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"  As we know, sitting in a chair all day, typing, is not good for your back or your hands or your neck or any part of you, really, except maybe the wallet in your ass, which is setting off your alignment, by the way. To fix this, there are giant rubber balls in the office, which are ridiculous, and there are the yoga classes in your gym, which are not at all. For several reasons.  Jessa Messina, who like all yoga instructors is unassumingly charming and beautiful (that&amp;#039;s the first reason), teaches yoga for men. She teaches it for husbands, mostly, whose wives make them go because they love the bendy, stretchy peace of it all. But that&amp;#039;s not how she teaches it, nor is it really why you should do it. And you should do it.  You should do it for your hands. Yoga is not all classes and asses and Enya. There are muscles you are tiring every second at your desk \u2014 the wrist, the forearm, the three muscle groups in each of your fingers, your elbow, generally \u2014 and you can fix them, immediately, right there in the office. You just put your hand on its back and on your palm a couple times a week, and if you make a fist while you do it, which is hard and will make you wiggle (wiggling is good), then you will never need an ugly mousepad ever again. You should really do this on a mat, however. (See exercises below.) As for the Enya, Messina takes requests. &amp;quot;I had the &amp;#039;broga&amp;#039; guys picking out Smokey Robinson, Pearl Jam, Nirvana \u2013 I liked the Nirvana,&amp;quot; she says of a regular class at Equinox in New York, though yoga for men is popping up around the country. &amp;quot;Somehow it all just flows together.&amp;quot;  You should it for your golf swing. I had not done yoga, really, since my college roommate decided it was the best mandatory phys-ed elective for bowl-packing, and so we took it together. And I always hated the tree pose; I felt like a Britney Spears backup dancer with all the torso shifting, and besides, the blood was rushing to my head and I don&amp;#039;t like looking in the mirror sideways. But then there is the rotator cuff, which is key to a good iron game, and a decent serve, and certainly my spot in the softball batting order. &amp;quot;Guys start locking their arms behind their back in this pose,&amp;quot; Messina says (see second exercise below), &amp;quot;and they&amp;#039;re surprised it doesn&amp;#039;t hurt. Nothing in yoga should hurt, of course, but they&amp;#039;re also surprised it can help with their golf stroke.&amp;quot; You should do it for your muscles. I am scrawny and I am weak and I am afraid of lifting weights with my arms and that is why yoga class, stoned, was the last time I exercised before this, and that was in college, as we know. And so it is surprising when Messina tells me that yoga can be a kind of gateway drug for the building of bodies. This is different than the NFL players who do yoga and ballet for their agility rating in Madden (she taught all those guys back in Florida); this is the forward half-fold, which is the best lifting warm-up you&amp;#039;re not doing. &amp;quot;&amp;quot;I call this the &amp;#039;dead-weight rock-it body pose,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Messina says, curling from one of those hands-up sun salutations into a perfect upside-down L \u2013 chest out, back straight, unassuming and beautiful. You should do it. ** YOGA FOR MEN: HOW TO DO IT AT HOME (OR YOUR DESK) This combination of poses works to counteract the stress on the shoulders, wrists, and back from spending long hours sitting at a desk. \u2014Jessa Messina, Equinox teacher The Stretching of the Wrists and Forearms:  1. Start on your hands and knees with the knees under your hips and the wrists under your shoulders. 2. Turn the top of one hand down so your fingers \u2014 and your palm \u2014 are facing you. For more intensity, make a fist. 3. To stretch the forearm, turn your hand down so your fingers \u2014 but not your palm \u2014 are facing you. 4. For more intensity, shift your weight forward or try the forearm stretch with your hand in front of your shoulder instead of under it. 5. Repeat with other hand. (Or do both at once.) The Triangle Pose (for Golf):  1. Start with your feet about four feet apart (more if you&amp;#039;re tall) and extend the arms out at shoulder level with the palms facing down. Turn your right toes in the same direction as your right hand. 2. Shift your hands and your entire torso to the right, leaving your feet and hips in place. Then drop the right arm down and extend the left arm to the ceiling. 3. Make sure your chest is facing the wall and not the floor. This should stretch out the obliques on the left side and the right hamstring. 4. For more intensity, bend your left arm and reach the palm back like you&amp;#039;re catching a baseball. Then drop the left arm behind. 5. Repeat on the other side. The Dead-Weight Rock-It Body Pose:  1. Start with your arms overhead, shoulder blades squeezing. Lift your arms up as you inhale and relax the shoulders down as you exhale. 2. With your knees bent, fold forward halfway. Make sure your back is flat as you bend down, and make sure you&amp;#039;re leading with your chest, not your arms. 3. If you notice that there&amp;#039;s rounding in your back, bend your knees a little more or just don&amp;#039;t come so far forward.  4. Repeat this exercise ten times. Then lift. RELATED: Things a Man Should Know About Yoga and Extreme Yoga "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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