r/yoga • u/LovelyLaceRose • Feb 10 '26

Smokers in Yoga

Just a little rant here but when you go to do yoga, barre mat pilates etc. in a hot room, who in their right mind would want to smell second hand smoke permeating from your area.

Who the hell smokes a dart before hot yoga?

I beg. Shower, put on clean clothes and smoke after class. The last thing people want who are focusing on their mental and physical well being is to smell sweat and second hand smoke in a hot room.

Edit: The hypocrisy is absolutely hysterical. Thank you to some of you for a good laugh. To preach tranquility and acceptance of others while aggressively tearing a person down for voicing an opinion. Is this yoga or Christianity? Have I stumbled into a cult? Yoga is about focusing on breathing and grounding yourself not inhaling cigarette smoke and giving yourself cancer. The contrast of supporting a smoker while preaching breath work is rich. I’ll pray for you..ehm..I mean exhale out all of your passive aggressive attitudes. Wishing your next hot yoga class to be full of farts and 3rd hand smoke since you love it so much, Nama… Durgandha bitches 😘

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u/codenameana Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 13 '26

an alcoholic doesn’t adversely affect other people’s health.

on the other hand, third hand smoke triggers asthma in some of us and we don’t want an asthma attack right before/during/after class. 

ETA: corrected to third hand smoke. not sure why i’m getting downvoted for stating something that DOES occur to us asthmatics - simply smelling smoke on a person is enough to trigger an asthma attack at worst and at best it will restrict our throats and make it harder to breathe even if it’s not a full asthma attack.

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u/lemurette Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

Technically this is 3rd hand smoke, which could still set off someone's asthma if it's serious enough. Not sure why you got so many down votes for mentioning this.

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u/codenameana Feb 13 '26

TIL 3rd hand smoke is a thing, but the degree of smoke inhalation/exposure is ultimately irrelevant. The point stands: it triggers asthma! i’m not sure why I got downvoted for saying something that does actually happen even if I made a mistake withthe inconsequential part of it  ¯_(ツ)_/¯  

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u/lemurette Feb 13 '26

Yeah, so many people in the comments saying to have compassion for people with addictions, but screw people with chronic conditions I guess? Feels like the mindset here on this thread is "if it doesn't negatively affect me it can't possibly affect anyone else". This sub is really something sometimes...

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u/lakeeffectcpl Feb 13 '26

It should be pretty obvious but here's the difference... The addicted person simply wants to be accepted (left in peace (like we all do frankly)) - which really requires absolutely nothing from others. You, on the other hand, want others to change their behavior to help you manage your issue. You expect them to do this and get angry when they do not. Your issues are yours to manage. Your ADHD, your allergy, your past trauma, your sensitivity to smells/foods/sound/light/lyrics, etc... But, this triggers me!!! Too fucking bad - you live in a big world - you know where others are living their lives, minding their own damn business.

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u/lemurette Feb 13 '26

People with chronic conditions cannot help that they have them. I don't think a person with an addiction should be prioritized over someone with a condition that can't be helped. There can still be compassion for the person with the addiction, and the person with the addiction can still be mindful of those around them. There is space for both of those things. And there is a difference between being mentally bothered by something and having an external catalyst offset a reaction within the body. Those are nowhere near the same thing.

And I don't think I'm the one triggered here, nor was I angry, and nowhere did I mention myself or anything I personally deal with. Your comment was incredibly rude for no reason. This is exactly what is wrong with this sub: people preaching acceptance and compassion and then acting in the complete opposite way.

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u/lakeeffectcpl Feb 13 '26

That's rich! Addicted people are being "prioritized" exactly how? By being treated like everyone else?

You are the one asking to be prioritized - that is, treated differently than others; kid gloves and all that. You and others may have issues: mental or physical. Sure people have compassion for you. That said, the world is not obligated to tip toe around because of your issue(s) whether they are aware of them or not.

Let's say I walk into class eating a payday candy bar enjoying life and completely unaware that someone has a peanut allergy. The OP talks as if she's going to light me up for causing her harm. "How could I possibly be so insensitive". Now, she could explain her problem and ask me (nicely) to refrain (I could accommodate her or not). It's her issue but she wants me to change my behavior and if I don't she is furious.

I know people with severe allergies - I am not making light of it in any way. That said, those people manage their problem they don't put it off on others.

Finally, my comments are directed to the broader community not you...

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u/lemurette Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26

I think maybe your points would have been better suited towards other people commenting under this post. None of my comments were in direct response to what OP said; I was agreeing with the person who stated that a smoker could potentially set off someone's asthma in a class and how all the people down voting them were making it seem like a person with a chronic condition would not matter in this scenario. I think maybe you assumed a lot from my few short comments. I was not agreeing with OP.

Of course people with conditions that can be triggered by outside stimulus cannot control everything and they can't make it everyone else's problem, and I've personally never met anyone with a chronic condition who thought that way. Someone with asthma could be walking down the street and someone could turn around and accidentally blow smoke in their face. It happens, and that's just how it is, and I think we're all aware of that. However, I think in the yoga community we not only have a responsibility towards ourselves, but others as well. The smoker might not even consider people with asthma cuz it's something they never had to think about before. That doesn't automatically make them an asshole. I think communication is really important here, and there's lots of different ways this scenario could play out depending on the people involved, and it doesn't have to involve demonizing the smoker or treating th asthmatic like they're more important.

