Top 11 Hottest Yoga Trends to Look Out For in 2023!

Yoga is not just an exercise, it is an experience that combines physical movement, breathing techniques, and meditation to improve your overall well-being. People around the world are realizing the importance of yoga, and hence its popularity is increasing day by day.

And with the increased adoption, instructors are finding ways to modernize this age-old technique. This gives rise to new yoga trends appearing every now and then.

If you run a yoga business as an instructor or run your own yoga studio, you need to stay up-to-date with the latest trends in this industry, to understand people’s needs better.

To help you out, we bring to you the hottest yoga trends of 2023. We have divided the list into behavioral trends and trending yoga types for your convenience:

1. Behavioral Trends
   a. Rising number of types of yoga
   b. Online yoga classes
   c. Yoga as a workout
   d. More men practicing yoga 
2. Trending yoga types that are here to stay
   a. Active Meditation
   b. Outdoor Yoga
   c. Mini Yoga
   d. Yin Yoga
   e. Yoga Retreats
   f. Kundalini Yoga
   g. Pranayama

1) Behavioral trends

In the past 5 years alone, the number of people practicing yoga has shot up by over 50 percent in the US! This massive surge came with behavioral changes being followed by very large groups of people. Some of these yoga related trends include:

a) Rising number of types of yoga

New, as well as regular, yoga practitioners, are experimenting with their practice and looking for something that not only works best for them but is also exciting. And believe it or not, they can be extremely beneficial!

For example, aerial yoga and pole yoga are some of the new trends in yoga styles that incorporate an acrobatic twist to it. Some of the benefits include burning body fat, improving flexibility, relieving stress, and even helping heal breathing difficulties!

Practitioners have also started to incorporate the use of animals such as cats, dogs, and goats in their yoga sessions. This helps in keeping the environment light and can be very helpful when it comes to dealing with stress levels, anxiety, high blood pressure, and so on. 

If you run a business studio, have you considered introducing classes for new forms of yoga to your customers? With the countless other versions of yoga out there, this is just the tip of the iceberg! We’ll take a deeper look into the trending types of yoga later in this article.

b) Online yoga classes

With the pandemic leaving people stuck in their homes, online classes became the only source of learning. Whether this meant courses on the web or live sessions with an instructor, people who turned to their phones and computers to learn about yoga drastically increased.

Even with the pandemic coming to an end, the demand for online classes still remains. Online classes can be extremely convenient not just with regard to accessibility, but also with respect to the cost and time that can be saved. People no longer have to spend their time and energy traveling to locations to teach or attend classes. 

Although they might be missing the physical presence of their instructor, live online yoga classes can still be very effective considering the mentees still have the option to constantly interact with their mentors. Additionally, online courses, being one Google search away, allow people who are conscious of themselves to learn yoga without having to look over their shoulders. God bless the internet!

Even though there is nothing that can replace the experience of a class in person, if you run a business that involves teaching yoga, you have to consider keeping online classes or putting up tutorials on the internet as an option. It will definitely help bring more attention to your business and also add to your income options.

c) Yoga as a workout

The pandemic, although no longer in the picture, has had a huge impact on the importance that people give to being mentally and physically fit. With everyone being locked in their homes, people no longer had access to the provisions of a gym, as they lacked the space and equipment of such an environment. But that couldn’t stop them from trying to reach their goals!

People turned to yoga to improve their fitness. Since certain yoga practices can help with burning fat, people started to incorporate it into their weight loss routines. In addition to this, since yoga contributes to improved flexibility and mental fitness, the appeal toward the practicing of yoga only grew.

d) More men practicing yoga

For a long time, yoga was thought of as a more feminine activity and has been more popular amongst women. In the recent past, however, more men have started to involve themselves in the movement. 

With people’s mindsets evolving over time and gender roles seeming to decimate themselves, men are more free to incorporate practices they might’ve otherwise considered unusual. Lots of men have been attending yoga classes recently to work on pain management and stress levels in their lives.

Although this can mean an increase in customers to business owners, it would require you to provide services catering to their needs and marketing yourself accordingly as well!

2) Trending types of yoga are here to stay

As we saw previously, there are multiple types of yoga that have risen to the surface. Let’s take a look at the trending types of yoga.

a)  Active meditation

One major necessity of a regular meditation routine is the time that needs to be set aside for it. In the modern world, where we are always on the move and can barely find time for ourselves (although there’s no replacement for it), active meditation might just be exactly what we need.

Active meditation allows us to practice meditation even while moving, working, or staying active. Acting as a blend of movement and mindfulness, it allows you to reach a meditative state by simply focusing on your breathing during your day-to-day tasks, or noticing every detail, the here and now, of the activity, you’re performing. 

For example, while taking a walk, notice the way your feet move, the way your hands sway, the breathing pattern you are following, and so on. By being completely immersed in the task at hand, you tend to lose your nagging thoughts and doubts.

2022 has seen active meditation give people the ability to reap the benefits of both exercise and meditation at the same time. Some of the mental health benefits include better self-efficacy, reduction in stress and anxiety, and better sleep. It also brings about better self-awareness and trains them to focus better on what they do.

b) Outdoor yoga

Something about staying connected with nature brings a sense of calm in people. This feeling has made a lot of people start practicing their yoga routines outdoors. Breathing in the fresh air and providing yourself with ample sunshine can be an instant mood booster.

Nowadays, yoga studios are using places like parks and beaches for their yoga sessions. By doing so, clients have a largely elevated experience. All this along with its aesthetic makes outdoor yoga a great trend to hop on.

