An in-house yoga class is becoming a popular perk for many businesses in the UK, enabling their employees to reap the plentiful benefits of yoga without having to even leave the office. But how do you go about setting up, filling and maintaining a weekly class in a professional workplace?
Sally Lovett, yoga teacher and founder of Stretching the City draws on her 8 years of experience delivering corporate yoga classes to share her top tips.
Creating your office yoga studio
Most corporate yoga classes take place in an office boardroom, but a decent sized meeting room or a clean canteen can also do the job. This is particularly prevalent for those who are looking to incorporate yoga classes in other hospitality environments outside of an office, such as a hotel or social club. When considering how many people you can fit in your corporate workspace, business owners should also bear in mind you typically need 21 sq feet per yogi (based on a standard sized 2 x 6 ft yoga mat.)
When it comes to creating the ideal ambience in a corporate space, lighting is often overlooked. As most office lighting is generally really bright and harsh – we would recommend paying close attention to this, as this may disrupt your practice. Whether that involves turning overhead lights off and investing in more ambient lighting, addressing your yoga spaces lighting will allow business owners to create a cosy, relaxing environment.
Unless your yoga teacher is travelling by car and able to bring a boot-full of mats (which is often unlikely), you’ll also need to consider investing in sanitary equipment ahead of your corporate yoga class. Here at Yogamatters, we recommend the Yogamatters sticky mat for a great quality, reasonably priced mat.
Sourcing your yoga teacher
There are a number of different teaching bodies and accreditations here in the UK and each of these often require a minimum of a 200 hour yoga teacher training to be certified. If you’re currently in the research phase of looking for a suitable corporate yoga teacher in the area, we would recommend asking to see copies of your teacher’s certification and insurance documents. As well as this, because your yoga environment is likely to be different from the standard yoga class – it’s also important to ensure your chosen teacher is properly insured for both professional indemnity and public liability. Whilst a number of yoga teachers often are, it’s not compulsory for teachers to be first aid trained either, which is another factor to consider, particularly if you’re planning on running the corporate yoga class outside of normal working hours. Check with your health and safety team to find out whether teachers running an out of office hours class will need to be first aid trained.
Planning your class
Planning the time of when your first corporate yoga class takes place is also often overlooked. For example, if you’re planning on hosting a yoga class during a working lunch hour, you many not receive as much reception as you would if you were to host this class later in the afternoon. While there are likely to be a number of yoga enthusiasts with conflicting schedules, it pays to be mindful of the culture of your whole company and consider a time that would best suit the majority of employees. For example, if your company is family-orientated and many employees tend to go straight home to children at 5pm every evening, a morning or lunchtime yoga class may prove to be more efficient.
What to wear
To practice yoga, simply wear something comfortable enough to move freely in. My favourite is a pair of yoga leggings and a vest. Yoga is practiced barefoot, but if you feel uncomfortable baring your feet to your colleagues, grab a pair of non-slip ToeSocks to practice safely. Take a look at our full range of yoga clothing for women and men online to source some inspiration.
Recruiting your classmates
Now you’ve organised your office yoga class, you need to fill it with some yogis!
Promote the classes on your company intranet, on posters on the back of loo doors or in the staff kitchen, send out calendar invites, mention it in meetings and get your colleagues on board to help spread the word. If you can, open the corporate yoga class up to your whole office and use this an as opportunity to get to know colleagues outside of your direct team.
Maintaining the momentum
To really reap the benefits of incorporating a corporate yoga class in the workplace, try your best to attend every weekly class. Give your teacher feedback along the way, letting them know your favourite, or less favourite parts of the class. Have an open mind to try new poses, pranayama (breathing practices) and meditation techniques and I have no doubt you will be hooked on yoga for life.
[…] From: Yoga Matters […]