“Teaching yoga online” covers two very different jobs. Recorded classes, the kind students stream whenever they like, are a production: you can plan every shot, light the set properly, and edit until it’s right. Live online classes happen in real time, with students on the other end of a video call, and they ask for presence more than polish. I’ve been making recorded classes for years, from DVDs (remember those?!?) to the streaming library my members use today. Live online classes are another story: I resisted them all through the pandemic, have only recently started teaching them, and I love it. Students lose attention for different reasons in each format, so here’s how I’d approach each one.
Recorded classes: give them high production values
A recorded class competes with everything else on a student’s screen, and it will be watched again and again, so it’s worth the extra effort to make it look and sound great.
Schedule a dedicated shoot instead of recording a regular class. Teaching students in the room while you film for viewers at home means serving two groups at once, and neither one gets all of you. If you need people demonstrating, ask a few teacher colleagues or regular students to model in exchange for the class. If you can, have a friend, or a camera and sound person, handle the equipment so your attention stays on teaching.
Then build the set. Shoot in landscape (horizontal) mode on a tripod, with your phone’s rear-facing camera at its highest setting or an SLR camera, and check your storage before you start. Lighting makes the difference between something mediocre and something really good: put your key light just behind the camera at about head height, angled at your face, or let a window do that job with the camera’s back to it. Add a fill light from the side, or a reflector, a white wall, or even a white sheet, to soften the shadows. Use an external microphone (even wireless earbuds with a mic can work) rather than the camera’s built-in one. And plan to edit: I use Descript for my videos, because editing the transcript is as simple as editing a document. (That’s my affiliate link; I earn a small commission if you sign up through it.) I walk through my whole setup, from a phone and a $20 microphone to the studio upgrades, in my video How to Record Yoga Videos at Home (Budget to Pro).
Finally, package each class the same way. A consistent title card or short intro tells viewers what they’re about to do, and it’s the right place for a short disclaimer that they practice at their own risk. At the end, suggest one next step, such as another class or a tutorial.
Live online classes: connection over polish
A live class doesn’t need studio lighting, but it does need you to be present and the technology to stay out of the way. A recent phone usually gives you better video than a laptop’s built-in camera, and you can join the call from your computer at the same time so you can see your students. Here’s a setup that works well: put the phone on a tripod off the wide edge of your mat, recording in landscape, so students see your whole body from the side, and set the computer off the short edge of the mat, where a glance at the screen shows you the students. Right before class, turn off every other device on your Wi-Fi network for the strongest signal.
Log in early, test your microphone, and check the battery. As students arrive, greet them by name, the same way you would at the studio door, and let them know whether you’d like microphones muted and whether cameras on or off is up to them. Before the first pose, tell them what to do if the connection drops or they need to step away. That small welcome turns a grid of names into a class.
Tell students before you go silent. Silence is one of the best teaching tools you have, but on a live stream a long pause can make students wonder whether the video has frozen. Preface it (“We’ll hold this pose for three minutes, and I’ll get quiet except for a few check-ins”), and then every 20 or 30 seconds, offer a short line like “Where could you relax more?” or “We’re still here.” There’s more on why saying less works in Silence Is Golden.
Open and close the same way every week, too. There’s no walk into the studio or back to the car to mark the beginning and end of class, so a consistent opening and an orderly sequence out of savasana do that job. My posts on how to start your yoga class with confidence and how to end your yoga class so students remember you cover both ends.
In both formats: the lens, left and right, and the demo
Look at the lens. On video, the camera lens is your students’ eyes, and looking straight into it, with a smile, is the eye contact you’d make in person. In a live class it’s tempting to watch the screen of student faces instead, which on their end looks like you’re looking down and away. Glance at the screen to check on students, then bring your gaze back to the lens when you’re speaking to them.
Make left and right easy. Mirroring, saying “right” while you move your left side so students can follow you like a reflection, is worth building for video, and it takes practice. (I’m still working on it after more than two decades.) Until it’s second nature, turn sideways for lunges and other staggered stances so your right is their right, or use landmarks instead of directions: “Step toward the window” works for everyone, including those of us who get left and right confused even on good days! You can also put an R and an L on the wall behind the camera, or stickers on the edges of your mat.
Demonstrate more and say a little less. In a studio, I mostly lead and watch. On video, most classes go better when the teacher practices along, because students rely on seeing you to know what comes next. That makes it even more important to keep your words lean: one clear action at a time, with refinements saved for the second side. For more on when demonstrating helps and when it gets in the way, here’s my post on when to demo and when to observe.
Cover the professional details
Every online class, recorded or live, should carry a short disclaimer that viewers practice at their own risk, on the page that hosts the class and, for recordings, in the title card. Run the wording past your attorney and your insurance agent. Check that your liability insurance covers online teaching, too, since not every policy does.
See both formats from the student’s side
The fastest way to learn what holds attention online is to take online classes as a student and notice what keeps you there. Prep Station members get both: a library of recorded follow-along sequences, and my live online classes, most Mondays at 6 p.m. Eastern (the next one on the calendar is in Live Online Classes). Take a look at the Prep Station.
If you lead yoga teacher trainings and want help bringing that work online, the Training Delivery Playbook shows you how to turn a lecture you already give into video, transcript, private podcast, workbook, and ebook formats, so trainees can learn in whichever format suits them. It’s nine lessons, with 10 Yoga Alliance CEUs.
