Lee Dickinson’s daily routine is wake up, pick up his yoga mat and go to hot yoga. Rinse. Repeat.
Lee will be one of six adult men between the ages of 18 and 49 representing the United States of America at the upcoming World Championships of Yoga Sport (WCYS) in Malaysia, which will be held from April 5 -6.
The format for the championships includes six categories of asana, which is one of the eight limbs of Yoga: forward bending, backward bending, tractions, twists, arm balances, and inversions (handstands and going upside down). In addition to the men’s between 18 and 49 division, there will be a women’s between 18 and 49 division, 50 and over divisions for both men and women, and boys’ and girls’ divisions for ages 9-11, 12-14 and 15-17. All athletes will be competing individually.
In the meantime, Lee is preparing for what will be his fifth championship by adhering to an organic raw vegan diet and practicing yoga for at least five hours a day. Without further ado, let’s learn more about Lee’s journey to the WCYS.
Q: How did you find Yoga?
A: Most men find their way into yoga when they’re injured and that was the same for me. I was 26, I had terrible chronic diseases of the spine, was manic-depressed, and couldn’t sleep. I went to the doctor who said that by the time I was 30, I would need a wheelchair because my spine was in such bad shape and I was losing the sensation in one of my legs. So, my friend took me to Bikram yoga class, which is a 90-minute hot yoga class. The first time I threw up, but that night for the first time in 10 years, I slept through the night and I realized very quickly that this practice could not only heal my spine, but do so much more.
Q: What attracted you to Yoga?
A: In 1998, I watched Zinedine Zidane beat the All-Star Brazil team of Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos, Cafú, and Taffarel [in the world cup final]. I watched that game and was mesmerized. From that point on I wanted to be not just a pro soccer player but a world champion. I wanted to lift the World Cup like Zidane did that day in the face of overwhelming odds, and when I could no longer play soccer, I was emotionally and spiritually broken because I knew that would never be a possibility. Later, I learned that I could compete in Yoga and be a world champion…my issue with soccer was I could only play for a couple hours a day before I couldn’t physically do it anymore. But with yoga, if you do 10 hours of yoga a day, you’re fine. That changed everything because I could practice two to three times a day and not injure myself, in fact I was only accelerating my healing.
Q: How did you qualify for the WCYS?
A: The U.S. sends the top six athletes at the National Yoga Championships from a two-year period, so it’s the top three from every year over two years. I did not compete in 2023 (my only year off since starting in 2017), and I got sixth place in 2024. However, the people who got first, second and third were the same for 2023 and 2024 so that opened up three spots. They invited both people who got fourth and one person who got fifth. Two of those people were not able to come, so they invited the second fifth place person and then me, the sixth-place person, because of the two sixth place contestants I got the higher score, so I was the last one invited.
Q: What are you doing to prepare?
A: I don’t smoke; I don’t drink. No caffeine. I sleep late because I want to make sure I start my day with a hot yoga class and the hot yoga class is at noon every day. So, I go to bed at 2:30 a.m. and wake up at 11 a.m. That way I can wake up and go straight to hot yoga, because I don’t want to eat before class. Practicing on an empty stomach is really important for me. I wake up and I go to hot yoga then I cold press half a gallon of juice. Then I do something called Yoga shapeshifting, which was developed by my teacher Mary Jarvis, who has trained most of the world champions. I do that for between two to four hours at the gym and then I come home and I eat dinner, usually a salad, smoothie, or occasionally very lightly steamed vegetables. Typically, at the end of the night I have some herbal tea, but without any sweeteners.
Q: What kinds of growing pains did you go through before you became good at competitive Yoga?
A: I started doing the 84 postures advanced class regularly after I finished Bikram’s teacher training in July 2016. Then I started getting more and more of the postures, and I did my first competition the following summer. I got second from last place and I fell out of two of my six postures, coming in 27th/28th place. But I learned a lot, including how to prepare better. Every year I’ve been back to compete and every year I’ve gotten a little bit better. In 2018, the following year, I got 13th, a much better finish but not enough to initially qualify me for the World Championships in China. However, I went with my coach, and two of the athletes in my division did not show up, so I ended up competing! Luck favors the prepared, I guess. I competed in the World Championship virtually in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022, I also qualified, but now that COVID was over, it was going to be a live competition. So, I went to India with team USA and competed, finishing 14th. If I had played it safe, I could’ve gotten in the top 10 but I went for it. I didn’t nail a posture, and it cost me, but that’s OK because I had a great time and got to learn from my mistake…that I should be able to do every posture in my routine 90%+ of the time, and to use my own yoga mat (which is an option in the competitions) for a familiar surface since not all yoga mats are the same.
