Yoga Teacher Tips: Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers
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
Yoga Teacher Tips: Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers
Ep 116: Students With Wrist Pain In Your Yoga Classes? Here's How to Help!
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Yoga modifications for wrist pain are essential skills for any teacher leading vinyasa or flow-based classes, yet most teacher trainings barely cover them. If you've ever noticed a student skip plank, chaturangas, or even table top pose, this episode will help you understand why and offer strategies you can incorporate into your very next class.
Learn multiple practical modifications for Down Dog, Plank, Chaturanga, and Table Top that actually work. Discover how to use invitational language that creates exploration, and understand how to help students build their capacity over time. This episode is for yoga teachers who want to create truly accessible classes where students with wrist sensitivity can fully participate instead of sitting out half the poses. We'll cover:
- Yoga Modifications for Down Dog with Wrist Pain
- How to Modify Plank and Chaturanga for Wrist Pain
- Making Table Top and Cat-Cow Accessible for Sensitive Wrists
- Using Language That Reduces Threat Instead of Increasing It, and
- Sequencing Classes for Students with Wrist Sensitivity
Learn why wrist warm-ups matter, how to vary weight-bearing patterns throughout class, when to offer rest breaks, and how to balance challenging sequences with recovery time. Finally, discover how thoughtful sequencing prevents repetitive strain while students build capacity.
Related Episodes:
- Ep 114: How to Teach Yoga to Students with Lower Back Pain
- Ep 66: Staying Within Your Scope of Practice
Free Resources:
- 10 Chaturanga Variations — Ten ways to approach Chaturanga with reduced wrist load
- Sequencing For Injuries — Structure accessible classes for different bodies
- 10 Questions to Ask Injured Students — Framework for initial conversations
Want to Go Deeper?
- The 1st Step to Teaching Students with Pain — Get a clear roadmap for working with students who have pain
- Within Your Scope Workshop — Get clear on your role with injured students
- Teaching Students with Injuries 6-Month Mentorship — Get personalized feedback on your actual students. Bring your real situations and get support for the messy, real-world scenarios you're navigating. Six months of modern pain science, practical application, and community support.
Click HERE to send me a text & let me know your thoughts on this episode!
YouTube: Yoga with Monica Bright
Freebie: Yoga Sequencing for Different Injuries
Let's connect:
- Check out my website: Enhanced Body
- Connect with me on Instagram
- Wanna work together? Book a Discovery Call
- Practice yoga in my online studio The Alliance (7-day free trial)
- Join my Newsletter for teachers below!
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