When it comes to online yoga classes you’ve got plenty of options. There’s the big corporations with a handful of famous yoga teachers, there’s the new instructor who singlehandedly created their WordPress site with a few classes, and then there’s us. YourBuddhi was created in 2011 with just audio classes, long before Zoom and Instagram live. Our students kept asking us to record our classes for when they went out of town, so we hired a designer in India and got to work. We re-designed the site a year later, adding video and eventually livestream classes from our studio in La Jolla. When the 2020 pandemic hit, we were more than ready. So, how do you pick what type of online yoga classes website to join? What features do you look for? How do you know who offers the best instruction?
Teacher Experience
The first and foremost important thing when finding online yoga classes is instructor experience. Learning yoga from a new teacher can be frustrating and ineffective. It takes many, many years to master the art of teaching yoga. New teachers often mimic their own instructors without the knowledge behind the sequences. Teaching yoga requires extreme attention to detail, loads of personal experience and a deep understanding of anatomy and philosophy. The teachers at YourBuddhi aren’t famous, but they are master teachers with over twenty years of experience. They all studied with some of the most well-known yoga pioneers in the country, including Dharma Mittra, Ana Forrest, Annie Carpenter, Bryan Kest, Tim Miller, and many more. They have dedicated their entire lives to teaching yoga full time and they embody all the qualities of the 8 limbs of yoga.
It’s All About Options with Online Yoga Classes
Having options is important, especially for a home yoga practice. YourBuddhi has almost 400 on-demand classes for all levels ranging from 20-75 minutes. You can find slow flow, meditation, kundalini, vinyasa, pre/post natal, yin, and restorative yoga. You can filter the videos page by time, instructor, style and level. In addition to pre-recorded classes, we also livestream all of our yoga classes daily from Buddhi Yoga in La Jolla. Tune in from 6:30am until 7pm every day of the week. Those type of options make it pretty difficult to make excuses for skipping your yoga practice.
Website Functionality
Some sites have great content, but lack functionality. When we created YourBuddhi we wanted to make it clean and easy to navigate. The filters on the videos page help you find exactly what you need on any given day. We also added a feature that allows you to favorite videos so you can create your own library of the classes you love the most. You can find your favorited videos in your dashboard when you log in. In addition, the videos page has a suggested weekly schedule, eliminating your need for class selection. Every week we create a new schedule for you to follow with links to the classes. You can also print the schedule so you can have a visual reminder and the ability to check off the classes you complete. This is nice if you feel overwhelmed when looking at all the options.
Women Owned Small Business
YourBuddhi is solely owned by us, Carolina and Amanda, two moms who have been teaching since we were in our early twenties. We’re a San Diego locally owned business who has been operating without any external financing. This is a stark contrast to the big websites owned by Alo, YogaGlo and Gaia. When you land on these sites you can feel the corporate influence, lacking a personal feel. Our physical yoga studio has a close-knit community filled by students of all ages and practice levels. We pour our style and personalities into the vibe you feel when you walk in. We wanted the same for our online classes. Now, more than ever, it has become increasingly important to support small businesses. Small business owners like us love what they do, and they play an important role in supporting their local communities. Small business owners also treasure the relationships they have with all of their customers. They rely on regular as well as sporadic customers to not only help them earn a profit but also to spread the word to others about their company. Because these small businesses need the support of consumers, you can expect to get friendly, personal customer service.
Online Yoga Classes Dual Membership
We hope we’ve given enough reasons for giving YourBuddhi a try. The first two weeks are free and then it’s just $18/month. In 2016 we created our own yoga sculpt workout called FlowLIFT. It uses light ankle weights and hand weights while flowing through compound sequences in lunges, squats and all fours. You can get the dual membership for both yoga and FlowLIFT for just $6 more dollars a month. Try it and let us know what you think!
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