Yoga Meets Zoom – How Yoga Studios and Teachers Are Taking Yoga Teaching Online

It is said that the practice of yoga cultivates flexibility, adaptability, and resilience. And, without a doubt, this is one moment in time when we all need a rich reservoir of those qualities, and then some.

The gifts of yoga are needed more than ever before, but one of the numerous sad fall-outs from the COVID-19 pandemic is the devastating impact the pandemic has had on the yoga community with the universal closing of yoga studios and yoga classes.

But while yoga studios stand empty, a rapidly unfolding, underground transformation is unfolding within the world of yoga. It’s a transformation so comprehensive it may forever change the face of how we are teaching and practicing yoga.

This is the swift move towards live, online yoga classes – not via streaming pre-recorded videos (which have been around for a long time), but interactive classes where yoga students can see and practice with the teachers they are used to working with and yoga teachers can see students.

There’s no lack of audience. Live, online yoga classes, are a welcome chance for many to destress and get an antidote to the never-ending avalanche of grim news we face every day. And for yoga studios and teachers, it’s a welcome opportunity to stay in touch with students (and retain them as clients), while also generating some semblance of revenue to help stay in business.

Yoga’s New Darling – Zoom-Based Live, Interactive Yoga Classes

There are many live streaming services available, and most larger yoga studio chains are using those to keep their classes going.

However, the app that has really taken the yoga world by storm is Zoom, an easy-to-use online service that offers the essential feature that neither recorded classes or live streaming can: The ability to interact with students in real-time. The teacher can see the students and students can see each other, similar to a normal yoga class.

While not perfect, in a world of social distancing, Zoom-based yoga classes offer a welcome opportunity for people to connect with other people, destress, and recreate some semblance of normalcy in their life.

Zoom, of course, is not the only game in town. Larger studios are using more professional live-streaming services, which offer high-quality video. And, other companies with pre-existing online pre-recorded yoga videos have made these free for a period of time to attract a wider audience looking to keep up their yoga practice.

Still, the ability to interact in a live setting with students, many people hold, offers a new element not found in pre-recorded classes.

“My students are saying you can feel the energy,” says one yoga teacher in an article on The Verge. “I had a girl be like, ‘Man, that energy in class was so good.’ And I was like, ‘How do you know that? You’re not even seeing people.’ So they’re feeling it. They’re really feeling it.”

Yoga Teacher Interested in Learning More about Teaching Online?  Check out our Free Webinar on 4 Easy Steps to Take Your Yoga Teaching Online