Sage Rountree's Blog, page 16

Nail Your Timing: How to Perfectly Pace Your Classes

True confessions of a yoga teacher: we always go faster on the second side! Learn why—and how to correct this in your classes.

Discover the secrets to nailing your timing as a yoga teacher for a seamless student experience. Learn how to avoid rushing through the second side and to make the most of your cues.

We cover how to improve your awareness of timing, incorporate neutral poses so students can reset, and assess your teaching using a free tool you’ve probably got in your hand right now!

Want more advice like this? Check out The Professional Yoga Teacher’s Handbook! It’s available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.

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Give me your email and I’ll send you my go-to class plan with ideas for every minute. This is the class I teach when my energy is low—but it’s the favorite of my students from 20 to 80 years old! I’ll even give you tips on how to adapt it for various class formats.

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Last Call: Teaching Yoga to Athletes, July 8–12

As we covered two weeks ago, many teachers—and students—make one common mistake when thinking about yoga for athletes: they go WAY too hard.

read about this common mistake

You can avoid this problem by thinking through where your athletes are in their training cycle, then devising a practice that complements their current needs. That means programming something that’s in inverse proportion to the intensity of their workouts or competition. When they’re in the offseason, they can work harder on the mat. In season, go easy!

If you would like to know all about how to help athletes—and people in general—by applying the principles of exercise physiology alongside yoga philosophy, join me for Teaching Yoga to Athletes.

I used to wish aloud that I could find a book or a resource that explained how yoga and my endurance sports training would mesh together. Eventually, my husband pointed out that I should be the one to offer these resources! That’s the origin story of my first book, The Athlete’s Guide to Yoga.

As I was researching and writing that book, I earned several coaching certifications that I then put into effect guiding athletes to world championship races in triathlon and duathlon, and top performances in running and ultrarunning. I know from all sides—the teacher’s side, the athlete’s side, and the coach’s side—how yoga and sports can mesh in harmony.

And I want you to know, too: let’s explore this together!

This is the last call for registration for the in-person workshop, July 8–12 in Carrboro, North Carolina. Sign up before 11:59 p.m. on May 1 to join us at the early bird rate. If we don’t meet our minimum for the workshop, you’ll get a nice discount on the online training, which is available anytime.

What: Teaching Yoga to Athletes Five-Day Teachers’ Intensive
Where: Carrboro Yoga Company, central North Carolina
When: Monday–Friday, July 8–12, 10 a.m.–1 p.m. and 2 p.m.–5 p.m.

Want to see what you’ll be getting? Smart!

read the full workshop descriptionsee the syllabus & take a free unit

Send me an email with any questions for me, and be sure to sign up before registration closes on May 1.

The post Last Call: Teaching Yoga to Athletes, July 8–12 appeared first on Sage Rountree.

Volume and Pacing Make Your Yoga Class Good

Yoga teachers: here’s how to find the perfect volume and pacing so your students can best receive your message. Learn how to speak clearly and effectively, avoiding common pitfalls that can hinder your students’ experience.

Want more advice like this? Check out The Professional Yoga Teacher’s Handbook! It’s available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.

AmazonBarnes & NobleBooks A MillionBookshop.orgIndigoPowell’sTargetWalmart

And sign up for my teachers’ newsletter to get Sage advice in your inbox weekly:

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Feeling uninspired when it’s time to plan? I'm here to help!

Give me your email and I’ll send you my go-to class plan with ideas for every minute. This is the class I teach when my energy is low—but it’s the favorite of my students from 20 to 80 years old! I’ll even give you tips on how to adapt it for various class formats.

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The post Volume and Pacing Make Your Yoga Class Good appeared first on Sage Rountree.

Free Book Talk on The Art of Yoga Sequencing

Join me for a free virtual book talk on The Art of Yoga Sequencing!

Tuesday, May 14, 2:00–3:30 p.m. EDTHosted by The Thread Yoga Collective

I will explain my theory for sequencing fresh, contemporary yoga and mindful-movement classes that reflect the diversity of modern practitioners. You’ll immediately gain practical tools for serving your students and designing balanced classes and private lessons, no matter what style of movement you teach. And we have time for Q&A, so you can get my advice on how you can best help the people who turn up in your classes.

I hope to see you there! It’s totally free—please sign up in advance to hold your spot.

register here

The post Free Book Talk on The Art of Yoga Sequencing appeared first on Sage Rountree.

Yoga for Caregivers Channel

Caregiving is hard work. Whether you are taking care of a parent, a child, a friend, or your own self, you need to refill your well so you can keep it up. Yoga can help a lot.

My colleagues Julee Waldrop and Cammie Presler have a fantastic new resource for you: a YouTube channel devoted to short yoga practices for caregivers.

Julee and Cammie are both nurse practitioners and both yoga teachers. They know intimately the work that goes into caregiving. They will support you in supporting yourself so you, in turn, can support those you care for. It’s a win/win—and it’s free!

Here’s their description of the page:

Join Julee Waldrop, DNP, FNP-BC, PNP-BC, EBP-C, CNE, FAANP, FAAN, RYT 200, and Cammie Presler, DNP, CPNP, CPON, RYT 500 as they teach you practices that will support your ability to care for yourself so you can care for others. This video series is meant for nurses, health care providers, caregivers, or anyone that needs a break but doesn’t know how to take one. No previous yoga experience required. Everyone can do this.

You can subscribe to their page here.

This is one of my favorite offerings there—a yoga nidra practice led by Julee.

