Social Workout

Regulatory

Missouri: Battleground Yoga State

More yoga/government conflicts flaring: While New York and DC yogis are protesting government attempts to regulate yoga teacher training, yogis in Missouri are in a furor over a new 4% sales tax on yoga class fees. The yogis want an exemption from the taxes because yoga is a "spiritual practice." And, as you may recall, nearly 40% of American liberals agree, though 85% of conservatives say hooey. The state wants to collect the same taxes they collect on other fitness classes, and their argument is if you do yoga for free at a temple or religious center there's no tax, but if it's a fee-for-service studio, the government deserves a chunk. 

Not so long ago yogis in Connecticut and Washington talked lawmakers into exempting them from fitness class taxes. But notice, CT and WA are big blue states. If this latest battle were going down in bright red Utah we'd say tough luck, yogis. But Missouri is a purple state, which means anything could happen. Could Missouri be the yoga bellwether state? 

Are You Certified?

Teacher Training Gold Rush

Equinox has decided to muscle in on the yoga teacher training racket. Into our email box comes this: "200-Hour Yoga Alliance Certified Teacher Training Program with Derek Beres, Sam Chase, Stephanie Culen, Mindy Frenkel...." Just $2700 if you act now and get the Early Bird special! Never mind whether you really want to do your yoga training at a health club -- even an chic chic club with rock star teachers -- what we're mostly struck by is the boom in the teacher training market. Recession nothing! It's a gold rush, and you're not a yoga studio unless you've got your Yoga Alliance-certified, 200 hour boot camp. Maybe we were too hard on those would be New York State yoga regulators! Nobody even pretends any more that all these yoginis will end up teaching, and (to be totally honest) some of these programs -- which require unpaid assistant teaching hours -- look from a respectable distance like slave labor.

New York

Regulatory

New York State to Yogis: Bend Over

I often joke that half the women I know are doing yoga teacher training. Well, here's an even worse joke: The New York Dept. of Education has fired off cease-and-desist orders to yoga studios across the state informing them that teacher training without a license is a violation of Section 5001(1) of the Education Law -- one that could run them $50,000 in penalties. Huh? An outraged Bill Hammond of the Daily News is all over the story: "There's only one thing wrong with the state making this charge," Hammond writes. "It's utter nonsense. Not a single yoga studio in the state has ever applied for or received a license before. In fact, the notion of requiring yoga studios to get licenses never even occurred to state officials until a month or so ago."

That's when, apparently, NY discovered that some other states have started to "regulate" teacher training, and decided it might be good business. Now, of course, small New York studios are in a panic.

New York