Yoga Teacher Confidential: Secrets of Becoming a Great Yoga Teacher

64. From Set Sequences to Lead Teacher: Lana Boone on Finding Confidence Through Framework

• Sage Rountree • Episode 64

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When Lana Boone first started teaching formats beyond her familiar Baptiste sequence, she was terrified. Today, she's the lead teacher at Yoga Six in Potomac, Maryland, confidently teaching everything from power to restorative to sound bath—and her classes are filling up.

In this conversation, Lana shares how the 6-4-2 framework and chunking approach completely transformed her lesson planning. She went from spending hours trying to memorize set sequences to creating balanced classes in fifteen minutes. And her students? They love the consistency of practicing the same sequence for a full month.

We also talk about Jenny Rawlings' biomechanics work and why it pairs so perfectly with what I teach. Lana shares how understanding the "why" behind alignment gave her the confidence to answer student questions she never could have addressed before—including the moment a student declared her "the only one who understands biomechanics" in the entire studio.

If you've ever felt stuck in a teaching rut, scared to branch out into new formats, or overwhelmed by lesson planning, this episode will show you what's possible when you have the right frameworks in place.

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

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Can I tell you something? One of the best parts of this work as a yoga teacher, trainer, and mentor is getting to witness teachers transform right before my eyes, and today's guest is a perfect example. Lana Boone came to mastering the art of yoga sequencing my mentorship membership as a set sequence teacher who was in her words, terrified to teach anything outside her comfort zone. Now she's the lead teacher at Yoga 6 in Potomac, Maryland, teaching everything from power to restorative to giving sound baths and her classes fill up. In this conversation, Lana shares how the 6 4 2 framework changed her approach to lesson planning, why she doesn't subscribe to peak pose sequencing, and what she learned from her previous business career that every yoga teacher needs to hear. We also talk about my friend Jenni Rawlings and her biomechanics work and why it pairs so perfectly with what I teach. If you've ever felt stuck in a rut with your teaching or you're scared to branch out into new formats, this one's for you. I'm Sage Rountree, and this is Yoga Teacher Confidential. hello, my name is Lana Boone and I live in Bethesda, Maryland, which is right outside of Washington DC and I teach in what's called the DMV region dc, Maryland, and Virginia. Though I really don't get to Virginia that often, and I've been teaching for the last couple of years. In at places like, uh, Equinox and other. Luxury performance gyms and also at yoga studios in the area. I do have a dance background, so I danced for about 15 years and I got into yoga through Kundalini and I was, had looked at other, um, yoga programs before or other classes and it never really resonated with me. I was interested but I just didn't understand. I, there was just no resonance. Until finally online, I took some Kundalini classes and that just did it for me, but I was very off and on student. And it wasn't until the pandemic where I was trying to recover from my mystery virus of March, 2020 that I, I felt the desire and the need to recover through Sun Salutations on Peloton with Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts. And from there, um. My whole yoga career kind of kicked off. I felt this calling to teach. I decided to teach. I got my, um, 200 hour, and I've been teaching ever since then. But I love, love, love yoga, and as I say in so many of my classes, because philosophically it was started by the cosmic dancer. It's a cosmic dancer who carries around a drum. And so I always love to pull that element into my class and to also take some things that I learned from dance and allow people to really express and like one of my favorite Instagrammers, say, dance their yoga. Beautiful. That was a great introduction. Incredible. So tell us what styles of classes you teach right now, because you have a very broad range of classes that I know you teach really, really well. Yeah. So I teach everything from power. That's where I really got my start with, um, a modified, uh. Baptiste sequence, and that's kind of like, that is my comfort zone when we talk about comfort zone yoga. And then I also teach some more signature sequences. I'm at Y six right now. I'm the lead teacher at Y six and Potomac. Y six, meaning yoga six. And there I teach I from slow flow to, um, mobility to, um, again, their signature sequences and basically wherever they need to pop in over restore. I teach, restore restorative classes. I also do sound bath, so, uh. There's so many formats that I do teach, and what's so interesting is that before your program, I was terrified to teach them because all I had was Baptist in my back pocket. But after the program, my confidence has really soared in being able to teach all of these formats because I have a better sense of the why, why I'm sequencing, and why I'm putting