Okay so the subject of this sounds far more threatening than I intended it to be.
I almost wanted to call it ‘stop counting your students breaths’ but I want to acknowledge that there’s a time and a place where pace setting CAN work. Buuuut I’m just asking you to think twice before you throw on your invisible Britney mic and start throwing out (INNNNN…2…3….OUUUUUT 2…3s) by default.
Why? Ahhh I have SO many reasons.
A few weeks ago I wrote a post on Instagram recently about how a flow doesn’t have to be hard or fast, and was met with a bunch of resounding YES’s around the throwaway line I put in the caption about not counting breaths. It made me realise it probably warrants a whole conversation in itself.
Again. I’m not saying it should never be done, I’ve just very rarely experienced it done WELL.
Many a class I’ve been in, I’ve had to go completely off piste and self pace myself. This is something I comfortable and confident enough doing after so long teaching, but it still makes me feel a bit twatty being half a round of surya namaskar behind, just to avoid hyperventilation.
Most flow classes are inherently paced far too fast, moving at a rate that’s technically… alarming.
The NHS reliably informs me that an average adult breathes 12-16 times a minute when we’re chilling. That’s your baseline. Once you’re being counted along much faster than that - especially while moving - you’re pushing people into rapid breathing territory. I know that doesn’t sound super dramatic, but in practice it means you’re actively prompting your students’ lungs to work overtime.
People come to class to soothe their nervous systems, not hype them up with a workout that rivals Crossfit.
And we all know that just like any other part of the body, people’s lungs and nervous systems are not the same. A neat rhythm for you (probably with years of practice under your belt) could be way too fast or slow for someone else. You can’t calibrate ten bodies on one beat without someone having to force a shift in their pace.
Suddenly the aim of a student isn’t to find their own pace that’s measured and regulated - it becomes about keeping up.
When this happens, students aren’t given the chance to check in with whether this feels right in their body…they’re too busy wondering if they’re doing it right. Then when they’re OUT of sync, they end up with half caught breaths, in a bid to fall back in line.
Then how does that leave them feeling?
Shitty and shameful. That’s how. Suddenly, they’re doing it ‘wrong’. Sigh.
Significantly, as teachers too, 9 times out of 10 we’re not REALLY keeping a steady tempo for a whole minute, let alone a whole class. Once we’ve talked for even a short sentence, we’ve probably lost our place and can’t guarantee we’re prompting the right breath at the right time.
Without a literal metronome to hand either, there’s a good chance our beat will change. We speed up when we’re nervous or excited, or the movements are getting bigger or stronger.
And don’t get me started with the pranayama practices that count the breaths for people WITHOUT TELLING THEM WHAT’S COMING.
If you’re about to get me to hold my breath for 6 seconds…you’re gonna want to go ahead and prepare me in advance for that. A lot.
So if we can’t know what a student is experiencing in their body and we’re can’t guarantee to keep a steady, consistent pace, it asks a bigger question of us. Are we’re cueing for control, or cueing for autonomy?
Now I LOVE syncing breath to movement, but that’s the whole ‘think carefully’ bit I’m referring to.
This doesn’t mean never count. There can be a time and a place. Use it on purpose, for short pockets, when you actually want a shared rhythm (a collective sigh, a brief settle, a reset) - then shut up and get out of the way.
Instead of constant prompts, if we’re flowing I’ll build up to short (SHORT) flows that are familiar enough in students bodies that they can keep their own time without feeling lost. Every few postures, we’ll pause in something to allow everyone to come back together.
Let them find their own rhythm, and get lost in that for a while.
A common mini reset round I love to bring in from standing is:
(exhale) uttanasana
(inhale) ardha uttanasana
(exhale) uttanasana
(retain the exhale) roll up through the spine
(inhale) reach arms overhead like the inhale is floating them up
…and repeat.
Once. Twice. As many times as they need to find that connection again with breath initiated movement.
My students practice this reset with me a LOT in my classes so it’s as familiar to them as walking up the stairs. It’s something I’ve been known to bring in multiple times in a practice to recalibrate their breath and body when I feel like they’re flying through things, or have forgotten to connect with the breath at all.
Personally I find being counted at so fucking stressful. It’s the one thing I asked my husband and doula explicitly NOT to do when I was giving birth because I knew how mad it drives me.
This is why permission (as ever) always goes a bloody long way too.
You can ignore my counts completely.
Don’t feel like you have to keep up.
Figure out a beat that works for you.
And most importantly…
If it feels stressful or uncomfortable in any way, please do not it.
In a pranayama practice last week I purposely said I’m NOT counting for them, and 2 people came up to me afterwards saying how much they preferred it.
We well meaningly think our students want their hands held every step of the way, but sometimes that hand holding can do more harm than good, and defeats the whole purpose of us all being there.
Just one to keep in mind.
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When I teach samavritti pranayama, I explain it first, then do a few rounds of counting for them, then a few rounds for them to do on their own (without me counting). I let them know they can always shorten or lengthen the count from what I say. Good reminder in flow sequences though to remind students they can be ahead or behind of what I say in their own pace!
Yes x 1000000. I wish I could heart this post 10 times over.