Teaching Your First Yoga Class: What to Expect

Teaching your first yoga class can be nerve-wracking. Hopefully, your yoga training has left you feeling well prepared. But to be honest, even if you are well trained and ready, you will still probably feel nervous before your first class.

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Here are a few things that I experienced when I taught my first class.

You don’t see anything that is off your mat when you teach your first yoga class.

The first class you teach, you probably will feel like you are in a black hole. You won’t notice anything that happens off your mat. With each class you teach, you will be able to notice a little more about the things going on in the room. Once you have had some experience you will notice every little detail of the environment and how your students are doing and what they need from you.

Plan Your Music Well

Music can completely change the mood of your class. A well thought out playlist can make or break your class. Make sure that you listen to your playlist all the way through so that there aren’t any surprises or songs that don’t fit well with the rest. My favorite yoga music currently is from the Artist Weston Brown.

You will fumble on your words.

But prepared to say things in the weirdest way possible. You will trip over words and forget how to explain the simplest thing. This will get easier over time. It will help you a ton if you talk through your class a few times by yourself before your first class.

Teaching yoga is more meditative than attending a class.

Surprisingly, I find teaching yoga more meditative than attending a yoga class. When you are teaching you can’t let your mind wander because you will completely forget what you have done and what you are doing next. This was a very pleasant surprise for me since I thought that once I started teaching I wouldn’t be able to enjoy/benefit from the effects of yoga as much during the classes that I teach.

Adrenaline will keep you from feeling tired in your poses.

The adrenaline from being up in front of others and leading them through the class will probably keep you from getting tired like you normally would while doing yoga. It’s important to keep this in mind and give your students opportunities to take child’s pose or downward dog. If a lot of students are taking child’s pose, you can gauge that the intensity is high and vice versa.

You should be prepared for some positive and negative feedback.

Hopefully, your students will give you feedback. I would even encourage you to ask for it. The positive feedback will help you start to build your confidence and the negative feedback will help you make adjustments and improve your teaching. Negative feedback can be hard to swallow, just remember that you are new to this, being perfect is unrealistic. Use the feedback to learn and grow. Show your students that you value their opinion. By making the necessary changes they will see that you care about making the class an enjoyable experience for them.

It will be hard for you to plan.

It might be hard for you to know how much to plan and how to make it the rigor that you want. My advice is over plan rather than under plan. Practice your plan to help get a better idea of what the flow will feel like. It will get easier the more you do it. One tool that could be very helpful for you is Yoga Class Plan.

Making Savasa into a mini retreat for your students is a way to take your class to the next level. You can use my Relaxing Savasana Script to get you started.

Namaste,

Abby