Advanced YTT: Teaching Students with Diverse Needs
As a yoga teacher, you will come across students with a wide range of body types, backgrounds, abilities, and health backgrounds. Each student has a story and unique needs that yoga can help to address. By understanding how to work with students with diverse needs, you can serve your students’ needs more directly and help them to live happier and healthier lives.
Some of the most common diverse needs in the yoga field are clients with past injuries, aging clients, and clients with perceived limitations. While the foundational 200-hour yoga teacher training is a great place to start, more advanced yoga teacher training will likely be required to help you serve students with diverse needs like aging students or students with past injuries.
Teaching Students with Past Injuries
All varieties of past injuries transform a body. The muscles, soft tissues, and bone around an injury may lose tone and power during the healing process, and scar tissue can permanently change movement in that area if not addressed.
When pursuing an advanced yoga teacher training course, choose a course that can help you understand your client's injuries on a deeper level and help them find comfort in their yoga practice through tailored adjustments, alignment, and modifications.
For example, advanced courses like the Applied Anatomy course offered by Prema Yoga Institute are designed to help you approach yoga through the lens of anatomy to create personalized yoga sessions for your clients.
Learning how to best modify practice for your clients with past injuries is key.
Working with Aging Clients
Decreased mobility and balance may challenge aging yogis. This can lead to isolation and fear, as well as an increased risk of accidents and falls. Advanced yoga teacher training can teach you to how to focus on flexibility and strength to improve functional mobility in aging students.
For example, an aging yogi may benefit from specific poses focused on core muscle development from the pelvis to the crown. Learning these advanced teaching techniques will help clients safely increase their mobility.
Serving Students with Perceived Limitations
Often, a student's perceived limitations stem from the spirit, emotions, and memory. A person's restrictions may be long past, yet lingering, if not freshly developed.
Tailoring a yoga plan for your clients often involves stepping back for a holistic approach instead of working only on specific postures and sequences.
Learning to shift your focus to mindfulness and meditation may benefit your student’s relationship to perceived pain or lack. You can also explore pranayama, yoga nidra, and other mindfulness exercises to find clarity. In time, perceived limitations may melt away!
Continue to Deepen Your Knowledge Base to Work with Clients with Diverse Needs
Education for yoga instructors does not have an end date. Advanced yoga teacher training will allow you to serve more clients and provide tailored lessons for students with diverse needs. You can even take advantage of today's remote learning technology and pursue an advanced yoga teacher training program online.
In fact, we’d love to recommend the Applied Anatomy Program at the Prema Yoga Institute. At PYI, yoga mentors are now available for online courses to support you with interactive lessons and reviews. The curriculum includes education about the kosha system and yoga therapy related to the whole of an individual. Completion of the course can be applied to your RYT 300 education and 25 Yoga Alliance continuing education credits.
Whichever advanced yoga teacher training you choose, deepening your knowledge in the human body's complexities via anatomy will help you create inclusivity and foster community for students with diverse needs.
If you found this information useful, visit our Blog often or subscribe to our Mailing List for similar content.
Currently, Prema Yoga Institute is offering online study options for ALL of our yoga trainings in 2021.
We hope you’ll consider Prema Yoga Institute for your online advanced yoga training program. We’re an accredited program based in New York city, teaching students around the globe through online classes. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you advance your yoga practice and teaching!
Advanced Yoga Training: Finding Your Path as a Certified Yoga Teacher
As a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT200), you know the benefits of being a certified yoga teacher. But for yoga teachers that want to dig deeper and learn more about subjects like anatomy, the ancient basis of yoga, or just how to be a better teacher, there is an option for advanced yoga teacher training. A 300-hour advanced yoga teacher training course will give you the skills and knowledge to revolutionize both your practice and your yoga teaching.
If you have been thinking about becoming a Registered Yoga Teacher with 500 hours (RYT500) or even an E-RYT500, read on to learn more about doing a 300-hour advanced yoga training certification and if it’s the right path right for you as a yoga instructor.
What is The Difference Between 200 and 300 Hour Yoga Teacher Certifications?
