Michael DeCorte, founder of Jock Yoga — the exercise program that has taken yogic naysayers by storm — may not have the organic "lineage of health" that Power Yoga guru Baron Baptiste boasts about, but he certainly has the ubiquitous teacher's strength, tenacity and willingness to overcome.

Armed to become the Baron Baptiste of Canada (and with the guns to prove it), DeCorte maintains, "Jock Yoga is my personal practice, it has taken a lot of hard work to build and I consider it a privilege to pass it on."

And although Decorte takes his yoga very seriously, the jock factor is definitely high.  In other words, those who belong to the XX chromosome category need not worry that the class is a conglomerate of flowery meditation and toe-touching exercises.  The muscle-bound Decorte's practice is built on legitimate strength and mental growth.

"I grew up in Thunder Bay. I was kind of an outcast in that town," says DeCorte. "I was overweight and not your typical Thunderbayer. I started drinking, popping pills, really anything I could get my hands on and then in the '90s I moved to Toronto where I became a full-time club kid. I used to get paid to go to clubs. I would wear giant platform shoes, have crazy hair and get done up in the most insane outfits. The drinking and drug problem at this point became more serious."

Sagaciously, DeCorte decided to put his propensity for excess to good use and developed a strict exercise regimen, which involved running and weightlifting.  "I qualified for the Boston Marathon in my first year of training," he says. 

But there was still something missing for DeCorte until he found a spiritual path. "I've never been religious but I am interested in alternative forms of spirituality, things like the cabbala became fascinating to me and made me a much more grounded person." 

It seems like yoga would have fallen naturally into place for DeCorte, a regime that is ostensibly a balance between spirituality and strength building. But, he was loath to attend classes. "Because of my musculature," he explains, "I feared the flexibility aspect of yoga and I wasn't so keen on the inversion thing either."

Still, the jock behind Jock Yoga eventually became heavily involved in the practice, learning how to approach it without ego — a real shift for the "hardcore" soul. "Yoga is similar to weightlifting, in that you build muscle," says DeCorte, "but it's more meaningful. You have to learn how to hold yourself back while physically growing. It's about reining in as much as it is about building — the strength comes from deeper within."  

Ten years later, and the one-time yoga doubter is fighting to keep yoga-doers from stealing his trademarked Jock Yoga brand. Copy-cat classes are popping up in Toronto, but none could possibly compete with the challenging program that Decorte has mustered. The intensive class focuses more on strength training than it does on getting your legs behind your head or standing on your pinky fingers, so both men and women can easily take part. 

The good news: You can still go to Jock Yoga to pick up chicks.

The bad news: You have to workout too.

 

Photography by Nicole Breanne and Oliver Lee