teach yoga to the athletes in your town
A self-paced online training, with a year of coaching from me, for yoga teachers who want to work with runners, lifters, climbers, swimmers, and teams—even if you’ve never been an athlete yourself.
$2,500, or five monthly payments of $500.
Chances are good that your next class already has an athlete or two in it.
Inside, you’ll learn to:
- plan athlete-friendly sequences timed to the training calendar
- cue clearly and offer variations that serve a competitive group without turning class into a contest
- price your work and approach coaches, clubs, gyms, and teams with a pitch you’re proud of
they’re already in your class
Chances are good that your next class already has an athlete or two in it: the runner building toward a spring half marathon, the climber whose forearms are still cooked from the weekend, the lifter whose hips went tight after a heavy block of squats. They signed up for your class because it gives them something their training doesn’t, and most weeks your teaching serves them well.
Then there are the moments when a general cue misses. A long, deep hip opener lands the night before a long run. A harder variation, offered as an option, gets taken as a dare, and the competitive streak does the rest. Or the whole hour turns into one more workout, when what they needed was something that supports the rest of their training.
You may have thought about working with athletes on purpose: a running club, a high school team, the CrossFit gym two blocks away. If so, the voice that stops you probably sounds something like “Who am I to teach athletes?” That question shows up even for yoga teachers who have been teaching these exact students for years.
what athletes need from a yoga teacher
Athletes usually need close to the opposite of what yoga teachers picture. Most of them get all the challenge they can handle from training, so they’re better served by range of motion they can use, recovery between hard sessions, breath they can call on when a race gets uncomfortable, and a yoga teacher who pays attention to how much load they’re already carrying that week. A runner in a heavy build period needs something different from the same runner the week before a race, and the yoga should change with them.
You don’t need to have been an athlete to teach this well. (I’ve never been a linebacker, and I’ve taught yoga to the UNC football team since 2008.) You need to understand what training does to a body and what a body in training needs from yoga, which is physiology more than anatomy, and that’s a skill you can learn the same way you learned to sequence.
Alison made this her career
Program graduate Alison Heilig is founder of Miles to Go Athletics, CEO/editor-in-chief of Fit Bottomed Girls, an ultramarathoner, and a competitive weightlifter.
Here’s how she grew in Teaching Yoga to Athletes.
what’s inside
Teaching Yoga to Athletes is self-paced, so you can start today and work through it around your own teaching. The essentials take a few hours: Understanding Training Cycles, the 6–4–2 Framework, and Programming by Training Phase, plus your Athlete Sequence Planner, are enough to plan your first athlete class. The whole curriculum runs 50–60 hours, and more if you lean on the coaching.
comprehensive learning
On-demand video lessons, which you can also listen to as a private podcast, read as an EPUB on your Kindle, or review as transcripts in your workbook.
practice and feedback
The Teaching Yoga to Athletes manual and a workbook with exercises, the movement analysis tool, and my feedback on your work.
essential resources
My Athlete Sequence Planner, with more than 50 follow-along practices for athletes, plus the complete Yoga for Athletes curriculum and hard-to-find books on the athlete’s mindset.
career and business growth
Pitch support, website and marketing guidance, professionalism templates, and two one-to-one strategy calls with me.
you’ll also get:
- A year of monthly 90-minute live office hours, so you have a place to bring the questions that only show up once you’re out working with athletes.
- The complete Yoga for Athletes curriculum: follow-along classes, lesson plans, and meditations you can teach as is or adapt, so you can say yes to your first athlete class without starting from a blank page.
- My Athlete Sequence Planner, a Notion planner with more than 50 follow-along practices for athletes—warmups, conditioning, balance work, and recovery—tagged by training phase and purpose, so you can pull the right practice for the right week of the season in minutes, then use the lesson-plan journal to track what you taught and what you’ll change next time.
- 30 Yoga Alliance CEUs, and 120 hours toward the Comfort Zone Yoga® 300-Hour Online Yoga Teacher Training, so your new specialty also counts toward your continuing education and your 300.
The curriculum is yours to keep, and the coaching year starts when you do.
what you’ll be able to do
- Plan athlete-friendly sequences with my 6–4–2 Framework, timed to the training calendar: base, build, and peak periods, plus the off weeks in between
- Size up what an athlete needs from their sport and position, using a simple movement analysis tool
- Cue clearly and offer variations that serve a competitive group without turning class into a contest
- Teach on a field, a court, or a locker room floor with no props at all
- Guide meditations and visualizations for the mental side of competition
- Price your work and approach coaches, clubs, gyms, and teams with a pitch you’re proud of
Graduates now teach athletes all over:
Steve Krojniewski, who works with teams at Notre Dame.
Jenni Tarma, founder of Kaari Prehab and a teacher trainer for Yoga Medicine.
Beth Marek, who teaches climbers and other athletes from her studio in El Paso.
about your guide
I’m Sage Rountree, PhD, E-RYT 500. I’ve taught yoga to the UNC football and men’s basketball teams since 2008, and Hall of Fame basketball coach Roy Williams was my private yoga student for over a decade. I’ve coached endurance athletes to world duathlon and triathlon championships and 100-mile ultramarathon finishes, and I’ve raced everything from the 400 meters to 40 miles and from super sprint triathlons to Ironman. I’m the author of 13 books, including The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery, which is assigned reading in university exercise physiology courses.
