Our Favorite Yoga Teacher Resources to Keep Your Classes Fresh and Students Coming Back

I know from personal experience that keeping your yoga classes fresh can be a challenge. When you’re busy running from class to class, or to and from your daytime job, there’s little extra time to devote to the task of class planning. When that happens, it’s easy to teach the same material or use the same playlist again and again. The problem is that our students look to us for knowledge and inspiration in each and every class.

To be successful, we need to weave in a bit of yogic philosophy or a new playlist each class. Fortunately there are more resources now than ever before for yoga instructors to use. I’ve compiled a list of my favorites in hopes they will help you more easily create that perfect class and keep your students coming back for more.

Yoga Alliance

While this one may seem obvious, the Yoga Alliance website is packed full of great resources for yoga teachers, with an endless supply of videos and articles. Some of the website is limited to members, but since they are the credentialing body in the U.S. And their membership fees are affordable, it just make sense to join. Plus by becoming a member, you’ll get access to free live online workshops, advocacy alerts, invitations to community events and more!

This new website is packed full of great resources for yoga instructors, with more videos and papers than you’ll ever need. Some of the website is limited to members. But since they are the credentialing body in the US and their membership fees are affordable, it just makes sense to join. An annual membership starts as low as $55 and is well worth it.

Yoga U Online

I love this yoga website for learning beyond a basic teacher training program.

I frequent it regularly and download tons of free podcasts and audio files from some of the industry’s greatest teachers (Judith Hanson Lassiter is a regular contributor here). Their selection of classes is very broad and includes podcasts and videos covering everything from prenatal yoga to yoga for sciatica.

Get your free copy of our guide, 5 Simple Ways to Improve Student Retention! 

Yoga Teacher Central 

Go here for some amazing yoga resources, including a guide for monthly strategic planning for your yoga classes. It is mostly a member-only site but they do have some free resources for you to access. If you want to join, they have memberships as low as low as $8.95 per month, with a free trial membership to get you started.

Teachasana 

I recommend this one because it’s a community-supported site, so all content is generated by members. On it you’ll find blogs and access to an email newsletter. There are also links to things like product reviews and playlists.

The Yoga Journal

I suspect every yoga teacher is familiar with the great resources on the Yoga Journal’s website, so I won’t talk much about what it has to offer. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t spent much time on there. It’s comprehensive and you do not need to be a subscriber to use their online goodies.

Mindful Studio

This online magazine is a great resource for both teachers and studio owners. The site features informative articles that are cleanly organized in the following four main categories: nurture operations, grow profit centers, reach marketing and develop programming. The best part? You can subscribe to their bi-monthly online or print magazine for free!

I don’t think it gets much better than this site.  For only $4.99/month, you can stream playlists playlists others have made and posted or you can create your own mix to stream in your classes. Either way, this site shows us why streaming music is the best thing that has happened in the yoga community since Patanjali codified the Sutras.

Derek Beres

DJ Derek Beres should be a yogi’s best friend. On his SoundCloud site, you’ll find countless yoga playlists available for free download. I absolutely love this guy, and if you don’t know him yet, spend some time scrolling around his site.

Ever have those days when you’ve spent all your efforts creating the perfect flow along with an insightful theme, only to realize that you don’t have a playlist to compliment and otherwise perfect class? Simply open up your Spotify app and search for “yoga playlists”. You will find hundreds of playlists, from today’s top hits to “trap yoga” to deep mediation tunes.

For additional tips to keep your classes fresh and your students coming back, check out our guide, 5 Simple Ways to Improve Student Retention.

Namaste

For additional tips to keep your students loyal, check out our guide, Five Simple Ways to Improve Student Retention.