Yoga Teacher Confidential: Secrets of Becoming a Great Yoga Teacher

56. What Teaching Yin and Restorative Contributes to ALL Your Class Formats

• Sage Rountree • Episode 56

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I used to think teaching yin and restorative yoga were niche skills—nice to have if you wanted to teach those specific classes, but not essential to your development as a yoga teacher. I was completely wrong.

After 20+ years of teaching and training teachers, I've discovered that learning to teach yin and restorative might be the most transformative thing you can do for your teaching—no matter what style you teach. These aren't specialty skills for specialty classes. They're foundational skills that make you better at teaching everything.

In this episode, we explore eight ways that yin and restorative training transforms your teaching: understanding what's happening at the tissue level, developing functional anatomy knowledge, getting radically comfortable with silence, mastering the deluxe savasana, developing precision in your language, learning to read the room at a deeper level, working with props as tools (not theater), and developing patience with your students and yourself.

If you're ready to become the teacher who creates transcendent savasanas, who knows exactly when to speak and when to stay silent, who can read a room at the level of the nervous system—join me in the Fundamentals of Teaching Yin Yoga or Fundamentals of Teaching Restorative Yoga. Both courses are self-paced with video, audio, and reading formats, complete pose libraries, done-for-you lesson plans, and 20 CEUs. Visit comfortzoneyoga.com/yin or comfortzoneyoga.com/restorative to learn more.

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!

