Yoga Teacher Confidential: Secrets of Becoming a Great Yoga Teacher

39. Teaching Yoga in Small Spaces: Maximize Every Inch

• Sage Rountree • Episode 39

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Tight rooms, big challenges—and even bigger opportunities!

In this episode, I share lessons from years of teaching yoga in spaces that may have seemed too small on paper but that turned out to be perfectly intimate in practice.

You’ll hear my go-to strategies for mat arrangements, movement economy, managing props, and creating a powerful group energy, even when everyone’s elbow-to-elbow. Plus, I offer a fresh perspective on the hidden gifts that small spaces bring to your teaching practice.

If you’re working in gyms, multipurpose rooms, or cozy studios, this episode will help you turn limitations into teaching strengths.

Want to become (almost) everyone's favorite yoga teacher? Get in the Zone at Comfort Zone Yoga, my virtual studio focused on teacher development. I have a ton of Sage advice in there for you—let's chat there!

For more insights, subscribe to Yoga Teacher Confidential, check out my YouTube channel, and follow me on socials:

And come explore my mentorship program, continuing education workshops and 300/500-hour teacher training programs. It's all at sagerountree.com.

Can I tell you something? I once taught a yoga class for 12 students in a space that would've been crowded at eight students. We were so tightly packed that when students raised their arms in mountain pose, their fingertips brushed against their neighbors. During Warrior three or airplane pose, I had to play air traffic controller to keep legs from colliding. And during Shavasana, students were practically spooning. It wasn't ideal, but we made it work, and surprisingly many students afterward commented on how intimate and connected the experience felt. While I wouldn't recommend regularly cramming too many bodies into too small a space, that experience taught me valuable lessons about adapting to spatial constraints. Welcome to Yoga Teacher Confidential. I'm Sage Rountree, and today we are talking about space management for small rooms.

That is:

