Ericka Bryant knows how to demonstrate the yoga pose Downward Facing Dog.

Now she must show that she can keep her small business out of a downward spiral.

Owner of True Yoga in Thousand Oaks, Bryant is bracing for stiff competition from one of the nation's largest yoga chains.

Across Highway 101 from Bryant's studio in a third-floor office suite, YogaWorks is building a 14,000-square-foot, freeway-close facility, complete with a two-story glass atrium and organic tea bar.

Yoga Journal, a leading magazine for yogis and yoginis, recently likened YogaWorks to Wal-Mart. It offers the same products as smaller competitors but can sell them at a lower cost because of its size advantage.

With 14 locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties, as well as New York, YogaWorks operates more in the mode of a chain health club. Members pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to more than 100 weekly classes, child care and a locker room with showers and towel service.

With the fee at YogaWorks estimated at $70 to $80 a month, a person who attends three classes a week will pay about $7 per class.

At an independent studio, students can save money by buying so-called commitment packages that reduce the per-class charge. Those packages rarely discount a class to less than $10 each.

Baby-sitting and shower facilities are rarely provided at small studios. YogaWorks will offer classes at varying levels of difficulty from the passive relaxation poses of yin to the big vigor of ashtanga.

And during peak hours in the morning and at lunch time, some classes will be pared down to an hour from the more traditional 75 to 90 minutes.

"This is yoga adapted to American culture," said Maggie Mellor, a veteran Conejo Valley instructor who plans to teach at YogaWorks when it opens later this summer.

"Americans delight in choices. They want their 31 flavors," said Mellor.

Traditionally, yoga studios in Ventura County are small sanctuaries tucked into strip centers or office complexes and they reflect the personal taste and philosophy of their founders. These owner-teachers, more often than not females, came to the practice from all walks of life but usually they worked as fitness instructors first.

They believe in the physical benefits of stretching and strength-building, as well as the spiritual enlightenment achieved through the ancient Hindu practice.

Tina Chappel, owner of Yoga Jones, lives for the "aha" moment when students understand a pose not just with their bodies but with their minds.

Operating her 4-year-old studio in downtown Ventura can be a stretch, however.

"Managing a business is demanding. Owning your own studio allows you the pleasure of working 70-plus hour weeks," she said, mild irony in her voice.

"The buck for everything stops with you the owner," said Bryant, a former software executive who opened True Yoga almost three years ago.

Merging businesses

Paulette Dwyer, who started Westlake Yoga 12 years ago, understands the dichotomy.

Dwyer's ultimate solution was to merge her business interests with YogaWorks, whose growth strategy has been to partner with an established studio in areas where company executives see growth potential.

Now, she says, as general manager of YogaWorks Westlake Village she will be able to focus more on the quality of the teaching and the experience for the customer and less on the bookkeeping.

Twenty years ago when Dwyer first offered yoga classes, people were so wary of the spiritual aspects of the practice, she called it "stretch management."

"They thought yoga might be a strange religion," said Dwyer, a former psychotherapist.

In the intervening decade, statistics indicate yoga has gone mainstream. The number of Americans who do yoga at least twice a week jumped 133 percent to 3 million in 2006 from 1.3 million in 2001, according to a survey conducted by Mediamark Research.

The sale of lessons, equipment and clothing has made yoga a $3 billion industry — about the same size as the popular scrapbooking hobby.

Even today, though, the idea of entering a small studio for the first time can be intimidating, Dwyer said.

"People still see yoga as esoteric." YogaWorks, with its resemblance to a health club, is making it more "approachable," she said.

"A stock broker can walk into our Westlake Village location, and he is going to feel comfortable," said Phil Swain, president of YogaWorks.

The company has ventured into eastern Ventura County, said Swain, because marketing shows the residents place a priority on the health benefits of nutrition and exercise.

So far, Dwyer said, 700 people have taken out memberships at YogaWorks. Currently, there are 1,500 active students at Dwyer's Westlake Yoga studio, which she will close when YogaWorks opens later this year.

Can big chain be personal?

Bryant is skeptical the staff at YogaWorks will provide the personal touch yoga practitioners are accustomed to.

"I know 90 percent of the students at my studio and interact with them on a first-name basis," said Bryant, who will share teachers with YogaWorks.

She is so close to her students that they brought her flowers and gifts when she recently lost her dog to cancer.

Close relationships are important in a yoga studio, believes Maribeth Hammond, owner of The Yoga Channel in Silver Strand, but physical distance may be the deciding factor in building up a clientele.

As a general rule, she said, students seek a studio within an 8 to 12 mile radius of their homes.

And for Chappel, there is only one business factor she fears more than a chain operation moving into her neighborhood.

"The biggest competition for a yoga studio is people's inertia," she said.

So is yoga — which means union in Sanskrit — immune to the rough and tumble way of doing business in the Western world?

Sabrina Ferris, who founded Zanzilla's Yoga, welcomes the new addition.

"Anything that helps people understand yoga is a good thing," said Ferris, who teaches in her richly colored studio in midtown Ventura.

Instructor Mellor said she believes business and yoga can co-exist in harmony.

"They are not an antithesis," she said. "Yoga teaches integrity, nonviolence and not speaking ill of others. That is smart business as well."

Big yoga' moves into Ventura County

A comparison of YogaWorks Westlake Village and its nearest competitor, True Yoga.

YogaWorks

Classes per week: 100-plus weekly

Cost: $70 to $80-plus per month for unlimited classes

Single class: Not offered at this time

Size: 14,000 square feet with three studios

Child care: yes

Showers: yes

Retail: yes

True Yoga

Classes per week: Under 50

Cost: $14 single class

- $110 for 10 classes

- $120 monthly unlimited

Size: 2,800 square feet

Child care: no

Showers: no

Retail: yes