Why would people pay $100 for the yoga studio when they can enroll to the gym for (sometimes) just $10 a month and enjoy tons of classes + Yoga.
Take in to account that most of studio instructor teach at the gym as well…
That is a good question. We do have yoga instruction at our gym, but I do not attend. Why? Because the environment is very poor for my practice. My gym’s energy is not supportive of what I need for practice. It is busy, disruptive, competitive, bright. My studio is calming, meditative, restorative.
It is simply the environment for me, and I am lucky enough to afford the difference right now.
I have a gym membership and also attend a yoga studio. But at the yoga studio, I only go once a week to the $7 drop in class. Standard gym fees where I live are about $50-$80 a month. My gym does offer yoga classes but they are of the very introductory type. Any yoga is good yoga but I don’t find those classes at the gym stimulating or educational at all.Also the atmosphere isn’t the greatest as its loud, air conditioned and very “industrial”. Also, there aren’t as many yoga classes offered every week at the gym vs. a yoga studio. I still go once in a while but mainly I try to keep my home practice going and go to class at a yoga studio once a week. I also attend free classes at Lululemon occasionally but usually find them unenjoyable because of the atmostphere and becauce many of the teachers (from my experience) aren’t very well trained.
Why would someone go to Carmelitas to eat dinner when they can go to Sizzler. They are both in a building. Both serve “food”. Both have “cooks”. Both have plates and silverware.
Why would someone choose organic food over foods grown with pesticides? Both are colorful. Both need to be chewed. Both move through the digestive tract.
Why does any person serious about a service opt to go to someone who delivers that service in a high quality fashion?
You get what you pay for, that’s why.
The more germane question might be "how come I’m paying $8 for a yoga class and where exactly is that price savings being passed to (likely the teacher).
Fitness centers offer group x classes in order to stay competitive in their market. This is not a core product it is a peripheral or value added service. Translation: they don’t care about the class, the teacher, the students, the equipment because it doesn’t drive revenue.
Well the economy class I go to once a week for $7 is at a yoga studio and is a great class. I’m not sure if you were implying that bc the class is offered at a low rate, that it is not good or the teacher doesn’t care about the students. This isn’t so at all. The studio runs regularily priced classes too and an economy class just once a week. The same students that go to the economy class attend the regular classes. The same teacher who teaches the economy class teaches other classes at the studio. The only thing different about this Friday evening class is the price. Frankly, this teacher is one of the best I’ve had and I’ve experienced a few dozen in my few years of practice. I think a good studio offering a cheap class doesn’t mean that they don’t care about their students in that cheap class. It just makes yoga more accessible to more students on the one day. I can afford to go to the regularily priced classes but out of principle I choose not to. I keep an eye out for yoga studios in the area offering discounts on their monthly passes and take advantage of those when I can. I have also been to the free intro week at all studios in my area to take them up on their free week of yoga. I do agree that yoga studios are quite pricey but I think they offer better value for your money vs. taking a yoga class at a local gym.
[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;36072]Why would someone go to Carmelitas to eat dinner when they can go to Sizzler. They are both in a building. Both serve “food”. Both have “cooks”. Both have plates and silverware.
Why would someone choose organic food over foods grown with pesticides? Both are colorful. Both need to be chewed. Both move through the digestive tract.
Why does any person serious about a service opt to go to someone who delivers that service in a high quality fashion?
You get what you pay for, that’s why.
The more germane question might be "how come I’m paying $8 for a yoga class and where exactly is that price savings being passed to (likely the teacher).
Fitness centers offer group x classes in order to stay competitive in their market. This is not a core product it is a peripheral or value added service. Translation: they don’t care about the class, the teacher, the students, the equipment because it doesn’t drive revenue.[/QUOTE]
Thank you Gordon for the good insights. I agree that main purpose of the gym is to stay competitive. I teach so called cool down yoga after the zumba and few people signed up for the zumba just because they have this cool down yoga class…!
I’m not quite understand you comparison to the food…but well,
Do you think that added cost the yoga studio charges is for the atmosphere and nicer decoration?
The CARE ABOUT students and equipment - that’s what my husband told me.
My gym offers yoga class few times a week. Some teachers are awesome and teach at other places and studios too. SO many gym classes have the same level as studio classes.