I built this training because I kept watching skilled yoga teachers underserve their athletic students for lack of a framework built around the training calendar. This course is that framework, and I’d love to help you put it to work for the athletes near you.
is this for you?
Teaching Yoga to Athletes is built for yoga teachers who already teach and want a specialty with athletes and active people, whether that’s:
- a running club
- a high school team
- a climbing gym
- the athletes already in your general class
It works whether or not you think of yourself as an athlete (you’re probably more athletic than you think). Coaches, personal trainers, and physical therapists have taken it, too.
it probably isn’t the right fit if:
- you’re hoping to learn a harder, sweatier flow, since athletes get plenty of that already
- you’d rather learn live alongside a cohort than on your own schedule
your investment
$2,500, or five monthly payments of $500.
Teaching Yoga to Athletes is also the Athletes path of my 300-hour training: pair it with Mastering the Art of Yoga Sequencing to complete your 300.
A discount is available for BINW and BIPOC yoga teachers: read more
you’ll get:
- On-demand video lessons, a private podcast, an EPUB, and the Teaching Yoga to Athletes manual
-
A workbook with exercises, the movement analysis tool, and my feedback on your work
- My Athlete Sequence Planner and hard-to-find books on the athlete’s mindset
- Pitch support, website and marketing guidance, professionalism templates, and two one-to-one strategy calls
- A year of monthly 90-minute live office hours
- The complete Yoga for Athletes curriculum, plus 30 CEUs and 120 hours toward your 300
from yoga teachers who’ve taken it
Hear from graduates about their experience in Teaching Yoga to Athletes.
“Sage has a way of meeting the athlete where they are and using yoga to enhance them. She does a wonderful job of teaching yoga teachers to have that same connection.”
—Jamie McDaniel
“This course help me understand how to structure a class and a long term plan to teach yoga to athletes! And gave me the confidence to start teaching singular athletes and teams!”
—Sofia
“I have a really good understanding of the areas swimmers feel after their training. I can therefore provide them with postures to help with their recovery between sessions.”
—Tamsyn Cooper, who teaches yoga to masters swimmers
“I wanted to thank you for your good advises for my classes with the soccer team. The navasana sequence was a very good idea.”
—Nicole
“I love that I can walk away with an elevator pitch, prompts and phrases, stories, pricing structure, planned actions, short and long term goals written down and more!”
—Joy Zazzera
“If you are interested in teaching and/or designing yoga programs for the athletic population Sage’s Teaching Yoga to Athletes is a must-do program. . . . You will come away with the tools to create a successful yoga program for both the elite and the weekend athlete.”
—Gina DuBois
rest easy
If you get into the curriculum and realize this isn’t the right season for you, you have 14 days for a full refund, no questions asked. Call it a redshirt year: I hope you’ll come back and get in the game later.
questions
How long will it take?
Most yoga teachers can put the essentials to work within a few hours: Understanding Training Cycles, the 6–4–2 Framework, and Programming by Training Phase, plus the Athlete Sequence Planner. Going through everything takes 50–60 hours, and more if you lean on the coaching. Sprinters can start fast; marathoners can go deep.
Do I need to be an athlete, or know every sport?
No. You’ll learn to size up an athlete’s needs from their sport and position with a simple movement analysis tool, and we cover everything from curling to surfing, so you can focus on the sports that interest you most.
Anatomy is hard for me.
That isn’t a dealbreaker. This course emphasizes exercise physiology over pathology, and I’ll bring you up to speed on the basics in ways that are easy to understand and use.
How will I find athletes if there’s no team near me?
Athletes are everywhere: running clubs, climbing and CrossFit gyms, masters swim teams, high school programs, and the athletes already in your general class. The training includes strategies and templates for reaching them, pitch support, and two strategy calls with me to plan your first approach.
What should a class for athletes look like?
It depends on the athlete and the point in the season, and inside the training I’ll help you reach your own best answers for the athletes you serve. If you’d like an example of how I teach, try Yoga to Do Before Your Run, During Your Run, and After Your Run in this YouTube playlist.
I don’t have a van full of mats and blocks. Can I still teach teams?
Oh, yes. Teaching at a team’s facility is like catering: when you think ahead, you can make do anywhere, even on a field or a basketball court. The course includes lesson plans that need no props at all.
What if I’m not sure I want to work with athletes?
It’s still useful. The course teaches you to look at the stresses your students carry—sports training, a tough job, illness or injury—and build routines that support them, which serves every yoga teacher who works with special populations.
How is it delivered, and is there live support?
Self-paced video lessons, short readings, and action prompts, plus two one-to-one strategy calls and a year of monthly live office hours. Start anytime and move at your own speed.
Will I earn CEUs? Does this count toward my 300?
Yes. You can claim 30 Yoga Alliance CEUs, and inside my 300-hour training, Teaching Yoga to Athletes counts as 120 hours of the Athletes path alongside Mastering the Art of Yoga Sequencing. If you’re doing your 300 elsewhere, I’m happy to advocate for you with your trainer.
What’s the refund policy?
A full refund within 14 days, no questions asked.
not ready yet?
In my free 40-minute workshop, I’ll show you what athletes need from a yoga class and how to find the running club, team, or gym near you that wants a yoga teacher. It’s on demand, so you can watch whenever it suits your schedule.
