I started teaching Hot Yoga with Meegan at Hotpod Margate back in 2021, and since moving back to London I’ve been teaching at the West Dulwich, Brixton and Belgravia Hotpod Yoga studios. While the practice can look the same in or out of the heat, the experience for both students and teachers can be very different.
As a hot yoga teacher, you’re guiding people through often intense physical sensation and mental challenge, so it’s important to tune into what you can do for your students and yourself, to support that process. Here’s some things I’ve learnt on my Hotpod teaching journey.
Language is important
This is important in or out of the heat, but it’s definitely worth mentioning. There really is no need to overload students with an assumed hierarchy of poses or variations, especially when they’re simply getting to grips with the experience of being in the heat and on the mat. Moving away from labels like “advanced” or “basic” helps students let go of self-judgement and tune into what feels right for them.
Coming back to awareness helps move the narrative away from performance and “pushing through” and more toward presence, even if that means taking a pause in child’s pose. When students feel supported in making individual choices regarding rest and modifications, particularly at the beginning of their yoga journey, they can prioritise the mind-body connection, which is what it’s all about.
Always come back to the breath
Again, this feels obvious considering everything in yoga returns to the breath, but in the heat it becomes even more essential. When the body is working hard and the mind starts to resist, the breath is often the first thing to change, and the first place we can come back to. Simple cues like “return to the breath,” or choosing silence so students can tune back into their inner metronome are a must.
The quickest way to calm the body’s physiology is through the breath, so mindfully weaving those reminders into your teaching helps students access those pockets of calm and build physical, mental and emotional resilience in the heat.
Getting off the mat
With the added heat, particularly when teaching multiple classes a week, managing my own energy through the intensity is essential. Learning to pause and step away from the mat felt uncomfortable at first, but it came with real benefits: it allowed me to observe and support the room more clearly without exhausting myself trying to demo everything.
While visual cues have their place, making use of vocal cues gives your students the chance to explore the shape in their own bodies, strengthening their own mind-body connection rather than simply mimicking you. Individual bodies also need individual cues, so conserving energy physically by not demoing means you can give more catered support without burning out.
Sequencing creatively
Having a familiar framework you keep coming back to means sequences can be different, but still make sense. The Hotpod Flow follows an arc, building gradually and reaching its peak intensity around the halfway mark. I also use ladder sequencing to layer movements slowly, giving students a chance to settle and feel into shapes before adding anything new.
Picking a theme — hips, heart openers, or balance, for example — helps me choose poses that fit together and make sense in order. You wouldn’t start with a pose that requires maximum openness, for instance. Once the order is clear, I can get creative with how one shape flows into the next. When we get to the final round, the movements we did right at the start are true to the vinyasa style: one movement, one breath. In the intensity of the heat, students are anchored by familiarity through the challenge.
How teaching hot yoga has affected my own practice
One of the biggest lessons teaching hot yoga has reinforced for me is the value of slowing down. Heat and intensity can often make things feel urgent, it’s easy, for both me and my students, to rush from one shape to the next. But resisting the urge is real practice in cultivating calm. This guides my own practice and shapes what I hope to share with students: when we prioritise presence, slowing down allows us to move mindfully and truly feel the experience of each pose.
Teaching at Hotpod has helped me become the teacher I am today. Seeing students work through the intensity of the heat and keep returning to awareness again and again is an amazing thing to witness and be a part of.
So if you’re thinking about becoming a yoga instructor, Hotpod offers an excellent yoga teacher training programme. And if you’ve already done your YTT and are interested in becoming part of the team, get in touch with your local studio.