namasteph yoga blog

Someone just left a comment on my blog here saying that Saul David Raye’s single yoga classes are now $23 at Exhale in Venice. I haven’t confirmed this for myself, but I have noticed yoga prices going up in Los Angeles. Yoga West, for example, used to charge $16 for a single class and it’s now $17.

“Yogaflation” (as I’m now calling it) might make sense when times are good, but when we’re in a “Great Recession” (as they are now calling it), it seems bit counterintuitive. It may be that these yoga studios are charging more because they are getting less customers, but is that the smart thing to do?

I know the recession is hitting Los Angeles…why? Because commercial real estate is tanking and you’ll find storefronts and actually entire blocks empty and for rent now. Is this the time to be raising prices? Maybe it’s time to be lowering them.

I’ve personally curtailed my yoga classes…and it’s actually been that way since the end of 2008 when the financial crash hit. I’ve missed the kundalini yoga classes a little, but not hatha yoga for the most part.

Is paying $20 per class worth it? If you’re not buying monthly passes (which are also getting more expensive), you could end up paying $80 just to take one yoga class per week. I also have some sort of mental stopping point when it comes to yoga classes. At Yoga West, $16 seemed an OK price to pay for a single class. When it was raised just $1, my mind rebelled. It’s just too much now.

Think about it…you’re now paying upwards of $20 per class…to battle traffic…and try to stake a good spot in the class…and deal with the sweaty person next to you…and attempt to not get distracted by the outside sounds, if the yoga studio isn’t perfectly sound-insulated…and feel more pressure in class because you’re trying to keep up with the teacher or impress the sweaty person next to you…and all of this ends up taking two hours or more of time to accomplish.

Compare that to a nice quiet home practice. Less than $20 will get you a DVD by a teacher you like that you can watch over and over again to master. Or you can get an online subscription at a yoga website and watch new videos each week. Or make up your own home practice.

Whatever the format for your home yoga practice, you don’t have to fight traffic or the person next to you for floor space. You can work out for a half hour or an hour and be done. And your cost per yoga hour will be much, much less than if you were going out to classes all the time.

One good yoga video at $20 could give you a year’s worth of exercise, not just an hour and a half.

I’m personally enjoying my home yoga, and more and more I’m finding I don’t miss going to yoga class so much. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s not like I was making friends at yoga classes for the most part…I’d show up, take the class, and go home! So why the need for the expense, other than the fact that once in a while, if you are lucky, you’ll get an adjustment here and there in a hatha class?

Certainly, there is a certain high you could get sometimes in a group doing kundalini yoga, but on the flip side, doing kundalini yoga meditations at home can take you much more deeply inward because you are there, with yourself, able to go within. (Never mind the fact that if you are serious about kundalini yoga you should be doing the same yoga set each and every day on 40-day rotations as part of your personal sadhana!)

I wonder how many yoga studios are going to be able to survive in this economy what with higher prices and people cutting back. I know the yoga studio I got my teacher training at closed. I think it was because there was some sort of issue with the space…maybe the rent went up? But when a new space was not found, the place shut down. Sad.

So, take heed, yoga instructors…in this economy, if your yoga studio keeps jacking up prices you may find yourself eventually out of work. (Unless you are super famous, which is mostly none of you.)

I think the savvy yoga instructor in this day and age should consider some sort of Internet video model, where the price per class can be kept extremely low but new content can be easily added to keep it fresh.

Certainly, there will always be a need for some in-person instruction. For certain difficult poses I’m stuck on, I’d love to have some help from a teacher. But I’m more inclined to take a workshop about that problem area, or even find a yoga teacher to trade a private with, than to pay a lot of money for a yoga class where I’m not guaranteed an adjustment or personal attention anyway.

So…will yoga prices keep going up? Or start dropping to attract new customers? How this will all play out as the recession continues will be interesting.

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