How to start yoga in Bengaluru

Online isn't always cheaper. At Aayana an online month is ₹500 less than the studio month. Yogavijnana and Absolute Yoga charge the same either way, and Yogasena's online month is ₹3,500, more than its ₹3,000 in the hall.

Try a class first, often free. Absolute Yoga, away.center and Yogasena give the first class free. A class on its own is ₹350 at Aayana and Absolute Yoga.

Ask how many share a batch. Only Yogasena prints a number: 15 at most online. The people in the drawings above show the setting, so ask each studio its own count.

A class in your building needs one person to collect the money each month and keep the numbers up. Before the first class, agree with the teacher how many people they need to keep coming, who collects the fees, and what happens in the rains if it's in a park. Ask your association whether a paid class can use the clubhouse.

For an office, ask for a GST invoice up front. A freelance teacher may not have one, and your finance team will need it. Yogasena's page prints a rate for an office or an apartment association: ₹6,000 for a 60-minute session for up to 15 people, ₹8,000 for 16 to 30, and ₹60,000 for twelve sessions a month, invoiced with GST, travel outside north Bengaluru extra. Its page says those rates are still being reviewed ahead of launch, so get the figure on WhatsApp first. Aayana Yoga Academy told us it can run a programme made to order for a company. For International Yoga Day on 21 June, ask well ahead.

Online, set the camera so the teacher can see you. A laptop on the dining table shows your head. Put it on the floor a few steps away, side-on for standing poses, and keep your camera on.

A teacher at your home

₹2,333 a session plus GST, on AthaYog Living's 12-session pack

My Yoga Mat (Richa Kumar)

A woman teacher who travels across Bengaluru. Ask for the price

One teacher's own rate. Yogasena, one teacher in MSR Nagar, prints ₹2,500 a 60-minute session in his hall or at your home within about 6 km, or ₹2,000 a session online, ₹7,600 for four and ₹14,400 for eight. A second person at the same address joins a monthly plan for ₹1,500 a month. His page says these rates are still being reviewed ahead of launch and are confirmed on WhatsApp before you pay.

Settle these before the first session:

• The same day and time every week, written down. Without a fixed slot, a home plan is easy to drop.
• Whether the same person comes every week, and who covers when they can't.
• Whether travel is in the price. An hour at your flat, in Bengaluru traffic, can take two hours of their day.
• What happens if you cancel late, and if they do. Get both in one message.
• What you need at home: a mat, a floor that doesn't slip, room to stretch your arms out, and a chair for a parent who can't get down to the floor.

A small group can share one teacher. One person in Hennur asked us for a small group at home, mats provided, at ₹1,500 a person at most. Ask the teacher whether the fee is for each of you or for the group.

Before a stranger comes home when your parent is alone, ask for an ID and a past client you can call, and be at home for the first session yourself.

A longer plan isn't always cheaper. At AthaYog and Absolute the longer you pay for, the less a month costs. At Aayana, three months unlimited works out to more a month than one month. A year at AthaYog is ₹27,299 with GST, and its refund policy gives none of it back once you've started, so buy a year only after a month you liked.

Ask both how many share a batch. It decides how often a teacher can correct you, and neither page says. AthaYog charges extra for aerial; Aayana's fees page doesn't say whether aerial is in its unlimited month, so ask that too. The gap can't be put in exact rupees, because Aayana's page shows no GST line either way.

Yoga goes alongside your treatment, never in place of it. Nobody can honestly promise it will fix a disc, PCOS or BP. The same booklet says that with a chronic disease, pain or a heart problem, you should see a physician or a yoga therapist before you start.

Anyone can call themselves a yoga therapist. The Yoga Certification Board, under the AYUSH ministry, certifies yoga therapists, but its certificates are voluntary. By its own guideline, a certified yoga therapist works along with a doctor, and only a consultant who is also a registered medical practitioner treats on their own. So ask what their therapy training was, and whether they'll talk to your doctor or physio.

A teacher who doesn't ask about your health is the wrong one. A group teacher can only change a pose for your back if you tell them before class, every time. For a disc problem, a few sessions with a teacher of your own first let them learn what you can do (prices in question 1).

A low-cost route. Vivekananda School of Yoga in Hebbal Kempapura runs an online yoga therapy batch at 5:50 pm, and its fee line covers every batch except the kids': ₹2,000 the first month, then ₹1,500. The yoga therapy clinics we looked at in Bengaluru print no fee, so ask for one before the first assessment.

For a parent of 70. Chair yoga is real yoga for someone who can't get down to the floor or back up. Aayana Yoga Academy teaches seniors with chairs and props.

Aayana's 12-class pack is built for three a week. Its 12 classes have to be used in a month. The government's yoga booklet says good results take regular practice over time, so give a style a month before you judge it.

Ask the teacher:

• How many years they've been teaching.
• Whether they've taught people like you: beginners, someone with a bad back, someone of 70.
• Who teaches your batch every week.
• What they do if a pose hurts.

You can sit out any pose, and you don't need to explain. Rest on your mat until the next one. Nobody needs to know why, on your period or any other day.

Ask to be corrected in words. If you'd rather the teacher didn't adjust you by hand, say so before class. It's a normal thing to ask.

Some classes chant. The government's own protocol starts each session with a prayer or an invocation, and many classes open with Om. You can sit quietly through it, or ask before you join.

Wear something you can move in. Light, comfortable cotton clothes, the booklet says. Track pants and a T-shirt are fine.

Aching thighs and arms on day two are normal: you used them. A sharp pain during a pose means stop and tell the teacher.

And if you pass wind in a pose? It happens to people in yoga classes, mostly in poses that fold the belly, and the class carries on.

A man worried he'll be the only one can ask the studio how many men come to the batch he wants.

Watch for these in the trial:

• How many people are in the room, and whether the teacher walks round or stays on the mat at the front.
• Whether the teacher asks about injuries, surgery or BP before you start.
• How often they correct you, by name.
• Whether the person who took the trial teaches the batch you'll join.
• Whether the time still works after a day at work.

Ask what happens to a missed class. Yogasena's page says a missed class in the hall can be made up in the online batch that week, a plan can pause once a quarter for up to four weeks, and there's no joining fee. The other pages say nothing on missed classes, pausing or joining fees, so get the answer in writing before you pay for three months.

If a studio shuts with your money, the National Consumer Helpline can help. It got one member's ₹19,365 back from a studio that closed in the pandemic, after it emailed the studio. Pay by card or UPI, so there's a record.