Funny Celebrity Yoga

Robert Downey Jr. credits yoga as well as the martial arts for helping him slay the demons of heroin addiction and having “healed my spirit.” Similarly, Colin Farrell turned to yoga after a decade-long alcohol and cocaine bender and found “this strange sense of calm after spending so much time running in different directions and not knowing why.”

Aside from the spiritual benefits, yoga addresses basic physical issues of flexibility, muscular tone, and body sculpting. In addition, actress Michelle Williams as well as supermodel Giselle have both been outspoken about the benefits of yoga for expectant mothers and how it helps the body recover its former shape. Celebrities also appreciate the fact that they can do yoga in hotel rooms or in their trailers while working on films or in the midst of lengthy concert tours. Madonna has even taken to doing yoga in the aisle of airplanes – not that the average person would be so easily indulged by flight crews.

MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY

In an interview with GQ magazine, the 44-year-old said: “I am vain. I think vanity is a good thing. It’s done more good things for me than it has not.”

McConaughey grew up in Texas where 35 Celsius days are often the norm in the summer and temperatures can soar even higher. That’s one of the reasons that drew him to Bikram yoga which is generally practiced indoors in rooms where the temperature is 35 C or higher and where sessions last 90 minutes. Developed in the early ’70s by Bikram Choudhury, Bikram yoga is defined by the specific 26 poses or postures which are intended to tone muscles, stretch the skeleton, and create the special kind of “high” that its practitioners cite as one of the added benefits of this discipline.

McConaughey, however, prefers to practice yoga – Bikram and other forms – outdoors whenever possible.

Explained the Oscar-winning actor: “Yoga gives me a feeling of flexibility as well as strength – it adds to the feeling of well-being I get from running and doing crunches and push-ups. It’s also gives you great muscle tone that you don’t get from other kinds of exercise and where you feel like you’re floating in your own private space.”

“(Yoga and other forms of physical training) have always been a lifestyle. Then it became something that was like, ‘Hey, it’s also good for my job.’ I’m not a professional athlete, but I have a job where I like to look good and be as healthy as possible.”