BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Yoga Crowded Yoga Class

What do you do if your yoga class gets crowded? Ours is about at its limit. Should she close the door at a certain point and not let more people in? Take reservations and the first 13 get into the class? I don't think the gym has a larger room available to put us into.

Maybe the teacher just changes to only doing poses that have you fit perfectly on your own mat area?

yeah i'd squeeze people in and adjust the poses. Everyone should have a chance to play.

I take yoga at the local Y and at some times of the year, the class is packed. However, only so many mats can fit so the best option for me is arriving early to get a good spot.

Definitely if we get say more than 14 people there is simply not any more room for the mats. So you have to do something then.

This past time we were near our limit and this woman was trying to squeeze in, and the male next to me was just NOT getting it. I finally had to ask him gently to move his mat so that she could fit. He did move at that point.

But interestingly a few weeks ago we had a similar problem and once again it was a male who was not moving. The rest of us all had to slide around to make it fit. These are the only 2 guys we've ever had in the classroom. Maybe they're not quite as aware about sharing? I am baffled that it's the 2 guys we've had this problem with.

I know this might be a little untrue for many people, but i think men are naturally more competitive and women more cooperative, just by nature of testosterone.

Human Tetris anyone?

Also many of my fellow males have very poor noticing and interpersonal skills!

I wonder too if the guys felt really uncomfortable about being in a "woman's class" so they were trying to hide and not look at people and therefore didn't even realize what was going on. I.e. they were trying to stay quiet and "look inside". So that's also an option.

But it did strike me after months of classes that the only 2 times we've had an issue was once with each of our only 2 guys.

You have to remember that men and women are hardwired completely differently from hormones to neural net. Plus of course the cultural input, men tend to turn inwards when doing things and are less aware of the outside world -in Europe and the US at least . Speaking as the only man at a bellydancing class before now I was surprised at the comment by the more experienced practitioners that I had a level of spatial awareness that they didn't expect from a man. I put it down to my martial arts training

So I guess this makes me a dude then? I don't like being all crowded and if somebody is trying to find a space and I don't feel like moving because I'm already as close to the person next to me as I feel I need to be then I won't move. Sorry but first come first serve. Find another spot not next to me : )

I guess this is probably why I stopped going to the first studio where I used to practice. I didn't want to feel people especially guys breathing on me when I was practicing, know what I'm saying : ) Ewe! I've had this happen and it's gross and completely disrupted my concentration.

Most guys aren't as aware as Ian and I think most women are too willing to share their personal space. I'm all about boundaries these days and it totally works for me.

I have as much room as i like working my yoga at home with my own space, props and goodies. That option is always available to me.

So I say in a class situation, squeeze them all in! Maybe more people will get into yoga that way. One thing i was afraid of with yoga at first was that it felt a little elitist if you were a newbie. It all felt so serious! I did lots of work with dvd's until i felt like i could even try a class and keep up.

I don't like being crowded either, but if it bothered me enough i'd find less crowded times to work out, or find a different gym that was less populated.

Culturally speaking people in the US usually require the most amount of personal space in a shared area. Middle Eastern countries much less, along with China and Japan. At diplomatic parties I have watched people from the Middle East literally chase people from the US all around the room as each tried to adjust the interpersonal distance to a comfortable one!

I agree that I don't like to be crowded. On the other hand, in a straightforward matter of logistics, let's say six people are in a room. Now say a seventh person comes in, and it's still well within the pre-class time. So they're not "late" at all, they're quite on time. That seventh person has to go somewhere. There are two options.

One, the class can adjust as a whole so that there is now room for seventh person. Everyone has an equal amount of space, and everyone shares in what the room can hold.

Two, let's say the people refuse to move, meaning the new person simply wedges their mat into whatever space they can. This means whoever they are next to are *seriously* impacted. Now it would be the luck of the draw if a given student was not impacted or seriously impacted. It could be any person who had that serious impact inflicted on them.

Long term, it would seem in everyone's best interest - since over time everyone would have that serious impact hit them a few times - to instead adjust to the class size each time.

Lisa, I guess we can agree to disagree!

I do understand your frustration, though. Crowds make me anxious. I like a lot of space. I do see that as my own issue - something I need to work around personally, rather than needing the class itself to make a global solution.

Ian, that is a cool insight. I love hearing about cultural psychological differences! I have to wonder about the space issue in the US - we are a pretty spread out country with a lot of room. We don't have extended families sharing roofs (usually). We consider it important to all have our own bedrooms and offices and often value individuality over community. Hmmm.

Jilly -

I think we do agree? Aren't we both saying that we should squeeze in whoever comes to a class, and do our best to make them fit?

So - back to human tetris then?

may be but i am not sure!

This is an interesting line of conversation. Everyone has great ideas about what can be done! Ian, I've seen the differences in personal space requirements in action when I studied Arabic at the Defense Language Institute. It was the first time I'd ever encountered the need to be ok with someone in my "comfort zone". Not easy for a shy 20 year old, for sure!

Jilly and Lisa, I think you're both expressing the same idea just in different ways. I agree that the more students that can be present the better, simply because of the impact that taking a yoga class can have for people. Where I teach there are occupant limits for each yoga room. There is also a policy in place that prevents people from coming into class after it has begun or if room has reached its occupant limit. In regards to the spacing of mats, I assess the room before I begin teaching and I'll have the students adjust themselves so that everyone has space to move and the layout in the room is more or less even. I believe it's both the responsibility and the prerogative of the teacher to arrange the students so that everyone can comfortably practice.

Of course, if the teacher doesn't take that on, you could always request the person crowding you to move so that you don't land on them if you accidentally fall out of your hand stand