While being passionate about your line of work is commendable, doing so at the cost of other’s well-being is not okay. That said, a yoga teacher in New York City might have been a little too obsessed with her instructor position when she told a student that she couldn’t drink water during a hot yoga session. “You drink water when I want you to drink water,” she said to the student in front of the class. The student, TikTok influencer therealsahd, wasn’t having such treatment and stormed out of the class.
“It’s a hot yoga class. Of course, I’m going to get water. Is this news to you that I would get water in a f—ing hot yoga class?” therealsahd angrily exclaimed in a TikTok post recorded right after she left the class. The 56-year-old instructor who bullied her was promptly fired from the studio, bodē nyc. “I thought it was innocently said,” she protested, speaking to The New York Times. She continued, criticizing the TikTok star for being upset: “You are seeing in this new era, young people are having a very hard time to be told what to do.” So, which side does the internet take for this story? Not the smug yoga teacher’s, that’s for sure.
“Unbelievable. Bode should be investigated…” remarks a top Reddit commenter. They went to provide their own nightmarish hot yoga experience when another pompous NYC instructor told the class that they couldn’t water despite being dehydrated. “Are they training people for war? lol” quips another. A third chimes in, saying that they would never go back if that happened to them: “That sounds like a huge liability for the studio if someone passes out or has a health emergency after being told they can’t take a break/Drink water. It’s not the military.”
Several more called the former hot yoga instructor “insane” and a “walking human rights violation.” People reacting to the story on TikTok felt the same, as comments poured into a response post uploaded by bodē nyc, which stated that what happened was not in line with the studio’s beliefs. “Hydration is the most important thing before, after, and during class,” bodē’s founder expressed in the video, saying that what the instructor did was “not okay.” However, the top commenter and thousands of others still weren’t buying the post’s sincerity.
“I took a class there last month, and they yelled at me for toweling off and grabbing water. It was literally so miserable. I also would like to note that this is NOT isolated. The instructor I had is still on the schedule, and when I left a bad review months ago, there were dozens of others saying the same things and worse.”
There were a few who commended bodē nyc’s response, but many people still showed more support for the TikTok star’s bad experience and others like her. Telling anyone for any sort of fitness or well-being class that they can’t drink water is a huge red flag and should be addressed.