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Can I tell you something? I used to think that teaching yin yoga and restorative yoga were niche skills, like nice to have if you wanted to teach those specific classes, but not exactly essential to your development as a yoga teacher, I now realize that's completely wrong thinking. Here's what I've discovered. After years of teaching and training teachers learning to teach yin yoga and restorative yoga might be the most transformative thing you can do for your teaching, no matter what style you teach. And I'm not just talking about adding a couple of slow classes to your schedule. I'm talking about fundamentally changing how you show up in every class you teach. I'm Sage Rountree, and this is Yoga Teacher Confidential. Today, let's explore how learning to teach yin and restorative is a great next step for every teacher. When most yoga teachers go through their initial 200 hour training, the focus is usually on the active styles. Vinyasa, hatha, maybe power yoga. You learn sequencing, you learn assists, and you learn how to cue a sun salutation, and that's valuable. But here's what often gets skipped, how to hold space when nothing is happening, and I mean nothing in the best possible way. In yin yoga, you're holding poses for three to five minutes and sometimes longer. In restorative yoga, you're setting students up in deeply supported positions where they might stay for 10, 15, even 20 minutes. There's no flow to choreograph. There's no vinyasa to link breath and movement. There's just space silence, stillness. For a lot of teachers, this is terrifying at first. That's why I wanted to make the very first student teaching exercise in my 200 hour yoga teacher training, standing quietly at the front of the room saying nothing for minutes on end while the other student teachers look at you. Now, cooler heads prevailed. My business partner Lies said, that would terrify our new trainees, and it could even feel like hazing. But that terrifying silence, enduring and even embracing it is actually a superpower. Because when you learn to teach yin yoga and restorative yoga, you are learning skills that are invisible in active classes, but absolutely essential to great teaching. You're learning to hold space without filling it. You're learning to observe without interfering. You're learning to trust your students' process. You're learning to read a room with nuance. You are learning to deliver instructions with precision and economy. You're learning to understand the deeper layers of the body, fascia, connective tissue, the nervous system, and the subtle body, and you're learning to work with props in ways that actually support rather than just decorate. Let me break down what I mean, because this goes deeper than you might think. First, you learn what's actually happening in the body at a tissue level. Here's something most 200 hour trainings don't spend much time on how to recognize what is changeable in a body and what isn't. How to discern between compression at the skeletal level and tension at the myofascial level. When you learn to teach yin, you learn that fascia responds differently than muscle does. You learn by holding a pose for 30 seconds creates a totally different effect than holding it for three minutes. You learn about tensile loading and plastic deformation, and why the hip anatomy that works for one student creates completely different sensations for another student in the same pose. And once you understand this, once you really get how the deeper layers of the body work, you start teaching all your classes differently. You stop assuming that if a student can't do a pose the way you're demoing it, they're just tight or they need to try harder, you start seeing skeletal variation. You understand why some students will never be able to sit cross-legged comfortably or to squat with their heels on the ground, and no matter how much they practice, it has nothing to do with effort or dedication. It's about their bones. When you learn to teach yin, you become a teacher who works with bodies as they actually are not bodies as you think they should be. Second, you develop functional anatomy knowledge that transfers everywhere. Yin Yoga teaching made me better at teaching the physical aspects of every style, and here's why. Yin yoga forces you to understand target areas and alternative poses in a way that active practices might not require. In a Vinyasa class, if Warrior two doesn't work for someone, you can usually modify it fairly easily, widen the stance, shorten the reach, whatever. But in yin, if you're trying to target the outer line of the leg and the student's skeleton simply won't allow them into a particular shape. You need to understand the function of the pose well enough to offer something completely different that achieves the same purpose. This makes you fluent in variation. It makes you see poses as tools for achieving specific effects rather than as fixed shapes everyone needs to conform to. So when you're teaching a Vinyasa class and someone's low back is cranky in a forward fold, you don't just say bend your knees. You understand why you're saying it. What that changes in the posterior chain and what else you could offer. If bending the knees doesn't solve the issue, you become the teacher who has 15 different ways to approach the same area of the body and you know which one to pull out for which student. Third, you get radically comfortable with silence. In a vinyasa class, there is always something to cue. Inhale, arms up, exhale, fold. Inhale, halfway lift, exhale, fold. Again, the pacing keeps you and your students moving. But in yin or restorative yoga, you might set someone up in a pose and then that's it. They're there. They don't need you to talk them through every breath. And this is where newer teachers panic. They feel like they have to fill the space, so they over cue, they philosophize, they tell stories that might not land. They play with the music, anything to avoid the quiet. But when you train specifically in yin and restorative, you learn that silence isn't empty. It's full. It's the container. Your students need to actually feel what's happening in their bodies. It's where the practice happens, and this might be the most valuable skill you develop. Think about it. In our culture, we are deeply uncomfortable with silence. We feel every gap with sound podcasts. And may I say, thank you for listening to this one music conversation, notifications time on our phones. We've been conditioned to believe that silence means something's wrong, someone's uncomfortable, the energy is off. But in yin and restorative yoga, you learn that silence is generous. It's a gift. It's you trusting that your students don't need you to narrate their experience for them. One of my students in a yin yoga teacher training I led introduced me to this wonderful acronym. Wait, WAIT. Wait. When you feel like talking, ask yourself, wait, why am I talking? And the next stage is waste. W-A-I-S-T asking why am I still talking? And here's the thing, once you get comfortable with silence in a yin class, once you learn to wait, you bring that comfort with you everywhere you stop over. Queuing. In Vinyasa, you let your students breathe without narrating every inhale. You trust that they can hold downward dog without you reminding them where their heels are Every five seconds, you learn the difference between helpful instruction and nervous chatter, you learn to speak when speaking serves your students and when to stay quiet. When quiet serves them better. Clearly, this is a game changer. Fourth, you become a master of the deluxe Shavasana. Let's be honest, most Shavasana are an afterthought. You've sequenced this beautiful class. You've built to a peak pose. If that's the way you teach, you've wound everyone down. And then it's like, okay, lie down here, Shavasana and Ohm. Maybe you throw a blanket on people, maybe. But when you train in restorative yoga, you learn that the setup is the practice. You learn about bolster placement and blanket layering, and eye pillow weight, and