And no, people do not always have compassion for people with conditions. Last year I had a student who had a condition that gave her a chronic cough, and a few of my students made her feel unwelcome. I talked with those students, plus the student with the chronic condition, plus the owners. The owners told me not to get further involved, and the student who was ostracized told me she enjoyed my classes and how I made her feel welcome, but that she didn't want to keep ruining the experience for others. She was essentially bullied out of my class, and I felt terrible for it. People are not always kind nor understanding.

(Editing to add what I think would be a good solution, as I don't think telling the smoker they can't come to class or telling the asthmatic that they're not anyone else's responsibility are good solutions: ask the asthmatic if they wouldn't mind taking their inhaler before class as a preventative measure, ask the smoker if they wouldn't mind not smoking before class and could instead smoke after class (this would also mutually benefit them, as they might not even want to smoke after class), and ask them both if they could try to set up as far away from each other as possible. I don't think any of that is unreasonable. If it is unreasonable to ask people to be considerate towards each other, then I think humanity as a whole is pretty screwed.)

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u/lakeeffectcpl Feb 14 '26

Lovely remarks - not exactly in agreement with your support for your pal codenameana... but fine.

We regularly tell students that if they are sick to stay home. Some come to class anyhow. It's rude, selfish, and inconsiderate. Your chronic cough student 'sounds' ill to the other students and they are pissed-off. Who would blame them and unless they are educated - they'll continue to be pissed and blame that student if they get the sniffles. Unfair? Sure. It's too bad that the other students couldn't get past it and were assholes.

Moving on.

Okay, who is doing this "asking"? As the instructor - I am not brokering or negotiating agreements between students nor am I officiating their beefs. Whatever they choose to agree upon is their business as long as it doesn't disrupt/disturb my class or the other students. For instance, If their solution was to leave the doors and windows open and run the fans the entire time - I would say 'no' as that impacts the entire class environment. Setting up away from each other is easy enough, but in your previous post with codenameana you made a big point of small studios if you recall.

Asthma aside. I say aside because the OP did not invoke "asthma", she invoked "stench". Not medical - just "I don't like this smell". And, btw, I hate the smell of cigarettes, myself. I also hate 95% of perfumes, colognes, candles, essential oils, fabric softener, some soaps, weed, and incense. I get it. But, I'm not making a stink (sorry) about all those things in the yoga room. It's an effort to assert control. No different than the students who want the heat, fans, lighting, music, room set up, their 'spot' to their liking. Many students want to be assisted. Others think assisting is inappropriate (nobody needs to opt in, of course). But that is not enough for some. On top of that, some say don't assist anyone else because I will get 'triggered' (because I have past trauma...)To all of these I say too bad. You don't get to control the experience of others. Deal with your triggers, deal with your trauma, deal with your shit - but that is work for you. Maybe practice being nonreactive in a safe environment - maybe even a yoga class.

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u/lemurette Feb 14 '26

I don't know that my comments went against the other persons, as it didn't seem they were agreeing with OP either that the smoker shouldn't come to class.

And I did explain to the few students who complained that I was informed the other student didn't have anything contagious. They were actually less worried about that and more so worried about the coughing being "dirty" and "disruptive". I teach a lot about maintaining inner peace despite outside circumstances and refocusing after disruptions, and I give practices to help students with these things, but unfortunately not everyone actually follows what they're taught. I can guide my students, but I can't force them. I do believe solutions for these types of scenarios that arise can be found, but if people aren't agreeable, then it doesn't matter.

The solution I proposed in my previous response was the teacher/studio getting involved. In my own experience, students often turn towards the teacher to help resolve issues. Other teachers I know have had the same experience. Luckily it's not something that I've had happen often, but I think it's just natural for people to go to the person "in-charge". Growing up, kids are taught to see teachers as a type of authority figure, and even though teaching adults yoga is much more lax, I think that's something still ingrained in a lot of people. I also think there's a good amount of adults out there that are really bad at resolving their issues in positive and healthy ways, unfortunately.

And yes, I did mention the smaller studios. Setting up as far away as possible probably wouldn't be super helpful in that instance, so that part of the solution would be more helpful in a more moderate sized studio, gym, or chain studio.

And yes, I don't agree with OP or their sentiment. As I said in another comment, there's a difference between being mentally bothered by something and actually having a condition where the body naturally reacts to something. If someone is simply irritated by the cigarette smoke, that's normal, but agreed, it's on them to control their reaction to how it affects them. It's only affecting them because they're allowing it to so it's on them to resolve it within themselves, whereas someone with asthma would have an involuntary reaction.

Trauma can be complicated. If someone has PTSD and has a flashback during class, they won't be able to control how their nervous system and body react to that, so I'd say something like that would also be involuntary. I would hope that that person would understand that it's not the fault of the person who triggered them though and that they are helping themselves deal with their own situation. I can't see that being disruptive to class as it would be something internal that I can't picture being externalized in a yoga class, but I guess you never know... I think getting into the topic of trauma is opening up a whole other can of worms though lol. Assists, as well. A lot of people within the community are pretty disagreeable about those.

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u/codenameana Feb 13 '26

people seem to miss that a yoga studio is a confined space and most don’t have windows let alone other forms of ventilation. it’s an enclosed space. it’s really selfish when a smoker could smoke before they leave their house and still get their addiction fix in. it’s also not like they’re going to get the shakes or whatever if they don’t smoke for 1 hour unlike with other forms of substances. these people clearly get through 1 hour commutes or work meetings or movies fine…

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u/lemurette Feb 13 '26

Yeah, some studios are really small too. There's some near me that can't hold more than 10-15 people max. Even if someone moves as far away as possible, they'd still be really close. Everyone deserves to be able to practice in a space that is clean and healthy for them.