Sunday, September 04, 2016

Interesting Facts About Yoga Teachers, Yoga Studios, The World of Yoga, etc

Millions of people love yoga these days, making it an Industry with everything an industry needs in order to be an industry - customers, service providers, culture, events, regulations, research, innovation, etc.

Therefore, you may want to know, or at least, find the following facts of interest:

1) Yoga is good for the economy. Yoga practitioners report spending over $16 billion on clothing, equipment, classes, accessories, etc. That's a lot of yoga mats, yoga classes, and yoga pants!

2) One in three Americans has tried yoga on their own, not in a class, at least once... And I can always tell them apart when they show up to class. Either their alignment is totally off, or they recite their injuries just before class apologetically admitting that they were following a video on youtube or on one of the now plentiful on-line yoga on-demand sites. My suggestion to all newbies and folks interested in doing yoga: Find a good teacher and get some basics under your yoga belt before you attempt to play at home without supervision.

3) Half of yoga practitioners say that they eat green, eat sustainably and locally, and volunteer in their communities. Yay for yoga changing the world and building community!

4) 75% of all Americans agree that "yoga is good for you." Now, they have to get on the mat and see what happens. Imagine what this country would look like if 75% of us practiced yoga! I mean, we'd probably be better at picking our politicians.

5) Yoga practitioners are an active bunch. Over 70% of them participate in other forms of exercises, compared to less than 40% among the non-practitioners. That's probably because yoga makes everything else we do much better.

6) 86% of yoga practitioners report having strong mental clarity! That's a whole a lot less people on antidepressants!

7) For every yoga teachers right now, there are two teachers in training. So, give it another year and there will be more yoga teachers than you can shake a stick at :)

8) Only 17% of current yoga teachers have been teaching for more than 10 years. Find them. Follow them. And soak up everything they have to tell you. These are the people that know their stuff!

9) Of all the yoga teachers out there, there are less than 8% who are full-time teachers. Now find the full-time teachers who have been teaching for over 10 years and you'll be on the fast train to planet Awesome Yoga. 37% of the teachers teach less than 5 hours per week (that's 3 - 5 classes), and another 30% teach 5 - 10 hours per week (that's 4 - 10 classes).

10) Only 27% of yoga studio live more than 10 years. Most disappear within the first 5 years. So, make sure you use up all your class passes in a timely manner! Most of them will not tell you when they are closing down and will not make any refunds on unused classes.

How do I know all this? Well, I read the latest research :) You can too. Click HERE to geek out if you wish.