how to make the most out of limited space while still delivering a safe, effective, and enjoyable yoga experience for your students. Whether you're teaching in the corner of a gym or a community center multipurpose room, or a client's living room, or just a small studio room, Spatial constraints don't have to limit the quality of your teaching. With thoughtful preparation and some creative approaches we'll discuss today, you can transform even the most compact spaces into functional yoga environments. Let's start by examining the pre-class setup, which is always important, but particularly crucial in small spaces. How you arrange the room sets the tone for the entire experience for your students, and it can make the difference between chaotic crowding and. Organized coziness first, take a good, clear look at the space, assess your space. Honestly, what are its true dimensions? Are there immovable obstacles like columns or radiators or furniture that you can't move to the side? What's the ventilation like? Is there air flow? Is their adequate lighting? Taking realistic stock of these factors helps you plan. Next, determine your true capacity. Now, in ideal conditions, each student needs about 24 square feet, a six foot by four foot space that allows for a standard six by two and a half foot yoga mat with room to extend arms and legs without collision. But in reality, many spaces offer less than this ideal. If you're working with tight quarters, you might need to reduce your maximum student count or to adapt your teaching accordingly. When you're setting up mats, consider ways to set them up beyond the standard grid. The traditional approach places, mats and rows facing the teacher, but this isn't always the most space efficient option. Here's some other ideas. You could do a staggered grid where you offset each row so that students' shoulders align with the spaces between mats and the rows ahead and behind them. This can increase your capacity by like 10 or 15% while still allowing students to move their arms right and left. You could try a diagonal arrangement where you position mats at a 45 degree angle to the walls. This often uses the corner space of the rooms more efficiently, and it can allow for slightly more maneuvering room for arms and for your body as you move through the room. A center facing circle can be particularly good for small groups. It creates a community feel and maximizes the edge space for movements that extend beyond the mat when students are at the back of their mats. Be strategic about your own teaching spot rather than automatically claiming the front of the room as yours. Consider whether teaching from a corner or even from the center channel with rows of mats facing in might be better. Sometimes walking a narrow path between mats is more disruptive than finding one good single vantage point from which to guide the practice. I know it's easy to feel like you have to pace the room as a teacher, but that's not necessarily true, especially in small spaces. I found it helpful to mark the floor with small, unobtrusive round stickers or gold stars, and then you could then ironically say there are no gold stars in yoga. These stickers would show students optimal mat placement, so that eliminates the guesswork for the students and it prevents that inevitable mat creep that happens when each person tries to grab themselves just a little extra space. You can simply instruct your students to put the front left or the front right corner of their mat on the sticker. Finally be thoughtful about prop storage and prop accessibility in small spaces. Having everyone rush to a prop shelf or a prop closet simultaneously can really get congested. Consider setting out the essential props before a class for your students. That's another way to demarcate exactly where they should set their mats or create simple prop kits that students can grab quickly off of a shelf instead of having to reach up here, down here, down here. Now let's talk about how to adapt your actual teaching and sequencing for limited space. The fundamental principle here is intentional movement economy, making every pose and every transition, purposeful and space aware. First, consider the footprint of your sequences. Some poses require more space than other poses that face the wide edge of the mat, like where to an extended side angle needs some significant width. It poses with extensions of arms and legs, like half moon or standing. Splits need room in multiple directions. Flowing sequences with large steps or jumps or mandala shape movement need transitional space between poses. On the other hand, narrow stance poses, symmetrical poses like mountain pose and chair pose and narrow stance. Poses like warrior one require less width. Seated and prone poses generally stay within the mats. Boundaries, uh, wide straddle as an exception and slow control transitions need less buffer space than dynamic ones like kicking up or jumping through. When teaching in small spaces, I recommend you plan sequences in footprint zones rather than thinking pose by pose. In fact, I recommend that regardless of the space of your room, that you plan your class in chunks instead of going all the way down granularly to the pose by pose level. When you plan in chunks, then you can think, how will I orient the students on their mats relative to each other and in the room for this segment of the class? So you could start with poses that keep students contained primarily on their mats, seated, prone, reclining, supine. Then move to a section with wider stances, but minimal transitional movement facing the long edge of the mat, followed by floor work that stays entirely back down on the mat. This shows up in my framework for planning classes, which is explained in my book called The Art of Yoga Sequencing. Love to have you read it and then review it on your favorite bookstore site. Some sequences will face the short side of the mat and others will face the wide edge of the mat as I cover in the book. And there are various home bases prone, supine, seated tabletop, and standing. When you spend some time in each, you create a balanced sequence and your students can feel it. In a small room, be particularly mindful of asymmetrical poses in tight quarters. Having half the room extend right legs while the other half extend left legs can prevent collisions. Similarly, staggering transitions rather than having everyone move simultaneously can help manage flow in constricted spaces. So you could almost do it like you're doing the wave in a sports stadium. Now certain yoga styles naturally adapt better to small spaces. Yin and restorative practices, for example, with an emphasis on supported stillness. They work beautifully in snug environments, but even vinyasa or flow yoga can work in tight spaces when you modify the transitions and when you limit expansive movements. Communication becomes even more critical in small spaces. Your students need your clear guidance to move safely and respectfully when quarters are