Table of Contents
Introduction
As an ever-active woman — cycling, hiking, swimming — I found my body craving a different kind of movement around the age of 40. Something more fluid. Yoga fit the bill. The alchemy of choreographed vinyasa and attention to breath, the collective effervescence of a room moving together, and the deliciousness of stillness at the end of practice made me a yogi.
What I didn’t know then was that I was entering perimenopause. That was 23 years ago — before the books, podcasts, and public conversations we’re having now about the menopause transition, strength training, and whether or not to use menopause hormone therapy.
Like many women, I experienced hot flashes, night sweats, poor sleep, fatigue, brain fog, irritability, and rage. Yoga helped, especially learning to breathe in new ways and building a kind of strength I hadn’t felt since my 20s.
But it took me a while to find the practice I actually needed. And I think my teachers could have helped me get there sooner.
When the Practice No Longer Fits the Season
Looking back, I realized I was navigating perimenopause — the years of hormonal change leading up to the final menstrual period, which can begin in the late 30s, 40s, or early 50s. For many of us, it arrives when life is at its fullest.
Mine landed while I was raising girls, and I had to accept the irony that as my hormones were looking for an off-ramp, my daughters’ hormones were ramping up. I was a mother, a partner, a business owner, a citizen, a friend. I was also caught up in a fitness culture that prized pushing yourself, maintaining your weight, and looking good.
I certainly didn’t tell my yoga teachers I was in perimenopause. Twenty years ago, nobody did. My friends didn’t talk about it much beyond veiled allusions to “the change” — or “another glass of wine, please.” And my yoga teachers didn’t talk about it at all.
It might have helped if they had. Because back then, yoga was a willing partner in the most unhelpful parts of fitness culture. Teachers encouraged students to challenge themselves, go harder, stay longer, don’t give up. Some power classes ran so long there was no time left for savasana.
Somewhere toward the end of my 40s, I realized I needed a different kind of yoga practice. Your students might be feeling this too.
Why Pushing Harder Backfires in Midlife
The problem with cueing mostly for challenge or intensity — especially in standing balances and twists — is that students hear the challenge but not the invitation to modify.
That matters in midlife, where osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and other musculoskeletal issues can show up. Many women notice changes in joint comfort, tissue elasticity, and balance in their menopause journey. Bone density is invisible, and many students don’t know about the health of their own bones unless they’ve had a DEXA scan. And because their sense of identity is also shifting alongside physical changes, students in this season of life often need both physical and emotional support.
Yoga teachers are uniquely positioned to offer that support. While strength training currently dominates the midlife health conversation — and for good reason (Hugger Mugger contributor Michelle Marlahan makes the case beautifully in What Changes in a Midlife Yoga Practice) — yoga offers a complementary, restorative kind of support that weights alone cannot provide.
Six Ways to Support Students in Perimenopause and Beyond
Menopause is experienced by women and people of all genders, arriving naturally, surgically, or through medical treatment. While the strategies below benefit every student in the room, they are particularly valuable for those navigating this stage of life.
1. Use invitational language
Offer options that normalize different ways of practicing, and present them as equals rather than a ladder from accessible to challenging. For instance, in Tree pose, you might offer: Keep your toes on the floor, rest a hand on the wall, or lift the foot higher. Each option is its own practice.
Permission is a skill many midlife students have never been taught and desperately need. Every time you offer it, you make it easier for them to tap into the teacher within.
2. Build in and extend rest
Lengthen the window for stillness at the end of class, and add short pauses between periods of effort. Rest is part of the practice and essential for physiologic recovery and long-term wellbeing.
3. Share your own experience, if it feels comfortable
If you’re in this season yourself, a little self-disclosure goes a long way. Owning your brain fog — “I’ve just lost my place, so let’s take an extra breath while I find it” — tells students that forgetfulness is human. It's also likely temporary.
Sharing from your own experience is always optional. But when you name what some of your students might be managing, they feel seen.
4. Make props a support network
Normalize blocks, straps, bolsters, and the studio walls as a network of support. A block under the hand in Triangle, a strap around the foot in a reclined hamstring stretch, the wall at your back in a standing balance.
Props help students find pleasure in the practice rather than fixating on what they can’t do compared to others in the room, or compared to what they used to be able to do.
5. Cue from the inside out
Emphasize the experience of a pose over the appearance of its shape. Instead of “knee over ankle” or “ribcage over thigh,” you might try "Find the place where your standing leg feels most rooted” or “Where do you feel the breath moving in this twist?
Inside-out cueing builds interoception, the capacity to read the body’s signals. That skill becomes more valuable in menopause transition, when the signals themselves are changing.
6. Keep learning (and know your scope)
Beyond what happens on the mat, deepening your own education helps you teach with confidence. Specialist books written specifically for yoga teachers — such as Niamh Daly’s Yoga for Menopause — offer invaluable depth. Part of teaching well is knowing when to refer out; so always encourage students to bring specific medical symptoms to their healthcare provider.
Key Takeaways
- Students in perimenopause and beyond often hear the challenge in a cue, not the invitation to modify. So make the invitation explicit.
- Rest is a teachable skill. Extend it, protect it, and make it easy to access.
- Self-disclosure, if it feels comfortable, can normalize what students are managing.
- Props are part of a support network that makes yoga practice more pleasurable.
- Cueing from the inside out helps students track a changing body.
I didn’t need a different body in my late 40s. I needed a different invitation. That’s something every teacher can offer.