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Since re-opening on 10th August, at Whitespace Studio we’ve made all the necessary changes to make our yoga studio Covid safe. Alongside health and safety training for our staff, our safety measures include having hand sanitiser available for students, plus we are enforcing social distancing around the studio to ensure everyone feels comfortable and safe coming back to classes.
As with many other businesses, it’s been a bumpy ride leading up to the point of reopening. We’ve had to work towards an unknown opening date and be more adaptable than ever – but we’re so happy to finally be welcoming students and teachers back into our spacious studio for in-person classes.
Yoga Alliance – the UKs Yoga Accreditation body, invited our very own Founder & Director, Deborah to talk about how we re-opened our yoga studio in Milton Keynes – after 5 months of closure – and the challenges yoga studios are facing post-Covid…
Q. What changes are you having to make to your studio & classes?
A. Naturally, we’ve had to make a few changes at Whitespace. There has been a re-education process for both students and staff on what to touch and how to enter the building. We have set out new safety standards which include having fewer people in classes, mat spacing for social distancing, and a timetable with fewer classes than we used to allow time for sanitising and cleaning in between classes.
We’ve prepared the studio for these changes and know that it’s important for the health of our students, teachers and their families and we’re constantly listening to students and teachers about their experiences.
We’ve always encouraged students to use their own mat for hygiene reasons and for them to create a home practice too. Using your own mat is now more important than ever to maintain our health and safety standards and prevent any potential spread.
Some small changes have been made to our memberships as well. While there haven’t been any price increases to our memberships, you’ll notice that the option for unlimited in-studio classes is no longer there. Our unlimited membership has always been popular, but due to restrictions on capacity and number of classes, we can’t yet accommodate this. We’ll be sure to update and develop this option when restriction changes allow.
We needed to take away the option to have unlimited in-studio classes but have supplemented this with access to unlimited access to our livestream classes or on-demand video classes.
We have also introduced an ‘At Home Membership’ for online-only classes, or you can choose between our Flexible Membership and our All Access Membership for a combination of online and in-studio practice.
Q. Will we be continuing online yoga classes?
A. Absolutely! Making the transition into an online yoga studio at the start of lockdown was something we were apprehensive about at first, but we’ve been so overwhelmed by the positive response.
At-home practice is now something we will continue to offer in the long-run, as we’ve seen so many more benefits than expected. While in lockdown, our students could continue to attend their favourite yoga and mindfulness classes at a time when they needed them most.
But in the future, we know this is a valuable option for students who have busy schedules, travel from further away or even for those who no longer live in the area but wish to continue practicing with us.
Here are some tips for creating the perfect at-home yoga space.
Since the very beginning of lockdown, we’ve been overwhelmed by the support and positive feedback, which we’re so thankful for. We’re taking things step by step, learning from this feedback and trying to be as adaptable as possible. We all have a lot of new norms to get used to, and naturally a bit of healing to do, so we look forward to being there for our students and hope we can put your mind at ease.
“I’m always an optimist. I look at the resilience of human nature and realise that in the grand scheme of things, this a short term thing. We can weather this storm”
While we’ve loved being able to continue to teach online, we’re so thrilled to be back in the studio doing what we do best. These first weeks being back open have reminded us how rewarding it is to be in the studio. After a class, both students and teachers leave feeling replenished, energised and relaxed – seeing this, and being back together as a community, reminds us that it’s all worth it.