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Read: Best Hamstring Stretches for Runners

Runners: your tight hamstrings should be a badge of pride, not of shame!

They are an effect of your training to deliver maximum power. You need stiffness to be an efficient runner.

What’s more, you don’t need a ton of flexibility to run well. Unless you run hurdles or steeple, you need just enough to move through the range of motion of your stride. You don’t even need your hamstrings to be flexible enough for you to tie your shoes with straight legs—instead, rest your shoe on a step and keep your knee bent!

All of this said, you might enjoy hamstring stretches and find them relaxing. And you DO need to be able to relax to run well. (On which, please see The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery, now in a new second edition!)

This article I just wrote for Yoga Journal is here to help you find some hamstring stretches you’ll enjoy, and modify them to best suit your body. And as a bonus, I sneak in a little yoga philosophy for you!

Read it at Yoga Journal, and let me know how the stretches work for you.

The post Read: Best Hamstring Stretches for Runners appeared first on Sage Rountree.

Cut the Filler to Be Clear in Yoga Class

Discover how to eliminate filler words that can diminish your impact as a yoga teacher. Learn to be specific and engaging in your instructions to create a more meaningful yoga practice for your students. Don’t miss out on this valuable tip!

Want more advice like this? Check out The Professional Yoga Teacher’s Handbook! It’s available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.

AmazonBarnes & NobleBooks A MillionBookshop.orgIndigoPowell’sTargetWalmart

And sign up for my teachers’ newsletter to get Sage advice in your inbox weekly:

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Feeling uninspired when it’s time to plan? I'm here to help!

Give me your email and I’ll send you my go-to class plan with ideas for every minute. This is the class I teach when my energy is low—but it’s the favorite of my students from 20 to 80 years old! I’ll even give you tips on how to adapt it for various class formats.

First nameLast nameYour best email address *

Super! One more step: please check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

The post Cut the Filler to Be Clear in Yoga Class appeared first on Sage Rountree.

Are You Thinking About Yoga for Athletes All Wrong?

Are you thinking about yoga for athletes all wrong?

Many teachers and students make this common error: they go way too hard.

Yoga for athletes is not athletic yoga. It shouldn’t be a workout—as we teachers like to say, it should be a work-in.

The more serious an athlete is, the more specific conditioning they are doing for their sport. They don’t come to yoga to build strength! They come for relaxation, recovery, and maybe flexibility. They come to feel better. They come to find a complement to all the work they do in training.

Too often, though, teachers think, “Athletes! Got to make them work!” Not so.

Or teachers lead a practice that they personally enjoy. This fails to recognize that athletes might have pretty extreme sport-specific tightnesses that make many of the things we do in a typical flow yoga class, like tons of forward folding, uncomfortable at best and counterproductive at worst.

This video explains why yoga for athletes is not athletic yoga. It tells how we should be working to periodize yoga for serious athletes, so the intensity of the yoga practice is in inverse proportion to the intensity of training: 

The video is from the free sample unit, unit 1, of my flagship online yoga teacher training, Teaching Yoga to Athletes. If it jibes with your approach, keep working through the sample unit. Better yet, sign up for the full course.

This summer I am leading the first in-person version of this five-day course since February 2020!

I’d love to have you join me.

When: Monday–Friday, July 8–12, 2024
Times: 10 a.m.–1 p.m. and 2 p.m.–5 p.m.
Where: Carrboro Yoga Company, Carrboro (Chapel Hill), North Carolina

Since folks come from around the world for this workshop, we have a very aggressive early bird registration date: May 1. That means we will know whether we have hit critical mass before you would need to book your travel.

It also means it’s time to commit! Send me a message with any questions about the training, I’ll happily answer them ASAP.

Read all about it + registerSee the full online course

The post Are You Thinking About Yoga for Athletes All Wrong? appeared first on Sage Rountree.

Watch: Book Talk on Balance

Thanks to Flyleaf Books, our fantastic local independent bookseller, for hosting me earlier this month!

I spoke on the subjects of my two recent books: The Art of Yoga Sequencing and the second edition of The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery. Both are about finding balance—especially the balance between making things happen and letting things happen.

A highlight of the talk was having most of the cover team there: Alexis Besosa, one of the two cover models; Radhika Deshmukh-McDiarmid, our fantastic photographer; and Jenni Rawlings, whose blurb appears on the front cover.

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Listen: Another Mother Runner Podcast on Recovery

I had a great time chatting with Sarah and Tish of the Another Mother Runner podcast about all things recovery! The episode is live today wherever you get your podcasts, or listen here:

The show notes read:

Any runners looking to avoid injury, feel stronger, or improve their performance need to listen to this enlightening, entertaining episode with guest Sage Rountree, Ph.D., a recovery coach, former Ironman, and author of The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery. Along with hosts Sarah Bowen Shea and Tish Hamilton, Sage tells:

-how she’s gracefully accepted being a walker now, not a runner;

-why runners need to take rest—before it comes for them;

-what ice baths and hazing have in common;

-a surprising answer of her favorite recovery tool; and,

-how training for a race is like toasting a marshmallow!

Tish shares some St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah tales before Sage saunters in around 9:49.

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Please enjoy our chat, then get your copy of the book!

Buy the Book

Want a preview? Get “Recover Like a Pro” by popping your email in the form here!

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Learn how the pros emphasize the fundamentals to maximize performance. This free guide contains the three very low-cost things you should focus on to do your best—and the one thing you should skip, despite its popularity.

Pop your email in the box and I'll send it right over!

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