The other hot yoga challenge: teaching

Teaching hot yoga can be as challenging as practicing. It’s lovely when everyone in class follows instructions; you see a roomful of individuals each doing the poses to the best of their ability, and you are in awe of them all, no matter their level. When your students insist on doing things “their own way,” that’s when it can become sticky in the hot yoga room.

Do you let students do their own thing, or do you step up and truly take care of them, that is, be the teacher?  It’s a fine line.

Of course, sometimes students must take a pose off, lie down, drink water, be true to themselves. But as a teacher, you must do what your students came for: teach them, fully and honestly, how to get the benefits available in your class and how to protect themselves  from injury. This means insisting that students follow your instructions, and not giving up on them even if they stubbornly refuse.  Replacing impatience with compassion.

This is what we teach in hot yoga:  following the teacher’s instructions are the keys to getting the benefits.  And I must say, we yoga teachers are the worst students of all. We bring our own notions about “perfect yoga” into another teacher’s class, and we think we know best how the poses should look, what the breathing should sound like, how long to hold the poses and what adjustments to make.

Part of the beauty of being a student comes from trusting a hot yoga teacher…for the next 90 minutes anyway. You showed up for class. You paid your fee. You’re here in the room. Get what you paid for: a guide.  We love it when hot yoga students are truly receptive; we are prepared to take you as far as you will allow,  if only you will decide to allow us before you step into the room.  It’s something we teachers should remember whenever we are students, too.

Practice Time

We teachers get precious little time to be students. I set aside three classes per week in the Riverflow schedule for Hot Music Yoga, the hot yoga we do to music and I swear, I invented (shades of Al Gore). At my first hot yoga studio in Colts Neck, NJ, there was Silent Hot Yoga – no talking at all. I suggested music, and they added New Age tunes that can be lovely sometimes...and other times, make you want to go to sleep. Boring. One day I introduced some Springsteen. And then I made a CD of my favorite oldies. Suddenly, the hundredth monkey tipped: everybody was doing Hot Music Yoga.

At our Riverflow Hot Music Yoga classes (weekends at 8AM and now Thursday morningas at 7:45AM), I get to do hot yoga along with my students; I give minimal yoga cues, and blast some non-conventional music. Jill Sobule. Vince Guaraldi. The Bangles. Bruce Springsteen. The Beatles. Our hot yoga student Dennis Moriarty, also a music aficianado, makes us great mixed CDs and is responsible for much of the heart-pounding or heart opening music we use in hot music yoga these days.

Whatever music is playing always jives perfectly with the poses. I Want To Hold Your Hand in Full Locust, when we were close enough to hold hands and fly; I Saw Her Standing There in Tree Pose. Maybe it’s just me, but everything feels better with someone serenading you. And I did feel great after class…energized, ready to teach the 10:30 class and for now, savoring it all.

No mistakes in the tango

As I was coaching my teacher trainees, I was reminded of this wonderful line from a B movie starring Al Pacino, who brilliantly portrays a blind war veteran who is brash, arrogant, and spends most of his time feeling sorry for himself.  In an uncharacteristically light moment, his character encourages a young girl not to be afraid learn to tango.  No mistakes in the tango…everything you do just becomes part of the dance.

If only life was like this…but wait a moment…isn’t it?  How often have you looked back at things and realized that the “disaster” was really a pirouette, a turning point?  In those moments of 20/20 hindsight,  don’t you find yourself saying, “everything turned out for the best?”  So…is everything always working out for you? Apparently, it is…just not the way you planned.  Usually better.

We yoga teachers make a lot of mistakes in class. That’s right – we don’t know everything and even when we feel confident that we do, things may come out differently than we intended.   Teaching yoga is not just about demonstrating poses.  Teaching is by example – and in the presence of your teacher, you can learn about poise, balance, energy, compassion, humor, patience, ability to fall down and get back up,  and courage to be real in the moment. Or not.

How Often Do You Do Hot Yoga?

Students often ask, "How often should I practice hot yoga to get the benefits?"

The optimal number of classes for the transformation you're looking for, whether it's weight loss, increased flexibility, healing of joint pain, more relaxation in your life, is three classes each week.

In hot yoga we speak highly of The Cumulative Effect tied to the 3-times-a week practice; once you are practicing three times a week consistently, your body memory holds the changes you initiated with your practice and you have a strong foundation from which progress in your practice accelerates.

If you have ever skipped a week or two or practice, you know how that feels; like your body has snapped back to an old, tired place. Practice three times a week for a year or more and you have a reservoir built up to support you. Of course, if you stop practicing altogether, the well will run dry.

Think 30 Day Challenge: if you can commit to hot yoga for 30 days in a row (a 10-times multiple of 3), you won't have to wait a year for the foundation to set; you'll have built it in 30 days...and your practice will transform from there...exponentially.

Whatever your goals are, hot yoga is a path. Of course, your life IS your path, and so you can never be OFF your path! But some routes are faster and more enjoyable. Try hot yoga three times a week for one year and let me know how the road less traveled looks to you.

Whent it comes to hot yoga, believe it BEFORE you see it

In hot yoga, the need to see immediate evidence of your so-called progress is the most significant hindrance to getting what you want from your hot yoga practice.

When you attempt to take score of your progress too soon, you actually move further from the results you seek; you are focused AWAY from what you want, and looking squarely at your problems, physical and otherwise....so guess what you continue experiencing...more of those same problems. What you focus upon expands.

When you discover the power of feeling better first, by deliberately choosing to focus your mind away from problems, struggles, irritants, and any other unwanted things—and focus your mind upon the feel-good simplicity of your own breathing—you will have found the key to the power of allowing.

Breathing - throughout class, in savasanas between the hot yoga poses, and most poignantly in your final Savasana -allows you to focus on how good it feels when the breath fills your body. After class, stay awhile in your Savasana. Control less, enjoy more, and revel in how good it feels to feel good -  and how easy it is. In this moment, in every hot yoga class you take, everything is working out for you in the best possible way.