To most effectively and safely practice or teach yoga asana, one must understand the fundamental principles of anatomy. These principles can be applied to any style of yoga. Dive deep into functional anatomy with Matt Eshleman, ERYT 500 and Director of Teacher Training, and long time student of Paul Grilley.
Saturday Morning Session
9-10am: Intro to Taoist Yoga Class
What is Taoist Yoga? Yin Yoga is one half of a Taoist Yoga practice. Based on Eastern systems of medicine and energy work, this class is the ideal blend of yin and yang, sure to inspire and balance any practice. Yang refers to strong dynamic and fluid movement sequences to challenge the muscular tissues of the body, mobilizing the energy and lifting the spirit. Taoist yoga practice will also include passive, relaxed Yin floor poses for deep tissue stretching, and time for relaxation and meditation. Expect a radically different perspective and practice.
10am-noon: A Functional Intro to Skeletal Anatomy
Intros and brief overview of the full weekend
Functional and Aesthetic approaches
Functional levels of analysis
Basic skeletal anatomy
Segments and Movements
Empower your practice from the inside out. Rather than a focus on a universal, aesthetic alignment, a functional approach focuses on what we feel in the posture. What are we exercising and why? Individual alignment may be as unique as your fingerprint, this is due to your uniquely shaped joints and skeleton. Learn the bones basics and their movements with ease. Simplify 208 Bones to 14 Skeletal Segments. This workshop will enhance body awareness in your asana practice, and broaden the scope of teaching postures and variations. A great study for serious practitioners to take a deeper look, and necessary for yoga teachers of any style.
Saturday Afternoon Session
1-5:30pm: Bare Bones
Assessing limitations in movement
Skeletal variation
Hands-on Range-of-Motion testing
Functional analysis of postures
Through hands-on testing we will learn to assess yoga postures, exploring the impact of natural differences in our bones. Within our workshop group we will see an incredible variation of participants’ skeletons and experiences of yoga postures. Understand the way the body moves through yoga postures by developing your X-ray vision to see the body as skeletal segments.
Topics Include:
SKELETAL ANATOMY + VARIATION
know your bones and how they move
HOW TO TEACH FUNCTIONALLY
approaching unique alignment for different bodies
RANGE OF MOTION TESTING
hands-on testing to feel different bones and implications for yoga postures
Sunday Morning Session
9am-noon: Yin Yoga, Theory and Practice
Why does Yin Yoga feel so good and so different from other styles of yoga? It’s all about fascia! Learn the art of letting go; all about fascia, its unique properties, and how to safely target and stretch it. This workshop is designed for yoga teachers and experienced practitioners who would like to further explore the underpinnings of the Yin practice, and is intended to give instructors greater confidence in leading Yin Yoga classes.
Topics Include:
WHAT IS TAOISM & YIN YOGA?
yin is an attitude
UNDERSTANDING FASCIA
what we are stretching and why
THE THEORY OF EXERCISE
how to appropriately stress fascia to keep your joints healthy
HOW TO TEACH FUNCTIONALLY
we don’t care what it looks like, as long as it works! Safety and implications
Sunday Afternoon Session
1-5pm Be Functional: Muscular Groups and their Actions
Functional target areas, an anatomical perspective
How to teach from a functional approach
Functional analysis of postures
Knowing how to target muscles tissues of the body is extremely useful for practitioners and Teachers of any style of yoga practice. Be Functional, be a confident and informed anatomy nerd! Simplify 640 Muscles into 5 Muscular Groups by common function. This workshop will build on the foundation of the bones and skeletal segments from the Bare Bones Workshop, which would be very helpful, but is not required as a prerequisite. Understand the intended effect of yoga postures by developing your X-ray vision to see the body as muscular groups.
TOPIC INCLUDE:
UNDERSTANDING MUSCLES
A detailed understanding of soft tissues, their makeup, and how they work
THE THEORY OF EXERCISE
how to appropriately stress muscles to stay healthy and strong
TARGET AREAS OF THE THIGH
The muscular group breakdown
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Which postures effect which groups
We’ll also take frequent movement breaks thru the day so that we’re never on anything for more than about an hour without getting at least a few minutes to shake out the brain and get into the body….. it’ll be fun!
Cost
Full Weekend $200 ($180 early bird by Jan 15)
Saturday Morning $75 ($70 early bird by Jan 15)
Saturday Afternoon $45 ($40 early bird by Jan 15)
Sunday Morning $60 ($55 early bird by Jan 15)
Sunday Afternoon $45 ($40 early bird by Jan 15)
*There is a $50 deposit built into the cost of the full weekend training and a $15 deposit built into the single sessions. No refunds will be issued within 30 start days of the training.
If you're participating via LiveStream a link will be sent to your inbox at least three hours before the start time.