RYAN PEACOCK

One male yogi shares the insights he’s gleaned after 15 years practicing next to mostly women.

When I tell friends that I went on a silent meditation retreat, 95 percent of them say they couldn’t handle not talking. Yet when you commit to quiet stillness, you have the space and time to discover things you fail to see or may have even forgotten about yourself.

With so many teaching styles—not to mention so many variations on the same cues and ever-changing thinking on what’s safe and not—it can be tough to know which cues to listen to and which ones to ignore. Enter this guide: an incomplete roundup of the good, the bad, and the just plain funny.

We challenged writer Ryan Peacock to crack his girlfriend’s resistance to yoga. Can he sweet-talk her into taking six classes in a week—and actually liking them?

Yoga studios turn into work environments that offer community, flexibility, and a solid Wi-Fi connection.