tight. Start class with transparent acknowledgement of the obvious spatial constraints. Rather than apologizing repeatedly, which can create a negative focus frame it positively we're cozy today, which gives us a wonderful opportunity to practice awareness and to practice deliberate precision in our movements. Be explicitly clear about how students should navigate the space. For example, you could say, as you transition to standing, please come up to the right side of your mat to avoid your neighbor's space. Or for this flow, we'll all face the same direction, to create more room for movement. Visual demonstrations become particularly helpful in small spaces. If your students can see you when verbal directions might be confusing, a quick visual clarification can prevent a room full of flailing limbs. Now, you may need to stop your students position yourself where everyone can see you as you demo, even if it means demonstrating just portions of poses rather than the entirety of which you'll actually cue. Develop a space specific vocabulary that helps students visualize their movement zones in tight quarters. I like to use the concept of personal space. We used to talk about this when I was a child. Personal practice bubbles, or imagining an invisible box around each mat. These mental models help students modulate their movements appropriately. Remember that your voice will carry differently. In a small space. You generally won't need to project as much, but you'll want to be mindful of volume variations. A too loud voice in a really small room can feel overwhelming and completely opposite of the vibe we're going for in yoga class while whispering, overcorrecting and getting too quiet can create strain for students as they try to hear you. Let's talk about managing energy and temperature in confined spaces. This presents unique challenges beyond the really obvious spatial constraints in a small room, because small rooms heat up quickly when filled with moving, breathing bodies without proper ventilation. A space that initially feels really cozy can very quickly become uncomfortably warm or even stuffy. If possible, a arrange for ventilation that you can adjust, even bringing in a simple fan can make a big difference. Be prepared to modify your sequence should the room become too warm, because you may need to swap vigorous flows for more contained movements that generate less heat. In cold weather, a small space might start out kind of chilly, but warm really rapidly. Once students begin moving there, it's helpful to suggest ahead of time that your students wear layers that they can easily remove or add back and consider starting with more active poses to generate warmth quickly rather than beginning with a long still centering practice down on the ground. Those classes might be best served to start standing. The energetic dynamics of small spaces are really fascinating. When your students practice really close to each other, they sometimes become more attuned to the collective energy of the group, and this can create a powerful sense of community and shared experience. It's a unique benefit of small space teaching, but on the other hand, it can amplify distractions or discomfort. To harness the positive elements of the proximity of being in a tight space, you could incorporate brief moments of awareness of the collective experience, point out what is actually happening. You could say stuff like, feel the shared rhythm of breath in our space, or notice how our movements create a synchronized energy in the room, even though you should be moving on your own rhythm. These cues help transform what could be perceived as crowding. Into an opportunity for meaningful connection. It's about the spin. Now, for some students, the close quarters might trigger anxiety or claustrophobia explicitly. Offer permission for your students to step out briefly if they need to, and allow any students who want to put themselves in your exits or windows to have first dibs on those spots. Sometimes simply knowing that they can leave provides enough reassurance that the students don't actually need to. Props require special consideration in tight quarters. While props can enhance the practice tremendously— I'm a giant fan of props!—they can also create clutter and trip obstacles if they aren't managed thoughtfully. So before class, consider which props are really essential for your sequence and which might just be optional. In very tight spaces. You might decide that blocks are necessary, say, but bolsters could be replaced with folded blankets or are not used at all. Or you might select one single multipurpose prop, like a strap or a blanket that can serve various functions throughout the class. Be strategic about when and how props are distributed and collected. Having students gather their props at the beginning of class can prevent a disruptive movement of everybody to the same space in the middle of the room when you suddenly realize you wanted a prop. But it also means that props are taking up precious floor space when not in use. One solution is to incorporate your props consistently throughout the practice rather than using them for just one or two poses. This is a great way to train your students about how props are not crutches. Props are really useful tools a way, in a way, deeper. Encourage creative prop use that maximizes the function while minimizing the spatial impact. For example, you could use a folded blanket as a meditation cushion, a support for seated poses, and a pillow for Shavasana. And of course, you can use it as a blanket if the room were to get cool, and that eliminates the need for multiple props. If you're teaching regularly in the same small space, consider investing in space efficient prop alternatives. There are half blocks that are available. You could go for some thinner blankets or even like a thinner travel size bolster, and that will reduce the space consumption in your small room let's address one of the most challenging aspects of small space teaching: managing movement and transitions safely when students are in close proximity to each other. First, simplify transitions between standing and floor poses. Instead of flowing dynamically through Chaturanga or stepping directly from down dog with a leg up into a lunge, you might guide students through a kneeling position first. This creates more controlled, predictable movements that are less likely to encroach on their neighbor's space. Consider teaching your transitions in waves rather than having everyone move simultaneously. This might mean queuing one side of the room to transition first, followed by the other side, while it sacrifices some of the beautiful like school of fish shared synchronized rhythm of a typical class. It can create safer movement patterns in a really tight space. Be especially mindful of poses where students commonly lose balance, like half moon pose in shapes like that. Consider having your students work near walls for support or modify the expressions to prioritize stability