Youngest yoga teacher says avoiding smartphones and junk food helped him break record

In November of 2023, Pratyaksh Vijay secured his dream job despite being only 5 years 337 days old.

The young boy from India was verified as the world’s youngest yoga instructor (male) after completing the 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training Course.

Now aged six and a half, Pratyaksh started learning yoga when he was four.

After several months, recognizing his growing passion and with encouragement from his parents, he made the decision to pursue the practice more seriously, wanting to develop a deeper level of expertise: 

“I want to spread the knowledge of ancient yoga to the whole world so everyone can enjoy a healthy and tension-free life.”

According to Pratyaksh, “yoga itself is the best exercise but some of the best things in yoga are that it boosts flexibility, […] your energy levels and [helps your metabolism].”

And while his love for yoga was clear from the start, his effectiveness as a teacher is also becoming evident: “According to [my students], I am both vocal and demonstrative [as a teacher],” he told us.

“I want to make my students comfortable first”, he went on to explain, and he achieves that by first showing them the asana (yoga position), and then going closer to each one of them to correct or perfect their posture. 

Pratyaksh shared some valuable advice to anyone who wants to try yoga for the first time: 

“To people who are nervous and have never tried yoga before, I want to tell them: do not look at others, just start.”

Of course, breaking a world record at such a young age has brought great joy to the young yogi and his family. 

“I can’t express my feeling when I came to know that I got the record title,” Pratyaksh explained.

Pratyaksh is very thankful to his mother, as he told us: “I want to thank [her] for being my support system in every step of my yoga journey.”

But his dad is the one who, according to Pratyaksh himself, passed on to him the best advice that has been the secret of his success:

“My father advised me not to use smartphone and to avoid junk food. That helped me a lot to concentrate on my yoga goals!”

He believes this strongly and wants to share the same advice with anyone striving to achieve their goals.

Congratulations, Pratyaksh, you are Officially Amazing!