15 Hottest Male Celebs Caught Doing Yoga
Stop everything - yoga is not just for women. Men who want to tone up, boost their energy, better their overall mental health and improve their sex life should really start taking classes. Yoga is the workout that has it all. The best thing about it is you just need a mat and that's it; no fancy equipment or room to bounce about - it's simple enough to get started.
So it's no wonder with all these benefits that male celebrities have been getting in on the buzz. Sadie Nardini, the host of Rock Your Yoga, told Men's Fitness, "With long holds and often continual movements, you'll amp up cardio at the same time you're building whole-body lean muscle mass. Find a class with 'Power,"Vinyasa,' or Flow' in the title, and you can skip the gym that day."
These following male stars all praise yoga for helping them get in shape and keeping sane. The best thing is, as most of them like to show off their incredible poses, we get an awesome view of the results too.
15 Matthew McConaughey
Matthew McConaughey has become quite the icon for men's fitness and his love of yoga breaks down Southern-male stereotypes. The Texan puts in regular practice and is often spotted on a beachfront pulling off some seriously difficult moves.
The True Detective star hires personal trainer Peter Park who revealed to Coach Magazine that the actor is always up for a challenge. Park said, "He likes challenging stuff. He'd be bored stiff going to the gym and doing one of those basic workouts" adding, "Matthew can do hundreds of press-ups, and he's mobile like a yoga person."
Just like his challenging workout routines, the father-of-three also picks difficult movie roles with his performance in Dallas Buyers Club earning him an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award.
14 LeBron James
NBA superstar LeBron James has won three NBA championships and was awarded NBA's Most Valuable Player Award four times. The 6ft 8in athlete is the last person you would expect to find in the downward dog position but he has a passion for the exercise. He revealed, "Yoga isn't just about the body, it's also about the mind and it's a technique that has really helped me. You do have to focus because there's some positions that can really hurt you at times if you aren't focused and breathing right."
James joins a long list of basketball players who have also grown to love yoga as a post-game cool down. Other NBA legendary players Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O'Neal have spoke in the past about practicing yoga daily. Basketball executive Phil Jackson put the Chicago Bulls through a series of yoga classes during the 1997-98 championship season.
13 Robert Downey Jr
One time Hollywood bad boy Robert Downey Jr had issues with drugs, alcohol and his own temper - now he has become more in touch with his spiritual side through the power of yoga. He has a personal entourage that includes power-flow yoga teacher Vinnie Marino, a massage therapist, and martial-arts instructor to help keep him in shape and of sane mind.
The Iron Man star told Time, "I need a lot of support. Life is really hard, and I don't see some active benevolent force out there. I see it as basically a really cool survival game. You get on the right side of the tracks, and you now are actually working with what some people would call magic." He added, "Vinnie is the ultimate yoga instructor - skilled, occasionally brutal, yet compassionate and witty."
12 Colin Farrell
Colin Farrell loves yoga just as much as we like to see him topless. Clearly, he worked up a sweat following a Bikram Yoga in West Hollywood. The Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is a huge fan of the 'hot yoga' craze where clients work out in a room set at 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40.5 degrees Celsius). These sessions allow the body to stretch, detoxify, relieve stress, tone muscles, and even heal chronic pain or injuries.
The Irish-born actor told LA Times that he hopes keeping fit will help him become immortal. He revealed, "Part of it is fear-based and wanting to live forever. I would like to live as long as possible because I'm really enjoying being alive." The father-of-two added, "And I want to watch my two boys grow up and observe them figuring out what kind of men they want to be."
11 Sting
Sting praises yoga for keeping the energy in his sex life with wife of 25 years, Trudie Styler. The Can't Stand Losing You singer once turned his nose up at the workout, saying, "I thought yoga practitioners sat cross-legged on the floor and contemplated their navels." He has been practicing since the late 1980s and said, "If anything, it's reversing my aging process. I can now do things with my body that I wouldn't even have thought possible when I was an athletic teenager."
Now known as the world's fittest rockstar, the 65-year-old father-of-six moved his family onto his own farm where he grows more than fifty different types of organic fruits and vegetables. He also raises his own chickens and turkey and catches trout in a small lake. His wild days throughout the 70s and 80s are now a thing of the past.
10 Prince William
Who would have thought the future King of England was a huge yoga fan? Last summer, during a charity polo match, His Royal Highness ditched his shoes and pulled off his best spine-stretching pose. According to Royal sources, he caught the yoga bug after Kate turned to the exercise to lose weight following the birth of her son, Prince George.
Prince William's charity Heads Together also gives aid to those struggling with mental health issues. Yoga teacher and licensed psychotherapist Ashley Turner told Yoga Journal, "Yoga is a psychology - the whole practice helps us work with the nature of the mind, the nature of being a human, how emotions live in our bodies, how they affect our behavior and our minds." So there's no doubt Wills will be preaching the extra benefits of a sun salutation.
9 Chris Hemsworth
Thor actor Chris Hemsworth is the luckiest man in the world - he has the looks, the talent, a stunning wife, supermodel Elsa Pataky, and three children. His wife is a huge yoga fan and posed her way throughout her pregnancy and to get into shape after giving birth. The family has the cutest Instagram posts as the children are always copying their mother when it comes to yoga poses.
Alongside yoga, Hemsworth also has a grueling fitness routine for his superhero movie role. His told Men's Fitness, "It wasn't until Thor that I started lifting weights. It was all pretty new to me. It was certainly exhausting at times, but I prefer to be training than not. It gives me more energy and I just generally feel better about myself. I feel like I've earned that beer at the end of the week."