over full extension of arms and legs. Now inversions require particular attention in small spaces rather than teaching full inversions that might lead to students kicking or toppling onto their neighbors. Consider more contained variations. Wall space can become really premium real estate for supported inversions, and there might not be enough. Everybody to do things at the same time. So you may need to institute a rotation system so everyone has an opportunity to use the wall during practice, or just don't teach those inversions in that small room wide-legged seated poses like your straddle poses can be especially challenging when mats are close together because they can put people nose to tail instead of having everyone face the same direction. Consider arranging your students in staggered or concentric circles. In this case, their feet could be pointing toward the center of the room. And yes, they, their feet might be off the mat, but this creates more room for everyone. Over my two decades of teaching, I've collected some specific sequencing strategies that work particularly well in small spaces. Here are a few of my favorites. Vertical Emphasis Practice focuses on poses that extend up and down rather than wide to the sides. Think mountain pose variations, cheer pose, forward folds and narrowest stance. Standing poses. Even in the smallest spaces, students can usually extend fully toward the ceiling without collision. I did once have a six foot eight or six foot nine inch student who was too tall to do handstand in the room at Klu. He had to go into the hallway to practice. A mat bound flow keeps movement primarily within the perimeter of each mat. And this can work really beautifully for creating flowing sequences. Without using wide transitions, cat cow can flow into down dog planks, hins, cobra Locust. You can create a dynamic practice that never really extends much beyond the mats edges, but be sure to balance this time facing the short edge of the mat with some time facing the long edge of the mat. A stationary stance sequence uses a single standing position for multiple upper body variations. Uh, if you read the art of yoga sequencing, you'll see a six moves of the spine from chair pose. That's a great example of this. Another example would be your classic movement where students come into Warrior two and then without moving their feet transition through extended side angle, reverse warrior triangle, maybe even reverse triangle. I bet you already teach this one a lot. This creates variety without requiring additional floor space or movement of the legs. Sometimes spatial constraints are just one aspect of a challenging teaching environment. Let's briefly address how small spaces intersect with some other common issues. Your room could be small and loud when you're teaching in a small space that's also noisy, like a room next to a busy gym floor. Focus on clear visual cues and demonstrations rather than relying solely on verbal instructions, establish simple hand signals like an orchestra conductor, or point for key transitions, and position yourself where everyone can see you clearly. Maybe a room is small and dark. Limited lighting combined with a small space can create some visibility challenges. You could dress in lighter clothing so that students can see. You better use consistent verbal cues to supplement what students might not be able to see clearly. And consider bringing some portable lighting if the space allows it. You can get one of those LED lights that you charge up with A-U-S-B-C cable and take it into the classroom. It can go a long way. Your room might be small and multipurpose. Think like a community room or a seminar room. Many small teaching spaces serve multiple functions. If you're teaching in a space that transforms from like an office to a yoga room, create a simple, efficient setup protocol that you follow every time. You could use painter's tape or laminated cards, three by five cards showing furniture placement before and after class. And that way your students can help you with transitions. Maybe your space is both small and temporary. Pop-up yoga venues like conference rooms or festival tents often combine a smaller footprint with temporary infrastructure. Uh, dance floor like you would see for an outdoor wedding in these settings, prioritize stability and safety over elaborate sequences. Avoid poses that put pressure on tent or other temporary walls, and be aware of seams in those MO mobile portable ballroom floors. A few final thoughts about the unexpected benefits that can emerge from teaching in small spaces. First spatial limitations often lead to pedagogical innovations because necessity is the mother of invention. Some of my most creative teaching solutions have emerged from adapting on the fly to challenging spaces. These innovations frequently then translate well to larger spaces, and that expands your teaching toolkit overall. Second small space teaching tends to emphasize quality over quantity. When you have less room for expansive movements or complex transitions, the focus naturally shifts to an inner practice. It focuses on subtle awareness and thus are all valuable aspects of practice that might receive less attention in settings where you have all the room in the world. Third intimate spaces create unique opportunities for community building. Students who practice in cozy spaces often develop stronger connections with each other. It's hard to stay isolated from your neighbor when you are in really close quarters. Finally, teaching effectively in small spaces builds tremendous confidence. If you can create a safe, meaningful yoga experience in a converted storage closet or in the corner of a gym, you'll feel prepared to teach absolutely anywhere. Let me leave you with this thought. The physical constraints of your teaching space don't need to constrain the depth, quality, or impact of your teaching. In fact, working within the limitations of a small space often reveals new dimensions of practice that could have remained undiscovered in more ideal circumstances. The essence of yoga transcends spacial requirements. Yoga is bigger than any small room. While a spacious and purpose-built gorgeous yoga studio might offer certain advantages, the heart of the practice, the union of breath movement and awareness, the sense of connection can flourish in even the most modest settings. Here's an affirmation to help you remember. I create sacred space through my presence, not just through physical dimensions. I create sacred space through my presence, not just through physical dimensions. If you have creative solutions for teaching in small spaces or questions about specific spatial challenges you've been facing, I would love to hear from you. Join our discussion at comfortzoneyoga.com. It's my free community for yoga teachers. There's a link in the show notes. Thank you for listening to Yoga Teacher Confidential. I'm Sage Rountree, and I'll see you next time.

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