The rise and fall

Currently Playing: Why America's Yoga studios are dying

Thanks to Gelt for sponsoring this video! Start your Year-End Review at http://joingelt.com/girdley America's wellness industry is booming, but yoga studios are struggling to survive. In this business breakdown, I explore the rise and fall of yoga in America, from its transformation into a mainstream fitness industry to the collapse of major studio chains like YogaWorks and Y7 Studios. I'll explain how commercialization, private equity, online competition, and changing consumer preferences exposed the weaknesses of the yoga studio business model. Get the 2-minute cheat sheet for this video → https://girdley.com/youtube 👇 SUBSCRIBE for more business breakdowns https://www.youtube.com/@Michael-Girdley?sub_confirmation=1 ------------------------------------------------------------------ ► Get my weekly letter to business owners: essential insights to run, grow, and stay ahead in your business → https://links.girdley.com/newsletter-yt ► For sponsorships or inquiries please reach out to: Contact@girdley.com ► Do you have a hat I should wear in a video? Send it to us: Contact@girdley.com ► Free events on all things small business: https://links.girdley.com/lectures-yt ► Deep dives on businesses for sale: https://www.youtube.com/@AcquisitionsAnonymousPodcast ► Follow me on Twitter/X: https://x.com/girdley ------------------------------------------------------------------ Yoga's transformation into a mainstream American fitness business took decades. What began as a spiritual and philosophical practice gradually evolved into a physical workout promoted by Hollywood celebrities, television personalities, and influential teachers. By the 1990s and 2000s, yoga had become a recognizable lifestyle, creating opportunities for studio operators, teacher certification programs, franchisors, and apparel companies. Brands like Bikram Yoga and Lululemon helped turn yoga into a commercial phenomenon, selling not just exercise but an identity built around health, wellness, and personal improvement. But the economics of yoga studios were never as attractive as the industry's popularity suggested. Opening a studio requires relatively little specialized equipment, and the growing supply of certified instructors makes competition intense. Unlike fitness businesses that rely on expensive machines or proprietary systems, yoga studios have limited barriers to entry. The rise of ClassPass and free online instruction from creators like Yoga With Adriene further weakened the traditional studio model. Consumers gained cheaper and more convenient options while studio operators continued paying for rent, instructors, and physical locations. The pandemic accelerated those problems. As people became accustomed to exercising at home, established yoga chains struggled to maintain attendance and revenue. YogaWorks, a private equity-backed company with more than 60 locations, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020. Meanwhile, competition from Pilates, running clubs, CrossFit, Orangetheory, and other fitness concepts gave consumers more ways to pursue wellness. The broader wellness market continued expanding, but that growth no longer guaranteed success for yoga businesses. Y7 Studios provides one of the clearest examples of what went wrong. Founder Sarah Carson Levy built a differentiated yoga experience around candlelit classes and hip-hop music. By 2024, the company was generating approximately $10 million in annual revenue across eight locations. But after private equity acquired a controlling stake, operational decisions increasingly prioritized financial performance. Salary reductions, changes in management, and deteriorating relationships with instructors damaged the experience that made the studios valuable. By August 2026, Y7 had missed payroll, and its locations began shutting down. The lesson goes beyond yoga. Some businesses work exceptionally well at a small scale but become fundamentally different when investors try to turn them into large chains. A successful neighborhood yoga studio can thrive because its owner knows the students, teaches the classes, and builds a genuine community. Those relationships are difficult to standardize across dozens of locations. In this video, I examine why the rise and fall of yoga reveals an important lesson for founders, operators, and investors: growth isn't always the same thing as building a better business.