By Jason Crandell
Most fathers I know share a few things in common.
A love for their kids that’s genuinely hard to articulate. Hips that haven’t been properly stretched in longer than they’d like to admit. Shoulders that carry more than their fair share. And somewhere underneath all of it, a quiet layer of tension that rarely gets addressed.
Because there’s always something more pressing to take care of first.
I’m a father myself, and I recognize all of these things. I also spend a lot of time teaching yoga to people who carry exactly this combination of love, physical tightness, and unexpressed stress. So this Father’s Day, I wanted to create something simple and honest for the fathers in this community: a practice that actually meets them where they are.
What I Had in Mind
When I designed this class, I wasn’t thinking about complexity or intensity. I was thinking about the specific things that accumulate quietly in a father’s body over time, and what it might feel like to give those things some genuine attention for an hour.
The hips were the obvious starting point. Tight hips are one of the most consistent things I see in the practitioners I work with, and fathers are no exception. Whether it’s years of sitting, athletic history, or simply the physical toll of a full life, most fathers are carrying significant tension in the hips. This practice gives that real, unhurried attention.
The shoulders and upper back tell a similar story. There’s something almost universal about the way responsibility settles into the upper body–the chest tightens, the shoulders round forward, the neck never quite releases. Part of what I wanted to offer in this practice was some honest, sustained work in that territory.
And then there’s the inner tension. The kind that doesn’t have a specific location but shows up in the quality of your breath and the way your body feels at the end of a long day. I didn’t want to ignore that. A good practice acknowledges it.
Who This Practice Is For
This class is accessible. You don’t need to be an experienced practitioner to benefit from it, and you don’t need exceptional flexibility. What you need is a mat, a little time, and a willingness to do something good for yourself (which, if I’m being honest, is something fathers don’t always prioritize).
That’s part of what I hope this practice offers. Not just the physical benefits, but the simple experience of showing up for yourself for an hour. In my experience, that tends to make people better at showing up for everyone else too.
On Consistency — and Letting Go of All or Nothing
One thing I see regularly in the fathers I teach is an all-or-nothing relationship with practice.
Either they’re doing something intense and committed, or they’re not practicing at all. I understand.t’s hard to carve out time, and if you can’t do it properly, it can feel like it’s not worth doing.
But I’d like to gently push back on that.
If your kids are young, long and intense practices aren’t always realistic. Life doesn’t always cooperate. And the truth is, they don’t need to be. What actually moves the needle—what keeps your body feeling good, your nervous system regulated, and your presence available to the people who need it—is consistency, not intensity.
Two to four practices per week of 15 to 20 minutes will do more for you over time than one long session followed by two weeks of nothing. It doesn’t need to be impressive. It just needs to happen regularly. Think of it less as training and more as maintenance. Not unlike how you maintain other things that matter to you.
Show up consistently, keep the duration realistic, and let that be enough. In my experience, it usually is.
Share It If It Feels Right
If you have a father, a partner who is a father, or a friend who could use something like this, I hope you’ll pass this special practice along. It’s simple enough to return to regularly, and I made it with a lot of sincerity.
Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there. I hope this finds you well.
— Jason