As you know, if you wish to be a Yoga Alliance certified yoga teacher, you need to complete a 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training (RYT200) from a registered school. This certification will introduce you to the basics of yoga, including asanas, philosophy, and how to teach. For many, it is just the first step to becoming a yoga teacher. Traditionally, a training teacher would live with their teacher for 7 years!
For teachers interested in taking the next step, the 300-hour yoga teacher certification (RYT300) will be next on their to-do list after completing a 200-hour yoga teacher training program. Then these teachers can register to use the RYT500 title (a Registered Yoga Teacher with 500 hours of training) and – more importantly – put their deepened knowledge and skill to use in serving students.
Some teachers will complete this additional training by completing 100-hour yoga training programs or 25- to 50-hour advanced yoga teacher trainings that add up to 300 hours. Keep in mind that if you wish to register as a RYT500 teacher with Yoga Alliance, they require that all these trainings take place within the same registered 300-hour program.
What Should You Expect From 300 Hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training?
A RYT 300-hour advanced yoga teacher training program is meant to build off the foundation you learned in your 200-hour yoga teacher certification. It goes more in depth into the principles and techniques of yoga and physical anatomy. It will help you gain a deeper understanding of your own practice and how to teach. Many people complete 200-hour training and never teach, but a 300-hour program is for the people who want to make a lifelong commitment to practicing and teaching yoga.
In an advanced yoga teacher training course you will learn more about:
· More detailed and specific education in areas you want to specialize in.
· Training and techniques, including asanas, pranayama, mantra, and meditation.
· Teaching methodology and how to help your students learn better.
· Anatomy and physiology.
· The philosophy and lifestyle of yoga.
By the end of your 300-hours of advanced yoga teacher training, you will become a RYT-500, and have deepened knowledge to best modify practice for your individual clients and community.
What Are The Benefits of Taking Your 300-Hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training?
A More Experienced Yoga Teacher
A 200-hour yoga teacher training program will only teach you so much. Most of the time is dedicated to introducing you to the basics of yoga, not advanced teaching methods. But teaching is a skill to hone and become better at. In a 300-hour advanced yoga teacher training program, you will learn more about how to find your teaching style and adapt it to your students to best serve their intentions.
A More Knowledgeable Yoga Teacher
To go deeper in your yoga practice, you need to understand human anatomy as well as energy. A 300-hour program will allow you to take an in depth look at how your body is responding to yoga, as well as a better understanding of the spiritual side of the practice. By learning more about how the body, mind, and spirit are served in yoga, you can help your students get more out of your teachings.Find Your Niche as a RYT500 Certified Yoga Teacher
While a 200-hour yoga teacher training program will usually only focus on one school of yoga – or even just one sequence - a 300-hour program lets you explore other modalities. By studying other types of yoga, you can become a well-rounded teacher ready to teach any class. But this also allows you to find your niche as a yoga teacher. You can find what type of yoga you’re most passionate and excited about.Improve Your Yoga Business
As with anything, the more advanced degrees and certifications you have, the easier it is to get hired or gain credibility with customers. For example, gyms and studios will value a highly qualified yoga teacher with an RYT500 title to provide their customers with the best classes. What’s more, Yoga Alliance has higher standards for teacher trainees – should you ever wish to teach in a training.
The more hours and advanced yoga training you have, the more marketable you become. Invest in yourself, and it will pay off in the long run.
Consider Prema Yoga Institute if You’re Ready to Become a 500 RYT with Advanced Yoga Teacher Trainings.
Are you ready to take the next step in your yoga teaching journey? Then make sure to check out the Prema Yoga Institute’s online advanced yoga teacher training in 2021. And since yoga is all about staying flexible, we’re hoping to offer both online and in-person classes as soon as it’s safe to welcome you back to our New York City studio.
If you found this information useful, visit our Blog often or subscribe to our Mailing List for similar content.
Currently, Prema Yoga Institute is offering online study options for ALL of our yoga trainings in 2021.
We hope you’ll consider Prema Yoga Institute for your online advanced yoga training program. We’re an accredited program based in New York city, teaching students around the globe through online classes. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you advance your yoga practice and teaching!
5 Reasons Every Yoga Teacher Should Pursue a 500-Hour RYT Certification
Whether you have recently finished your 200-hour RYT certification or have been considering (and putting off) going for your advanced yoga teacher training certification, this blog will explore a few reasons every yoga teacher should pursue their 500-hour RYT certifications.
