5 Things Your Teacher
Won't Tell You

The candid view from the head of the class

We wanted to know what yoga teachers know—inside stuff that will help us work with them better and get more bang for our yoga-class buck. So, we talked to some of our favorite instructors to get the low-down...

“These mats were last cleaned when the first Bush was president.”
It’s hard enough to get your inner peace on without being worried about catching someone’s warts or athlete’s foot. Fact is, some studios are very diligent about cleaning, and others ... not so much. “I’ve been working here for years and I have yet to witness a cleaning of the mats,” says one New York City instructor (who like other sources here did not want to be named). “If you see dirt on the floors usually it means the mats aren’t as clean,” says a teacher in California. Best practice, of course, is to buy a mat and always unroll your own in class. Or, if you don’t want to carry it around, follow our NYC teacher’s lead. “If I need to borrow a studio mat I use those antibacterial wipes to wipe it down first,” she says.

“I’m not your shrink.”
Or your life coach. “I have people coming up to me after class and talking to me about serious issues like sexual molestation and bulimia,” says the New York teacher. “I want to support them, but when I’m not qualified I give them my therapist’s number.” Look, beneath their so-centered visages, teachers have plenty of issues—many of them came to yoga to heal something or other—and like you, they’re still working it out. Even when teachers really want to help you with personal issues (and some are all too eager to take on that role), odds are they simply don’t have the skills and training required. So unless you’ve established a real friendship with your instructor and know her advice is valuable, keep the post-class dialog to poses and pleasantries.

“I don’t get all this chakra stuff myself.”
Teachers are also on a yoga journey, and they might be only a few steps ahead of you. Often their training is based more in the physical than in yogic philosophy. “Most teachers have a basic understanding of the chakra system, for example, but they’re just scratching the surface,” one teacher says. “Often they will relearn something right before class—they’ll look it up and rememorize it.” At minimum, look for a teacher who did a 200- or 500-hour course to get certified, and if you’re looking for a deeper level of understanding, seek a seasoned yogi with at least a decade of teaching. Or read up yourself: try The Heart of Yoga by T.K.V. Desikachar for a philosophical and historical grounding; The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga by Deepak Chopra and David Simon; or Journey into Power by YogaLife advisor Baron Baptiste.

“The show-off in the front row is annoying me, too.”
“If I notice anyone trying to stand out I remind them that it’s not a competition—they’re not there for me,” says Nancy Nielsen, an instructor at Zenergy Yoga and Pilates Studio in Greenwood Village, Colorado. “And to come back into their breath and own practice.”

“I really didn’t feel like coming to class today, either.”
“Yoga teachers are not gods,” Nielsen says. It’s hard for them to be motivated for class once in a while. When you’re on the fence, do what they do: Remind yourself that once you get to class and get started you’ll be glad you did, and it will be so worth it. “It’s not always easy to do it but those are the breaking points that are really important,” Nielsen says.