room temperature, and lighting and sound. You learn that the difference between a good shavasana and a transcendent one is in the details. You learn which props to use when and where you learn that a bolster under the knees changes the entire experience of Shavasana. For someone with low back sensitivity, you learn that the weight of the eye pillow matters too light, and it just sits there too heavy in its oppressive. You learn how to fold a blanket so it supports the natural curve of the neck rather than fighting against it, you learn to read. Does this person look settled or are they still fidgeting? Is their jaw soft or are they clenching? Are their shoulders released toward the floor or are they still holding on? And those details matter everywhere. When you bring restorative skills to your Vinyasa class, suddenly your Shavasana aren't just lie down and relax. They are experiences. You know how to set people up so their low backs feel supported. You know, whether to cue knees bent or legs long based on what you've been teaching. You know how to transition people into stillness instead of just dropping them there. And your students notice, they might not know why Shavasana feels so good in your class, but they feel it and they keep coming back. Because here's the truth, students remember how you made them feel far more than they remember what poses you taught and a beautifully held Shavasana one where someone feels completely supported, completely safe, completely able to let go. That's what they remember. It's the number one tool for increasing your class retention. Fifth, you develop precision in your language when you know how to teach yin and restorative yoga. Here's something interesting about yin and restorative, because the poses are held for so long, every word you say lands with more weight. You can't hide sloppy queuing behind the momentum of a flow. If you tell someone to relax their shoulders, and that instruction doesn't actually help them relax their shoulders, they have four more minutes to lie there, wondering what you meant. So you learn to be precise. You learn to say exactly what you mean. You learn the difference between soften your belly and let your belly release toward the floor and allow your breast to create shape change in your low belly. You learn that words create experience, and that vague words create vague experiences. In yin and restorative yoga, you also learn when to offer guidance and when to let students have their own internal experience. You learn the art of offering just enough instruction to help someone find a sustainable shape and then getting out of their way. This precision makes you better at teaching everything. Your warrior two cues get clearer. Your transitions get smoother. You stop using 10 words when three will do. You also learn to avoid what we could call yoga voice, that sing song, overly soothing tone, that can actually prevent students from dropping into their own experience because they're listening to you perform relaxation rather than actually relaxing. You learn to speak clearly, simply, and then stop. Sixth, you learn to read the room at a deeper level. In an active class, you're reading bodies in motion, looking for alignment, watching for effort, tracking energy. But in yin yoga and restorative yoga, you're reading subtler signs. Is someone's breath deepening or staying shallow? Are their shoulders creeping up toward their ears? Is there tension in their jaw even though their body looks relaxed? You learn to see the nervous system, not just the skeletal system. You start to recognize the signs of someone who's in their zone of tolerance at the edge of intensity, that sweet spot where they're experiencing sensation but not overwhelm, where they're challenged in a yin stretch but not threatened. And you learn to see when someone's ventured outside that zone, even if they haven't said a word. This kind of knowledge is crucial in restorative, particularly because the whole point is to activate the parasympathetic nervous system rest and digest. But if someone's props aren't quite right, if there's an uncomfortable pressure point, if they're cold, if their room is too bright, if anything that keeps them from feeling as safe as they can, they won't drop into that parasympathetic state. They'll just lie there feeling agitated. So you learn to read, is this student resting or are they enduring? And once you can see that, you can teach to it, you can recognize when your vinyasa class needs to slow down. Even if the sequence you planned is quote unquote perfect, you can spot the student who's pushing too hard, even if their alignment is aesthetically pleasing. You can adjust your pacing, your tone, your energy to meet the room where it actually is, not where you assumed it would be. In seventh, you learn to work with props as tools, not theater. Here's something that can happen in yoga classes. Props become decorative defaults. Someone puts a block under their hand in triangle pose because you told them to, but it's not actually helping them. It's just there because blocks are what you use in triangle. In restorative yoga and yin yoga, you can't fake it with props. If a bolster is in the wrong place by a few inches, the student feels it. It's a princess. In the peace situation, if a blanket isn't folded to the right height, it doesn't provide the support it's meant to, and the student doesn't arrive in that state of parasympathetic nervous system activation. If you've stacked props in a way that looks good, but feels unstable, the student holds on and can't relax. So you learn to use props with real precision. You learn what each prop does and why. You learn to assess whether a prop is serving the student or just cluttering their space. And this transfers directly to your active classes. You stop telling everyone to grab a block if they need it without explaining what the block is actually for. You start setting students up for success by being specific. If your hamstrings feel tight today, put the block at its tallest height under your hand so you can keep lengthen your spine instead of rounding forward. You learn that props aren't for people who can't do the pose. Props are tools that help every student find the version of the pose that works for their body today, an eighth, that you develop patience with your students and with yourself. Yin and restorative yoga are slow. There's no way around it. You can't rush someone into a five minute hold. You can't speed up the process of settling into a restorative shavasana, and in a culture that values productivity and speed and getting to the next thing. This slowness is radical. As a teacher, you learn to value the slow unfolding. You learn that sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is wait. Wait for the student to find their edge. Wait for the breath to deepen. Wait for the mind to quiet. You learn that transformation doesn't happen on your timeline. And this patience infuses everything else you teach. You stop rushing through warmups to get to the good stuff. You give students time to actually arrive in a pose before moving them to the next one. You trust the process. You also develop patience with yourself as a teacher. You learn that you don't have to have all the answers right away. You can say, I don't know. Let's explore that together instead of pretending you are the expert on every body in front of you. So if you are thinking, okay, this sounds great, Sage, but I don't teach yin a restorative, how do I actually learn this patience? Here's the good news. You don't have to completely overhaul your teaching schedule. You don't have to become a yin and restorative specialist. You just need fundamental training that gives you the skills. And this is exactly why I created the fundamentals of Teaching Yin Yoga course and the fundamentals of teaching Restorative yoga course at Comfort Zone Yoga. These courses are designed for teachers who want to either start teaching in or restorative, or who want to deepen the skills that make them better at teaching anything they're structured so you can consume the