together certain postures in certain shapes in a certain order. That's lovely. I know that your brain works like my brain, like you stepped into mastering the art of yoga sequencing and immediately just got it. You're like, oh, these make sense. They're easy for me to remember. Um, can you talk a little bit about why you think that is? Like what the takeaway is for you about the, um, the framework that we use inside the program? Yeah, absolutely. It was the chunking. Just thinking about it in chunks. Mm-hmm. And also thinking about trying to incorporate the 6 4 2 method in your chunk. And that applies across all formats. So as long as you're teaching yoga, you can use 6, 4 2, whether it's in, in a slow flow class, a power class, um, even a yen class. Um, I try to incorporate 6 4 2. I also teach yen. I might well let that out, but I try to incorporate 6, 4, 2 in everything I do and then. Think about it in chunks. So I was never a big, because I got into yoga for the energetic purposes, and I think that's why Kundalini first drew me in. I was never a big PA peak, uh, like a, like a peak pose type of person. I didn't look at yoga in that way. I didn't come to yoga for that. Um, I'm not trying to contort my body and some. Instant, a type of crazy shape. They're wonderful shapes. They're beautiful shapes. But that's not the reason why I personally come. Um, I'm coming to flow and move through energy. And so being able to sequence in a way that just wasn't peak and instead. Chunk it so that people just feel like they've had a really great class. They've really rung some things out, perhaps in their system that they need it to rank out, or maybe they just feel their nervous system has completely relaxed. They've entered into that parasympathetic state. The six War two allowed me to sequence in a way that wasn't just based on peak poses. And again, there's nothing wrong with sequencing for peak poses. That's just not my perspective. Um, when it comes to teaching yoga, tell me and the listeners about what changed in your lesson planning when you got into mastering the art of yoga sequencing and how your students responded. Oh my God. So, I mean, before like what lesson planning? Because I was a set sequence teacher, I was a set sequence teacher, and I might think, okay. This time in a set sequence, maybe we'll do the arms like this, or maybe we'll add some pulsing here. But my problem was I was so stuck in a groove that even if I did make a plan of how I wanted to change the class, I would just quickly forget it and just keep doing what I've always done. And so. Now really having it, learning how to create a lesson plan and learning like a, creating the bones of what makes sense for my body and then using the 6 4 2 for those bones has just, I mean, again, it's gone from something that would induce panic and unease to something that just feels so easy and it's, you know, you can take literally, as you say, 15 minutes. Chunk it all out, you know, okay, I have a warmup, I have this, I have that. You know, okay, well what am I planning to do in the middle? Well, let me make sure I kind of hit that in the warmup and then the cool down. And before you know it, like it's all over. You've done it. And for whatever reason, when I sequence in this way, it's so much easier to remember when I've got a set sequence I have to learn. Sometimes that takes me so much longer than when I'm thinking about it in chunks. And so that chunking has just been extremely helpful and has cut down so much time when it comes to lesson planning. And what, what have your students thought of it? I know that you went through, like you kind of went through a pendulum swing and then back a little bit. Walk me through that. Yeah. Well, it's really interesting because. Uh, because I was teaching this modified BTE sequence for so long, my students had, who've been with me the longest at certain places. Uh, they really love it. Uh, they didn't, well at first they said that they were bored. And so I said, okay, well I'm gonna give you something different. And then they realized, no, we love the meditative aspect of doing basically the same thing. Over and over and over and over and over again. Maybe changing it up here and there, but they realized that there was a value in in repetition. And so for those particular students, what I'll do is take some of the things that I learned, maybe change the warm. And then also take some of the things that I learned and change. Um, again, being intentional about how I change the arms or adding different things to the sequence. But I know for those particular students, they want that consistency. At my studio where I was new and I was learning all of this, they ate it up. I mean, my classes started to fill very quickly. They loved the consistency. I would change the sequence every month. They loved the idea that they could master something new every month, and, and I was very, um, open about what we were learning. And they were definitely coming on board and they've been on the ride with me, and it's been so much fun to see my classes grow and to see them expand because people truly value, uh, the work that I'm doing. And it, it's, it all goes back to that lesson planning and actually teaching. Um. Teaching people yoga in this way. You know, I was