About Sage Rountree

Yoga teachers need to learn physiology and kinesiology—NOT anatomy and pathology.

The pace of a yoga class and your scope of practice as a yoga teacher mean you can’t address anatomy in class in any meaningful way. But most teacher trainings focus on memorization of things you won’t use—and this can make you freeze in front of the classroom. Instead, you should learn exercise physiology, because if you’re teaching asana—even very gentle asana, even yin and restorative yoga—you’re leading an exercise class. And focusing on physiology rather than pathology is movement optimism at its best.

I learned anatomy in my YTT, as you probably did, too. My lead teacher was a massage therapist and Rolfer, so she was enthusiastic about bodies and a helpful teacher. But just like many YTTs, mine focused on all the potential problems students might have without having the time to address solutions. And it didn’t show us how to accentuate the positive.

Only a few years after YTT, when I was getting into coaching endurance sports, did I start to learn the exercise physiology side of things. And it was so easy! So intuitive! Apart from the Krebs Cycle, so directly applicable! I started to approach my yoga practice from this background.

As a PhD in English literature, writing is how I think things through. I practiced applying exercise physiology to yoga in my articles for Endurance Magazine, then Runner’s World and Yoga Journal. I wrote books on the intersection of yoga and sports—The Athlete’s Guide to Yoga, The Athlete’s Pocket Guide to Yoga, The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery, The Runner’s Guide to Yoga, Everyday Yoga, and Racing Wisely.

Then I took what I’d learned about exercise physiology and yoga and applied them to my book on how yoga teachers can structure a class intelligently, in ways that satisfy students’ balance movement needs: The Art of Yoga Sequencing. (I also wrote three other books for yoga teachers: The Professional Yoga Teacher’s Handbook and Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses, Volumes 1 and 2.)

my yoga approach

So when I teach, I do so through the lens of exercise physiology, not pathology. I recognize that each student needs to adjust the intensity to suit their own needs, and I take care to use language that allows for that. And I offer a balanced approach to sequencing that respects kinesiology.

I call it the 6–4–2 model: each class will target the six moves of the spine, the four lines of the hip, and the two core modes. When you use this as your lens, you move away from a sense that you’re obliged to “fix” your students and toward the freedom and fun of serving them a balanced movement diet and then letting them choose what to put on their plate.

And when this is your approach, so many parts of your yoga career become easier. Your lesson planning will be a breeze, no matter what style you teach. With your scope of practice clear, you’ll feel more confident in front of the classroom. And your students will pick up on this energy. Everyone wins!

I’m here to help you in this work. You can:

• read my books
• join my virtual yoga studio focused on teacher development
• join my mentorship membership
• take your full 300-hour (aka 500-hour, if you already have your 200-hour training) advanced studies yoga teacher training

Along the way, I’ll help you drop your wrong-seeing views about your scope of practice. When you see clearly what your students really need and how you can help them, you’ll become (almost) everyone’s favorite yoga teacher.