react in a stressful situation, sleeps better and his body clock, once interrupted by long hours in bar work, has been reset.
“I'm not saying I'm Gandhi or anything, I can still get annoyed about things but yoga definitely helps you keep a lid on it, makes you less impulsive and less likely to snap,” he says.
“A few minutes on my mat every morning, loosening up the body and being mindful about my breathing, undoubtedly sets me up for the day.”