so scared of being a, like a, a physic, a physicality based teacher because again, for me, the practice was, has always been about energetics. But now I don't have that fear. I can teach the physicality, well, I feel comfortable teaching the physicality. And then I can also add energetics here and there too. So they've loved it and, um, I've, I'm always trying to figure out ways to not change the sequence within the month, but maybe do slightly different arms or maybe challenge them in a certain and in a different way throughout the month. But it's been really fun and I've seen a lot of success. Yes. Well, you are just a successful business person. You had a whole business of your own before you became a yoga teacher, and I know that that must have caught you. A lot of things that I see you embody as a teacher. You have strong boundaries. You ask for what you want and you tend to get it because you ask for it. What did you learn from your business that applies to your yoga teaching? Oh my God. Everything, but it's, it's really connecting with. The customer or in this case mm-hmm. The student. And I realized that at, at a certain point I knew I had this fear, but it was really at looking at the students and you had this really great video talking about connecting, really looking at people in the eye. And I'm so surprised that I got as far as I did, I'm being so shy, but when I really started connecting in that way. And I really started looking people in the eye and connecting with them in the class. Not only did I start having more fun, I think my students also really started having more fun. And so, you know, really thinking about not about what I need from this class, but what do the students need, what do I'm here to serve them? Um, and also basic things from, uh. Why it's important to, you know, have that connection before class. Have a connection after class. Tell them thank you. One of the things that I've been saying in my, um, in my closing when I thank everyone from, for coming before we, you know, we bow out, is, you know, we, I couldn't have, we couldn't have done this without you. Thank you for sharing your practice with me. But not just me. Thank you for sharing it with this entire community because we sincerely could not have done it without you. If students don't come, there is no class. And so making sure that students know that I see them, they are valued, I respect them. It has really gone a long way. But also, you know, I understand what a business needs to run logistically, what it needs from its employees. And so basic things like cleaning up after myself when I'm finished. A lot of teachers don't want to do that. But I think it's because they also don't realize what it takes to run a business. It's really all hands on deck. There's not unlimited money, you know, just growing on these trees. No, we don't. We don't have the money for a cleaner, so look out for the person coming behind you by just, you know, sprucing up a bit. So, and again, negotiation. Always negotiate, and I've learned that if I'm not getting what I feel like I'm worth, there's going to be resentment and I don't want that resentment to grow over time. So I'd rather have a conversation and say, Hey, this is what I teach at. You know, is it possible to meet this? And these are my terms. And is it, is it possible to meet, meet this, and then see what the studio has to say? Um, I will say that yesterday I was just announced the lead teacher for yoga six and yay. And it's just amazing that it's, it's really even come so soon. Um, but again, it's just from everything I've learned from your course and then the course that you recommended, Jenni's course in biomechanics, and it's just given me this confidence because I feel so knowledgeable about what I'm doing and most importantly why I'm doing it. Hmm. Detour a little bit and talk about the things that you've learned from Jenni Rawlings. Oh my God. Like, I can't, I'm like, Jenni Rawlings is a patron, a patron saint of yoga in my book at this point, because what she offers is incredible biomechanics. So, I don't know about you, I mean, I'm sure you, you've probably had this experience, 'cause I think you've, I've heard you mention it, where you can go to a variety of classes and you hear teachers say different things about the same. Um, the same posture, for instance, like one tradition will say, turn your foot out to this degree. Another tradition will say, don't do that. Okay, so then what's the truth? And people can be very adamant that their way is the truth. And it really depends on what tradition you're coming from. Um, and the tradition I came from in Kundalini, we don't really concentrate that much on alignment. Because we're just working through that energy. But in other traditions, alignment is really important. But, but why? And understanding that it was from a more traditional lens was so helpful. With Jenni, she teach, she teaches evidence-based, um, biomechanics, so really understanding the body and understanding. I, and this is also understanding how resilient the human body is was just so helpful. I no longer have any doubts about where that back foot should be there because Biomechanically, I know that as long as the student feels stable, they're probably okay. I mean, I had so much fear