With advanced yoga teacher training, you will not only learn more about yoga, philosophy, and how to be a great teacher, but you will be more likely to start or improve your yoga business thanks to your superior credentials.
If you’re still on the fence about earning your 500-hour yoga teacher certification, keep reading for five reasons every yoga teacher should pursue a RYT-500 yoga teacher certification.
Use Advanced Yoga Teacher Courses to Learn New Styles of Yoga
During a 200-hour teacher training program, you’ll learn all about the basics of yoga. It’s all about teaching you the fundamental asanas and provides an introduction to philosophy. But you don’t spend much time learning specialized methods of yoga. That’s what a RYT-300 certification is for.
Pursuing advanced yoga teacher training courses will allow you to dig deeper into things you want to learn like Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Ayurvedic Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Meditation, and more. A RYT-300 program will let you spend a lot more time digging into these topics. It’s the perfect way to fill in any blanks left from your 200-hour yoga teacher training program.
Learn to Teach Students with Diverse Needs
In a 200-hour teacher training program, you’ll learn about the different asanas like Bhujaṅgāsana and Bālāsana. But you may not have the time to learn modifications for aging students, beginner students, or students managing / recovering from injury or disease.
Now that you already have your 200-hour training under your belt, you can spend more time with your teachers learning about the intricacies of poses. You will learn about the small changes you can make that will have a major effect on your practice and teaching.
Go to The Source of Yoga
As yoga teachers, it’s our goal--and some would say duty--to know more about the historical and philosophical background of yoga so we can respectfully teach this amazing practice. When you do a 300-hour yoga teacher training (RYT300), you’ll be able to spend more time studying an ancient text that is the foundation of yoga--the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali. You’ll also learn more about other philosophies of yoga and Ayurveda and how they connect with your own teaching.
Improve Your Marketability as a Yoga Teacher
Having the RYT-500 title is impressive. With advanced yoga teacher training, you can market yourself either as a teacher or a yoga business with a bit more confidence.
You’ll also have an opportunity to network and meet other students who want to go deeper into their own practice. This networking opportunity allows you to further establish yourself in the yoga community and could be beneficial to your yoga teaching practice. Additionally, you’ll get to spend time with experienced instructors who can mentor and guide you. If you’ve been feeling stuck, there’s nothing like becoming a student again to help you go beyond your own boundaries as a yoga teacher.
Brush up on Your Anatomy & Alignment
Yoga teacher training in the west begins with only 25 hours of required anatomy training. In your advanced yoga teacher training, you’ll spend at minimum another 25 hours reviewing anatomy, and applying this knowledge to asana alignment and sequencing. Online yoga teacher courses can even dive into the energetic anatomy of yoga – with advanced yoga certification courses that cover everything from the scapulohumeral rhythm of the shoulder to the energetic need to practice heart-opening asanas.
With this knowledge, your private yoga sessions can be better fashioned to the individual, and your group yoga classes can become safer and more inspired.
2021 is All About Online Yoga Teacher Courses
Due to the unfortunate reality of social distancing needs, many advanced yoga teacher training courses have had to transition to online teaching.
On a positive note, you can take advantage of the wealth of great advanced yoga certification courses now being offered online. This may be a convenient way to continue your work as a yoga teacher while also becoming a student of the craft again.
Now is The Time, Pursue Your Advanced Yoga Teacher Training
We hope this blog gave you a few reasons to consider advanced yoga teacher training. If you’re feeling motivated to take the next step in your yoga teaching career and become a RYT-500, please take a look at the advanced training at Prema Yoga Institute. Prema Yoga Institute is an IAYT accredited yoga therapy training program based in New York City and is currently offering advanced yoga therapy teaching online courses for ALL of our yoga trainings in 2021.
As always, for more tips like this visit our Blog often or subscribe to our Mailing List for similar content. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you advance your yoga practice and teaching!
Prema Yoga Institute has a variety of programs with a focus in therapeutic yoga and aging bodies. Should we be able to study together in person in late 2021, you can choose the online option of live study, or join us in person at our studio in New York city.