Ep 87: Teaching Beginner Yoga Classes - Pros, Cons, and More

Transcript

Monica: 0:00

Do you teach beginner yoga classes? Are you thinking about teaching them on the surface? Teaching them might seem easy enough, but there's so much more required from you as the teacher to help these beginner yoga classes run smoothly and support the population of students who come to these classes. Let's talk about it, welcome to the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast with me. I'm Monica Bright and I've been teaching yoga and running my yoga business for over a decade. This is the podcast for you. If you are a yoga teacher, you're looking for support. You love to be in conversation, and you're a lifelong student. In this podcast, I'll share with you. My life as a yoga teacher, the lessons I've learned, my process for building my business and helpful ideas, tools, strategies and systems I use and you can use so that your business thrives. We'll cover a diverse range of topics that will help you, whether you're just starting out or you've got years under your belt and you wanna dive deep and set yourself up for success. I am so glad you're here. Listen, I don't take myself too seriously, so expect to hear some laughs along the way. Now let's do this together. Well, welcome back to the podcast. I'm Monica, and I'm so glad you're here. Here we talk about the anatomy, the injuries, the nervous system insights, and all of the real life knowledge you wish had been included in your yoga teacher training. And this episode, I'm gonna dive into the subject of beginner yoga classes on the surface. These classes might seem like they're the easiest to teach. The pace is slower, the poses are simpler, and you're working with students who are brand new to the practice. But any teacher who has actually taught a beginner class knows they come with their own unique set of challenges, and in a lot of ways, they can be more difficult to teach than intermediate or advanced classes. I started my career teaching beginner level classes, but I'll be honest, as a new teacher, I wasn't the most qualified to help the students in those classes, but that's the way the studio model was set up where I was working. New teachers taught the new or level one classes, and then as we got more experience, we moved on and were clear to teach more advanced level classes. I don't a hundred percent agree with this model, but teachers have to start somewhere. So this is where I started, I have given much thought to this conversation about who should teach beginner yoga classes from my own experience. So let's talk about the pros, the cons, and what makes beginner classes special and sometimes a tricky. Teaching experience. Beginner classes are often the gateway into yoga for many people because they can provide an inviting and non intimidating environment for students to explore yoga in a way that's accessible. You also have the opportunity to make a lasting first impression and help shape the way someone will view yoga for the rest of their life. You also get to witness students experience aha moments, whether it's feeling their hamstring stretch, finding their balance in tree pose, or taking their first deep, Full breath with intention. Those moments can be magical. Beginner students are typically curious and eager to learn, but sometimes they come without a lot of preconceived ideas about what a pose should look like unless they've been looking at yoga on social media, and that's a whole separate conversation we could have, but they can be more open to exploring modifications in a class labeled for beginners. But here's the other side. Beginner students can arrive with little to no body awareness. Depending on their movement history you may witness students struggle controlling basic movements like raising their arms overhead without also arching their lower back, or stepping a foot forward into a lunge without losing their balance or having to shove their foot forward. This means that you need to break down movements into smaller, digestible pieces. Repeat instructions often, and have an eye for looking at your students and understanding what they might be struggling with. Another challenge is the sheer diversity of students. In a beginner class, you might have a 20-year-old college student with full ranges of movement, standing next to a 65-year-old with two knee replacements, some students may have chronic pain, past injuries, or health conditions they haven't even told you about. That creates a need for constant adaptability, and you have to be ready with multiple variations for every pose. If you really want to support every student. And unlike experienced students, beginners often don't have the vocabulary for yoga. Phrases like Engage your core or lengthen your spine might mean absolutely nothing to them at first. You have to learn to translate those cues into plain, actionable language that they can understand and follow. Okay. This is why beginner classes actually require more teaching skill from teachers in a class. With experienced students, you can use a pose name and most students will know what to do in a beginner class. Every movement, every transition, every breathing technique might be brand new. So you're not just leading a class, you're helping them build a foundation for their practice. Think about the emotional side too. Beginners may feel vulnerable, self-conscious. Or even intimidated walking into a yoga space. Your job isn't just a guide movement, but also to create a space where students feel safe, supported, and accepted exactly as they are. That requires empathy, awareness, and lots of patience. Let's talk about some common tips you might already know to incorporate into these classes. The first is to slow down the pace. Give