Published on June 30, 2026 at 08:08 AM
Although yoga classes are popular at all levels, they are not easy to teach. For those of us who lead students, it can feel like we are constantly walking a tightrope between offering enough challenge to interest those who are more experienced and offering enough options to support everyone.
But there are also challenges that students face in “all levels” classrooms. Who hasn’t looked around the studio and compared your practice to everyone else’s and felt like you’re falling short? It is very easy to recognize the performative aspect of yoga and be clearly aware of your own struggles as you watch other students who seem to effortlessly come to a pose that seems impossible to you.
Although teachers can’t always give everyone exactly what they need, you can help create a less comparative and competitive classroom environment that gives everyone the space to practice the way they need. You can do this by reconsidering the effects of the words you speak and the actions you take. Here are some ways you can remind students that yoga is a personal practice, not a performance, and help them make comparison a thing of the past.
7 Ways to Lead in Less Comparative and Competitive Classes
Some are pretty obvious and well-known, while others are more subtle and help you break habits you didn’t know you had.
1. Ask students to listen to their bodies
When you start class, remind everyone that every time you practice, you land on the mat as a slightly different version of yourself. This means you need different things on different days.
Also explain that the goal of yoga is not to “do everything you can do,” but to determine what your body actually needs and then design your practice accordingly.
This essential lesson only takes a minute to explain and sets a clear rule that how anyone shows up in class is not so much a statement of their ability or ability as it is an expression of self-awareness.
2. Offer a range of options, not a hierarchy
Even the most basic yoga poses can pose challenges for students – wrist discomfort in Downward Facing Dog, balance issues in High Lunge, limited range of motion in standing and forward bends, etc.
Most teachers already offer solutions to these situations. But the way we frame these things makes a big difference.
The usual approach is to identify the intended mode and then provide relevant options for students who may be struggling with it. Take a high lunge exercise. You can point to the position and then add, “If you can’t balance here, you can lower your back knee to the mat or spread your feet apart.”
Whether you intend to or not, you have created a model in the students’ minds where High Lunge is the correct posture and anything else is less than flat. Framing choices as a hierarchy sets some of your students up for “success” and others for “failure.”
Alternatively, what if you did the Low Lunge sequence first, perhaps with the added option of padding the back knee for comfort? You can then point out, “Stay here if you want to feel more stable today, or lift your back knee if you’d rather focus more on hip stability.” Now it seems that both options are equally useful, just for different reasons.
3. Pay attention to your language
You also make (or break) your classroom culture by using phrases or words that are so common, you may not realize they have an impact on students.
You may have noticed that in recent years, the word “modification” has been conspicuously absent from many teachers’ classrooms. “Modify” means to mitigate the intended situation, as in the phrase “Full expression“It means that one version of a figure is more complete or perfect than another.
The phrase “if you can’t” also creates several problems, including the suggestion that if you can, you should. But this is a false dichotomy. There are countless factors – stress, sleep, focus, energy, mood, etc. – that affect students’ strength, flexibility, and balance on a given day.
Even subtle things like “just” paint a derogatory picture when used in a phrase like, “You can just stay here, or…” The word, perhaps intended to convey simplicity, could be interpreted as compromise and less than striving.
On the other hand, including the word “today” in your signs can be a surprisingly empowering word. The previous Low Lunge cue of “Stay here if you want to feel more grounded today” frames the student’s decision as one that is best for them at that moment rather than always thinking about their abilities.
It is almost impossible to choose every word you say in class with intention. When you speak for a living, you are going to make speaking mistakes at some point. But it is worth thinking carefully about your language. The words you share resonate with your students at least as much as the poses you sequence.
4. Display different options
Perhaps the best way to encourage students to choose shapes that work for them that day is to model this behavior yourself regularly. Not only does this normalize what you’re asking for, it allows you to quickly show position or prop options without having to explain them in detail.
Use Blocks under your hands in sun salutationFor example, explaining and interfering with the rhythmic flow required for a sequence can be time consuming. Demonstrating with the blocks in your hands, however, takes little to no extra time, provides an option that may work better for visual learners, and makes the flow easier.
There is real power in not drawing attention to these choices. But you can also be more straightforward sometimes.
For example, you can provide context with statements like, “You can also extend your legs here; I’m going to keep my legs bent today because it helps me feel like my core is working more than my legs” in boat pose. You can also mock the idea that harder always equals better by saying something like: “You can also stretch your legs here. That means you can. I have nothing to prove, so I won’t do that.”
5. Harness humor
A somewhat unexpected tool in a teacher’s arsenal is humor. If used wisely, humor can be an effective way to expose and challenge underlying assumptions.
Many students believe that a pose that requires more strength, flexibility, or stability is more “advanced” than one that requires less. Or that a complex mode is more “challenging” than a simple mode.
So, every now and then, express this misconception with sarcastic statements that match your unique voice, such as “The more advanced version of this pose involves breathing” or “If you really want a challenge here, try smiling.”
6. Acknowledging the role of autopsy
As most teachers know these days, A Dimensions of the student’s skeleton They have as much, if not more, impact on their physical appearance in yoga poses than their skill. For example, the length of the arm compared to the width of the torso determines how easy it is to find a bind in the extended side angle (Utthita Parsvakonasana). The length of the torso compared to the length of the femur, not to mention the bony range of motion in the ankle, determines how easily a person can squat (malasana). So why not guide students in?
Your lessons don’t have to be comparative anatomy lessons. But even a simple reference to anatomical differences can make students realize that skill is not the only factor at play in their practice.
For example, when offering the option of arm banding, you could add something like, “Don’t take it personally if your hands don’t meet, the length of your arm compared to the shape of your torso plays a key role here.” Or when directing students into a squat position, you could say, “If, with some anatomy tricks, your heels are resting on the floor here, that’s great. If not, you can roll up the back of your mat and use it as a wedge under your heel or place your hands on the mat to help you feel more stable.”
7. Choose class topics carefully
Finally, keep in mind that the way you teach begins before you even set foot in the studio with the themes and sequences you put together.
A sequence that focuses solely on reaching the peak of the pose, such as Dancer Pose (Natarajasana) will only allow some of your students to feel successful. You can of course offer options, such as grabbing onto a wall for added stability, and using a strap to help you hold the raised foot. But by focusing on an external form, the path you offer students to achievement is rather narrow, and some students are bound to fall behind.
However, focusing on internal states or actions allows each student to work toward the same goal regardless of the external forms they take. For example, the precise sequence you use to build your dancers’ posture could instead be themed around the process of stabilizing your breath. The challenge then shifts from balancing on one foot while holding the other, to something more precise. For example, “Can you breathe steadily, regardless of whether you work hard or take a break?” Or “Can you find a version of this shape that allows you to breathe smoothly and steadily?”
Perhaps the most empowering thing about this approach is its portability. There are only so many ways you can use the external skills you learn in Dancer’s Pose in your daily life, but these precise internal focuses and actions apply to a limitless variety of real-world scenarios.