[QUOTE=FlexPenguin;36054]That is a good question. We do have yoga instruction at our gym, but I do not attend. Why? Because the environment is very poor for my practice. My gym’s energy is not supportive of what I need for practice. It is busy, disruptive, competitive, bright. My studio is calming, meditative, restorative.
It is simply the environment for me, and I am lucky enough to afford the difference right now.[/QUOTE]
Agree, that sometimes at the gym there could be zumba class next door or boxing room next to yoga class. Also I’ve never seen shavasana in the gym yoga class.
BUt I do sometimes attend yoga classes at the gym, since I do not care about environment and I will go if they have some good teacher.
PS: I love your t-shirt!
@amz155
Oh good point. I was not terribly clear. Sorry. I was contrasting a studio to a gym. I wasn’t talking at all about studio price structures relative to quality. Monk asked about gyms versus yoga studios so that’s what I was responding to.
But to take it down that path a bit…
What I am implying is that teachers should be paid according to the value of what they offer and students should shop based on what they are receiving not on how much it is. It is a slightly distorted perspective to look for discount healing. A discount guru. A discount vascular surgeon. A discount teacher for your child. How about a discount therapist? Discount Dentist anyone?
A community class is fine, actually common these days. And as long as the people coming to it are actually in hardship, actually being impacted by the economy and needing a fiscal break, it’s fine. Of course anyone can go to the $8 class and we, as human beings often classify ourselves as unable to afford something when in fact the truth (satya) is that we are unwilling to make a sacrifice somewhere else in our ledger to afford that which we truly need, not to mention our innate abilities to manifest abundance for our dharma. It is actually the first of five Kleshas (Avidya, Asmita, Raga, Dvesha, Abhinivesha) which Patanjali discusses before he mentions the Yamas and Niyamas.
@Monk
I think part of yoga practice is environmental. By that I mean the surroundings serve two purposes, 1) to provide a clean place free of distraction to do “the work” and 2) free of toxins, odors, cleansers, aromas, glues, varnish, and bacteria which may not in the best interest of the student’s wellbeing.
Generally, the added cost at a studio has to do with variable rather than fixed costs. So that would commercial rent, insurance, utilities, etcetera, not oak floors and VOC paint. The studio has to be able to pay its rent (stay open) when they are serving others/the community and I think the teachers need to be compensated in such a way as to be able to live modestly without hardship.
Again, this presumes the teacher has accepted the role and responsibility that comes with being a teacher of Yoga.
Well, I do not see any difference but environment so far. lets take into the account that:
- some gyms provide very good environment and good teachers
- some students do not really care about quiet savasana and lack of odors from strong air freshener.
SO, generally the about $70 difference a month is paid for atmosphere of the studio?
I’ll take it one step farther than likely call it a day with this topic, if you don’t mind.
The examination has to penetrate the topsoil.
Certainly there are some very pleasant fitness centers. I’ve taught in many of them. And there are some very shady yoga studios.
And ultimately it doesn’t matter whether the student is being served in the gym or the studio on on a bud ride to and fro - as long as the student is being nourished by the practice such that they are moving toward their dharma. In this respect the answer is “it doesn’t matter one iota”.
What I have learned is that some places have wholesome energy and some places are not at all embodying the light. And this is manifest in many ways. When I look for a place to study - this after having taken class with 60+ teachers here over five years or so - I look for a place that is not cluttered, a place where the teaching is clean and that cleanliness is reflected in the studio, it’s teachers, and it’s equipment. I look for a place where the staff deeply cares about the students, makes time, and treats everyone with respect. I look for a faculty that not only had a breadth and depth of training BUT is also continuing that training AND is living that which they are teaching.
Can this be anywhere? Yes. It is everywhere? Absolutely not.
Generally speaking, the light manifest in a studio of teachers all doing the work, all living the practice, all walking the path, that energy is profoundly “different” then the energy in a gym where yoga is about 1/50th of the overall offering.
IA, I think you hit it right on the head.
Something I am seeing though in some of the other replies is that some ask WHY would a yoga studio charge more than a gym, if the same teacher is teaching the classes?
As IA pointed out, it costs more for the hardwood floors, private area, etc. Yoga studios are generally owned by an individual or very small group of individuals.
