Yoga Teacher Tips: Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers

By Monica Bright, Yoga Teacher TrainerBusiness Entrepreneurship Health & Fitness Fitness

Yoga Teacher Tips: Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers episodes

October 12Ep 146: Transitions: Why They’re Just As Important As The Poses
Are you a yoga teacher who sequences by choosing poses and arranging them in an order that feels varied and interesting? This is how many of us were taught. But that approach leaves transitions as an afterthought, which means students are solving movement problems in real time without a lot of preparation. This episode helps you understand the important role that transitions have (and that they deserve at least as much attention as the poses themselves), breaks down a real sequencing example through an anatomy lens, and gives you questions to use while you plan your next class.
Transitions Are The Movements Without Names
The Trap Creative Sequencing Creates
A Real Sequencing Example: Twisted Kneeling Lunge to Half Splits
Questions to Consider When You're Sequencing
How Your Sequencing Changes When You Include Anatomy
Now Available: Anatomy Refresh Mini Course
A self-paced mini course that helps you build real, usable understanding of the human body, so you can make alignment decisions and sequencing choices with confidence.
Further Reading
Yoga Journal: Yoga Teachers, Here's How to Support Students With Injuries Without Giving Medical Advice
Click HERE to send me a text & let me know your thoughts on this episode!
Support the show
Let's connect:
Check out my website: Enhanced Body
Connect with me on Instagram & Threads @monicacbright
Wanna work together? Book a Discovery Call
YouTube: Yoga with Monica Bright
Join my Newsletter for teachers below!
Want me to discuss a topic? Click HERE to submit it!
Become a supporter of the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast! Starting at $3/ month.
21 min
October 05Ep 145: Warrior One vs Crescent Lunge: Which Should You Teach?
Warrior One and Crescent Lunge (also called High Lunge) look very similar. The difference comes down almost entirely to what the back foot is doing, and that single variable changes what the ankle, knee, hip, and pelvis are able to do above it. This episode breaks down what each pose actually demands from students, who each one serves, and how to choose between them with intention.
I'll cover:
Why The Back Foot Changes Everything
Warrior One: Foot Placement & Hip Positioning
Crescent Lunge: Foot Positioning and Ankle Injuries
Crescent Lunge: Why It Teaches Hips-Forward Alignment Better
Four Questions for Your Sequencing
Now Available: Anatomy Refresh Mini Course
A self-paced mini course that helps you build real, usable understanding of the human body, so you can make alignment decisions and sequencing choices with confidence.
Further Reading
Yoga Journal: Yoga Teachers, Here's How to Support Students With Injuries Without Giving Medical Advice
Click HERE to send me a text & let me know your thoughts on this episode!
Support the show
Let's connect:
Check out my website: Enhanced Body
Connect with me on Instagram & Threads @monicacbright
Wanna work together? Book a Discovery Call
YouTube: Yoga with Monica Bright
Join my Newsletter for teachers below!
Want me to discuss a topic? Click HERE to submit it!
Become a supporter of the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast! Starting at $3/ month.
23 min
September 28Ep 144: Side Plank Hand Placement: Stacked or Slightly Forward?
Two very well-trained yoga teachers can cue Side Plank differently, one stacking the hand directly under the shoulder and the other placing it slightly forward, and both have legitimate and very good reasoning for teaching the way they do. This episode explains the anatomy of the shoulder joint, unpacks what's actually happening in each version, examines the real tradeoffs of joint stacking as a teaching principle, and gives you five questions to ask when deciding which alignment to teach in your next class.
Understanding the Shoulder Joint
Why Stacking Joints Is Helpful
Why The Hand Slightly Forward Teaches Something Different
Five Questions To Consider While You're Sequencing
Now Available: Anatomy Refresh Mini Course
Build real, usable understanding of the shoulder and the other joints you cue every day, so you can make alignment decisions with confidence instead of defaulting to inherited rules.
Further Reading
Yoga Journal: Yoga Teachers, Here's How to Support Students With Injuries Without Giving Medical Advice
Click HERE to send me a text & let me know your thoughts on this episode!
Support the show
Let's connect:
Check out my website: Enhanced Body
Connect with me on Instagram & Threads @monicacbright
Wanna work together? Book a Discovery Call
YouTube: Yoga with Monica Bright
Join my Newsletter for teachers below!
Want me to discuss a topic? Click HERE to submit it!
Become a supporter of the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast! Starting at $3/ month.
24 min
September 21Ep 143: Interoception: Teaching Students How to Feel What's Happening Inside
Interoception is the sense of the internal state of the body: your heartbeat, breath, hunger, temperature, muscular effort, tension, and pain. It sits alongside exteroception, our perception of the outside world, and proprioception, our sense of where the body is in space. Every person has a different level of interoceptive awareness, and the good news is, it is a trainable skill. A yoga class is one of the best environments there is for developing it. This episode defines interoception clearly, explains why it matters especially for students managing pain or injury, and gives you specific, usable strategies for building it into any of your classes.
Why Interoception Matters
Five Ways to Teach Interoception
Questions for Teachers to Consider
How much time do I actually leave for students to notice anything?
Am I being specific about what to notice?
Does my language invite curiosity or evaluation?
Have I told students that not noticing much is okay?
And how confident do I feel when a student tells me what they noticed?
Your Scope of Practice
Yoga Journal article: Yoga Teachers, Here's How to Support Students With Injuries Without Giving Medical Advice
Teaching interoception often leads students to disclose more about what they are experiencing, which can raise questions about where a teacher's role ends. My article in Yoga Journal addresses this directly.
Click HERE to send me a text & let me know your thoughts on this episode!
Support the show
Let's connect:
Check out my website: Enhanced Body
Connect with me on Instagram & Threads @monicacbright
Wanna work together? Book a Discovery Call
YouTube: Yoga with Monica Bright
Join my Newsletter for teachers below!
Want me to discuss a topic? Click HERE to submit it!
Become a supporter of the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast! Starting at $3/ month.
22 min
September 14Ep 142: Alignment vs Anatomy: 3 Myths That Need Busting
When we were taught to cue a movement or a yoga asana, we were led to believe that every student could perform it with enough effort or practice. But sometimes a student cannot do what is being cued, not because of a lack of flexibility or effort, but because their skeletal anatomy does not allow for it. This episode busts three common anatomy myths that shape the way we cue, covering the knee, the ankle, and the hip, so that you can cue and visualize the various skeletal differentiations in mind rather than an idealized generic body type.
Listen as I cover:
Alignment vs Anatomy
Myth One: The Knee Being Only a Hinge Joint
Myth Two: Ankle Positioning vs Ankle Range of Motion in Standing Poses
Myth Three: Every Student's Hip Can Achieve the Same Range and Movement
When you teach as if everyone shares the same anatomy, it sets some students up to fail at something never possible for their skeleton. Understanding anatomy allows you to work with (and teach) the real bodies in front of you.
Related Episode
Ep 134: How A Student's Neutral Alignment Should Affect the Cues You Use
Coming Soon: Anatomy Refresh Mini Course
Across these anatomy-focused episodes, one thing keeps coming up: teachers are hungry for a real anatomy foundation that most trainings never provided. That's why I'm creating the Anatomy Refresh mini course, a low-cost, approachable way to strengthen your understanding of the structures that matter most in your teaching, so everything discussed on the podcast clicks into place, and you can cue with confidence. More details coming soon.

