Glasgow man teaches yoga in housing estates

Painter and decorator Mick Gallagher, 50, believes that the ancient Indian exercise can transform lives - particularly in working-class neighbourhoods with high rates of obesity and poverty.

Dad-of-one Mick, who first learnt about Sun Salutations and Downward Dog 12 years ago as he tried to find ways to alleviate sciatica, became so passionate about it that he trained as a teacher in 2015.

His first classes were only for men to attend - to make them less awkward if they’d not done it before.

Self-confessed ‘bad yogi’ Mick teaches classes in working class neighbourhoods such as Easterhouse, in the East End, once notorious for gang violence.

To make classes as accessible as possible, they are taught in community centres including in Pollok and Penilee, south-west of the city, which were built to house families being cleared out of slums.

Mick even has a white van advertising 'affordable community yoga classes’ on the livery, with a step ladder on the roof for his day job.

And the tattooed dad likes to amuse his colleagues on building sites by pulling off headstands in his painting gear.

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Mick said: “I’m a painter by trade and I had issues with sciatica, which meant I was having to take time off work.

“I started going to a yoga class in a community centre twice a week.

“It started out as exercise but I realised there was a lot more to it.

“I was the only guy at these classes - you don’t get many working class men doing yoga.

“Most people’s perception is that yoga is a ladies-who-lunch thing.”

In a bid to make yoga more accessible, Mick started men-only classes at the Penilee Community Centre.

As soon as he saw men wearing their trainers standing on the yoga mats, he knew he had done the right thing.

“They stood on the mats with their trainers on, so I knew they’d never done it before,” Mick said.

“When I first started it there was a butcher, a taxi driver, a social worker - all different types of men.

“I could talk to them like guys on a building site.”

Raised in an Irish Catholic household in Penilee, Mick says that yoga has nothing to do with karma, and everything to do with a ‘trinity’ of mental, physical and emotional health.

He now teaches mixed classes, and tried to keep costs as low as possible - meaning they cost a fiver for block bookings, and some are prescribed for free on the NHS.

For Mick, yoga is a social tool which can help alleviate the pressures of badly paid jobs or unemployment, as well as stress, depression and anxiety.

His girlfriend, Michelle Lang, 41, is also a yoga teacher, and they have a ten-month-old baby boy, Otis.

Mick said: “It’s a system of self-worth and self-maintenance. I’m trying to open the door to people.

“I think social media and the speeding up of life is sucking the energy out of people.

“We are constantly plugged in.

“I think people are just in meltdown - everybody is stressed out.”

Politicians including Easterhouse MSP Ivan McKee, who has attended some of the classes, are backing his work and Mick hopes to secure £10,000 of lottery funding.

Mick added: "My drive is to make yoga accessible for working class people.

“It is not just for people in the West End with disposable income.

“I want to keep pushing to make it affordable and in places where working class people can access it.”