How The Yoga Industry Is Impacting The Health Culture In The US
Thursday, August 04, 2011
As a health care professional I always try to stay open to new theories and methodologies and one of the most intriguing practices that has taken hold here in the US is yoga. I have many friends and colleagues whose lives are being changed by practicing yoga on a regular basis. Because of this profound impact it has had on many peoples lives I have decided to take a closer look at how this community has evolved and who are the major leaders of this health and cultural movement.
What is fascinating is that although yoga is a health practice, it has a large community and culture around it. While you see the same with running, biking, weightlifting, and others, none compare to how this community have actually created a movement and lifestyle around it. What is more interesting is that you will see yoga in the news more then any other health regimen.
1. The History of Yoga in the US
Yoga originated in India and has been a method used for thousands of years for people in the East to reach spiritual enlightenment. For many people in India, it is quite common to have a guru and devote ones life to a path of purity and cleansing. A “Yogi” is someone who has reached enlightenment through the practice of yoga. In the East, yoga is not just a practice of “fitness” or “asanas” which is what we mainly see in the West. Yoga is seen more as what is called the 8 limbs of yoga that comprises of eight pillars that make up what yoga is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali#The_eight_limbs_
Many people in the East view yoga much different then how it is practiced here in the West. For them it is as seen as a life long commitment of devoting ones life to a path that consists of the eight limbs as outlined above. Here in the West yoga is more of a fitness practice that can touch upon the spiritual components, but is more focused on an “asana” practice that is a series of poses and movements that help bring the body into alignment.
Currently here in the US, there is quite a divide in the community. One group focuses on the original roots of yoga and how it was originally intended; while others focus more on the fitness aspect of yoga. While I cannot say whether one group is right or wrong, what I have seen is that many people here in America are being affected by it in a positive way and this is (in my opinion) what matters most.
2. Famous Yoga Teachers In America
Some of the most well-known teachers here in the states include Bikram (http://bikramyoga.com), Rodney Yee (www.yeeyoga.com), John Friend (www.anusara.com), Shiva Rea (www.shivarea.com), and Sean Corn (www.seancorn.com). While it might be hard to gauge whether they are truly the best teachers as this is all a matter of opinion, these teachers are the most recognized and sought after. Since yoga has hit the mainstream, many teachers are quite savvy when it comes to PR. So my assumption is that some are highly qualified while others may be quite good but more business savvy then anything else
3. The US Yoga Bible: Yoga Journal
Yoga Journal is the leading magazine that has been around for over twenty years and covers all things yoga. It originally started as a monthly newspaper journal that was just sent around to friends, teachers, and the few studios that existed at the time. It is now a nationally distributed magazine with close to a half a million subscribers and touts sponsors such as Ford, Subaru, Eileen Fisher, and many other high end type of advertisers. What started out as a simple home based business grew into a corporate conglomerate.
www.yogajournal.com
4. The Largest Yoga Media Company: Gaiam
A gentleman started Gaiam by the name of Jirka Rysavy who came from Eastern Europe and was homeless when he first came here. He started his business by selling recycled office products and was one of the originators of the green/eco movement. He saw that the yoga industry was on the rise and saw a synergy between the green genre and yoga and decided to merge the two together. The company focuses on all products that have to do with yoga, wellness, and eco-living. They currently boast the largest library of yoga DVD’s and products with a company by the name of Lululemon behind them. But in comparison to gross profit, Lululemon is dwarfed in numbers.
www.gaiam.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaiam
www.lululemon.com
5. Yoga Teacher Training
One of the biggest trends (and money makers) in the yoga industry is yoga teacher training. This is where a student can study to become a certified yoga teacher and then teach yoga professionally. Currently there are over five thousand schools that offer yoga certification programs and each one on average costs around $3000 and can go upwards of $15,000. Since many yoga students are seeing famous yoga teachers with the likes of Madonna and Jennifer Anniston, many of them are now looking to reach this type of status. In the teacher training industry there are 200-hour courses and 500-hour courses which is similar to a college system in that you have pre-requisite, bachelor, masters, Doctor, etc…
http://yogatrainingguide.com
The Federal Government & Yoga Teacher Trainings
In the last two years local state officials have tried to step in and regulate the yoga teacher training industry as they argued this was a vocation. Many of the studios got lawyers and fought back because this would have imposed a huge cost on these studios to get registered ($50,000) Since many of these schools are mom and pop type of businesses they would not be able to afford it and it would have shut them down.
There was a big case in NY where schools were forced to close the doors on their teacher training programs and city officials were brought in to debate this issue. It gained a lot of publicity all over the news. After lots of deliberation senator Eric Scheiderman introduced a bill that associated yoga schools with religion, martial arts, crafts, and other non-vocation studies and basically said this was a personal development type of program and the state backed off and let the studios operate autonomously.
http://wiki.cio.ny.gov/wiki/User_talk:SamanthaJ
http://www.yogaforawareness.org/yogaregulation.htm
6. Yoga Festivals
As this industry continues to thrive and expand, rest assured that it will follow suit with other mainstream trends. One of them being of course: festivals. These types of events are growing leaps and bounds and are now drawing close to 10,000 people per event. While it is still dwarfed byt the likes of Coachella, Woodstock, Lalapalooza, and other festivals that are driven by youth, these events are still growing in number. The two major festivals for this community include Wanderlust that is now franchising across the country and Bhakti Fest.
www.wanderlustfestival.com
www.bhaktifest.com
I plan on doing some more digging in this genre and will post my results here later. I would love any feedback if you have any.