Yoga Etiquette and Caveats for Standing in the First Row

I was rushing to the yoga studio this morning for a 90 minute hot class. I barely made it. There was only a few spaces left so I put my mat in the third row. Not my usual since in our studio generally the teachers are in the front and the serious amateurs in the second. Who stands in front at yoga? Instructors, mainly, but there are exceptions.

If You’re in Front, Others Will Be Watching

I am a serious amateur and no one is going to get confused or distracted by watching me practice. But I’m not a show-off so I’m usually in the second row. If I’m not a complete fanatic, I’m a consistent regular here, and have determined that I have to come to yoga because if I don’t I get depressed. Go figure.

Our studio’s pretty casual and there’s no rules about who can get in the front. I have gone up there but I generally don’t because I don’t like being that close to the mirror.

There are some studios that have rules such as instructors only in the front row.

Anyway, right before class started this blonde woman, somewhere around my age, came in and started looking for a spot. The lady next to me and I started to move our mats over so she’d have a place … but no, she moved her mat right up to the front between two people where there was no place so they had to move over.

Right away I thought “well I hope you know what you’re doing if you’re going to stand in front of us, coming in last minute like that.” I have noticed before, I don’t like it if people come and stand in front of my slice of the mirror, especially if they don’t know the routine.

My Competitive Spirit is Activated

So my competitive spirit was activated. The blond lady was wearing Bikram shorts and as if to show her disrespect she reached back and stretched them out behind her and inadvertently mooned us. I’m sure she didn’t mean to but she didn’t have any underwear on and it was all right there.

We started the practice and she was familiar with the routine, but when we got to standing knee to forehead pose, she just held up one leg — didn’t do the full pose. We got to bow pose and she fell out halfway through.

By this time I had caught myself that I was feeling irritated. Just because she had got in front of us didn’t *mean* she had to know how to do the postures perfectly. I had gone into self-reflection: why did I feel it was my job to evaluate her yoga poses and criticize her for cutting into the front row?

But I was on a roll. “Blondes have a sense of entitlement,” I found myself reflecting, as we did locust pose. “It’s all of our fault. We’ve been treating them better than everyone else since the get-go. We overestimate blonde’s values so much that they actually think they know more than they do… “

I Call Myself Out for Being a Snob

And then I thought “Susan you’re such a snob why don’t you just admit it? This lady came here to practice yoga. She doesn’t know the regular studio practices, you can tell she’s somewhat new because she brought a bath towel not a proper yoga towel. So even though she knows the postures a little bit clearly she hasn’t been practicing that long. She did a pretty good job. Surely she didn’t mean to offend you by going up to the front. She still hasn’t figured it out. As far is that going off on blondes, I don’t know what to tell you, Susan. Where *will* your jealousy lead you? And you know intellectually, at least, that it’s good for her to be blonde and good for you be brunette. Because that’s the way it is. If you *don’t* think that’s the way it is, you could dye your hair a new color … but you never did that, so just stop it.”

After we got done I saw the blonde lady in the locker room she was putting on a tie-on bikini under an orange sweat suit with horrible stove pipe legs and these little mule slippers and over that she had a green coat that was quite fitted and kind of stylish but still the overall effect was really unusual and I wanted to tell her you can’t dress that way … This is a yoga studio! We are cool here.

It’s a Good Thing No One Can Hear Me Think

Then I caught myself.

In the end I had to admit it was a good thing no one could hear my thoughts. They would like me less for sure.

Who Stands in Front at Yoga and Why?

To answer the question, who stands in the front of the yoga studio, generally the teachers and the experts. The rationale is that this way, new practitioners can use their poses as a model. But if you really need to stand in the front for some reason — you want to check your alignment in the mirror, perhaps — or you really didn’t know that beginners don’t generally get up there, in general it’s fine. The only thing is everyone will be able to see any mistakes and you’ve got to be cool with that.

So there you go.

More on this topic:

Yoga Journal, Where do You Place Your Mat in Class? Apparently, where you want to stand says something about you and your psychology and spirit …

Yoga International: Three things I learned when I had to stand in the front row … a long time practitioner likes the back row, but gets it switched up to the front … at her first workshop with a well-known teacher.

From Daily Downward Dog: Where You Place Your Mat Says More than You Think: In which the front row is reserved … for teachers, and teacher’s pets!