My Top 10 Tech Tools for Teaching Yoga Online

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My Top 10 Tech Tools for Teaching Yoga Online

Before the pandemic, I was transitioning to more online teaching and training. For those who may be stepping into this new venue, I wanted to share my top ten tech tools with you.

Maybe speed your learning curve up a bit.

In case you missed the other posts about the tools I use to run my yoga business, you can catch up with them here:

Whether you’re on a budget or have a little extra to spend on equipment, you’ll find recommendations to suit your needs. You’ll find a list below of the tech I’ve used.

Prefer video? Watch Top 10 Tech Tools I Use to Run My Yoga Business.

my top ten tech tools

The two specific questions I’ve gotten in the last few weeks have been about what platforms do I use when I’m creating videos.

So let’s talk about some of the tech and some of the steps or the processes that I take to create videos and get them uploaded online so that people can view them.

smartphone video camera

(2:00) Typically, when you go through your phone the sound and picture quality are really good. I also want to preface this, this whole thing on, I did not get all of this equipment all at one time.

You don’t have to have everything that I’m showing you to get started with videos and doing yoga online. These are items that I have slowly added into my assets over time.

Your cell phone, your iPhone, the sound quality is really amazing. They’ve done a great job in taking some of that tech headache out of the way. So if you want to get started and you have a smartphone, that’s all you need.

tripod

(02:21) If you’re doing yoga classes, you might look into buying a tripod that you can set your cell phone on or support it with. I actually got the tripod with the ring light or halo light so that if I was someplace where I didn’t have great lighting.

Airpods

(03:30) If you want to use your phone and upgrade the sound quality, just a little bit, you can use the included headphones with the microphone that come with your phone. Pop that in, and it’s good to go.

Doing a live, or just a shout out to your Facebook group or your whomever you’re dealing with, the included headphones are fine. You don’t need anything more than that.

Now if you get to a stage where you’re doing yoga classes, being leashed to your phone/camera is not the best thing for when you’re moving around.

(04:25) I know people who’ve had really great luck with the Apple AirPods. So you would just turn these on, then turn on the Bluetooth in your device. You could use this with your phone, tablet, or computer, and you’re good to go.

(Apple brand is what I use and am most familiar with. You can use the AirPods. They also have lower end ones, off-brand ones. Apple AirPods run $120-$250. I would definitely put AirPods under an upgrade.)

EDITED: I’ve since purchased the PowerBeats Pro Wireless Earphones. Like the AirPods they use Bluetooth to connect with devices, and because Beats partnered with Apple, they easily pair with Apple products. I can wear them for a couple of hours during training and not have my ears aching, and I love the additional support with the ear loop.

wireless microphone

(05:22) If you’re spending $150-$200 on AirPods, you might consider upgrading to a wireless mic set. This will work with both your phone and your laptop.

This one I hook on to my shirt. I can put it on the back of my bra or on the waistband of my pants. And once they’re all tuned together, this costs me, I think like $120 and I got it from Nebraska furniture Mart. So I know you can go on Amazon or wherever and get this too.

The wireless mic will also work with a video recorder or a DSLR camera with video recording capabilities.

EDITED: The wireless microphone I use now (and highly recommend) is the Rode Wireless GO compact microphone. A little more expensive but well worth the investment. Great sound quality and unobtrusive.

other microphones

(10:07) Before I invested in the wireless microphone set, I used a Snowball and a Yeti microphone (both by Blue). These microphones plug into the USB port of your computer.

They work really well if you don’t mind the cord possibly showing in the video. If I needed to have some distance between me and the computer, I’d use the Snowball. Definitely a good choice in stair stepping a tip to getting up to the more expensive external mic.

video editing

(07:47) I’m now at this stage where I like to do just a little bit of editing with the videos before I upload them.

But if you’re happy with what you recorded on your cell phone, then you’re good to go. If you do your video through Facebook on a live, Facebook is going to record and store that video for you.

If you want to be able to have that video, to be able to upload to other things, then you’re going to need to go in through Facebook to download the video in order to be able to upload it to something like YouTube.

For the editing I like to do, I download my video from Facebook and then upload it to my computer to do edits in iMovie.

I started with a Mac book probably eight, nine years ago, maybe a little longer I’m on my third. Absolutely love it because it works really well for me as an entrepreneur. When you use the Mac it comes with a built-in application called iMovie.

(Remember, when you’re working with equipment, new software, new programs, there’s going to be a learning curve. So don’t expect to run in and start using new tech and feel completely confident about it.)

royalty free music

(11:00) After I have the video in iMovie, I’d do some small edits.

Maybe I want to add some music to the background after recording a few videos. I don’t like doing background music when teaching live. The sounds quality suffers when you try to record music and you’re cuing in the video all at the same time.

So if I am going to include music, it’s going to be an after edit. I’m going to get my video track in there, then I’m going to go in an audio track, a royalty free music track.

Make sure it’s royalty free music.

If you’re a member of Amazon prime, you can go on there and you can stream royalty, free music. If you’re going to be posting on YouTube or Facebook, you’ve got to be careful with your music because they will ding you and remove your video for using copyrighted music.

I’ve come across a couple of other resources for free royalty music and all of these brands and suggestions that I’m showing, I’ll include in a resource list for you.

webcam

(12:30) I can record videos on my phone, on my laptop (although you might lose some video and audio quality on the laptop). You can also use an external camera on your computer, a webcam.

The quality difference is noticeable. My husband was like, what do you need a webcam for? And I’m like, look. I showed him what my camera on the laptop was like, then I plugged in the webcam, and the quality was like 20 times better.

After testing out on an older version webcam, I upgraded to a new one. Tech changes so quickly that sometimes you have to just swallow it, that you’re going to have to upgrade your equipment. Every couple of years, as new software comes out, platforms change and things like that.

video hosting options

(13:58) YouTube is a free platform to upload and host your videos. They have a couple of restrictions, though. If you don’t have a verified account, you can only upload 15 minute videos.

So if you want make that extra step and go in and verify your account, then you can upload up to 12 hours and 128 gigabyte of videos. To give you an idea, the yin wall yoga class was one hour long and four gigabytes.

I also have a paid version of a platform that I use called Vimeo. Vimeo adds a little bit more protections on it. If don’t want it listed and going out into the general public, or if I want the video restricted, like in my online courses, then I’ll use Vimeo. The basic pro level runs about $60-$70 a year.

final tips on tech tools

That’s my tech, my laptop, my editing. I can upload to YouTube or Vimeo. I can also just house it on Facebook if that’s what I want to do as well. If there was something that I didn’t talk about or something that I didn’t cover, let me know.