Fox News debates 'yoga Nazis' and 'the wussification of America'

The hosts of Fox & Friends on Thursday devoted airtime to a serious discussion about whether yoga was a sport and if "stupid parents" were turning their children into wusses by teaching them to be yogis.

Motivational speaker Larry Winget joined the Fox News morning show to explain why he was troubled by an ABC News report that claimed Yoga was "the fastest-growing sport in America."

"I think Yoga's amazing, I think it's wonderful," Winget said sarcastically as co-host Steve Doocy giggled. "I'm going to say that because I don't want all those yoga Nazis coming after me on this thing. Listen, I think it's a great supplement to a real sport, but it's certainly not a sport."

"It's not a sport," Doocy agreed. "It's stretching, it's meditation, it's a discipline. But it's not a sport!"

"Listen, if nobody's keeping score, it's ain't a sport," Winget observed.

Co-host Alisyn Camerota wondered if parents needed "a little more Zen in their lives" instead of "going ballistic on the sidelines of soccer fields."

"You know, that's just stupid parents," Winget insisted. "Sports teach us winning and losing, and life is about winning and losing. It's competitive. And we need to teach those things at a very young age with a real sport. And a sport usually involves a ball of some type."

"I think it is a trend that is the wussification of American," the "pitbull of personal development" added. "Luckily, I've got a new book coming out this fall called 'Grow a Pair' that deals with that very thing, that we need to toughen up and stand up for ourselves and learn to be a lot tougher than yoga's going to teach us to do all by ourselves."

Doocy distilled Winget's argument to a single sentence: "If you want to have a sport, you need to have a ball."

"I think it helps to have a ball, I think you have to keep score, I think you have to play with others," Winget insisted.

"How about full-contact yoga?" Doocy asked.

"I'm all for it," Winget replied.

According to the International Yoga Asana Championship, "Yoga Sports are athletic competitions demonstrated by the beauty of demanding yoga postures and through the dedication, endurance and unyielding determination of the competitors."

And the sport is growing rapidly because many parents find that "[y]oga games, breath meditations, and deep relaxations are wonderful self-help therapies for hyperactivity and have helped with ADD/ADHD, Autism, and children’s health and well-being."

Watch video from Fox News' Fox & Friends, broadcast Jan. 3, 2013.