Former Wisconsin governor Jim Doyle's new passion? It's hot yoga

Former Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle might have never tried hot yoga if it wasn't for an April Fool's prank. It all started with a fake testimonial in Inner Fire Yoga's monthly newsletter – a plot from his friends at the studio, who for years had pushed him to give yoga a try. Acquaintances then sent him emails, congratulating him for being named Yogi of the Month.

Except Doyle had never attended a yoga class.

In the end, after joking around with them about not using his name and likeness, Inner Fire Yoga offered Doyle a handful of private lessons. That's what got him going.

“I never would have done this without a private teacher," Doyle said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"I didn't even know what a downward dog was." A decade later, at age 80 and with two prosthetic hips, Doyle has accomplished a headstand – one of yoga's most challenging poses. The studio, which has two locations in Madison, recently celebrated his 1,000-class milestone with a TikTok.

Doyle was again flooded with messages from people who were surprised he did yoga. This time, it was true. Doyle hopes his viral moment sends a message: Yoga isn't just for women and flexible, young people.

He had doubts – for years he stuck to quintessential "

American men's sports" like basketball and running, he said. ”

It's good for you," Doyle said of yoga. ”

Go in and just get over the embarrassment of it, which was what held me back, and I know holds a lot of men back from doing this." Karen Rigsby, who gave Doyle his first private lessons and still teaches at Inner Fire, said men practicing yoga was "stigmatized for so long." Rigsby, an Olympic rower who medaled in 1996 and 2000, first turned to hot yoga to heal from her intense training.

Over time, she found herself focusing better and procrastinating less – that mind-body-spirit connection that yogis eventually find, even if physical health is their initial goal. "

The demographic for yoga is anyone that’s curious, there’s no other requirements," Rigsby said. "

Yoga meets you where you’re at, but it doesn’t leave you there." After being AG and governor, Doyle wanted to 'do other things' In 2011, Doyle left public office at age 65 after two terms as governor and three as attorney general. That's 20 years total in the two highest state offices in Wisconsin.

“I've done a lot of politics," Doyle said.

“I don't mean to say I left unhappy. I loved every minute of it, but there were other things I wanted to do in my life. And I've been lucky enough to do them.”

That included teaching at Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, chairing the Kaiser Family Foundation board and practicing law at a Milwaukee-based firm. Doyle still sits on several boards and helps fundraise for nonprofits. But he's also busy with hot yoga two or three mornings a week – plus three weekly weightlifting sessions and up to 80 minutes of cardio every day.

The most important lesson he's learned from hot yoga, Doyle says, is taking on a challenge and seeing it through.

“I remember the first time I went into a class, I jumped out the back door because it was so hot, and I never came back into the class," he said. ”

At least for me, that's what then makes me say, 'I'm going to do this.'" That door he escaped from is now affectionately called the "

James Doyle emergency exit." Doyle is a regular at Rigsby's 7 a.m. Saturday class, typically packed mat-to-mat with about 75 people. There are plenty of adults, and maybe a quarter are men, he said.

Rigsby, who taught Doyle in those first private lessons, says people miss him on the rare days he's absent from class. There's a "fight for the real estate around Jim's mat," she said.

“I think he was always a yogi," Rigsby said. ”

It just took him a little while to figure it out." When Doyle started yoga, he got the sense people recognized him. It is Madison, after all. Recently, he took a photo with a political science student – Rigsby says he's humble and gracious with everyone at the studio. "

Let's just say I don't want anybody to know me there ... I do walrus yoga and these people do real yoga," Doyle joked.

“I'm rolling around on the mat, particularly when I was first starting, trying to figure out what the positions are." But he's come a long way, even managing a difficult crow pose while working on hip flexibility. He wonders if he could have avoided hip replacements if he started yoga sooner. ”

One thing I've learned with yoga is it isn't even the achievement of it," he said. "

It's the process of trying to get there." Hope Karnopp can be reached at HKarnopp@usatodayco.com.