Learn to Modify Yoga Poses for Students in Common Injury Recovery - Wrist, Back, and Joint Pain
Learn to Modify Yoga Poses for Students in Common Injury Recovery - Wrist, Back, and Joint Pain
Yoga is for everybody and every body. Variations of poses, sequences, and transitions honor the uniqueness of the human body. These modifications create balance, security, and confidence to explore yoga in a personalized manner. In doing so, yoga is safe, accessible, and healing.
Yoga students must clearly understand beneficial movements and limitations from their health care provider and then pose modifications can be offered accordingly.
The Human Form Changes
Almost every yoga student experiences that feeling of uncertainty and comparison at some point. A dedicated practice can overcome many of these insecurities.
However, new negative emotions arise when our bodies change due to aging, injury, or disease. The once effortless Adho Mukha Vrksasana becomes Uttanasana, or the seemingly familiar Virabhadrasana I becomes Tadasana instead.
As a yoga teacher, it is important to understand that the body changes, and so must the teachings and the poses. It's a natural process to age and encounter disease and injury, and asana can adjust along the way. For this reason, it is highly recommended that yoga teachers take advantage of advanced yoga teacher training courses to better serve their students’ needs.
Advanced YTT for Holistically Addressing Yoga for Joint Pain:
Many of today's yoga classes will offer helpful support for the student with joint pain. Warmed studios, often with humidity, will help a yoga student’s body loosen up and prepare for movement. Dim lighting, soothing music, and gentle scents encourage all students to relax and focus on other parts of themselves aside from any discomfort.
As a yoga teacher, learning how to implement props into your teachings is vital for safe movement for many students with differing joint mobility. Become a master of props with bolsters, blankets, and blocks for supine or prone poses. Learn to implement straps, walls, and chairs to make standing poses accessible, for example.
Consider enrolling in advanced yoga teacher training to learn more about yoga modifications for joint pain.
A Practical Example of Yoga Pose Modifications for Wrist Issues:
Wrist stiffness or soreness after yoga is not uncommon among yogis, especially in poses that ask the wrist to extend while carrying a percentage of body weight.
Without props, suggest students grip with the fingertips. Pair this with shifting weight into the base of each finger instead of the heel of the palm. It might be the case that pointing the fingers in a slightly different direction is also helpful. Forming fists and resting on the metacarpals with the thumb pad on the earth can also provide relief.
A small cloth or towel can be rolled up and placed under the palm's heel to create the same effect. Wedges of many angles are also available. Alternatively, using blocks under the hands transfers some of the body's weight away from the wrists in poses like Adho Mukha Svanāsana. As a bonus of sorts, using blocks under the hands creates more room for other poses like lunges and some twists.
A Practical Example of Yoga Pose Modifications for Back Soreness:
Another source of challenge in the body is back soreness. The back is infinitely more complex than a wrist, and as such, requires a student to be fully aware of limitations and allowances.
Make use of yoga pose modifications that modify the surrounding joints and muscles to prevent strain on the back. For example, the pelvic tilt influences the low back and should be neutral or anterior to avoid excess strain. Similarly, tight psoas or hamstring muscles benefit from bent knees instead of stretching to a limit.
The low core muscles and mūla bandha (the root lock) offer counter support to the lower back. These muscles help stabilize the entire core when properly engaged.
For the upper body, encourage the head, neck, and shoulders to remain comfortable throughout the practice. Offer gentle movement without the goal of moving one's gaze to full expression, especially in twists.
There are endless ways to use yoga props for back problems. When supine, blankets and bolsters support the neck, head, and under the knees. In seated folds, straps extend the arms, and blocks under the hands allow for additional space and safe folds while standing.
Enroll in Advanced Yoga Teacher Training to Learn How to Modify Yoga Poses for Students
Yoga is a beautiful practice for all shapes and experiences, and mindful guidance tailored to the individual will best serve your community.
Continue to research similar topics on our Blog often or subscribe to our Mailing List for similar content. Additionally, consider enrolling in Advanced Yoga Teacher Training.
In fact, if you are looking to improve your yoga teacher training for injured students - we’d love to invite you to check out Prema Yoga Institute for Online Advanced Yoga Teacher Trainings.
Prema Yoga Institute 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!
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4 Signs You Are Ready for Advanced Yoga Teacher Training (RYT500)
4 Signs You Are Ready for Advanced Yoga Teacher Training (RYT500)
If you have a clue, a gut feeling, or that quiet inner voice that prods you to take an advanced yoga teacher training course, you are ready. Although, it's human nature to ignore those callings. That's perfectly natural, so here are 4 more concrete reasons for you to pursue your RYT500 credentials.
1. There are questions for you to answer
Do your students ask questions that require more profound answers? This inquiry might be a literal question in the course of conversation, or you observe a student stumbling in their yoga journey, needing guidance. Would you like to be more knowledgeable with your answers?
Along those same lines, do you find yourself researching yoga topics online to dig a little deeper for answers? It doesn't matter if you research specific topics or crave learning more about everything; your search history knows your curiosity, and it's telling you to go forth and advance your teacher training.
Related article: “5 Reasons Every Yoga Teacher Should Pursue a 500-Hour RYT Certification”
2. You would like to enhance your yoga teaching career
Taking advanced yoga teacher training boosts your resume and improves your marketability as a yoga teacher. Your RYT500 title makes you desirable for leading specialty classes, workshops, and weekend retreats.
The education and practice that comes with an RYT500 also gets you closer to becoming a teacher of teachers, training the next wave of yoga teachers. You will also have ample teaching and practical experience to start your own yoga business. It's even possible to create an online format for your business.
With advanced studies comes expanded opportunities.
