View of downtown Vancouver BC from Queen Elizabeth ParkWhy Is Vancouver The Yoga Capital Of Canada?

The first time I ever came to Vancouver was when I was 17. My first seconds in this beautiful city I knew this was the place I wanted to live.

My mom as a counter to that comes to Vancouver quite often and doesn’t see it being any different than Toronto. Now being a leader in yoga, I get asked why Vancouver is a mecca for yoga (and yoga teacher training) in Canada. Or said another way: why is yoga so popular. Here is what I think.

The High Demand For Yoga

Vancouver has one of the highest populations which are active in multiple sports. Be it skiing on local ski hills like Cypress or Seymour to cycling; so yoga fits with this active population and has led to the large numbers of yoga studios and yoga classes.

a yoga class outside in Vancouver, BCStrong Yoga Community

Vancouver’s yoga community can be rooted back to the 1960s, to the hippies who dominated the city. At that time yoga fit into the: peace, love, and non-violent personal journey that a lot of what the hippie movement was all about.  Many of these hippies, like Terry McBride went on to develop the large chain yoga studios, like Yyoga.

The Winter

One of the big drawbacks to Vancouver’s mild mediterranean climate is that it rains excessively in the winter. This rain is in lieu of snow and thus there is a statistically significant increase the number of people who have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in Vancouver.

yoga class outside at the vancouver covention centerSo two of the major things to alleviate this very real condition are some people smoke pot with the cannabis stores being legal and BC in Canada, while the others engage in doing yoga and yoga teacher training.

In Sum

In the end, Vancouver has become the capital of yoga in Canada because of many reasons: its climate, fit population and because of the condition of Seasonal Affective Disorder.