Free Resource
Sequencing for Students with Injuries
If you want help building classes that develop strength and functional capacity safely, especially for students with injuries or limitations, download the free Sequencing for Students with Injuries guide.
Click HERE to send me a text & let me know your thoughts on this episode!
Support the show
Let's connect:
Check out my website: Enhanced Body
Connect with me on Instagram & Threads @monicacbright
Wanna work together? Book a Discovery Call
YouTube: Yoga with Monica Bright
Join my Newsletter for teachers below!
Want me to discuss a topic? Click HERE to submit it!
Become a supporter of the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast! Starting at $3/ month.
25 min
September 07Ep 141: Movement Skill: Falls, Injuries, and How You Can Help
There is a reason the social media challenge around sitting down and standing up from the floor without using your hands has caught on: the ability to get up and down from the floor is one of the most protective, trainable skills a person can maintain as they age. In this episode, I will cover the sobering statistics on falls among older adults, why falls so often become life-threatening, the research behind the sitting-rising test, and concrete, non-fear-based ways yoga teachers can weave this vital skill into classes for students of every age.
This is a personal story for me, as my mother and grandmother both suffered from the effects of falling. It initiated my curiosity and started my research on why falling can be so catastrophic and life-altering.
Why Understanding This Matters
The Research and the Sitting-Rising Test
How to Talk About The Skill Without Inducing Fear
Five Ways to Weave It Into Your Teaching
Free Resource
Sequencing for Students with Injuries
If you want help building classes that develop strength and functional capacity safely, especially for students with injuries or limitations, download the free Sequencing for Students with Injuries guide.
Journal Article:
Sitting-Rising Test Predicts Long-Term Mortality Risk
A 12-year study of over 4,000 adults found that poor performance on a basic sitting and rising test was strongly linked to increased risk of death from natural and cardiovascular causes.
Source: European Journal of Preventive Cardiology
Click HERE to send me a text & let me know your thoughts on this episode!
Support the show
Let's connect:
Check out my website: Enhanced Body
Connect with me on Instagram & Threads @monicacbright
Wanna work together? Book a Discovery Call
YouTube: Yoga with Monica Bright
Join my Newsletter for teachers below!
Want me to discuss a topic? Click HERE to submit it!
Become a supporter of the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast! Starting at $3/ month.
24 min
August 31Ep 140: Incorporating Different Movement Modalities: Is It Still Yoga?
If you're a yoga teacher who wonders whether incorporating strength training, joint control work, myofascial release, or movements borrowed from other disciplines means you are no longer teaching yoga, then this episode helps to reframe that question entirely. Rather than asking whether other modalities are allowed, the question asks whether you can articulate the reasoning behind what you're including in your classes. When we think of yoga as a whole practice, we realize that it's much more than the asanas you teach.
This episode helps you realize the intention behind your teaching choices, which is a better way to determine whether it's still yoga that you're teaching.
What's The Real Question?
What Other Modalities Can Offer In Your Sequencing
Purpose: What Is Yours?
Remembering the Other Limbs of Yoga
Going Forward: Questions to Ponder
Free Resource
Download the free Sequencing Made Easy guide, which will offer you a clear, practical framework for building classes that are accessible and well-structured so you can stop thinking you need to start from scratch every week.
Sequencing Made Easy
Click HERE to send me a text & let me know your thoughts on this episode!
Support the show
Let's connect:
Check out my website: Enhanced Body
Connect with me on Instagram & Threads @monicacbright
Wanna work together? Book a Discovery Call
YouTube: Yoga with Monica Bright
Join my Newsletter for teachers below!
Want me to discuss a topic? Click HERE to submit it!
Become a supporter of the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast! Starting at $3/ month.
22 min
August 24Ep 139: Should You Keep The Hips Square in Twists?