Related article: “Take Your Yoga Teaching Business to The Next Level”
3. You seek mentorship
The history of yoga is based on scriptures and teachings passed down from teacher to student over countless generations. It's essential to keep this history alive, passing knowledge from your teacher to your students.
If you don't already have a mentor, continuing your yoga education will help you find one. Or a second one, if that's the case. Mentors serve to provide emotional and practical guidance in all aspects of your yogic life. There is no safer feeling than developing a relationship with a mentor.
Perhaps, as a yoga teacher, you mentor some students who wish to follow in your footsteps and become teachers. What better way to show them the path than by going further down it yourself.
At the same time, becoming a student again is a humbling experience. Studying yields insights and reminders of the learning experience, thus creating a more profound empathy for your students and mentees.
Related article: “Enrolling in Advanced Yoga Teacher Training to Guide Other Teachers
4. You have a calling to study a specific aspect of yoga
What are you most passionate about in yoga? What would you say? Ayurveda, anatomy, philosophy, accessibility, or yoga therapy, to name a few? We all have passions and working towards your RYT500 certifications can help you fulfill those passions. Advanced yoga teacher training is also the first step towards the highly regarded yoga therapy designation, the certification of individual yoga therapists (C-IAYT.)
Related article: “Tips for Creating a Successful Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy Practice”
You are ready, pursue your Advanced Yoga Teacher Training
Enrolling in advanced yoga teacher training course may breathe new life into your yoga career and help you enjoy your practice in fulfilling new ways.
There are many benefits to pursuing Advanced Yoga Teacher Training. And due to the recent boom in remote learning, many of the courses have gone online.
In fact, if you think you’re ready - we’d love to invite you to check out Prema Yoga Institute for Online Advanced Yoga Teacher Trainings. Prema Yoga Institute 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.
Teaching Yoga for All Body Types
Teaching Yoga for All Body Types
The traditions of yoga do not exclude based on weight, shape, income, color, ability, gender identity, or anything else that may marginalize us. However, many groups of people have less accessibility and fewer opportunities to develop a yoga practice. Yoga teachers can overcome many of these challenges by pursuing advanced yoga teacher training to become a more inclusive yoga teacher.
Learn to Teach Inclusivity
There is skill and experience needed to create an inclusive and welcoming environment for your students. Advanced yoga teacher training gives you practical knowledge and hands-on practice to become a leader in your yoga community while advancing your career as a yoga teacher.
Anatomy and Physiology Knowledge to Teach All Yoga Bodies
With advanced anatomy studies and advanced yoga teacher training, including functional movement, you will learn to teach yoga that aids in daily actions. For example, squatting, reaching, and balancing are components of asana. Pursuing Advanced YTT and knowledge of how asana translates into mobility and strength gives all body types room to grow and stabilize, improving activities off the yoga mat.
Functional yoga closely relates to accessible yoga, where every body type can participate, regardless of physical or mental state. Accessible yoga removes all obstacles, and the student becomes the purpose instead of the pose. Perceived and real limitations vanish.
Methods for Teaching for All Yoga Bodies
As a yoga teacher, learning to modify your pose cues and sequencing to fit your audience creates inclusivity. Modifications can apply to specific poses by offering your students the opportunity to use props, change their base of support, raise or lower their arms, and generally seek comfort for their bodies. The pose then takes on a new form to fit the individual instead of a textbook perfect shape.
Modifications also include props. The safe use of mobile blocks, bolsters, and straps give the body more space to move, transition, and reach. Stationary props like chairs and walls make balancing more accessible. Other poses can transition to the floor for a new perspective and to remove any vulnerabilities of imbalance. Vṛksāsana and Garudāsana are perfect for supine positions, and you can find a variation of Natarajāsana on the belly.
Modifications also apply to the transitions between poses. Moving from Adho Mukha Svanāsana to Vīrabhadrāsana I is typically cued as a fluid movement. Changing your guidance to transition Adho Mukha Svanāsana to Bharmanāsana, then to Anjaneāsana, and lifting the knee and shifting the feet a bit can also help a student find Vīrabhadrāsana I.
Watch Your Language as a Yoga Teacher
Purposeful language helps remove any stigmas that may accompany different body types and abilities. For example, an inclusive yoga teacher may replace goal-focused language such as "full expression," "find your edge" and "you should feel" with inviting phrases that focus on the individual. An inclusive yoga teacher may try using phrases like "what would it feel like if" and "Find movement within the pose that feels true to you" instead.
Pursue Advanced Yoga Teacher Training
Having an RYT500 designation (Registered Yoga Teacher with 500-hour yoga teacher training) as a yoga teacher is more than a title. With advanced yoga teacher training, yoga teachers learn to understand the many nuances of the body.
For example, aging takes a toll on mobility, injuries need time to heal, and one's spirit may struggle. Fluctuations in weight, strength, and confidence appear throughout a lifetime, and yoga can accommodate all of these stages. Teaching for all yoga bodies and life stages requires empathy, but most importantly it requires advanced teacher training and knowledge of the physical body.
Your Students Will Benefit from an Inclusive Yoga Teacher
Becoming a yoga leader for all body types creates a safe space for all. Fears and hesitations of students are replaced with comfort and personalized instruction. Students can create meaningful movement within their bodies, boosting yoga's true callings and purpose to find peace.
As your community grows, yogis of all varieties and life stages come together. Yoga for all body types creates a group that celebrates themselves and serves their physical and spiritual needs at any given time.
Did you know you can learn do Advanced YTT Online at Prema Yoga Institute?
Prema Yoga Institute has gone virtual. You can advance your skills as a yoga teacher online with Online Advanced YTT Trainings. For example, our Functional Anatomy Training is now available online and trains yoga teachers 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!
If you found this information useful, visit our Blog often or subscribe to our Mailing List for similar content.