What Your Yoga Teacher Really Wants to Know

by Baxter

You may recall one or more of us suggesting that one way to keep yourself safe as you are learning yoga, or dealing with an illness or injury, is to advocate for yourself when you are in class. But what exactly do we mean when we ask you to do this? Another way of thinking about this is that you should take responsibility for your own well-being when you head into any public class by telling your teacher before the class about any problems you may be experiencing.

Before I address what you should be sharing with your instructor, I want to tell you why you should do so. First off, any teacher worth their salt (which used to be very valuable a century or so ago!) or who is operating with genuine compassion and concern for his or her student actually wants to know what is going on with you.  Especially if you are dealing with illness or injury! And don’t think your experienced teacher is fooled for a moment when you are asked if you have any injuries or health conditions they should know about and you reply “Not really.” My next question is always, “So what is that I should not really know about?” This question is usually received with a smile, and sometimes I even become privy to what is going on with my student. Yes, we really want to know! Hopefully this argument alone will be enough for those of you feeling reluctant about sharing, for whatever reason, to go ahead and spill the beans.

Beans, Beans, and More Beans (from Wikimedia)

But what if you’re unsure about whether or not the problem you have is one that your teacher should know about? Now it just so happens that in preparing for a workshop I am giving to teachers next weekend, I came up with a list of conditions that we really want to know about, before, not after class!  Telling me you are twelve weeks pregnant at the end of class doesn’t serve either one of us (or the three of us, in this case!).
 
Some other urgent or significant things to report are the following:

• can’t stand and balance well on two feet
• can’t get up and down from the floor without assistance
• dizziness
• advanced pregnancy or history of miscarriage in previous pregnancy and no yoga experience.
• acute recovery from stroke or heart attack
• communicable diseases

With such symptoms or conditions, you might be advised that a one-on-one setting would be safer and more appropriate at this time. 

And here is a list of common areas of injury and other situations that we also really want you to tell us about:

• plantar fasciitis
• acute ankle sprains
• acute knee strain and beyond
• acute hip pain
• hamstring strains or tears
• sacroiliac joint issues
• lower back pain
• inguinal hernia
• acute shoulder strains
• acute neck pain
• recent motor vehicle accident
• carpal tunnel syndrome and other wrist and hand pain
• broken bones, splits, or braces
• missing or limited functioning limbs
• severe scoliosis
• post surgery (even small wounds, such as skin tears, can be problematic)

(This list is not done is not in order of importance, as they are all important to share with your instructor.)

There are also some conditions that affect stamina that we would like for you to let us know about:

• hypertension
• stroke
• fatigue due to illness
• headache, nausea, dizziness
• respiratory illness such as asthma and emphysema
• fibromyalgia
• diabetes (type 1, and type 2 if newly diagnosed or poorly controlled)

Finally, some conditions might be more appropriately addressed in a gentle class or even a restorative yoga class, so if we know what is happening with you, we can guide you to resources you might have a hard time finding on your own, such as specialty classes or an especially talented instructor for what is going on with you. A few conditions that might fall into this category would be:

• chronic fatigue syndrome
• active multiple sclerosis
• post chemotherapy
• severe rheumatoid arthritis
• Lyme disease

Now that I’ve—hopefully—convinced you of the importance of informing your teacher of any problems you may be experiencing and let you know the kinds of conditions we want to know about, how should you approach him or her? If you want to talk to your teacher in person, it is probably a good idea for you come a few minutes early to class to have adequate time to give your teacher a good synopsis of what is going on. Or, you can use email prior to coming to the class. I often have had students send me an email to check in with me about the appropriateness of my class for their level of experience or their present condition. This is a good way in our modern era to get the information you need to feel more comfortable attending class as well as to keep your teacher informed. But really, in any and all of these cases, it takes you stepping up and sharing what is happening with you, so your teacher has the best chance of providing an appropriate and beneficial experience for you in class.