Is a 75-Minute Yoga Class Really Accessible?

Indoor yoga class with short-haired Black woman standing, hands on hips,
blonde woman with ponytail sitting on knees to her right, others in background
Photo by Bruce Mars/Unsplash

by Kenya Stump


I just completed an eight-week intensive Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) series based on Jon Kabat-Zinn's work Full Catastrophe Living. The full effects of that are still settling into my life and teachings, but a couple are already clear and relevant to this topic of accessibility and time itself.

The first are the seven attitudes of MBSR: non-judging, non-striving, patience, trust, acceptance, letting go, and the beginner's mind. The last one I have been thinking about a lot in terms of how I bring yoga to others in this world. Beginner’s mind is bringing the perspective of a beginner to our present moment. With the beginner’s mind there are possibilities; with an expert mind, the possibilities are few.

Looking back to when I first started practicing yoga, a beginner's mind perspective helps inform possibilities of how to make yoga accessible for all. I was in my teens, living in a small rural town in Kentucky with no access to a studio or gym and no public transportation. There was no social media at that time because the internet was just beginning and mobile phones were just phones with no apps. I found yoga on Kentucky Educational Television, Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and I would record TV yoga classes on video tapes. I practiced in my room, alone.

Today, it's quite a different story but some things remain the same. Broadband access is still a real issue in rural America if yoga on the internet is going to reach people. Take a look at the FCC Mapping Broadband Health in America and sit with that for a while, shocking to say the least. The same issues of lack of infrastructure and support arise for public transportation in small towns and not to mention lack of sufficient funding for public broadcasting systems. But we aren't here to talk about broadband or public transportation today even though it's part of the larger conversation.

Back to beginner's mind, as someone who was new to yoga, going to a group class for 75 to 90 minutes, if I could find one, was intimidating and anxiety inducing. Granted I had some internal work that I needed to do to be comfortable but ironically the one thing (yoga) that could bring me some therapeutic benefits I couldn't get to or tolerate in that particular group setting. The crowded spaces and mirrors never made me feel safe. I would later come to realize that those classes were not trauma-informed and I could finally make sense of my experiences.

So, the setting and environment of a yoga class as well as the length of time may not lend themselves to being accessible. For some, group classes are intolerable and for some maybe a long class with no breaks or personal time is intolerable. All of these things can be overcome if we, as teachers, come to teaching with a beginner's mind and rethink "traditional" class settings, structure, and delivery methods. Also, who even knows what "traditional" means any more in a COVID-19 world––so let's acknowledge that as well but I am speaking from my history and story.

And then there is the issue of time itself. We've often heard the saying "having the luxury of time." Merriam-Webster defines luxury as "a condition of abundance or an indulgence in something." From this perspective of time, having excess time or abundance of time to physically go to a 75-minute yoga class could be a privilege for some individuals. I began to see that even an online class, assuming internet access, may not be accessible if time is a luxury that some people don't have due to life circumstances and priorities of their lives.

If we consider yoga a form of self-care, that brings up the topic of choosing to carve out time for self-care and that we still have work to do to establish self-care as not being an indulgence. If some individuals are struggling to meet the bottom of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, one psychological theory for consideration in this context, then do we as teachers need to become curious as to how can yoga become accessible to those who do not have the luxury of time? What about those people who spend all of their time on just meeting physiological or safety needs in their lives? How can we begin to bring yoga to people in ways that encourage comfort, are not seen as an indulgence, and enable choices for a lifelong practice.

I recently began offering five-minute chair yoga practices online to people who I knew were interested in yoga but were never making it to my online classes. I received great feedback that these were "doable" and were leading to more self-inquiry, more comfort with the idea of attending a longer class. So, were my online classes longer than five minutes not "doable?

Maybe it was the time of day or day itself, or maybe it was the idea that they couldn’t sustain a practice that long that caused them to feel the five-minute class was doable? This beginner's mind was starting to work. I also began to offer written printed practices recognizing some people may learn better via reading rather than teacher-led online experiences and for other people maybe it's an audio podcast. I think blogs are important too in order to expand yoga beyond just asana.

All of this brought up the second lesson from MBSR that there are both formal and informal practices and they are both equally important. Time is essential for establishing a formal practice (you have to choose to make time to practice in order to create a regular, repeated practice), and some group studio classes have appeared to be focused on formal practicing only––which as we have seen may not be accessible to all people. But you can choose to practice yoga informally, spontaneously, without any regularity every day and in all types of ways: reading, breathing, listening, and the list goes on and on. I have seen this change in studios in my area recently. It's refreshing but there's more room to grow if we are going to be accessible.

In the end, as yoga teachers, maybe we become curious with a beginner's mind as to how we cultivate environments and teachings that enable informal everyday practicing leading to the development of formal practices. Maybe we begin to meet people where they are rather than expecting them to meet us where we are, maybe we help with broadband access and transportation, maybe we help people find time in creative ways to practice?

Could yoga involve book clubs at the local public library, could it involve working with organizations like Radio Eye to broadcast audio yoga to those who have vision impairments, maybe it means looking at new structures for studio classes like smaller sizes or semi-private with scheduled breaks for those of us who feel safer knowing an agenda and set timed experiences.

I don't offer anything here other than further questions and ponderings but sometimes the greatest thing we can do is to sit with questions and notice what emerges. I'd love to hear your comments and how all of this resonates with you.

Kenya Stump is founder of Root Rise Yoga. Kenya is a public servant by day who has been practicing yoga for 30 years. She lives in central Kentucky and received her 200-hr. yoga training from the Lexington Healing Arts Center in 2016. She completed her Trauma Informed Yoga training in 2019 and began her 300-hr. training in 2020 at the Essence of Yoga Center with Amanda McMaine. She teaches privately and writes on yoga experiences and topics.

This post was edited by Patrice Priya Wagner, Managing Editor of Accessible Yoga blog and member of the Board of Directors.

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