On the other hand, a gym is generally owned by a huge chain, often a national chain. Therefore, they can afford to offer the cheaper classes in order to pull in more people to the gym. the yoga teacher who teaches at the yoga studio but teaches a class at the gym once a week may be sacrificing some of his time and accepting a lower pay to offer this class that those who cannot afford to go to the studio can still experience quality yoga. This yoga teacher may also be hoping that those who come to love the yoga will begin taking regular classes at his studio.
I state this because it bothers me the American (yes I’m American too!) attitude is “they are always out to rip you off”. It’s as if people are expecting that someone charges a higher rate for something out of greed, when often in truth, it costs them more to offer it than it does the big chains. And in my opinion, you are more likely (though not always as Gordon has pointed out) to receive a quality service when you invest a little more in it.
Generally (not always), it’s cheap because corners were cut.
Hope that makes sense.
[QUOTE=Joanna63;36518]
Hope that makes sense.[/QUOTE]
Of course, IA’s and you comment make sense for me. But for most people the esoteric atmosphere thing is not even noticeable and some (like myself) just do not care about studio design, wooden floors, but rather about the teacher and the atmosphere that is created by his/her presence.
The thread was actually triggered by my friends question. I always invite her to my place to tale yoga class, and she always saying that her gym membership is twice cheaper and provides more classes.
I think that this is a good point and most of people think that way. When one gets to the fancy-shmancy studio one can see all these “beauty” with “added cost” that have no value to me such as wooden floors and designer flower compositions…indeed feel ripped off:)
Isn’t it simplicity one of the yoga rules!?
Well, but the question remains open. Same teacher teaches in the gym for 30 a moth or at the studio 30 per class. Where would you go?
That’s a pretty huge price for a yoga class. My local classes are only $10 per class/hour. This is the going rate all over my area. I wouldn’t pay $30 a class no matter where it was held, unless it were a 3 hour class! lol.
But if it were 30 a month at the gym, but only $10 a class at the yoga studio, I’d go to the studio most likely. Both seem affordable. If I were very strapped though, I’d have to settle for the cheaper.
The “trappings” may have no value to you, so more power to you, but there are many of us who value the vibrations in an area, and some of us are more sensitive to them, so would prefer a more calm, serene studio with a very comfortable atmosphere.
And you should not feel “ripped off” by the studio. They had to pay for those surroundings, hence they should be compensated for going through all the trouble of providing them. And again, you may be “ripping off” the yoga teacher by joining his super cheap class at the gym, which again, he may be only doing to help bring more people to yoga and is making a huge sacrifice in income and is giving his time.
isn’t it about thinking about the whole, and not just ourselves?
Hey, I finaly came up with the differnce that would be important for me as a student and as a teacher.
In the gym I have about 20+ student and I just physically can not come by everyone to explain or correct the posture. People are different level yogis and have different physical fit.
In yoga studio I know every student health condition, problems and goals. I can address a comment to each srudent personaly. Classes in the studio marked such as : beginner, advanced…etc.
[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;36072]Why would someone go to Carmelitas to eat dinner when they can go to Sizzler. They are both in a building. Both serve “food”. Both have “cooks”. Both have plates and silverware.
Why would someone choose organic food over foods grown with pesticides? Both are colorful. Both need to be chewed. Both move through the digestive tract.
Why does any person serious about a service opt to go to someone who delivers that service in a high quality fashion?
You get what you pay for, that’s why.
The more germane question might be "how come I’m paying $8 for a yoga class and where exactly is that price savings being passed to (likely the teacher).
Fitness centers offer group x classes in order to stay competitive in their market. This is not a core product it is a peripheral or value added service. Translation: they don’t care about the class, the teacher, the students, the equipment because it doesn’t drive revenue.[/QUOTE]
Beautifully said. I could not agree more!
[QUOTE=CityMonk;36053]Why would people pay $100 for the yoga studio when they can enroll to the gym for (sometimes) just $10 a month and enjoy tons of classes + Yoga.[/QUOTE]
- Choice
- Atmosphere
- Bragging rights
- Just cuz
- I don?t know
Could be they just don’t want to go to a gym. Frankly I do not like going to the gym, which is why I pretty much built one in my house. If I returned to a regular Yoga class I would likely go to a yoga school, but then, in my area, it appears that gym memberships cost more that joining a Yoga class.
Hint:
As far as I?m concerned, go with choice 5 