Men, women and bros of all shapes and sizes come together Sundays and Wednesdays to do BRO Flow Yoga at the IU Student Recreational Sports Center.
BRO Flow Yoga is a group exercise that the SRSC started last year. Katie Landrum, a registered yoga teacher and coordinator of outreach and programming for the SRSC, was actively involved in the creation of BRO Flow.
“Creating community is what group exercise and recreational sports is all about," Landrum said in an email interview. "We wanted to make sure participants could connect and have a good time being active with their 'bros.’”
Ivy Glaser, an IU junior in finance and a group exercise instructor at the SRSC, says that BRO Flow has the highest rate of male participants out of all the classes Glaser has taught.
“It’s named for them, so I feel like that makes them more comfortable coming to the class, knowing that maybe there will be more ‘bros,’” Glaser said while laughing and making air quotes.
However, the class is not just targeted at men. It is also aimed at women who want a more strength-focused yoga experience, Landrum said.
“This session uses a combination of yoga poses, strength exercises and flexibility movements to unlock tighter areas of the body, so participants can move through a fuller range of motion to use and improve their strength in the session and outside,” said Landrum.
Brian Kearney, executive director of development at the IU School of Public Health, is a regular at all the SRSC yoga classes, including BRO Flow. He said he started attending yoga after he suffered a foot injury and that his foot feels healed after adding yoga to his routine.
“I think there’s certain things in yoga where you’re really in breathing and kind of stretching positions for longer than you would normally do them, and that’s what I needed,” Kearney said.
As for the format of the class, Landrum said it might contain unusual props like gliding discs or dumbbells to offer the participants “an extra challenge for the body.” Landrum also said that the music might be different from what participants might expect from a yoga class.
“Any music that is going to help make participants feel powerful and ready to tackle anything is what you’ll hear,” Landrum said.
Glaser prefers contemporary vocal music for her yoga classes because she thinks it is more approachable for college students.
“It just keeps the energy a little more light, so that you don’t have to take it quite so seriously,” Glaser said. "A lot of yoga classes are intimidating, especially if you get into a class with ohms or gongs."
BRO Flow classes take place at 5:45 p.m. on Wednesdays and at 4 p.m. Sundays in room MS3 of the SRSC.
