Day in the life of
Yoga Instructor – Lucile Hernandez Rodriguez
My name is Lucile Hernandez Rodriguez and I am a Registered Yoga Teacher with over 500 hours of training, a holistic health coach, and meditation and mindfulness expert.
I am a yoga teacher currently focusing on online classes. Since I use an online platform to teach, a regular day for me is all about producing content through videos. I also share my expertise in yoga and mindful living through blog posts on my website but at the moment, I am more focused on creating videos so I can demonstrate yoga poses more effectively.
A typical day looks like this:
I usually teach classes in the morning before 9am, during lunch break (12 to 2pm), and at night after 6pm. I usually don’t teach on the weekends as most of my clients are corporations and professionals but a lot of other teachers do. All these classes are done online, so I do that from my home. If you are not an online yoga teacher, you need to allow time to travel to and from your different teaching locations.
In between classes I have two big blocks of time, in the morning and in the afternoon for computer work. This includes marketing and preparing my classes, managing my schedule but mostly creating content for my blog and YouTube channel, which are passive sources of income and ways to get the word out about my teaching. This time is very important for a yoga teacher as you need to have good marketing skills to succeed in this job.
I also make sure my training is always up to date by reading books about yoga and anatomy, continuing my education with online and in-person training and workshops, and preparing my classes well.
In the afternoon I often take a break for my own practice, this includes Yoga, strength training, and recovery. I recommend aspiring yoga teachers always prioritize this time too as staying inspired in your practice and healthy in your body are key to long-term success in this field. I consider myself an athlete and I use mental and physical preparation techniques to make sure I’m always feeling my best and can keep giving to my students.
Pros
- You can choose your schedule and work whenever you want. I love the freedom I have with this job, I can work from anywhere in the world, choose how much I’m working each week and at what time.
- It is a very satisfying job: my students are so grateful for the value I bring them and always tell me how much they loved my class. To them, it can feel like a welcome break in a stressful daily life or even help them to get to know themselves better. A lot of my students have totally transformed their lives thanks to yoga: recovering after an injury, building awareness of their body, reducing stress, or even increasing their own self-confidence. Often, people tell me “I didn’t know I could do that!”, I love empowering people with tools to feel good. I am so grateful I get to help people in such a positive way.
- It is very stimulating intellectually: if you’re a problem solver with an analytical mind, you’ll love this job! I get to work with my client’s physical therapist on specific issues, craft very tailored sequences adapted to precise needs and learn about how the human body works. You also need a lot of attention to details to really understand what will feel good in someone’s body.
- Working online is so fun: I love marketing and social media (I have a business background) and it is so fun to get to connect with my ideal audience through my content. Be mindful that this can be a con if you are not into marketing, in that case, I recommend learning the business of yoga with an experienced mentor.
Cons
- You are working with your body: you need to always take care of your body and mind as your livelihood depends on it. This is why I recommend thinking about refining your teaching so that you don’t depend on demonstrating as much and thinking about passive income and digital products as early as you can. This will ensure you a stable income throughout your career.
- You need to be very self-disciplined: teaching yoga can seem like a dream job, but it is a lot of work. My days are very long and I have to balance a lot of different priorities.
- You need to be a very savvy business person: teaching yoga is a business! Make sure you understand the monetary aspects of teaching such as: setting your rates to attract your ideal clients, negotiating with studios and companies, getting repeat clients, and most of all not selling yourself on price, but on the value, you can bring! As you can tell I love this aspect of teaching, but not everyone will! If that’s your case, don’t panic and get a mentor to help you with that.
