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Advanced Yoga Teacher Training: Teaching Adaptive Yoga

Advanced Yoga Teacher Training: Teaching Adaptive Yoga

Practicing yoga is a lifelong journey, as is the art of teaching yoga. As a yoga teacher, your students will have diverse backgrounds and may have faced trauma, injuries, or have age factors that make them feel excluded from a strictly exercise-based yoga program. As you advance in your training as a yoga teacher, you may train in adaptive yoga techniques to address this exclusion.

What is Adaptive Yoga?

Adaptive yoga modifies traditional yogic asana and pranayama. Everybody of every shape, size, and ability may participate. All levels of experience, fitness, mobility, and even energy level can join in. Students with disabilities, trauma, and chronic illness have a yoga practice perfectly suited to their individual needs with adaptive yoga.  

With an adaptive yoga practice, students are free to explore poses and breathing that suit their physical and mental states. Compare that to some yoga classes focused only on the exercise aspect of modern yoga, where the pose is the goal. Adaptive yoga concentrates on creating a unique bond between each person, their challenges, and the pose. Props bring the asana to the student instead of forming the student into a physical shape that may not suit them. 

Advanced YTT – Training to Teach Adaptive Yoga

A primary reason to pursue advanced yoga teacher training for adaptive yoga is to expand your knowledge and learn techniques to serve your community's needs.

Training programs that focus on adaptive yoga will allow you to become a more astute yoga teacher.

8 Skills You Will Learn with Adaptive Yoga Training: 

1.   To sharpen your observation skills for the specific needs of your students. You will be able to better assist with modifications and inclusive cues.

2.   Advanced anatomy and biomechanics studies provide a greater understanding of the uniqueness of the human form. Anatomy becomes about the individual, not the textbook version of the perfectly flexible and imaginary person. 

3.   To understand the physiology of the stress response and learn to incorporate healing guidance into your yoga teachings. Using trauma-aware language and understanding creates safety for your students.  

4.   Learn about the different populations, including older students, pregnant students, or pupils with physical limitations or illness. Adaptive yoga supports all levels of mobility.

5.   Learn and practice innovative ways to use props. Any manner of chairs, blocks, straps, walls, stairs, blankets, and pillows facilitate the pose reaching your student. These can be used in standing, seated, or supine asana.  

6.   Practice teaching accessible asana that supports flexibility, balance, and strength. Adaptive yoga is a powerful and inspirational tool for developing real-world functionality. 

7.   Learn how to empower your students by teaching them to integrate adaptive yoga skills into their lives. Yoga doesn't stop when you leave the class. 

8.   Learn pranayama and meditation techniques, along with adaptations to them, for all of your students. Attend to your community's spiritual needs by guiding clarity and peace.  

Teaching Adaptive Yoga 

Advancing your yoga teacher training by adding adaptive yoga widens the opportunities for everyone to experience the benefits of yoga. Once trained in adaptive yoga, a teacher can provide inclusivity for all, and students can find a supportive and like-minded group of friends to practice with.  

Your yoga students will strengthen their bodies, creating confidence, self-reliance, and increased freedom of movement. The positive energy developed from accessible pranayama and meditation provides calming peace and healing. 

Start your journey and build your skills with advanced yoga teacher training in adaptive yoga.

Increase your skills as a yoga teacher and better serve your pupils with advanced yoga teacher training in adaptive yoga.

If this article has piqued your interest, we’d love to invite you to learn more about Prema Yoga Institute’s Functional Anatomy Training.

The Functional Anatomy Training is now available online and teaches how to:

  • Develop your confidence teaching to all different types of bodies

  • Think critically about biases that often go overlooked in anatomy and movement science

  • Gain support and education to skillfully move away from a "one size fits all" type of teaching

  • Learn to better see and "Read" bodies in order to better meet your student's varying needs

  • Interface more effectively with doctors and health care professionals

  • Advance your teaching towards a Yoga Therapy Certification

  • And more (click here for details)

Additionally, The Functional Anatomy Training counts as 50 CE Credits with Yoga Alliance OR towards your RYT500 at Prema Yoga Institute.

Visit Prema Yoga Institute to learn more about our training, which is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022!

PYI is 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!

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Goals and Benefits of Completing a 300-Hour Yoga Teacher Training

Goals and Benefits of Completing a 300-Hour Yoga Teacher Training

Both aspiring yoga teachers and current yoga teachers have the opportunity to learn more about their craft with an advanced yoga teacher training course. Perhaps you are ready to become a yoga teacher or would like to sharpen your existing skills. The time is right to explore your options. 

Goals of a 300-hr Advanced Yoga Teacher Training

By completing a 300-hour (300-RYT) course, you will increase your overall teaching skill level. Thorough education on detailed asana techniques and extensive pranayama and meditative methods prepare you for teaching at a higher level, and to a more diverse audience. Part of the coursework includes hours spent honing your teaching skills with the guidance of the course's mentors. 

There is also an exploration into topics that are often just touched upon in a traditional 200-hour training, such as chanting, kriyas, meditation, and yoga nidra.  

You will complete an in-depth study of anatomy and physiology, including energy systems such as chakras and nadis. This knowledge applies to teaching advanced asana, functional mobility, and flexibility to your students. Understanding anatomy prepares you for safe and effective cueing while teaching a class. 

The 300-RYT yoga teacher training dives into the study of traditional yogic principles. Philosophies and texts, like the Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita, may be examined in depth. Modern-day ethical practices and service to others is explored as well. These topics reflect the long history of yoga's meaning. 