Teaching students to keep their hips square is one of the most consistently taught cues in yoga twists, but the anatomy behind it is more nuanced than what we were initially taught. This episode breaks down where spinal rotation actually comes from, what changes mechanically when the pelvis is allowed to move versus held still, why allowing pelvic movement can actually increase total spinal rotation rather than reduce it, and how to decide which version serves your students in any given pose. The answer is not about the position. Instead, it's about the purpose behind it.
Where Spinal Rotation Actually Originates
What Happens Anatomically When the Pelvis Moves
When Squaring the Hips Does Serve a Purpose
Why This Matters for Specific Student Bodies
Poses Where Pelvic Movement Works Well
Takeaways for Your Next Class
Free Resource
Download the free Sequencing Made Easy guide, which will offer you a clear, practical framework for building classes that are accessible and well-structured so you can stop thinking you need to start from scratch every week.
Sequencing Made Easy
Click HERE to send me a text & let me know your thoughts on this episode!
Support the show
Let's connect:
Check out my website: Enhanced Body
Connect with me on Instagram & Threads @monicacbright
Wanna work together? Book a Discovery Call
YouTube: Yoga with Monica Bright
Join my Newsletter for teachers below!
Want me to discuss a topic? Click HERE to submit it!
Become a supporter of the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast! Starting at $3/ month.
24 min
August 17Ep 138: Teaching Tip: Getting Curious About Your Language
As yoga teachers, we inherit most of our classroom language the same way we inherit our cueing language: from other teachers, from studio culture, from a vocabulary that has been circulating the yoga world for decades. Much of it is well-intentioned and lands exactly as we intend it to. However, some of it does not.
This episode looks at how language we use around bodies, effort, and emotional release can affect students in ways we never planned, why yoga classes in particular amplify the impact of language, and what practical shifts any teacher can make starting immediately. We'll discuss how to evolve the language we use from a lens of curiosity.
Topics include:
Why Language Is Received Differently in a Yoga Class
Your Language and Students' Body Image
Trauma-Informed Teaching in Practice
How Students Receive the Practice
Three Practical Shifts to Use In Your Next Class
Related Episodes
Ep 137: Yoga Cues That Need Updating and Why
Ep 132: Savasana: Everything You Need to Know
Free Resources
10 Questions to Ask Injured Students
Sequencing for Students with Injuries
Click HERE to send me a text & let me know your thoughts on this episode!
Support the show
Let's connect:
Check out my website: Enhanced Body
Connect with me on Instagram & Threads @monicacbright
Wanna work together? Book a Discovery Call
YouTube: Yoga with Monica Bright
Join my Newsletter for teachers below!
Want me to discuss a topic? Click HERE to submit it!
Become a supporter of the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast! Starting at $3/ month.
20 min
August 10Ep 137: Yoga Cues That Need Updating & Why
Many of the cues yoga teachers use with students were built around helping students maneuver their bodies into what we think a pose is supposed to look like rather than what their bodies actually need to do. This episode examines three of the most widely used cues in yoga, breaks down what the anatomy tells us about each one, explains why individual body proportions make some of these instructions impossible for certain students to follow, and offers specific alternative language teachers can use instead.
We'll cover:
Why These Cues Exist
"Navel to Spine" and What Actually Creates Core Stability
"Flare the Ribs" and How We Should Teach Backbends Based On Spinal Movement
"Stack Your Ankle Under Your Knee" and Students' Individual Bone Proportions
How To Evaluate The Cues You Use Going Forward
Book a Strategy Call
Monica facilitates anatomy trainings for yoga teachers and mentors teachers who want to build a practice grounded in real anatomical understanding. Book a strategy call to talk about what deeper anatomy education could look like for you.
Free Resources
10 Questions to Ask Injured Students
Sequencing for Students with Injuries
Click HERE to send me a text & let me know your thoughts on this episode!
Support the show
Let's connect:
Check out my website: Enhanced Body
Connect with me on Instagram & Threads @monicacbright
Wanna work together? Book a Discovery Call
YouTube: Yoga with Monica Bright
Join my Newsletter for teachers below!
Want me to discuss a topic? Click HERE to submit it!
Become a supporter of the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast! Starting at $3/ month.
22 min

