What insurance does a yoga instructor need?
There's no one-size answer. The right mix depends on how you work, who you work for, and what your contracts ask for. These are the coverages a yoga instructor typically looks at first:
General liability
Covers third-party injuries and property damage, like a student who slips or a prop that fails, with the $1,000,000 per-occurrence limit studios typically request.
Professional liability
For claims that your instruction or a hands-on adjustment itself caused an injury. That's the risk unique to teaching a physical practice.
Coverage always depends on your specific situation. The fastest way to see what fits is to get a quote and review your options.
What does it protect against?
The risks that matter aren't abstract. They're the everyday accidents of the work. A few scenarios that turn into real claims:
A hands-on adjustment injures a student
You deepen a student's stretch in a forward fold and they feel a pop in their hamstring, or a shoulder adjustment in a backbend strains a rotator cuff. Whether the adjustment was appropriate for that student's body is a professional liability question, since it's about your judgment, not an accident.
A pose is blamed for an injury
A student attempts an inversion you cued for the whole class and lands wrong, fracturing a wrist. They allege the sequence wasn't appropriate for their experience level, which puts the claim in professional liability territory rather than a simple slip.
A student slips on a mat or studio floor
Sweat pools during a heated class, or a mat slides on a hardwood floor mid-pose. A student goes down and the injury becomes a third-party claim against whoever was teaching, a classic general liability scenario.
Props or equipment you bring cause an injury
A yoga block skids out from under a student, or a strap you handed out snaps. Injuries from equipment you supplied or arranged land on you, not necessarily the studio.
Certificates of insurance
Studios are the main reason a yoga instructor needs a certificate of insurance. Most require independent instructors to show a COI, often naming the studio as certificate holder, before teaching a class on their floor. Park districts, corporate wellness programs, and retreat organizers ask for the same. Olli's general liability policies include instant certificates, so you can send proof the same day a studio asks.
New to certificates? Start with our guide to the certificate of insurance: what's on one, who asks for it, and how to provide yours.