The advanced yoga teacher trainings also provide elective hours. You may choose to explore your personal yoga passion more deeply with additional readings. You may opt to attend yoga classes to reconnect with your journey by becoming a student again. Or, choose to explore yoga specialties that are new to widen your experiences. 

Benefits of a 300-hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training

Becoming a yoga teacher sometimes blurs the lines between your time as a student and your new time as a guide. However, by studying yoga traditions, you will be reminded of how your practice came to be. Your yoga practice will be reborn with a new perspective.

You can discover a niche yoga practice. Learning about different styles and teachings allows you to bring that specialty into your community. A yoga niche does not have to be your sole focus while teaching, although it certainly can be. Unique skills set you apart and expose your students to novel ideas. 

Perhaps your knowledge will encourage you to explore your entrepreneurial side. Your advanced credentials and specialized knowledge are a solid framework for creating your own yoga business. If this isn't your calling, your experience in the 300-hour advanced yoga teacher training still grants you advanced credentials to enrich your resume. 

The completion of a 300-hour (300-RYT) training allows you to serve the unique needs of your community. You will be prepared to teach all levels of students and those with diverse needs or perceived limitations. Your classes and teachings will be safe, accessible, and of excellent service to your community. 

The road to becoming a "teacher of teachers" begins with advanced yoga trainings. For millennia, the yogic life was learned from texts, traditions, and teachings passed from teacher to student. To carry on this responsibility by becoming a mentor and supporting future teachers, Yoga Alliance advises that you complete an advanced teacher training and accumulate a significant amount of hours practicing your craft. An experienced yoga teacher that has completed the 200-hour and the 300-hour RYT courses can become the lead trainer for new yoga teachers after registration.  

Perhaps you are ready for something new in your yoga practice, but are unsure of what that is? A 300-hour course is the opportunity for your next step to appear.  

Check out Prema Yoga Institute for Online Advanced Yoga Teacher Trainings

While you’re here, we’d love to invite you to check out Prema Yoga Institute, which is longer limited to New York City and is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022.

PYI is 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!

If you found this information useful, visit our Blog often or subscribe to our Mailing List for similar content.

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Enrolling in Advanced Yoga Teacher Training to Guide Other Teachers

Enrolling in Advanced Yoga Teacher Training to Guide Other Teachers

The yoga teaching journey is different for everyone, and some practicing students choose to switch hats by becoming teachers themselves, perhaps with an RYT-200 program. However, the fundamental RYT-200 yoga teacher training is only the beginning and opens the door for advanced yoga training. 

From there, new yoga teachers may teach classes, offer clinics, or provide community classes. Some new yoga teachers choose to take a few continuing education yoga teacher courses, and some dig deep into advanced YTT programs and specialties.

The tradition of yoga is alive and needs to pass on carefully. There are dozens of reasons to further your education, and maybe the most important is serving your community by helping the next generation of yoga teachers.

Exploring Advanced Yoga Teacher Trainings

The road to mastery and future leadership in your yoga community starts with your education.  

It’s a great idea to continue expanding your knowledge to build your instructional skillset. A deeper understanding of asana, pranayama, and anatomy boosts your credentials and make you a more knowledgeable yoga teacher. Not to mention, your client’s health and safety will also benefit from such mastery of the craft.

Furthering your yoga teacher training allows you to explore the ancient roots in depth. To honor such a tradition, be sure to look for teachers that always cite and give credit to their teachers – as well as to the traditions of South Asia. 

Advanced yoga teacher training also permits an intense immersion into the culture of yoga. This concentrated focus strengthens your commitment and serves as a reminder of why yoga is essential.  

Explore a favorite calling of your yoga practice with an Advanced YTT course. Your passion is profoundly personal and gratifying, and studying yields rewards for yourself as you become a qualified expert.  

After completing your chosen advanced yoga teacher training, and working in your specialty, you are poised to bring your energy to your students or shift into guiding other yoga teachers into the deeper layers of yoga.  

Becoming a Teacher Trainer

When you graduate from Advanced YTT programs and build on that training with more experience, you become qualified to help other yoga teachers learn. It's the ultimate expression of the student becoming the teacher.

The opportunities are endless as well. Perhaps you feel a calling to teach a complete RYT-300 or RYT-500 course. Certainly, you will need to complete those courses before attempting to lead one, and the Yoga Alliance has developed more rigorous criteria for becoming a teacher trainer that require these certifications.

Or would you like to specialize? Every characteristic of the yoga tradition needs qualified and educated leaders. Becoming a master of pranayama, anatomy, meditation, or asana takes years of practice paired with higher education on the topic, and may qualify you to become a continuing education professional (“YACEP”) through Yoga Alliance. 

Mentorship is another benefit of becoming an advanced yoga teacher. This relationship between coach and pupil runs both ways. You guide traditions, safety, asana, inclusivity, and experiences, and your mentee has just as much to teach you in return.  

How to find Advanced Yoga Teacher Trainings (Advanced YTT)

The variety of advanced teacher trainings available may seem overwhelming. What aspect of yoga fuels you? Choose a program that suits your passions and immerses you in these aspects. Follow your instincts! 

These days, we no longer need to travel or commute for the advanced yoga teacher training program of our dreams; as many are now available online.  For example, Prema Yoga Institute, is longer limited to New York City and is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022.

Prema Yoga Institute is 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!

If you found this information useful, visit our Blog often or subscribe to our Mailing List for similar content.

Read More