content however works best for you:

video, audio, or reading, because I know you're busy and you might have a preference for a variety of learning styles. Here's what you get in each course, A core curriculum that covers the philosophy and history of yin or restorative yoga, where it came from and what makes it distinct. The science of fascia connective tissue, which you're actually working with when you hold poses for several minutes. The science of the parasympathetic state and the nervous system and regulation. Functional anatomy for yin yoga, understanding target areas, skeletal variation, and why the same pose creates different sensations for different people. How to sequence a yin yoga class or a restorative yoga class, building a coherent arc that makes sense for the tissues or the element of the nervous system you're targeting. Queuing techniques specific to these styles, how to guide students into the poses, and then how to hold space while they're there. Working with the energetic and subtle bodies. An overview of Meridian's, qi, and how yin relates to traditional Chinese medicine and helping people find comfort with comfort in restorative yoga. And you'll learn timing and pacing, how long to hold each shape, when, and how to transition. And most importantly of all, how to read your students as they experience in or restorative yoga. Each course contains a robust video database of poses with detailed instruction, so you're never guessing about setup or variations. Each pose includes multiple variations for different body types and different levels of sensation seeking. You'll get done for you lesson plans that you can teach right away, because sometimes you just need a solid class plan and you need it now. Like when you get called on as an emergency substitute teacher. These aren't just pose lists. They're complete class experiences with themes, timing, queuing, suggestions and modifications. You'll also get access to a shared lesson plan library where you can see what other teachers in each course are creating and contribute your own lesson plans. This is one of my favorite parts of the courses because you get to learn from other teachers' creativity and experimentation, and each course offers 20 continuing education units or CEUs for the yoga Alliance. They also do count toward your 300 hour yoga teacher training if you're working with me. Each course will give you technical skills.

For yin:

how to cue a dragon pose, when to use props, and how to time a class. The restorative course goes deep on the art of the setup: how to build poses that actually let people rest. How to read when someone needs more support, how to create those deluxe shavasana experiences that make students feel like they've just had the best reset of their lives. But each course also teaches you the invisible skills. I've been talking about how to hold space. How to be comfortable with silence, how to trust your students' process, how to read fascia and skeletal variation, how to understand what you're targeting and why, and how. You'll learn about propping with precision, about creating the conditions for the nervous system to shift into parasympathetic mode and about the subtle art of helping people feel completely held. Together. These courses give you a skillset that transforms how you teach, whether you're teaching slow classes or fast ones, whether you're working with beginners or advanced students, whether you're in a studio or teaching online. Come to comfortzoneyoga.com to join these self-paced courses or visit the links in the show notes. Here's what I want you to consider. What if the thing that would most improve your teaching isn't another adjustment workshop or another anatomy training? What if it's learning to be comfortable with stillness? What if your students don't need you to fill every moment with instruction? What if they need you to trust them enough to be quiet? What if the difference between a good teacher and a great one isn't how much you know, but how well you can hold space for what your students are experiencing? What if understanding structure and function could help you finally make sense of why different students experience the same pose in completely different ways? What if learning to set up one exquisite restorative pose could teach you more about props than a dozen vinyasa workshops? And what if knowing how to set that up is the key to class retention? Yin and restorative training teaches you all of this not as abstract concepts, but as embodied skills. You practice every time you teach in every format. These aren't specialty skills for specialty classes. These are foundational skills that make you better at teaching everything. So if you are ready to become the teacher who creates those transcendent shaana, who knows exactly when to speak and when to stay silent. Who can read a room at the level of the nervous system who understands bodies at the tissue level, who uses props with real purpose? Who can hold space for whatever arises? Come join me. You can find all the details about both courses at comfortzoneyoga.com. Both courses are available now. Both will change how you teach. I hope to see you there. For now, I'm Sage Rountree, and this is Yoga Teacher Confidential. I'll see you next time.

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Sage Rountree

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