around injuring students because of what I had been told in a lot of these classes, and to learn that actually. You really, it's really hard for people to sincerely injure themselves with such, in such a low impact and slower practice like yoga. Um, she has these courses on anatomy and I just flew through them because the information. It was so digestible and they were just so beneficial and so specific towards teaching that I could apply it immediately. And the course on pain science, again, was incredible because how many students will come up to you after class asking you about their pain? And while I would always say, Hey, and I still do, I'm not a doctor. I can't diagnose. Because of Jenni's work, I actually have a better idea of what is happening in, in a wide variety of bodies. And that is so crazy because just four months ago I would not have been able to answer those questions. And so with Jenni's work on biomechanics and evidence-based, um, um, evidence-based movement and creating a good sense of movement eyes as she's, uh, as she talks about. You know, I have students coming up to me all the time asking me about alignment positions, asking me about a pain here or a pain there. And again, I let them know I'm not, I'm not a trained doctor, but what is your goal for this particular posture? If your goal is this, well then guess what? I had a student ask me about half pigeon. You don't have to angle that leg, that front leg out at 90 degrees, if you'd just really like to have that glute stretch. I could not have told her that before. Or maybe you do wanna feel a really deep external rotation. Maybe that's your goal for the practice. Alright. Then extend that leg further out and roll up to center. But just knowing the why and being able to help and serve my students has just. It. It has been the best feeling and it's been incredible. So I'm so grateful that you made that recommendation because it also has transformed my teaching and with the both of you. It's the reason why I can now be a lead teacher at a studio, particularly so quickly after I've gotten my 200 hour YTT myself. And one last story. There was this one older student. Apparently she had asked everybody, all the other teachers in the studio, this one particular question and she finally got to me. It's about her Don dog. She had arthritis in her hands, and I gave her, luckily, I mean, Jenni had already talked about this, so I knew exactly what she needed to do. And we said, well, let's play around with these certain things. I had her walk her hands back, shift some of the weight to her legs, this and that, and then she walks out the room, out the studio to clear us to the entire lobby. Lana is the only one who understands biomechanics in this place. She is the only one, and that felt so good knowing that I had none of these skills four months ago. I love that. Uh, Jenni's work, I think is such a perfect compliment to the things that I teach. She focuses, as you say, on biomechanics, on anatomy, and I focus on physiology, the adaptation to stress kinesiology, our movement in space, and then pedagogy, like how we're gonna put that all together into a lesson plan. So I think her work is just the perfect compliment to mine. It is the perfect compliment. You've taken, MMM, and you've taken the restorative yoga course that I offer as well as the yin yoga course that I offer. Will you share a little bit about what you learned in those courses? Yeah, so the restorative course was great because, and I'm gonna tell you, I love your sequence libraries in terms of, I love the way you set them up. So I, I, I am not a choreographer. I've always been a dancer, but I've also had no desire to create choreography. And it is so nice to be able to go to a library. I love how you have your, um, sequences that you can follow, or you also have all the various different shapes you can make and you can put to put them together, uh, yourself based on the 6 4 2 method. And so that makes it so easy because I'm like, all right, did I hit my. A, do I have a, a four fold in here? Do I have a back bend? Do I have some lateral bins? Um, I loved learning about the history, for instance, of restorative yoga, the why behind restorative yoga. One of my favorite, favorite parts was the languaging. Um. You have around, I forgot that section's title, but what's, what was So swipe file. The swipe file where it gives you different ideas of what you can say in a restorative class to help deepen the, the, not only the physical practice, but also the. Meditative practice of, um, of restorative. And while I don't say a lot of things verbatim, what it does do is just give me ideas, especially as I see how the room is in the energetics of that particular room. I remember something that I see on the swipe file and then I can apply it however that particular room needs it in that time. So that was, I mean, it's so comprehensive. You have the history, you have the why, you have the science, then you have the movement library, and then you also have the, you know, all of the poses laid out. It's organized so well, and I've taken other courses and, you know, genius's courses is also organized extremely well. But it's just, I see the time and the thought taken to make sure that no matter what style of learner you