by MATTHEW HAYS

David Flewelling loves the energy he gets from his naked yoga classes. Yes, that’s right—Flewelling, a yoga instructor with eight years under his belt, is now teaching a weekly group about the joys of doing yoga in the buff.

“A friend of mine was doing it in Vancouver,” says the bright-eyed 38-year-old. “I went to a couple of his classes, and they were great. I thought it was an excellent idea.”

Launched a few years ago in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, naked yoga has been rapidly spreading across the continent, with the Montreal chapter starting less than a year ago. “I wasn’t sure it would fly here,” Flewelling points out, “But I wanted to try. I put some postcards around the Village, and sure enough, there was interest.”

Flewelling says the men-only class seems to be most popular with gay men, though. “I don’t ask what someone’s sexual orientation is when they walk in the door.” And he concedes that while a great deal of the appeal of doing yoga naked is the greater freedom one feels, at least part of the allure is being able to look at others. “Naked yoga is both sensual and erotic without being sexual.”

And the guys who come to his classes are drawn for the usual yoga reasons: “They want to de-stress while also working out. What’s been really great is the sense of community that’s grown around the classes. People are brought together by this. And there’s a great mix of people, of age and physical type and ability.”

Flewelling says a female yoga instructor has expressed an interest in launching a women’s naked yoga class. In the meantime, Flewelling reports that one of the main questions he gets asked is, “What if I get an erection?”

“My response is that that is part of being male. The question itself suggests shame. There’s nothing wrong with an erection. They happen. And they do disappear pretty quickly too.”

For more information, go to nakedyoga.net.