Wall Street bends over, for Yoga

Activity not seen as less-than-macho anymore

The economy is in ruins, nobody likes you and people are upset about your inflated salary. What’s a Wall Streeter to do these days? The answer for many: Yoga. Some banks and hedge funds have been offering either onsite classes or employing yoga instructors to help employees deal with their stress. Yoga has long been a trendy activity, but in the culture of Wall Street, it was viewed by many as a less-than-macho thing to do. Not anymore. One former hedge fund worker, Lauren Imparato, even quit her job to open her own popular yoga studio in her Manhattan loft. It is frequented by analysts from Merrill Lynch & Co., Barclays Capital Inc., Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, reports Bloomberg. Said one Wall Street exec who attends the classes: “The fact that [Imperato] had worked at Morgan Stanley lent some credibility right away.”

Bloomberg