students time to process each instruction and get into the pose before moving on. Okay. Number two, use clear, simple language. Think about skipping the Sanskrit pose names, and use the language native to your students and skip flowery language to describe movement and focus on everyday words that describe the action. Number three, offer multiple variations. Always have a gentler option and a slightly more challenging one available for the students who might show up to these classes. And number four. You could demonstrate. Often some teachers were taught never to demonstrate and some do the entire classes with their students. But think about demonstrating poses because beginners often benefit from seeing what they're being asked to do. And don't forget that some people are visual learners, so seeing the pose or transition will be extremely helpful for them. Now for some less conventional tips that can help make a difference. Number one, teach one concept at a time. For example, instead of trying to teach alignment, breath, and balance all in warrior two on day one, maybe focus solely on the foundation of the feet and where to place the knees and stop there. Number two, introduce props early. Don't save blocks, straps, and bolsters for restorative classes or restorative poses show how they can support almost every asana. This helps reduce stigma around using props and gets your students to use them right from the start. Okay. Number three, include nervous system support. Remember that many beginners are dealing with the stress of learning something new. Sprinkle in moments of grounding breath awareness, Or very short restorative poses mid-class. I promise your students will appreciate you for this. Teach transitions slowly. How students get from one pose to another is where a lot of injuries and confusion can happen. Teach these moments as carefully as you would the pose itself help your students celebrate their small wins. This is so important. Verbally acknowledge progress, even if it's just that they remember to breathe through a pose Or found a comfortable seated position, and then finally normalize rest. Let them know that pausing in child's pose or taking a break isn't falling behind. It's a necessary part of their practice. Many teachers assume that beginner yoga classes are the easiest to teach, but I know you know that they often require the most skill and experience from teachers. This is because beginners typically need far more detailed explanations, clear demonstrations, and multiple variations for poses. They may also have limited body awareness, injuries, or fears about movement. Which means you have to be able to adapt on the spot and manage a wide variety of needs within one class. This can be a lot. And for a new teacher, this can feel overwhelming without a large toolbox of verbal cues, modifications, secret strategies, and experience with reading bodies in the room. It is easy to unintentionally overload students with information or fail to address their specific challenges. Seasoned teachers, on the other hand, tend to have the ability to break complex movements into digestible steps and anticipate common struggles imposes before they happen, and create an environment where students feel both safe and empowered. A skilled teacher also knows how to spot subtle signs of discomfort, confusion, or disengagement, and can quickly pivot without losing the rhythm of the class, I don't think new teachers should never teach beginners, but rather that these classes are better taught after building confidence in teaching. More experienced students starting with intermediate or mixed level classes can help newer teachers develop their teaching voice, refine their queuing, and learn how to troubleshoot in real time without also having to teach students who have never experienced yoga before and have very little idea of what to expect. Then when you go to teach a beginner class, you are equipped to guide students through the foundational stages of yoga In a way that's truly supportive and effective. Beginner yoga classes are incredibly important to teach. They need to be on the schedule, but they require intentional, thoughtful teaching. You are not just leading students through movements. You are shaping their entire relationship with yoga. If you can make their first experiences feel supportive, safe and empowering, while not also trying to get your legs underneath you or worrying about remembering your sequence. Instead you're giving them a gift that can last a lifetime. So what do you think about beginner yoga classes? Do you think they're more difficult to teach? Do you think teachers of beginner classes should be seasoned teachers instead of new teachers? What are your thoughts? I would love to know. Okay. Understanding anatomy, biomechanics, and the effects yoga Asana have on the body helps you help your students. If you've been enjoying these episodes, I know that you are a yoga teacher who's ready to teach with more intention and less fear around teaching beginner students and students with injuries. Let's continue to raise the bar for how yoga supports real bodies in real life. It's so important for us to have this conversation so that you remember that students of all shapes, sizes, alignment, and abilities come to your classes and you can serve all of them. You know that my goal is for you to love the yoga teaching life. It's important to understand movement and the issues students come to your classes with. Subscribe to the podcast so you're always in the know when a new episode drops. And share it with another yoga teacher who you think would love to be in on these conversations. And finally, thank you for helping to spread the word about this podcast. Alright, thank you for listening. That's it for now. Bye.