How Alison Cox Balances Hot Yoga Teaching with Her Career at Yum! Brands

For Alison Cox, yoga is more than a physical workout. The practice has become a way to manage stress, build discipline and maintain perspective while balancing her full-time career at Yum! Brands with her work as a yoga instructor.

Twice a week, Cox leads power yoga sessions in a studio where temperatures approach 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Away from the studio, she draws on techniques learned through yoga to stay composed during demanding meetings and difficult workdays.

This month marks her seventh anniversary as a yoga instructor. She has also spent five years managing social media and analysing online conversations for Yum! Brands in Louisville, Kentucky.

From gym classes to hot yoga

Cox’s introduction to exercise was not driven by an athletic background. In fact, she says she had never considered herself an athlete. After graduating from college, she initially started visiting the gym simply as a way to spend time away from her parents’ home.

She tried several group exercise classes and enjoyed the sense of community they offered. Yoga, however, proved to be different.

What appealed to Cox was the flexibility of the practice. Participants can adapt their sessions to their own abilities and goals, whether that means spending an hour in a restorative pose or undertaking a physically demanding sequence.

After practising for about a year at her local gym, she moved to 502 Power Yoga Studio to explore hot yoga. The experience soon became a regular part of her routine.

Eventually, attending classes was no longer enough. Cox wanted to share the practice with others and decided to become a teacher.

Seven years as a yoga instructor

Cox completed more than 200 hours of training and received her teaching certification in spring 2019.

Over the years, she has developed the ability to perform challenging poses, including the crow pose, which requires practitioners to balance their body weight on their hands with their knees resting against their upper arms.

Yet her favourite pose is considerably simpler: child’s pose. She particularly enjoys the stretch it provides for her back.

That preference reflects what she values about yoga more generally. The practice offers opportunities to challenge physical limits, but it also allows participants to slow down and work at their own pace.

For Cox, teaching is as much about sharing that experience as it is about the physical benefits.

She describes the community at 502 Power Yoga as close-knit, comparing it to having a second family. Her enthusiasm for that environment was a major reason she chose to become an instructor.

Bringing yoga into the workplace

Although Cox’s professional career and teaching responsibilities are largely separate, the two occasionally intersect.

She sometimes invites colleagues from Yum! Brands to attend her classes. The company has also given her an opportunity to lead a meditation session for employees who work above its restaurants.

More importantly, Cox says the techniques she has developed through yoga are useful throughout the working day.

One example is Ujjayi breathing, also known as Victorious Breath. The technique involves slow, controlled breathing through the nose. Cox uses it to steady herself when facing pressure, frustration or a particularly difficult day.

Rather than allowing workplace stress to build, she sometimes steps away from her computer and focuses on her breathing.

She encourages others to make similar use of the technique, whether they are at work or managing challenges in their personal lives.

Discipline and the challenge of showing up

The benefits of yoga are not always easy to achieve. Cox says one of the most difficult aspects of maintaining a regular practice is simply making the commitment to attend a class.

After a long working day, finding the motivation to travel to the studio can be difficult. The same applies to getting up early for a morning session.

Although discipline is something yoga has helped her develop, Cox admits that maintaining it remains a challenge.

Her commitment is reflected in a recent milestone: she has now taught her 700th class at 502 Power Yoga. The achievement comes shortly before her seventh anniversary as an instructor.

Cox says she feels a sense of accomplishment after every session, regardless of whether it involves a demanding hot yoga class or a quieter hour spent on the mat.

Lessons that extend beyond the yoga mat

For Cox, the value of yoga is not limited to the time spent inside the studio. Its breathing and meditation techniques can be carried into professional and personal life.

The ability to pause, focus on breathing and approach a stressful situation more mindfully is something she continues to use at work and outside it.

That perspective also explains why she does not view teaching yoga as merely a side activity. While a class may end when she leaves the heated studio, the habits and lessons developed through the practice remain part of her everyday routine.

After 700 classes, Cox continues to find value in yoga not only as an instructor, but also as a source of balance in the rest of her life.