Naked yoga is the latest fitness trend among queer men. More and more guys are getting into it. Including writer Zachary Zane.

Zane first heard about the all-male naked yoga classes being offered at MMX Studio in Manhattan through a friend. Having attended countless sex parties and nudist resorts, he figured he’d give it a shot, even though yoga has never really been his thing.

“I hate yoga,” he writes in an essay published by Men’s Health. “As someone who lifts weights five days a week and derives joy from being at the gym, yoga has never been a thing for me. I’ve tried it countless times on dates, with friends, and family members, but I’ve never liked it.”

Zane admits that when he first arrived at MMX, he was a little nervous:

I also get anxiety boners when I’m naked in public. It’s not because I’m getting aroused by the other naked people there, though there surely were enough hot dudes at MMX to get me hard at the studio. It’s because I know I shouldn’t be getting hard, and for some reason, that gets me hard. Every time I do a nude photo shoot, I get an erection. There’s just too much excitement going on.

Much to his relief, that didn’t happen. He managed to make it through the first 45 minutes of class without any, ahem, issue.

Until the partner exercises.

Zane explains that he was paired off with a man who he had never met before. Together, they went through a series of guided poses included one where “one person bends forward while the other stands behind him, like in a standing doggy style position.”

He recalls, “The bent-over person then twists his body, looking back at the ‘top’ person, who stabilizes the bent-over person by grabbing his butt and chest.”

He writes:

This is when I got hard, and it was no anxiety boner: This partner pose was extremely sexual and arousing. Then, he got hard. After we finished the pose, we hugged, looked each other in the eyes…and kissed. It just felt like the thing to do. I looked around afterward to see that other men, although not all, were kissing their partners, too. Then I switched partners, per Phillips directions. After two more tender partner poses, the class ended with everyone linking up in a circle, crossing arms, and doing a backbend together as a unit. Everyone was supported by the person next to them.

In the end, Zane says the experience was “slightly awkward” and “I still hate yoga,” but he’s glad he gave it a try.

“By the collective backbend, I felt like I’d become best friends with everyone in the room,” he concludes. “And maybe I even loved them all? Is that possible? Like, what just happened?”

Related: Meet the yogi who specializes in all-male naked yoga classes for gay and bisexual guys