Yoga in Americas

Myself Prabhat Joshi, living in Phoenix Arizona. My father introduced Yoga to me when I was 6 months of age. Since then, he has always ensured I perform Yoga everyday with no exception. He is my first Yoga guru.

He challenged me to touch my forehead to knee without bending my knee and stay there relaxed for 2 minutes. I was successful after a 2 yrs of conscious practice. Since then I have been practicing Yoga everyday.

It was a proud moment for me as a Yoga practitioner, to learn that UN has formally approved June 21 as International Yoga Day.

In US, I have seen high amount of awareness for Yoga. It created curiosity in me hence started my research on Yoga in USA.

9 out of 10 in USA have heard of Yoga:

Yoga has seen increased awareness in Americas in the last few years. Survey states that 9 out of 10 americans have heard of Yoga. Increased need for parallel exercise method was one of the driving forces. Regular exercises like Gym, jog, Hiking, sports need specific gears and weather conditions. Additionally these exercise methods had less of full body workout.

This vacuum of exercise method opened channel for Yoga. Hence 90% are aware of Yoga

Rise in Yoga practitioners:

According to the statistics by a private American firm, active Yoga practitioners have raised from 20.4 M in 2008 to 36.7 M in 2017. A sudden raise of 75% in the number of Yoga practitioners. I read more about the reason for this.

Post IT revolution, the amount of Indian immigration has increased. Immigrant Indians brought many things in culture with them along with Yoga. This opened Yoga as a mainstream alternative for exercises.

Another study shows that the stress levels in American civil society is high in the age bracket of 30 to 45 yrs. People in this age have hands full with affordable liquidity. Yoga which is proposed as an alternate for physical exercise and stress relief became an instant hit.

Demography of Yoga practitioners:

As per the survey, about 72% of Yoga practitioners are women. Only 28% are men.

A perfect man’s body is always imagined to be a muscle toned body. Every man in an urge to be that perfect body, has always liked to hit Gym coupled with weights. So men had many exercise forms which were well accepted.

On the other hand, a perfect woman's body has never been a muscle toned one. So there was a vacuum for exercise method for women which can help shed the fats but not tone the muscles. Yoga fits the bill here and I assume that is why Yoga was more embraced by women.

Additionally, the beauty industry is aggressive in marketing. For a women to keep up with others, exercise is almost without choice. This aggressive marketing by the beauty industry is also pushing Yoga in women. More women who are first time exercisers have started embracing Yoga as primary exercise method.

However, in my view Yoga is not feminine but gender neutral.

Nearly 50% of Yoga practitioners have not left the session early. This brings a significant viewpoint.

I assume the reason might be that Yoga sessions are always delivered as a package. Starts with light warm ups and grades to fat burning Yoga, followed by meditation and relaxation. Seasoned practitioners would not like to break this in midway, as it makes the Yoga incomplete. However, if it is my first class, I would not mind staying till the end. This also means that most practitioners are seasoned and lesser novice.

Yoga schools:

It is noted that Yoga schools have mushroomed growth in US in the last 6 years. The investment in starting a Yoga studio is much lesser than starting a crossfit,  a Gym or a sports center. This opens a new market for smaller health entrepreneurs. Small scale business being the backbone of any economy, Yoga fits the bill. Survey also states that more than 50% of the Yoga schools have more than 1 center but less than 5. This also brings a point that most of the Yoga schools are small businesses and not a part of chain.

It is also worth mention that about 40% of the Yoga schools cater to 400 students a week. I assume some of them might be repeating students attending more than 1 session a week. From a profitability perspective, 400 students a week, will not only break even, but will yield higher bottom lines.

Higher margin might also be a reason Yoga schools growing in number and advertising aggressively.

Fitness accessories:

Back in 2007 times, when electronic fitness accessories were not mature, I remember me buying a digital pedometer from Best Buy. The device was of the size of a small egg. Bulky and uncomfortable size.

With advancement in technology, smarter and connected gadgets have taken over for fitness tracking.

Most, if not All fitness trackers are Yoga compatible. Thus provisioning Yoga to be practiced for mainstream fitness.

Where will it go?

Newer Yoga schools are bringing variations to the existing Yoga and introducing newer Yoga practices.

Yoga has now embarked a journey of acceptance and is susceptible to changes.

I assume newer Yoga methods will take shape in future.

Next market in Yoga will be when Yoga for muscle toning is innovated. I am sure, I am not dreaming, but will soon be a reality unless a better exercise practise gets introduced.

Wishing everyone a happy Yoga session..

All the statistics mentioned in this blog are true and supported by publically published documentation.