Guest Blogger: Aseem Giri

Om Shanti: A Yoga Blog is excited to welcome a new guest blogger to the site, Aseem Giri. Over the coming weeks and months, Aseem will be sharing his thoughts on a wide range of topics related to the business of yoga, business as yoga, and other ways in which yoga and business intersect. Yoga in … Continue reading →

Yoga and Diversity

If you practice yoga at a studio or a gym, you might have noticed that there’s not much diversity among the students (or the teachers, for that matter). Yoga classes are predominantly filled up with well-to-do white women. There are, of course, some exceptions, but market research shows pretty clearly that 80-90% of the yoga market consists of … Continue reading →

High Gas Prices = No More Yoga Classes?

Here’s an interesting article in the LA Times about how some people are cutting out yoga classes (which can be really expensive) and gym memberships during these difficult economic times. As prices at the gas station and the grocery store keep going up, up up, people are finding that they have much less disposable income, … Continue reading →

Substitute Yoga Teachers

Last week, the teacher who normally teaches my favorite Sunday afternoon 2/3 Vinyasa Flow class was out of town, so the studio brought in a substitute teacher. The sub was well-trained and perfectly qualified to be there, but about fifteen minutes into the class, she said something which kind of riled me. She announced: “If you’re here expecting to get the kind of … Continue reading →

Why is Yoga So Expensive?

Yoga classes in New York City now regularly go for $20 a pop. In L.A., it’s not much better, with the average price tag being somewhere around $17. Why is yoga so expensive? Continue reading →

Raghunath’s Last Class

The first time I took a class with Raghunath, sometime in 2003 I believe, it was immediately apparent to me that there was something very special about his teaching style. What other yoga teacher shows up with a harmonium and sings Indian devotional songs before launching into an hour and a half of hardcore, sweat-til-you-almost-pass-out asanas? I’ve … Continue reading →

Lululemon Beverly Hills Event Tomorrow (10/19)

Lululemon Athletica in Beverly Hills recently had to shut down because of a massive flood. They are reopened now, and, in celebration of surviving the flood, they are having an event tomorrow from 10-7. It’s also their one-year anniversary celebration. There will be refreshments and live entertainment. I’ll be there from noon until about 1:00PM doing … Continue reading →

New West L.A. Yoga Studio

Starting in roughly two weeks, I’ll be teaching my first classes at a new yoga studio here in LA. I plan to teach 3-4 classes per week. There are four other teachers who will be teaching at the new studio, in addition to me, and they will also be offering several classes during the week. … Continue reading →

Yoga Studio Review: Center For Yoga

The Center for Yoga (aka Yoga Works Larchmont) has a rich a storied history with respect to the LA yoga community. I won’t review the details of this history here. If you want to read more about the studio’s past, this LA Weekly article covers it pretty well. Today, I just want to review the … Continue reading →

Double Dipping

Is there any benefit to doing two yoga classes in a day? I “double dip” on occasion — probably done it a total of 15 or 20 times in my yoga career — and the one thing I can say for certain is that it is exhausting. Two vigorous vinyasa flow classes can probably burn … Continue reading →