As a social media platform, Instagram is perfectly suited to portray the grace and flow of yoga. Plus it’s also a great way to spread the word about your own yoga business.
However, it’s easy to get sucked into the glossy, styled pictures, and not see the hard work, blood, sweat and tears that gets people there. But there are some accounts out there that show yoga as it really is. Or themselves for who they really are. They’re the yoga teachers that make us feel like our dream pose is achievable, that sometimes even the most inspiring teachers have an off day, and that we’re all in this wonderful yoga world together.
Whether you’re looking to further immerse yourself in a worldwide community of yogis, looking for some fresh inspiration or just looking for people to help ground you on days you feel you could float away – these are ten of our favourite yogi accounts to follow.
See Also: The Yoga Teacher’s Guide to Instagram
1) ADAM HUSLER (@ADAMHUSLER)
Teaching in top yoga studios and exclusive settings across London every week, Adam Husler is one of the city’s most in-demand yoga teachers. A simple week for him is 18 classes, so he’s a busy boy. This teacher has an athletic background, including boxing and ultramarathons – no half-hearted normal marathons for him.
Why you should follow him:
For the jaw-dropping yoga poses, performed with such apparent ease – I didn’t know flying was a yoga pose?! As well as the boyish good looks, (well, we’re not blind…). Plus he’s a proper man’s man and a teacher to get your other half to follow as an inspiration to get into yoga – and to reassure him that it’s not a girls-only pursuit!
2) JULIE MONTAGU (@JULIEMONTAGU)
Julie Montagu is quite the package. She’s a top London yoga teacher – one of the headline yoga teachers at this year’s Wanderlust festival – international best-selling author, TV/magazine regular, wellness guru, and a mother of four, who encourages us all to live the life we dream of. Plus she’s married into one of the oldest aristocratic families in England and runs yoga retreats from the family estate, Mapperton House. This year she was on the presenting team for Harry and Meghan’s wedding – our new favourite royal couple.
Why you should follow her:
With a megawatt smile, Julie’s account is about feeling good – inside and out. She’s had her own share of ups and downs and has emerged from them all with a fabulously positive attitude to life, as well as the most incredible splits – this yoga teacher makes us all feel that a healthy, happy way of life is attainable – if not her amazing flexibility.
3) JESSAMYN STANLEY (@MYNAMEISJESSAMYN)
Loud, proud, and an inspirational yoga teacher, Jessamyn Stanley isn’t one to mince her words. After accidentally discovering a love of yoga at college, she started posting her poses on Instagram, and ended up being a hugely influential teacher. She’s written a book, ‘Every Body Yoga’ and teaches all round the States.
Why you should follow her:
Because she speaks her truth without apology. She’s a big, black, gay, Southern American woman who stands out from the thin, white insta-yogi crowd, is 100% authentic, and is inspiring a new swathe of people to have the confidence to take up yoga, whatever their body shape.
4) CARRIE OWERKO (@CARRIEOWERKO)
Carrie is an American Senior Iyengar yoga teacher with a difference. Small, but with incredible, playful energy, she inhabits the poses with grace and strength, and fabulous pictures of her in the poses are often accompanied by poetic (but not in a naff way) quotes.
Why you should follow her:
Being an Iyengar yoga teacher myself, I find Carrie’s instagram account a really helpful mix of technique (there are some brilliant videos on how to prep for the harder poses, such as titthibasana), but also a reminder that it’s important to play in yoga.
5) KERRI VERNA (@BEACHYOGAGIRL)
Kerri Verna is one of the big stars of the instagram yoga scene, who ‘went viral’ in the early days of the platform. However, her staying power proves her worth and her feed still feels fresh and interesting, she has some great little fitness videos in case you want to work your core, as well as some extremely cute dog pics.
Why you should follow her:
Her motto is ‘word hard and be nice’ – which sums her up. She’s got two teenage boys, hates cleaning mirrors, still doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life (apart from live on a beach and crack out amazing yoga poses) and despite her 1m followers she feels real and relatable.
6) KATIE BURN (@LONDONLADYBASE)
London-based Acro-yoga teacher is one half of London Acro Ladies, who teach acro-yoga to anyone who wants to learn. A gymnast and teacher for ten years, she has a wealth of experience. Her instagram feed is a really open and inspiring mix of beautiful acro-yoga poses – she’s the ‘base’ of the poses – hence the insta-handle, as well as searingly honest posts about her struggles with body image, which is an important topic in the body-conscious yoga world.
Why you should follow her:
She’s strong, honest and humble, and to me sums up what’s great about yoga teachers. She does it because she loves it, but always acknowledges her flaws – and we love her for it. She is also a big supporter of girl power, and her awesome strength and control when it comes to lifting her acro-yoga partner above her head are testament to her own girl power. Go Katie!
7) HOLLY BENTLEY (@HOLLYBENTLEY_YOGA)
This curvy All-American beauty used to be a bit of a wild-yogi-child. Back in 2015 she was arrested for performing a handstand on the DC Metro subway track! In fact, her instagram account featured her in yoga poses in front all sorts of landmarks as she enjoyed her travelling lifestyle. Now, though, her life is much more mellow as she revels in her new motherhood status. Her beautiful pictures of her in yoga poses throughout her pregnancy are stunning and inspirational for all those going through the life and body-changing metamorphosis of pregnancy.
Why you should follow her:
For her honest and beautiful before-and-after pictures of her during pregnancy and afterwards, and her open accounts of how motherhood has changed her, both physically and mentally. Plus she can do some cracking poses too.
See Also: The Loving Legacy of Amma the Hugging Mother
8) MATT PHIPPEN (@MATTPHIPPEN)
This LA-based yoga teacher has a whole methodology of his own called ‘chiromotion’ – which is a blend of chiropractic methods, combined with yoga and bodywork. His yoga practice is well-honed, intelligent and focused on getting the best that you can out of your body. He is passionately devoted to yoga and has combined the precision of Iyengar, and the way in which it aligns the body, with the freedom and creativity of Vinyasa.
Why you should follow him:
He has some incredible-looking restorative poses that involve two other people pressing down on his thighs or moving his shoulders back. It would be great fun to try to recreate these (safely) with some yoga buddies. He also has some excellent teaching guides to getting into advanced poses, and – like us normal folks – can’t just spring into the splits, so he has to be inventive with props and modifications.
9) LOTTE SEBZDA (@LOTTASEBZDAYOGA)
Proving that age is no barrier to the athletically challenging discipline of Ashtanga yoga, this 52-year-old grandmother has an astonishing practice, alongside her hunky husband. As a longtime Ashtanga yoga devotee, Lotta Sebzda teaches all over the Nordic region. She posts instructional (and inspirational) videos onto her Instagram feed, as well as having a YouTube channel for more in-depth yoga tuition.
Why you should follow her:
If you’re interested in the philosophy of yoga, she has a series of videos relating to the yamas and niyamas. Her impressive physique, and the touching yogic bond she shares with her (seemingly much younger) husband provides an incentive for us all to get into yoga, whatever our age.
10) VALERIE SAGUN (@BIGGALYOGA)
A joyful exponent of the body positive movement, Valerie Sagun is an infectious positive yoga practitioner, teacher and author of ‘Big Gal Yoga’. She’s a big-bodied babe, who’s not afraid to strut her stuff, whether it’s doing her yoga practice, heading out to dance classes, or posing on the beach with her friends.
Why you should follow her:
For her core message of self-love through yoga. She’s struggled with her body image and isn’t afraid to admit that, but she’s a role model for everyone to be who you are, without apology.