Other than the peaceful environment that outdoor yoga creates, it comes with a bunch of other benefits as well. For example, the radiation that natural light provides is healing in itself. So if you are recovering from injury, simply practicing outdoor yoga can help improve your overall well-being.

As time goes on, people have found interesting ways to practice yoga outdoors including beach yoga, forest bathing, stand-up paddleboard yoga, and many more. As a yoga business owner, with a little bit of research, introducing outdoor yoga can be an interesting (and hence eye-catching) addition to your list of services!

c) Mini yoga 

Did you know that simply increasing physical activity by 10 minutes can increase the overall quality of life? In today’s busy world, where we all have so much going on in our lives, mini-yoga might just be exactly what we need! 

This yoga trend has allowed people to relieve a lot of stress with a cost of only five to fifteen minutes of their time. This can be the perfect option for someone with irregular work hours because of which they can not pull out long hours from their day. It can also be an introduction for someone who is looking to start with yoga but simply can not find the time.

Introducing this yoga practice to your business can be a great way to tap into a whole new customer base, who otherwise might not have even considered yoga.

d) Yin yoga

Being bombarded with stimuli on a regular basis can be very stressful as it requires us to keep focus for long periods of time. In such situations, slowing things down might just be the way to go. That’s where Yin yoga comes in.

Yin yoga is a very calm form of yoga that uses dim lights and guided meditation to focus on the connective tissues in the body rather than the muscle groups. With each pose being held for several minutes at a time, this type of yoga can help calm the mind. It can be very helpful for someone who goes to therapy or suffers from anxiety. 

Yin yoga also has the special ability to get rid of the emotional baggage that someone might hold. With each pose being held for minutes together, practitioners are encouraged to let their thoughts flow and allow the feelings that they have kept in the shadows, to surface. By doing so, people are given the opportunity to work through the blockages those emotions have caused on the body.

Including this yoga practice in your business will help expand your customer base to include people dealing with issues physically, emotionally, or both.

e) Yoga retreats

A yoga retreat is a gathering of people looking to practice yoga and learn from one another. Since experience can teach people a lot, learning from other people’s experiences can be a great way to improve your own practice. Going into these retreats with an open mind allows people to be exposed to a plethora of the newest techniques and practices that they might never have seen before.

Adding to a new thing they can learn, yoga retreats have several other benefits as well. They allow people to completely disconnect from the world for a few days and re-coupe. Yoga retreats also help them break out of a stressful routine that they might have been following and set an entirely new one.

Another focus of having a yoga retreat is for people to focus on themselves, appreciate what they’ve got, and become aware of their minds and the distractions around them. 

You may find that these retreats are easier to find than you think! Simply google “Yoga retreats near me” and you might be surprised by what you find. Yoga studios and instructors conduct retreats that may for an entire day. You will also be able to find retreats all around the country that last for as long as a whole week.

Conducting events like these can be a great way to market your yoga business and, therefore, network and expand your client base.

f) Kundalini Yoga

Different from the yoga trends we’ve seen so far, Kundalini yoga introduces a spiritual aspect to practicing yoga. With people’s increasing curiosity about the energies they surround themselves with, Kundalini yoga has really caught the attention of large groups of people.

This form of yoga aims to let people gain full control of the mind and bring their body to reach its fullest potential. It includes practices like breathing, physical movements, chanting mantras, and meditation. The inclusion of concepts like vibrational medicine to deal with a large range of conditions, really make this form of yoga stand out from the rest.

Visiting a Kundalini yoga retreat is a great way for people to introduce themselves to the art form. Learning from instructors and regular practitioners ensures that they are using the correct technique. This is important for a beginner as Kundalini yoga does include a lot of physical movement, which can cause injury if done the wrong way.

e) Pranayama

Pranayama is a part of yoga that focuses solely on breathing to clear the mind and is considered extremely important by traditional yoga practitioners.

Pranayama in general provides a variety of benefits to physical as well as emotional health. Practicing pranayama has been proven to improve the quality of sleep. It also helps to reduce high blood pressure levels, improve lung function, and enhance cognitive performance. 

Mentally, pranayama can bring big drastic improvements to people’s lives. Adding to reduced stress levels and increased mindfulness in Pranayama practitioners, it has also been shown to reduce cigarette cravings, in turn helping people trying to quit smoking.

Pranayama also has several niches that focus on improving different aspects of a person’s well-being. For example, Kapalabhati Pranayama focuses on strengthening the lungs and increasing oxygen levels, while Bhramari Pranayama is used to provide relief to people experiencing migraines.

With it being such an important and well-known yoga practice, you have to consider introducing pranayama to your business if you have not already. 

Conclusion

“Most people don’t know how good their body is designed to feel”

Kevin Trudeau

The yoga trends we have looked at have become trends for a reason: they are practices that the people of today resonate with the most. What better way to grow as a business than give the people what they want?

With the growth of your business, you also need to find ways to smoothen your procedures so you can work efficiently. To achieve this, consider using a yoga scheduling software to manage all your bookings, updating these bookings to your personal calendars, sending out reminders to prevent no-shows, and more.

What Yoga trend do you think you can incorporate into your yoga business? Let us know in the comments below!

All the best! 😃

About Appointy

We at Appointy, help business owners grow and run their businesses with our online scheduling software. This blog was a part of our ‘Manage your Business’ category, where we provide expert tips, and resources, or simply talk about the challenges that small and medium businesses face every day. 

If you have any thoughts on this blog or would like to chat about your business struggles and achievements, let us know in the comments below. 

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