Q: Tell me about your first WCYS.
A: After winning the national championship, my coach at the time [Michelle Vennard] qualified for the world championship in China in December of 2018. She didn’t like to travel, especially not to a country where it’s not easy to get around without knowing the native language. I told her, since I spoke Mandarin, that I’d be her guide. A month or two later, she agreed, we got the tickets, and we went to China. She won the World Championship. While we were in China, I did not qualify for the men’s team that year, however two of the contestants decided at the last minute not to come. At the 11th hour, I got one of the spots that was vacated by the guys who didn’t show up. So, I competed at the last second and in the semifinals the top 10 people progress to the final round. There were nine guys that were a mile ahead of everyone else and there were about 20 of us that were competing for that 10th spot and I managed to get it. I did a few postures for the first time on stage that day and I nailed them. I qualified for the finals and I got tenth, but it was the happiest moment of my athletic career.
Q: Who is Mary Jarvis and what has she taught you?
A: Mary is the longest serving Bikram teacher right now, and I believe she started teaching in 1980. In the early 90s, she was at a stop light when a car hit her going 100 miles an hour. It should have killed her but because she was in very good shape, she survived. However, she survived with a ton of injuries…her doctor said that she needed surgery immediately or she’d be in really big trouble. She opted not to have the surgery. Instead, she did two 90-minute hot yoga Bikram classes a day and then on top of that six hours of homework. She called her exercises her homework and she’d do them for six hours every night or more and after two years of doing that every single day, she was able to completely heal her spine…She has taught me more than anyone else about my practice, how I can train, how I can teach others, about humility, about getting through to students, about how to connect with them and how to do it all from a foundation of love and kindness. She has also trained several other world champions.
Q: What do you plan on doing after the WCYS?
A: I’m coming back April 16, at which point I’ll be leading donation-based classes in Brookdale Park [Montclair, New Jersey]. I have some work in Philadelphia in May, and I’m hoping to teach a workshop or two in New Jersey before then, and then I may end up working in Florida or helping a friend open a studio in New York.
Q: What’s special to you about the WCYS?
A: Winning the World Yoga Championship doesn’t make you a better human, it doesn’t make you a better teacher, but it does provide whoever wins with a platform to go and teach yoga. Because if you’re a champion, you’re a thousand times more marketable than if you’re not. Most of the people competing are yoga teachers so it’s like a reunion. We all get to hang out and that’s always fun and it brings awareness to the sport of Yoga. It’s not about being the best, it’s about inspiring people to show up for themselves. So, if I can go on stage and say, “10 years ago I could barely walk and I had all these tough things going on with me physically, and now I am 100% free from pain and living my best life, and you can be, too!” then it’s all worth it if I can inspire one person to change their life and start showing up for themself. Practice a little bit every day, and big things can happen if you make small incremental changes. It’s my hope to inspire people to practice, to show up for themselves, to make yoga more accessible especially in public schools, in prisons and in the military. That’s where I’d like to see yoga be a mainstay of those three institutions. If I knew about yoga when I was in my teens and 20s, I’d probably still be playing soccer right now. But that’s OK, I’m not mad. That wasn’t my path, or what the universe had planned for me. I’m just glad I found yoga when I did. The best time to start yoga was 20 years ago, but the second-best time is today. So, if I can inspire even one person to get out and show up for themselves and try yoga, feel better, then I know I’ve done my job and made the world a better place.
Pablo Picasso once said, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
Q: Where can people reach out to you or support you on your journey?
A: You can find me on Meta’s platforms! My Facebook is “Lee JediPirateYogi” and my Instagram is “JediPirateYogi”. Anyone wishing to donate towards my journey to this year’s world championship in Malaysia can visit my GoFundMe.
