Taking your yoga classes outdoors – all you need to know

When blue skies and balmy weather are on the horizon, taking your yoga classes outside seems like a no-brainer. What could be more zen than sinking into a sun-drenched savasana? Or more grounding than feeling the actual Earth beneath your hands and feet, mid-downward dog? 

It’s true, combining nature with yoga is rich with benefits you simply can’t get indoors. And there’s the added bonus of the fact you could find yourself selling more tickets in the warmer months. Think of it this way: attendees won’t have to choose between attending your class and getting some much needed Vitamin D. 

On that note – read our quick guide to running outdoor yoga classes for all the important info you need to know 🧘👇.

Things to consider when choosing a location

There are quite a few things to consider when it comes to picking the perfect outdoor spot for your yoga classes. Let’s take a look:

Distance

First things first, it’s important to make sure you’re not asking your usual attendees to go too far out of their way to attend your outdoor class. If they usually travel, say, 15 minutes to get to your class, but would have to travel 40 minutes to get to your outdoor destination, they might not bother. 

An exception may be if you’re planning on hosting classes in a really spectacular place – for example, a well-known beauty spot or nature attraction. In this case, people may be up for the journey – just be sure to give them plenty of notice so they’ve got time to plan ahead.

Privacy

While the occasional passerby won’t cause too much of a problem, hosting a yoga class in a very crowded outdoor space could be off-putting for your attendees. To save people from feeling overly self-conscious or distracted, you could pick a location that offers some sense of privacy – say, a semi-secluded area of woodland. Alternatively, go for a location where there’s so much open space that members of the public can give you a wide berth – like a long stretch of beach. 

Noise

Ideal case scenario: birds chirping, wind rustling in the trees, waves lapping the shore. Worst case scenario: car horns honking, traffic rumbling, kids screaming in a nearby sandpit… 

You get the picture! The last thing you want is for your outdoor yoga class to have a terrible ambience thanks to chaotic background noise. Also, if your location is too noisy attendees may struggle to hear your teaching cues, as your voice is more likely to get drowned out outdoors.  

With this in mind, be sure to pay attention to any background noise when scouting for locations (and make sure to check them out on the day of the week and time you’d be teaching).

Surface

If you plan on teaching yoga in a park or nature spot with a grassy surface, you’ll need to be sure that it’s relatively dry for your classes. Or if you’d rather hit the beach, be wary that standard yoga mats don’t grip sand that well, so providing towels for your attendees to place under their mats is a good idea. (Or you could ask them to bring their own).

For yoga classes held on sand or grass, it might also be worth giving your students the heads up that the ground might sink slightly under hand-weight bearing poses. So they’ll need to pay extra attention to their wrist alignment and hand placement. 

If you’re opting for a paved outdoor space, be wary that the ground will be a lot harder than most indoor flooring. With this in mind, it might make sense to alter your class sequence to exclude any poses where students are at risk of losing balance and hurting themselves. 

Technical stuff – permits & insurance

You’ll need to check with whoever owns the land you want to teach on before going forward with your class. If it’s a park, for example, you’ll probably need to contact the local council, who’ll potentially require that you apply for a permit or licence. 

It’s also crucial to make sure you’re covered with appropriate insurance. Your usual insurance might not cover you to teach outdoors – so that’s definitely worth checking. If it doesn’t, you’ll need to take out some extra cover. 

Head here to find out about the different types of business insurance you might need >

What equipment do you need for outdoor yoga?

You don’t need any special equipment to teach yoga outdoors. Like we mentioned above, it might help to provide towels if you’re teaching on the beach, but other than that you can just use your usual equipment. 

One thing to consider, though, is how you’ll transport your equipment to your outdoor location. If it’s going to be a lot of effort lugging things back and forth, aim to design your classes in a way that requires less props.

Hydration & weather planning

If you plan on teaching outdoors when it’s particularly warm, it’s wise to take some extra precautions so students don’t get dehydrated. Take some complimentary bottles of water with you to hand out just in case anyone forgets to bring their own, and think about timings so you’re not out at the hottest part of the day. Alternatively, find a nice shaded spot to run your classes.

It’s also wise to have a backup plan if the weather takes a turn for the worse, but this isn’t 100% necessary. If you can make sure you’ve got your usual indoor space available just in case – great. If not, simply let attendees know well in advance that the class will only be going ahead weather permitting.

Setting up event registration for your outdoor yoga classes

As you’re running your yoga classes outdoors where space is likely to be less limited, it’s worth noting you might be able to take on more attendees than usual for your classes. With this in mind, be sure to adjust your ‘sold out’ numbers if you already have existing online event registration.

If you’re a newbie teacher and these are the first classes you’re putting on, you’ll need to set up event registration to keep an eye on numbers. 

• Check out our guide to starting a fitness class >

Tip: Ticket Tailor lets you sell tickets online for recurring classes with minimal effort – and we only charge a small flat fee per ticket, unlike other event registration platforms that charge a percentage of every sale. 

Find out more about yoga class ticketing with Ticket Tailor >

We hope this guide has been useful! Here’s to getting into the great outdoors and appreciating all that nature has to offer. Namaste! 🙏