I’m a yoga teacher and I’m fat. I know some people think that it doesn’t go together and wonder, is it possible to be fat and do yoga? I’m here to tell you YES!
First, let’s remember that yoga isn’t about touching your toes, it’s about what you learn on the way down. (A lot of people have said this, including me in a yoga class and I can’t find a specific person to attribute it to.) Many people come to yoga for the yoga butt and stay for what they learn about themselves. Of course, there are some that only stay for the yoga butt or the competitiveness to do every pose perfectly. That’s not yoga, that’s gymnastics.
How I Came To Yoga
When I first found yoga, I was 200 pounds and had just quit smoking. I wasn’t there to lose weight or get a yoga butt. I was there because I wanted my breath back. Along the way, I found a calmer me—which was amazing. I also gained confidence and strength, all of which led to losing weight as I started hiking and learned how to cross-country ski. When I took my yoga teacher training, I was curvy, not skinny and I didn’t want to be skinny. I liked my curves, my big hips, and my strong thighs.
But over the years, injuries (not from yoga) started to interfere with my practice. Then an opportunity to work full-time interfered with teaching. And slowly, yoga and hiking became a sometimes thing and the weight crept back. I’d like to say that it’s ok, but it’s not. Not for the reasons you might think. How I look depends on my confidence not on whether I’m fat or skinny—that I got from yoga. No, instead of looks, I’m concerned about how my body feels with the excess weight, and the strain I’m putting on my heart (hey, I’m in my 50’s, not my 30’s.) I’m concerned about how my knees and ankles feel, carrying the weight around. And I’m concerned that I spent so much time trying to regain my breath and I need to find it yet again.
And now, with injuries from a car accident still interfering, yoga is harder than it ever was. I know I can do yoga when I’m fat, but can I still be a yogini if I can’t bend my knee into lotus or pigeon pose? How about if I can’t stand in Mountain or the Warrior poses? The answer is still YES! Because yoga isn’t about the pose, it’s never been about the pose. For me, it’s about why I came to yoga in the first place. Yoga is where I came to heal myself. And that is why I need to come back to yoga again, to heal. It doesn’t matter that my knee won’t allow me to get down on the floor to do seated poses, I can use a chair. And even if my back won’t allow me to do standing poses for very long, I’ll do them as long as I can. And I will focus on my breath. It’s time to heal.
Why did you come to yoga? Why do you stay?
****If you don’t believe that yoginis can be large and beautiful, I dare you to gaze upon the awesome beauty that is Jessamyn Stanley, a yoga teacher. Or check out Anna Guest-Jelley of Curvy Yoga. Both beautiful women, doing beautiful yoga.
I haven’t done much yoga in a while, but this really makes me want to start up again. I stopped doing it out of frustration for the pose. Even when I’m at my thinnest I’m not flexible. I was always so self conscious. Thanks for this!
You don’t start yoga because you’re flexible. You start yoga because you’re not flexible. And while you learn flexibility on the inside, your body learns it on the outside! One of the best things I ever learned in yoga was to “stay on my mat.” Which means, don’t compare yourself to others. You might be starting out, but looking at someone who has been doing yoga for years. Don’t compare.
“You don’t start yoga because you’re flexible. You start yoga because you’re not flexible.” Love that. And I’m NOT flexible at all lol. Great post!
Time to start yoga!
This was a beautiful post in every way. In just a handful of paragraphs I pulled several quotes…including this one “I spent so much time trying to regain my breath and I need to find it yet again.” I don’t love your injuries but I love how they only limit your physical movement…not your spiritual movement. Yes you can be a yogini.
Thank you. If I didn’t read your post first, I don’t think I would have uncovered this one. So thank you for lighting the way.
I do Pilates and love it for the healing movement and breath. It’s not about what you can’t do, it’s about what you do with what you have.
Breath and movement lead you in the right direction.
I love yoga and love my gentle yoga class and my instructor who created it just for me! It keeps me balanced, stretched and grounded. I am overweight, gravity has taken over and have cellulite looking like a gallon of cottage cheese. But I am thrilled to be up, around and walking and that trumps anything else. Great post and good for you, Jennifer! Good. For. You.
I taught yoga to seniors for years (my oldest student was 96) and the one thing I saw was how yoga helped to keep the strength and balance they had far longer than if they weren’t doing yoga. One of my students used to come to yoga using a cane and three months into twice a week yoga classes she got up and walked out of class and forgot to take her cane with her.
We recently started yoga, and love it. I love the sense of calm I get doing it, and hey if I get a yoga butt it will be an added bonus!
Yes, the yoga butt can a gift of the yoga…..lol. I was once waiting for a class to end so that I could teach the next one and as the previous teacher left, I overheard one of my students say “if yoga gives me an ass like that, then I’m all in.”
I’ve fallen off the yoga wagon, but your post has reminded me–in such an honest and well-written way–why I need to get back to it. I remember feeling so grounded–on and off the mat–when I was practicing regularly. And feeling so much more at ease in my body. Thanks for a great post!
That is exactly what yoga does, it grounds you. Especially important in this modern world of mad rushing about and to-do lists.
Yoga centers me. I really do need to do it more often than though…
It’s funny how we do that with yoga. That thing, which helps to center us, sometimes gets put away because we don’t have time, until that moment we realize it needs to be a priority.
I came to yoga because it was another means of exercise. Since I was obsessed with my bathroom scale, I was also preoccupied with fitness. And crash diets. And those women’s magazines that promised a better booty by Friday. But when I found yoga, yoga found me –and revealed me to myself. That was a game changer! And yes, that’s what it’s all about. This article ROCKS!
Thanks! You came looking for the yoga butt, and found yourself instead. I love when yoga does that.
It sounds like you came a long way! As long as you feel good about yourself, you should not need to be measured by the scale. Yoga is a wonderful way to stay healthy!
Hi Jennifer,
Yoga is not about the body but the spirit as well. Somehow the marketing industry focus too much on the external image instead of the internal. From my own experience, yoga brings balance and helps you be present. I became calmer and more confident! Be proud for being a yoga teacher, cheers!
Zaria
I keep meaning to try yoga, but unfortunately, most of the classes I’ve seen were full of fit and skinny people.
I love doing yoga. I try to squeeze in a class during my lunch break because it helps alleviate the stress, and also stretch out my muscles from my other workouts. The classes I go to have people of all shapes and sizes. At the studio I go to, my instructor often reminds the students that it’s not about how flexible you are and it’s not a competition. Pay attention to your own body and yoga is all about practice. .