Out of Sync Yoga Students
I had a lot of yoga classes to teach over the weekend and had two instances of class members “doing their own thing” in yoga class. These are people who, no matter how much you direct the class, decide to do something completely different. I’ve been a student in a class where someone was moving around all over the place, and it can be quite distracting. We had a long conversation with our teacher in yoga teacher training about this, and she told us that such students can throw off the energy and flow of the class for everyone.
In the first class I taught, it was clear that the out of sync yoga student was just one of those creepy strange people who live in their own little bubble. He’d specifically asked for “flow” when I encouraged the class to tell me what they wanted to work on, and then he went off and “flowed” on his own. It was clear that he knew what he was doing (well enough), but I had to wonder why he was even bothering to show up to class when he could have just practiced at home.
I have to admit I found this man to be personally quite annoying, and I was tempted to go over and ask him nicely to go along with the class, but I managed to hold my tongue and then he left 15 minutes early. What a relief!
The second out of sync student was a different story – he was having problems with the most basic stretching exercises, and when I went to check on him, it turned out he’d had a back pain problem he hadn’t mentioned when I’d asked about injuries in the beginning of the class. Once I knew what the issue was, I was able to modify the exercises for him to be doable and more beneficial.
In working with the second student, it reminded me to be patient and tolerant when I am in a class as a student and someone isn’t quite getting with the program. While not all “go your own way” yoga students are doing that due to injury – yes, some of these haphazard yogis are just plain weird – you just never know.
As a student of yoga, I have occassionally struggled to ignore a distracting fellow-student, and on a good day, I can! What bothers me more than people doing their own movements is the crazy noises some people make. Sometimes the groaning and growling people do is just so ridiculous. Maybe I am uninformed, and the truth is that such grunting and groaning is actually beneficial or something, but to me it seems merely self-indulgent on the part of the groaner.
This happened to me while I was taking a class too for the first time in four years!! It was extremely disrupting to see a few people in the class do completely their own thing- and I felt disrespectful to the students and teacher. I completely agree- why even bother to take the class? Also- I really liked the view that these individuals who make noises, groan, show up late and leave early are basically ‘stealing’ other students calmn and focus- taking from yoga’s non-stealing principle.
A friend of mine practices yoag with me at home, and she was sighing and groaning all the time. I had to politely inform her before a real class that there are actually social polite rules about attending a yoga class:
- don’t step on another’s mat
- don’t leave early
- shut off your cell
- avoid chatting
- avoid loud groaning
after our review- she was great.
The grunting and groaning can definitely get over the top with some people. I wonder if it’s a form of exhibitionism for them.