About Yoga Teacher Tips: Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers

From the publisher's feed

Your podcasting resource for answering the questions you have about teaching, offering inspiration for you to question more of what you've been taught, and pushing you to lean into your continuing…

education.

Each week, I bring you the questions and concerns that live just beneath the surface of your teaching, along with real answers, tools, and strategies you can use in your very next class.

This is not a typical yoga teacher podcast.

I teach science-backed, currently researched strategies drawn from years of continuing education, and I will invite you to question some of what you were taught.

Whether you are a new teacher looking for support or you've been teaching for years, but you still have questions, you're in the perfect place!

About the host: I'm Monica, I've been in the yoga world since 1993 and teaching for more than 14 years, with over 2000 hours of training focused exactly where teachers need it: anatomy, sequencing, injuries, pain science, the nervous system, and the movement modalities that support them. Before yoga, I spent my career in education, traveling the country mentoring school teachers in Illinois, Florida, Texas, and New Jersey, and that background shapes how I teach teachers now. I've also worked through my own injuries from my practice, and collaborate with Physical Therapists, which is a large part of why I do this work. Today I teach students and private clients who are living with pain, I lead corporate classes tailored to specific populations, and I founded the Teaching Students with Injuries mentorship, where teachers learn to serve the students who need them most and are already coming to their classes.

Subscribe and I'll share the experiences, the best tips, the strategies that work for teaching the actual students who come to your classes.

This podcast is for you if you find yourself asking questions like:

Why is sequencing important in yoga?
How does my sequencing affect the students in my classes?
How can I use props intelligently to enhance my student's practice?
Can I incorporate different movement modalities into my classes, and why would I want to?

How important is it to learn and understand anatomy and human movement?
Why is it important to learn about anatomy and physiology?
What are the benefits of studying human anatomy?
How do I remember anatomy without memorizing every muscle?
How do I explain anatomy to students without sounding clinical?
What's the fastest way to learn what I missed in my 200 hour training?

Why should I understand my student's experience when they have pain and injuries?
Can I have a positive effect on a student who is in chronic pain, and how?
How do nervous system states appear in my students, and what should I understand beyond the sympathetic and parasympathetic states?
How do I regulate nervous systems?
Can trauma cause chronic physical pain?
How does trauma affect students in yoga?

What do I do when a student says their wrists hurt in yoga?
Should students with shoulder pain do chaturanga?
Is pigeon pose bad for the hips?
What poses should I avoid with sciatica?
How do I know if it's SI joint pain or something else?
Is my student's back pain from a disc issue, and does that matter in class?
What's the difference between a strain, a sprain, and a tear?

Is teaching students with injuries outside my scope of practice?
What can I legally say to a student about their injury?
When should I refer a student to a physical therapist?
How do I work with a student's physical therapist?
Do I need special insurance or a waiver to teach injured students?

Host name: Monica Bright, M.Ed., E-RYT - 2000hrs