are. You will be able to learn this material, and it's just, it's so rich and so immersive in that way. And with Yin, I haven't gotten a chance to actually go through the course. I've been taking, you know, bits and pieces of from the library to teach, but I, I know that it. Basically, it's the same in the sense of how it's organized and it just gives me a level of confidence and a level of inspiration. And I said, oh yeah, you know what? That would be a really good way to organize this, and that would feel really good. It just doesn't take me so long to plan anymore before I might go on Gaia and I might watch and do a whole bunch of videos and then try to plan on something that I saw on Gaia, and now I don't have to do that anymore. More. I don't, I can simply come to the library and then it makes my life so much easier. And then it makes me knowledgeable about what I'm actually teaching because I'm not the type of person that wants to just, um, that, that can just is, is willing just to say anything or to pretend. I don't want to pretend to be something that I'm not or to have knowledge that I don't naturally have. I'm not gonna wink it. And so it feels so much better to have this so that I'm not winging it. I know what I'm talking about. I know the history, I know the why, and I know the movement, and that's invaluable. Great. Good. You know, the, the sense of confidence you get from being secure in your knowledge is directly freeing up your energy to be more present with your students and see them better, so it becomes this really positive spiral snowball effect. Absolutely. And even little things. I remember you said this in a video as well and it was so helpful to me. You mentioned how a lot of times before you teach, you have like this feeling of you almost don't wanna do it. And I realized I have that same feeling and then after you teach, you're like, oh my God, that was that. Like, I feel great. I'm so happy I did that and just. Knowing that you're not alone in that, that's the value of mentorship. I had no idea that other teachers might have that same feeling and that that feeling has nothing to do about whether I should be teaching or not. No, it might be just a little pre-class anxiety. It just might be a whole wide variety of things, but knowing that. You also have that feeling and knowing how I'm gonna come out at the end. It was just, again, it's so helpful and that's why a mentorship is valuable. Yeah, being a yoga teacher can sometimes feel like, uh, you're totally siloed and you're out there alone. And it's so good to be in community with other folks, both inside mastering the art of yoga sequencing and the Prep Station, which is the monthly membership that comes with it. And just in comfort zone yoga, having people on my monthly. Free calls. It's so sweet to get a chance to connect with people so that they feel less alone and like, oh, I'm not the only one yet who has these pre-class nerves. Yeah, and I can contextualize this like, oh, it means I care It, it's priceless. It really is priceless. It just, again, it changed my teaching it, it changed my teaching because again, some, something wasn't, something's not wrong with me because I have pre-class nerves, like you say. It's just because I care. So, um, yeah, just invaluable information and it has completely revolutionized how I teach. Thank you. Thank you so much for saying that. I think that's a perfect place to leave it. Yeah, what a wonderful testament. I'm very grateful. Um, will you tell people where they can find you in the DMV and online? Yeah, sure. So I currently teach at Equinox and I mostly Bethesda, but also I, um, will sub all around the area. Teach at the St. James in Bethesda, Maryland. I teach at Yoga six. That's where I'm the lead teacher in Potomac. And you can find me at lanaboone.com. L-A-N-A-B-O-O-N e.com. And if you'd like to know more, just. Simply send me an email. I'm not on social media that much because I don't like social media and I'm trying to be the change that I wish to see in the world, but who knows? That might change over time. But right now, yeah. Lana boone.com if you ever wanna reach out. Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you, Sage. What a gift to hear Lana's story. I love how she talked about the difference between teaching physicality and teaching energetics, and how having solid frameworks actually freed her up to bring more of herself to her classes. A few things stood out to me from our conversation, the power of chunking your sequences so that they're easier to remember the value of teaching. The same lesson plan for a. Full month so your students can master it alongside you and the confidence that comes from understanding the why behind what you're teaching. If Lana's experience resonated with you and you want to explore working together with me, head to sagerountree.com/mentorship to learn about Mastering the Art of Yoga Sequencing, Or join us in the Zone, my free community for yoga teachers at comfortzoneyoga.com. You can also read about my yoga class planning prep station there and my full 300 hour yoga teacher training. You can find Lana at lanaboone.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Sage Rountree, and I'll see you next time.

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