Yes, (Good) Yoga Teachers Do Continuing Education!

 

I recently had dinner with some friends and was mentioning to them that I had spent the afternoon doing continuing education, working on my Wellness Educator Program training. One of them seemed surprised to hear that yoga teachers did continuing education and wondered what it involved. I realized that maybe other people don’t know either, so I thought I’d do a quick blog post about it.

A good yoga teacher friend and I have been getting together to work on this continuing education program for a few years now (this particular one is all online so you can work at your own pace). It is mostly anatomy-based, a subject that we both felt (as do many in the yoga community) was not given enough focus in our RYT teacher training programs. We both agree that working on this program together has been more fun; plus, it’s been great to be able to share discussions about the subject matter and ask each other clarifying questions. Here is a list of some of the different modules/subjects we’ve covered:

*Hamstrings

*Psoas muscles

*Types of muscles contractions (concentric, isometric, etc)

*Shoulder Girdle

*Body Readings/Assessments: how to figure out what is going on in people’s bodies

*Kyphosis and Lordosis

*Common Musculoskeletal Imbalances

*Abs

*Glutes

*Yoga for High Blood Pressure

*Yoga for Osteoporosis

*How to Teach to Older Beginners

*Creating Courses (I could’ve taught this one myself as I consider myself a pretty seasoned pro at creating sessions themes already! ;)

*Posture: Structural Imbalances and Chronic Pain

*Yoga for Functional Aging

*Marketing for Yoga Teachers

*Fascial System

Phew! We’re getting close to the end so I’m hoping to complete the course by the time the weather is getting nice and I want to spend more time outdoors. If you take regular classes with me, you may have noticed that I have been incorporating some of these topics into my group classes. Many of them lend themselves even better to the work I do with students one-on-one in private yoga sessions. Once we finish this program, I’m looking forward to also taking time to create some new workshops and/or new session themes with all the knowledge I’ve gained, passing along more of this invaluable information to my students!