From the article: Yoga Etiquette
We've all seen bad yoga etiquette disturb classes and fellow students. What breech of yoga etiquette most annoys you? Is it the ringing cell phone, students wearing shoes into the classroom, or that one yogi who always skips savasana? Here's your chance to vent about bad yoga behavior.
Readers Respond
not being ready
- I take the time to make sure I arrive and am on my mat ready to go. The people that tax my patience show up late, or don't prepare. So the blocks I thought to have next to my mat suddenly become their blocks. Or they ask me to scoot my mat over to make room for them. Or noisily setting up while the rest of the class is in meditation. Their cell phones are not off or - they are still chatting on them! Aaarrrgghhh! What, did your parents not say "I love you" enough? So it's up to the yoga class to give you tons of attention, even if it's negative? People stepping on my mat is bothersome too. It's my sacred space, please don't walk on it!
- —Guest jennifer
Doing your own routine
- Besides people stepping on my mat, the other thing that really bugs me is someone doing their own, completely different flow in class. Unless it is a mysore class, I think that person should stay at home...it is distracting when I am a student and when I am teaching.
- —Reggae_Yogi
Move your mat!
- What drives me the most nutty is when someone will not move their mat up or back to avoid colliding during sun salutations. More than once, I'll move my mat up, they'll move up. I'll move back, they'll move back. Or they'll keep lining up with me (where my body is), even if my mat is further back, when if they took one step forward on their mat, they wouldn't bump into me. Arg!
- —Guest Anne
Leaving at the worst time
- I take a very early yoga class once a week and there are always a couple of people who decide to leave during the relaxation portion of the workout. I understand that people sometimes need to leave early, but it's tough to truly relax when you're hearing the rustling of shoes, jackets being zipped, mats being rolled up, stomping and doors slamming. Very distracting.
- —Guest Paige
I get annoyed by the "look at me" person
- Yoga is supposed to be a pleasant, harmonic experience between you and your body. I find it very distracting when I am near someone in a yoga class who craves attention. They start talking, or grunting (my personal favorite - if you're grunting, you're pushing too much!) or make such a production out of each posture that everyone looks over at them. It's like trying to meditate with the television on at full volume. Distracting!
- —EKJacques
Moaner
- In addition to the over-exerting grunter, there is the moaner -- the one for whom the experience is so transcendent that they "mmm," "aaaah" and "ooo" like they are having an orgasm. Extremely distracting and annoying.
- —Guest Laura
Don't Lecture
- Yoga instructors that lecture and impose their own values upon their students. i.e., benefits of a vegetarian diet, dangers of being over weight, don't drink coffee, dairy is bad, etc, etc, etc. Stop! We are there for peace and serenity, not to be lectured and judged.
- —tonid183
Going Commando!
- As just the 2nd man in my class I was asked by my embarassed teacher if I would 'have a quiet word' with the guy on the next mat who also was 'inappropriately dressed' for a mixed class and was obviously deliberately 'showing his wares'. I think he got the message as he never returned to the class. Shame really as I often feel like the 'odd one out' in the class- but we can do without such characters. It's just not Yoga!!
- —Guest William Gordon
rude people
- I always arrive 30 minutes early to my vinyasa yoga class to get a good spot in the studio for my personal focus, and to relax and meditate before class. As I am patiently waiting for the class before mine to finish class, gather their belongings and leave the studio, there is always that one person that darts in through the front doors of the studio, and cuts right in front of me and the other people waiting, and gets the spot that I came to the studio 30 MINUTES EARLY to get. Talk about bad manners! What did their mother teach them about respect for others?! I don't let other students bad etiquette affect my yoga practice, but I can't help getting annoyed by ignorance.
- —Guest Katherine
smelly mat
- I once had my mat in front of a woman who had clearly not cleaned her mat in a long time. It smelled so strongly of rotten something that I almost threw up. Normal body odors don't bother me--I consider it a given that people will sweat. But you definitely need to wipe down your matt regularly, not just roll it up and put it away for months to get musty and rotten smelling! That one experience sticks out as the only time I really felt upset about someone else's behavior. Any other time, I quiet these thoughts by turning it inward and double checking that I am not doing anything that anyone might be bothered by. Though, just as a side note: tall people do need more space than short people! It is just a fact of life. If you notice there is a tall person near you, do not be surprised if an occassional pose brings some part of them off the mat by an inch or two. Give a 6 foot person a little more space than a 5 foot person. It is a unreasonable to expect them to fit in the same area.
- —Guest T
JM
- Leaving a class early during the relaxation or savasana is ok, but PLEASE tiptoe and close the door as quietly as possible instead of letting it slam.
- —Guest jomig
going commando!
- I attend hot yoga classes. One time I got flashed by someone who was wearing short, loose, shorts and no underwear. Definitely broke my concentration!
- —Guest Marie
No Kids Allowed
- I've been doing yoga for about a year. There are no classes near me (I live in an area of the USA that most of you probably haven't heard of) but I do get together with a few others and have yoga sessions with a more experienced yogi. I despise it when they bring their children with them and expect them to sit still and be quiet. No one can concentrate when a three-year-old is whining to her mother about wanting to get her toy out of the car or having to go to the bathroom. I can't imagine the parent is getting a good experience, and she's ruining it for the rest of us too.
- —Guest Leslie
Chattering
- If you come to class with someone, please do not chatter with them the whole class! Yesterday a couple came in, matted next to each other and chatted in not one, but TWO languages. Even whispering travels far in a studio!
- —Suzychevy
Scent
- Don't stink. Perfume and B.O. might as well be the same thing in a yoga studio -neither facilitate a good experience for those who surround the offender.
- —Guest J Biddy
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