How to Plan a Week of Yoga Classes in Under an Hour
If every class starts from a blank page, planning eats your week. Build a few base classes, change three things at a time, and plan the whole week in one sitting.
Published 5 min readP-urpose
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Short answer
Stop starting from a blank page. Keep one base class for each kind of class you teach, change three slots each week — the peak, one standing block and the theme — and plan the whole week in one sitting. Adapting a class you know takes minutes; inventing one takes an hour.
Why planning takes so long
A new class is dozens of decisions: purpose, arc, minutes per section, thirty-odd poses, their order, both sides, every transition. Made from scratch each time, that’s an hour or more — and multiplied across five or six classes a week, it becomes a second job.
Most of those decisions don’t need to be made again. The arrival, the warm-up, the sun salutations, the shape of the cool-down and final rest are nearly the same from week to week for a given class. Only a few parts carry the variety students notice.
Repetition is also good teaching. When students have met a sequence before, they stop watching you and start noticing what the pose is doing. And you teach better from a plan you know than from one you read off a sheet.
Base classes
A base class is a complete, tested plan for one of your regular classes — “Monday evening vinyasa, 60 minutes, mixed” — that you keep and adapt instead of replacing. Most teachers need three to five: one per style and level they teach regularly. A 45-minute version of a 60-minute class is the same base, shortened; the minutes are in yoga class structure.
A good base class has:
- A warm-up and sun salutations you can teach without notes.
- Standing work in two or three blocks, each clearly separable.
- A peak section of five to seven minutes that can hold different poses.
- A cool-down that stays on the floor and works with any peak.
- A total that fits the class with two or three minutes to spare.
If you don’t have one yet, build it once with the seven-step framework — or start from a ready-made class plan and adjust it until it feels like yours.
Three variation slots
Each week, change up to three things and leave the rest:
| Change | Keep |
|---|---|
| 1. The peak — and the two or three poses just before it | Arrival and warm-up |
| 2. One standing block — swap three to five poses for a block that prepares the new peak | Sun salutations and the other standing blocks |
| 3. The theme — one sentence to open, one to close — and one cool-down pose that echoes the peak | Cool-down shape and final rest |
Three slots are enough for the class to feel new and small enough to plan in five minutes and rehearse in five more. How to choose and prepare the peak: peak pose sequencing.
A sample week
A teacher with five classes and four base classes:
| Class | Base | This week’s slots |
|---|---|---|
| Mon · Vinyasa 60 · mixed | A | Peak Half Moon; balance block before it; theme “steady, not still” |
| Tue · Gentle 45 · beginners | B | Longer hip section; theme “slowing down” |
| Wed · Hatha 60 · beginners | C | Peak Warrior III with a wall; Tree added to standing |
| Fri · Vinyasa 45 · mixed | A | Same as Monday, one standing block fewer |
| Sun · Restorative 60 | D | Swap one supported pose; theme “rest as a skill” |
Two new peaks and a handful of swaps for five classes. Monday and Friday share their preparation, so the second teaching is easier than the first.
A four-week rotation
Change the slots on a rhythm rather than on a whim, and students progress instead of just meeting something new:
| Week | Peak | Standing block | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New peak, version 1 emphasised | New prep block | New |
| 2 | Same peak, version 2 emphasised | Same | Deepen |
| 3 | Same peak, all three versions | Swap to a second prep block | Same |
| 4 | Related peak (e.g. Warrior III after Half Moon) | Same | Close the theme |
Then choose the next peak and start again. After a few months you have a library of peak sections and standing blocks to rotate through.
The 45-minute routine
Plan the week in one sitting, at the same time each week:
- Review (5 min). Last week’s notes: what ran long, what landed, who was in the room.
- Choose (5 min). The week’s peaks and themes, using the rotation.
- Adapt (20–25 min). Copy each base class and change its slots — about five minutes per class.
- Time (5 min). Check each total; cut from standing, never from final rest.
- Rehearse (5 min). Only the new parts: the transitions into and out of each new block and the peak cues.
Where a tool helps
Everything above works on paper. A planner helps with the mechanical parts: keeping base classes in one place, copying them, re-timing after a swap. In P-urpose you can build a base class in seconds, edit it, save it, duplicate it each week and change the slots, and teach from your phone in Teacher Mode. Saving more than three classes and duplicating are Pro features. For other options, see the comparison of yoga sequencing apps.
Build this class
Build your first base class
Get a complete, timed class for one of your regular slots, then edit it until it’s the class you’d teach every week.
Grounding · Slow Flow · 60 min · Mixed
Free · no account needed · opens in the editor
Plans that make good bases
Each of these is a complete class you can open, adapt and keep. See all class plans.
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