Now offices have good karma

Tell a Londoner that they should take more exercise and they'll give you a one-word answer: "When?" Fitting in work, commuting and family commitments is all that most people can handle.

The answer, of course, is to get the exercise to come to you, and increasingly that is what Londoners are doing. The rise in the number of personal trainers speaks volumes. Now they don't just come to your house, they'll come to your desk and drag you off for your allotted hour of exercise. Personal Pilates trainers will take over the boardrooms and some enlightened offices will even offer employees t'ai chi. But the latest form of workplace exercise is the most unusual.

Yoga has quietly infiltrated our awareness in the past few years. From being the esoteric practice of a few chanting weirdos, it has become a staple at every health club.

We all want to do it, and now that you can get a yoga teacher to come to the office, the idea of doing tree poses at your desk becomes much more feasible.

Ailon Freedman, a yoga aficionado with 12 years' teaching experience, has set up The Lotus Exchange, London's first company dedicated to providing corporate yoga, and his services are being snapped up by companies eager to provide their employees with the many benefits it can offer.

In larger businesses, such as Cable and Wireless or Orange, yogic wannabes head to a quiet meeting room or the company gym and start folding themselves into the lotus position; in smaller concerns, they all stop work, unroll the mats and do shoulder stands in between the desks.

Freedman knows all about the pressures of the corporate world, having worked in the high stress environment of a pharmaceutical export company. He now runs a remedial yoga practice in Harley Street and takes ashtanga classes at hip Soho gym The Third Space and Naked Health, the Earl's Court club run by Guy Ritchie's sister Tabitha, but yoga in the office is the area which is really growing.

"It was an obvious gap in the market," he says. "Yoga can reduce many of the stresses that work generates, both physical and mental."

The benefits, particularly of regular classes, are huge, from the unknotting of tense shoulder and neck muscles to the mental clarity and renewed ability to focus that deep yoga-breathing engenders.

Louis Halpern is chief executive of edesigns.co.uk, an e-mail marketing company in West Hampstead. He gets a Lotus Exchange teacher round on Friday afternoons to help his 16-strong workforce unwind and foster team spirit.

Halpern says: "We have a very high-pressure environment, so it's very good for us to do something that both de-stresses and is good for you. Most people join in the class - though there's always one or two people sitting out, crossly saying they have to get on with their work, but the rest of us just unroll the mats and get on with it.

"Half the people really look forward to it; half dread it, because it's a bit embarrassing to be doing yoga with your work mates. But they're glad afterwards, because it's so relaxing after a gruelling week. It's re-energising and it's great for team building because everyone feels more intimate with their colleagues afterwards."

Why yoga makes you feel better

Fewer sickies: yoga revitalises the immune system; improved immunity means fewer days off work. Better problem-solving: yoga harmonises the left and right sides of the brain, so that logical and creative thought come closer together. Flashes of inspiration should become increasingly common.

Less back pain: around 119 million working days are lost through back pain each year. Regular, supervised yoga practice makes for a stronger back, which will cut down on the number of days off with backache.

Get happy: yoga physiologically transforms apathy and depression by oxygenating the brain and increasing the level of endorphins in the blood. Team building: doing yoga together builds trust and communication between colleagues.

The Lotus Exchange, 020 7463 2234, www.lotus-exchange.com.