13 Reasons Why Online Yoga Is Great For Businesses And Their Employees
Shannon and I have been incredibly fortunate to work with some amazing companies and met some wonderful people since teaching corporate yoga locally.
As yoga teachers we both undoubtedly miss the face to face contact of teaching in our yoga studio or at a local business in a room full of people, but as we all have, we have had to change and adapt.
In some ways, moving into Lockdown 3.0 – although it is not easy, it does feel easier than the first time. Perhaps, it is that we have put together our own ways of coping, dealing with the situation.
On a positive note, we are now able to support a wider number of people by offering our yoga classes online to colleagues around the country or across the region.
In fact, in some ways providing online classes has made our classes more accessible to some people.
6 Benefits of offering online yoga to colleagues
As I mentioned in the introduction, some people will always prefer face to face yoga classes, however, providing yoga classes online can also have its benefits for your colleagues as they can;
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Turn the camera off in the yoga class
Some people prefer not to be visible on the screen – that’s perfectly fine – though everyone else will be concentrating on their own yoga practice than looking at what other people are doing
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Enjoy doing yoga at home
Yoga at home can be pretty relaxing once a spot has been found in the house that is away from distraction I appreciate that at the moment we don’t have choice so we have to do what we can do!
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Focus on their own yoga practice
With no one else around they need not worry what others are doing. Sometimes in a class it’s tempting to have a peak at others in the class. It’s important to remember it really doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing – we are all different and our practice is ours alone.
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Online yoga classes help save time
It’ doesn’t take long to get the laptop sorted and ready for the class, so there’s no need to jump in the car, dodge the traffic and find a parking space – all before getting to the yoga studio for your favourite yoga teacher’s class.
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Start yoga as beginners
We all have to start somewhere…where better to start than at home. You can experiement with different styles of class and teachers until you find the one that works for you.
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Find a class that is right (or works) for you
With lots of choice around, it may take time, but once you have found what works for you, it can really enhance your enjoyment of yoga – and encourage you to do it more often.
- Style – such as vinyasa flow, yin yoga, hatha or power yoga for example
- Focus – you may feel tired and want a more gentle class or want to stretch out tight hamstrings after a run, alternatively want something more invigorating such as fitness yoga. With over 400 recorded classes there’s plenty of choice for you on our library of yoga video classes.
- How long have you got? Not every class needs to be an hour long – if you are travelling to a studio a longer class feels right. But you maybe only have 30 minutes – again – that’s perfectly fine. A little and often will also have both physical (strengthening the core, improving flexibility or reducing back pain) and mental benefits.
- What time and day works for you? Our schedules change and sometime it feels that life gets in the way. Our yoga class schedule includes 10 live streamed weekly classes for you to join throughout the week.
7 Benefits of Corporate Yoga
1. Colleague engagement
A weekly live yoga class provides a sense of community and some interaction outside the family and the day to day responsibilities of work. In the classes I regularly give, the yoga students deliberately log in early for a quick catch up with each other – it’s also good for me to get to know them a bit more.
2. Mental health of colleagues
Combining movement with breath and focus helps people switch off from their day to day responsibilities. Being able to relax, recharge and reset is important.
3. Physical health
Providing regular classes help to get your colleagues moving and away from their desk. We’ve all been in situations when we think it would be better to stay at the desk for an extra half hour in stead of getting out for a walk, in the fresh air or doing a different form of exercise.
4. A scalable solution for all colleagues
Online yoga classes are accessible to everyone, where ever they are based – and not limited to the size of the meeting room available or how close you live to the office.
5. A family benefit
Offering yoga videos online to colleagues and their families gives the opportunity to join classes at a time that works for them and a type of class they want to do. As staff benefit, offering the whole family access can help ensure the overall health and wellbeing of the family can be reached. Within a family someone may want to do a HIIT workout, or is starting to do yoga as a beginner, whilst another person may enjoy regular classes and know they enjoy vinyasa flow rather than yin yoga.
6. Yoga courses
There’s plenty of choice – we all tend to like slightly different things. With Kids yoga, yoga for beginners, yoga for runners and Ski Fitness our specialist yoga courses means there is something for everyone.
7. Yoga Challenges
Some people enjoy a structured approach to exercise – with a clear objective in mind. Our 30 Day Challenge provides a variety of yoga classes, including vinyasa flow yoga and yin classes, HIIT workouts, and meditation. Perhaps it’s something that would be useful for the start of the year or to kick start a new initiative.
Corporate Yoga – why offer it?
I started yoga at work, at one of my previous companies over 20 years ago – who knew where it would take me back then?
Particularly when you are working from home, sometimes it can feel harder to get out to exercise and dedicate time for your own wellbeing. However long you have, it’s time well spent and can help reset your mindset for the rest of the day. I hope you and your organisation finds a programme that helps support you and your colleagues as part of an ongoing health and wellness programme.
Contact us if you have any questions.
