Busy professionals who seek relief from stressful jobs and family demands are turning in greater numbers to an old option in new settings: yoga, exercises designed to provide bodily and mental control and well-being. Nowhere is this more apparent than at Master Yoga Academy in La Jolla where 400 students a week participate in assorted classes.

Master Yoga Academy, founded and directed by Rama Berch, teaches "a very gentle, restorative and balancing" type of yoga, says Claire Simons, spokeswoman for the academy. "Many of these people have gone to health clubs for many years, and some have been injured. Everything we do is for average bodies or to relieve pain."

The reduction of stress is cited by many who take classes before and after work or at lunchtime. "If people are not feeding the needs of their body, mind and spirit," says Berch, "it is evident in every way."

The style of yoga taught at the Master Academy is called "svaroopa," which means "the bliss of your own body," explains Simons. A consciousness-oriented yoga, svaroopa was developed by Berch, who also created the yoga program for Deepak Chopra's Center for Well Being, a neighboring La Jolla facility.

At the academy, classes run for an hour and a half, and can be developed for special interests. Classes are designed for pregnant women or those with fibromyalgia. A very gentle program caters to seniors or to the extremely obese. But the majority of students are ordinary people who want to be fit and relaxed. "Mathematicians, attorneys, gardeners and vice presidents of broadcasting networks show the diversity of yoga students," says Berch. "But in class, everyone gets together in sweats and are just people."

Can anyone afford yoga? "Yes, pretty much," says Simons. A free newcomers class is offered every Saturday. Classes are $13 each or $25 a month on a three-month plan. Students are 75 percent female, but men are showing greater interest in yoga as they experience injuries through other types of workouts.

Yoga leads to greater happiness and calm, promises Berch. "It leads to physical and emotional change," she says, adding, "I hear miracle stories every day."

— Maggie Talboy