Yoga Teaching Tips

If you teach Yoga you have got to give out a prenatal warning to all your adult female students at the beginning of every class. Women have a habit of keeping matters such as this a secret and unless you explicitly spell it out they are most likely to not tell you about it. So prevent any such discrepancy and cover the prenatal warning everyday before you begin your class.

To make sure your students know all about the Prenatal Yoga warning include details regarding it in the handout or questionnaire you give out to your new students.

All prenatal yoga classes are directed at the well being of women who are pregnant. If you are trained to teach prenatal yoga only then should you go ahead and teach yoga to women who are pregnant. In case you are not trained for the same refer your pregnant students to some other yoga teacher who you know is qualified to teach prenatal yoga.

While teaching Forward bend make sure you ensure that none of your students are pregnant. Having taken care of that ask your students to fold their body by simply following their breath. The purpose of the posture would be to elongate the spine, as far as possible.

Once the elongation is complete the waist will be gently pulled into a point and the heart will be pulled towards the toes. While the instructions might sound easy but ultimately they are difficult to perform so make sure you guide your students correctly.

When you shift to the neck rolls remember to make sure that you exclude your older students out of the exercise.

The others, who are not so old should also be performing the neck rolls only after a bit of isometric exercises for the neck. Merge Pranayama with the isometric exercises for best results.

When teaching Sun Salutations or Surya Namaskar make sure that your students’ knees are right above their ankle during the lunges. If the knee is pushing forward, far from the ankle then the soft tissues in their knee joint can undergo untimely damage. This tip is of particular importance when dealing with students who already have a knee problem.

Being a yoga teacher your postures and asanas are supposed to be no less than perfect. But remember your students are not as good as you and therefore require constant monitoring and guidance. Keep a good look to ensure that all their alignments are perfect at all times.

For instance, during the second Warrior Pose many of your students will be required to be reminded about keeping the back arm at a certain specific level, lowering the arm will take away all the benefits of the posture.

Similarly, during the tree pose you will find many of your students forcefully pressing their foot against one side of their knee on the leg on which they are balancing themselves. Quickly help them relax their force on the knee to save the knee joint from untimely wear. Tell them to put their foot either above or even below the knee instead of pushing it directly on the side of the knee.