8 Adrian Brody
An unlikely pair - actor Adrian Brody and supermodel Naomi Cambell enjoyed a sunny yoga session together on a yacht which belongs to designer Roberto Cavalli. The pictures emerged shortly after Campbell split from billionaire boyfriend Vladimir Doronin and she took some time out in Ibiza, Spain. A source told The Daily Mail, "Naomi has thrown herself into exercise in the wake of her split. For the past two months, she's been in the gym more than five times a week."
Although she and Brody are just friends, he probably appreciates the lighter side of exercise following his grueling workout routine for Predator. He told Men's Fitness, "I had to be very disciplined. A large part of physique is diet. No sugar, no alcohol, no desserts. It takes a lot of work but once you start seeing results it's very exciting. It motivates you. I felt very confident from that physical transformation."
7 Justin Timberlake
On holiday with his wife Jessica Biel, Justin Timberlake certainly was bringing sexy back as he showed off his best 'downward dog' on board their own private yacht. In 2014, during a break from his 20/20 Experience World Tour, he enjoyed a time out in Barbados. We all know Biel loves a hardcore workout session but it appears her husband has caught the bug too.
This pose may appear simple but it has many physical benefits including stronger hands, wrists, hamstrings, calves and Achilles tendon. It can also help with lower back and shoulder pain. Breathing deeply whilst in this pose can also help deepen respiration which leads to a decrease in overall anxiety. Another great benefit, as the Can't Stop The Feeling singer shows her, is this move can be performed just about anywhere.
6 Woody Harrelson
Hollywood hardman Woody Harrelson is actually a yoga-loving, spiritual vegan behind closed doors. The father-of-three keeps to a completely raw diet whenever he can, revealing to My Thrive Magazine, "I'm certainly a raw foodist in my belief system. I am mostly raw, but I do allow cooked food sometimes. I used to be pretty hardcore about that, but now I let myself eat cooked food sometimes. I don't get too uptight. Probably 95% raw."
Just like his True Detective co-star Matthew McCongaughey, he has a real passion for yoga and despite his 5 foot 10" actor can lift his own body weight in various flexible yoga poses. He revealed, "Yoga is the best thing for your sex life! It keeps you limber in all kinds of ways. It teaches you to love your body and your partner's body. But more than anything, it keeps your mind liquid, and nothing's sexier than that."
5 Tom Hiddleston
During a press gathering for The Avengers, Chris Hemsworth announced that Tom Hiddleston was the person who first taught him yoga - a huge grin on Hiddleston's face proved that, although modest, he definitely did. Whilst rehearsing for a West End play, a fan caught a snap of the Loki actor in a mountain pose and he looked like a true pro.
In King Kong: Skull Island, he played the role of an SAS Agent and the process to get him into shape was grueling. Speaking at the movie's premiere, he revealed, "I was trained by a US navy seal and I worked with two British royal marines and it basically involved getting up at four o'clock in the morning and do all manner of running, jumping, lifting, pulling, pushing and then going and doing a day's work filming." We're okay just staying in bed thanks.
4 Jake Gyllenhaal
Jake Gyllenhaal first caught the yoga bug when he started attending classes with his former girlfriend, Reese Witherspoon. The couple was on-again-off-again for two years before they finally called it quits. Following the split, Gyllenhaal told People, "She is, as I would say about most of the women who I'm close friends with or had relationships in my life, one of the smartest, strongest people I've ever met."
Nowadays, as a single man, his presence in a yoga class causes a sell-out hour as women scramble to grab a mat close to his. One gym-goer told New York Daily News, "Everyone knows which classes he goes to. Since they're so hard to get into, I've even set up an alarm on my phone so it reminds me on Monday that I have to go online to be in that class."
3 Russell Brand
Russell Brand has always thanked yoga for transforming his life. The former heroin and crack addict can proudly say he has now been sober for 13 years and things have never been better for him. The new father enjoys a yoga and meditation session every day, which he calls a "shower for the brain." He told Transcendental Meditation online, "It's really good if you've had addiction issues. It's highly psychological, and very beautiful, and overwhelming, and real, and trippy."
The British-born comedian doesn't hide his past but instead chooses to embrace how far he has come. He added, "Every year's a landmark for me. Every December 13th, I remember waking up in my flat having been up all night on crack and heroin, missing my train and then fare-dodging and being picked up by the founder of drug and alcohol charity Focus 12, him giving me a cuddle and then going into treatment."
2 David Beckham
David Beckham's body is lusted after by women all around the world and envied by men too. Although he retired from professional soccer in 2013, he still keeps in incredible shape with daily workouts including yoga. Apparently Victoria is fan too, which makes this pair our ultimate yoga buddy goals.
When he first moved to LA, he caught the bug for Bikram Yoga. A close source told The Daily Star, "(Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) told Beckham how regular Bikram yoga sessions would help heal his body, relax his mind and help him carry on playing football for years to come." They added, "At first David was skeptical it would really make a difference to his body but after a one-on-one session David instantly fell in love with the technique and has been doing it ever since."
1 Adam Levine
Maroon 5 frontman and The Voice judge Adam Levine is one of the hottest men and the planet. Once again, we have the power of yoga to thank for that. He revealed that before a show he enjoys an hour-long yoga session and this contributes to his energetic performance on stage. He advises, "A lot of times people will think, 'I'm strong, I'm in shape; why can't I do this pose? But that's not the point. There's nothing to win in yoga. You just do what you can do, one day to the next."
Unable to hold himself still, he turned to yoga to help his focus, revealing to Men's Health magazine, "I have a hard time sitting still. I can be all over the map. Yoga has given me the ability to be more focused and make better decisions that come from a clear place. It's made me more successful. I love it and don't know what I'd do without it."