Lawyers are turning to takeaway yoga to soothe frazzled brains, reports Tim Stewart


Whether they are sweating it out on a corporate deal, hauling themselves to an inner-city police station at three o’clock in the morning, or just busting a gut to meet those billing targets, when it comes to stress levels, lawyers are outperforming most professions.

It is no surprise, then, that many are on the look-out for ways to lower their blood pressure, and an increasing number have cottoned on to what is fast becoming the latest craze – delivery yoga.


As easy as ordering a spicy meat feast, City lawyers are dialling yoga provider Yohm and ordering a session at their desk from a menu of yoga takeaway options. Within two hours of the booking, a yoga instructor pitches up by scooter at their offices to deliver the chosen class.


Yohm numbers Premiership footballers, athletes such as Linford Christie, pop star Dannii Minogue and a string of fashion models among its celebrity clients.


But its core customers are lawyers and other City professionals in their 40s and 50s, swapping their bespoke suits for tracksuits, and setting down yoga mats in their boardrooms.


One such solicitor is David Becker, a sports partner at London firm Collyer-Bristow. He initially turned to yoga to increase his suppleness and prevent sports injuries, but has since begun to see it as a usual business tool. He says: ‘I found that yoga left me feeling refreshed and energised. It certainly does help with clarity of thought and keeping relaxed.


‘I suffer from the normal stresses experienced by any partner in a London law firm – I work hard and I play hard. Yoga enables me to work more effectively. It is a form of exercise but it also exercises the mind.


‘I have noticed some of our other partners tend to get very wound up. I find that thanks to yoga I am able to stay relaxed and focused.’


Mr Becker thinks the motorbike delivery concept provides the ‘ultimate in flexibility’. He says: ‘There are lots of yoga teachers in and around the City. What we like about Yohm is the way they fit in with their clients’ needs.’


Lawyers typically pay £75 for 75 minutes’ tuition in stress-busting techniques, including meditation, breathing exercises and yoga positions. Some London firms, including Linklaters and Collyer-Bristow, have recognised the business benefits of a chilled-out work-force and are in discussions with Yohm about arranging subsidised sessions for their staff.


Mr Becker says: ‘There are already five or six of us doing the yoga but I would like to see much bigger group sessions. I have been speaking to our chief executive, who is receptive to the idea. A law firm’s most important assets are the minds and bodies of its employees and I am encouraging our firm to take an interest in those.’


Solicitor Christine Kennedy acts as legal consultant to a City-based multinational company that she prefers not to name. She says: ‘I work huge amounts of hours and travel extensively round the world on business. It is pretty high pressured stuff. Yoga helps me to clear my mind, which is a rare thing for me. It helps me find peace and tranquillity because it is for the brain as well as for the body.’


Ms Kennedy adds: ‘The motorbikes are a wonderfully, catchy idea and the take-up of yoga in the City shows just how commercially mainstream it has become.’


Yohm also has devotees from the bar. Colin Wynter, an insurance specialist from London-based Devereux Chambers, says: ‘I am not really a new age person. I am not a tofu-eating softie. But being a barrister is a very stressful job and if you don’t find a way of dealing with it, it is taken out on your friends, family or staff.


‘Certain lawyers are now using yoga because it is fashionable. But I use yoga as stress relief to help me deal with long trials, which are periods of intense pressure. If you get something wrong, it tends to have disastrous consequences for your clients.


‘With yoga, you play a part in your own cerebral relaxation. It is certainly more practical than alcohol, because you can relax and still be alert.’


Yohm, which stands for ‘your own health management’, was launched last August by yoga expert Heidi Meyer and osteopath Danny Williams, and is based in north London. The firm now has 25 ‘yoga bikers’ delivering classes in central London. Teachers have even been summoned to clients’ corporate jets and yachts to help them relax.


Ms Meyer says: ‘We have taken yoga, which has been around for thousands of years in the East, and adapted it to suit the needs of the Western commercial market. For City professionals, the trend is to have everything delivered to the office. They don’t want to have to find an available class at the gym. There was a gap in the market for motorbike delivery.


‘If you are a key player in a City law firm with chaos going on all around you, yoga makes you stop and fine-tunes the mind more than any other form of exercise. It helps you stay cool and collected. By the end you feel sharper mentally and re-energised. You can go on working for extra hours into the night or entertaining clients.’


She adds: ‘Two-thirds of our clients are men and they are no longer shy about talking about yoga to their friends and business partners. Lawyers have come to realise that yoga is not just something hippy out of India, but it is something that can help them with their careers.’


Link: www.yohm.co.uk


Tim Stewart is a freelance journalist