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JILL MILLER INTERVIEW

JILL MILLER INTERVIEW

JILL MILLER INTERVIEW

By: Lauren Cap
Photos: Tune Up Fitness Worldwide
YOGA
Editors note: This article contains references to disordered eating.
In early 2013, I signed up for Jill Miller’s Yoga Tune Up® teacher training as a new yoga teacher looking to learn more about the body. This training, and many of the others under Tune Up Fitness, surpassed any curiosity I had about anatomy, fascia and movement.Now in my 40’s, interviewing Jill for this Celebrating Age themed issue, felt like perfect timing.

Jill Miller, C-IAYT, is a fascia expert, cofounder of Tune Up Fitness Worldwide Inc. and bestselling author of Body by Breath and The Roll Model. Here, she shares her thoughts on aging and how her life experiences shaped the course of the work she teaches today.

This issue is themed “Celebrating Age.” What are ways you celebrate your age?
I remind myself of all of the wisdom that has accumulated, which gives me perspective and it also has dampened a painful and unquenchable desire to strive. I think that striving is something that is definitely baked into our culture. (Not that I’m not continuing to want to strive or strive towards excellence or be the best that I can be.) It’s given me the ability to have gracious reflection, perspective, and it’s deepened my appreciation of love.

I also recognize that I’m not the baby anymore, and the benevolent responsibility as a human citizen to share with younger people and share with others. That has been a really delicious part of aging—realizing that people look up to me. Parenting has taught me a lot of that, but also being a business owner and a teacher of teachers has taught me that. You don’t age in isolation. You age in community, and you age in relationship to all these other age groups.

Can you tell us a little about the evolution of your yoga practice and how it brought you to Tune Up Fitness?
I started practicing yoga when I was around 11 or 12. My mom had brought home the Jane Fonda Workout video and the Raquel Welch yoga tape. We lived off-the-grid in a solar home outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico, so we didn’t have a television. These videos lit me up, and I became obsessed with them. What happened over the next 8 or 9 years of my life was a spiral of disordered eating, orthorexia, and using yoga as a way to regulate my nervous system. There was a certain point in college where I knew that my bulimia was absolutely not going away, and I needed help.

My roommate, who was pre-med, was taking the same pilates class as me. She would always be sore in her abs, and I was never sore. I had a feeling that the reason I was never sore was because I couldn’t feel my abs, and I was just bypassing them because I was bulimic. I had this disconnection from myself. So I confessed to my yoga teacher that I was bulimic, and that I felt numb in my abs. She showed me a prop that they use in the Iyengar space that looks like a hamburger bun stuffed with sand. She said, “put it on your belly and lay down and breathe into it.” It was absolute agony. But I finally felt. The pain that emerged connected the dots for me about what I was doing to myself with the bulimia. I started to wake up every morning and roll up a hand towel (which was a lot gentler than this bean bag) and I would lay on the towel and move it around my abdomen. What ended up happening was I was able to move beyond the bulimia. I attribute a lot of that in part to creating this connection from my guts, my heart, and my mind. The self-massage work has been instrumental for being able to locate myself and being able to locate my emotions. In the context of practice, I am practicing as safely as possible. But also while in myself and not bypassing myself or continuing to objectify myself the way I used to.

That’s an incredible story and very inspiring. I appreciate you sharing that. Can you explain to the reader what self-myofascial release is?
Self-myofascial release is using a tool to attempt to improve gliding motions between tissues, to improve overall mobility, eliminate pain, address muscle imbalances and improve one’s proprioception (the ability to know where you are in space). I use self-myofascial release to help people improve their embody map, which is that body’s sense of itself. This concretizing of your soma, your anatomy, so that you can be a better participant with what you intend with your movements. The self-myofascial release that I teach is called Roll Model Method®. I use soft, pliable rubber balls of different sizes to help people locate tissues, improve mobility, and transform pain. This is the work that I teach to clinicians, to sports and athletics communities, to the general population, people that don’t like yoga, people that love yoga. All sorts of people can benefit from self-myofascial release.

Because the science behind anatomy and movement changes so rapidly, how do you adjust your training and teaching to align with the new information? What are your thoughts on the people who challenge the effectiveness of rolling?
When people challenge the effectiveness, it’s really easy to counter because we have evidence. In the fascia research community, we’ve moved on from a lot of terms. For example, a lot of people get caught up in this term, “adhesions.” That’s really not frequently used anymore. We’ll hear people talk about agglomerations or lack of gliding or true visceral adhesions, but people don’t really talk about adhesions in a musculoskeletal way very often anymore. That is a term that I used to use because that’s what was used a decade ago. My book, The Roll Model, was written when that term was popular, but in the new book, Body By Breath, I have been able to update those terms and try to continue to evolve. Science is as much an art as it is a science, so we have to keep updating our terms and explain what we mean.

What is your recommendation for women over 40 who want to maintain longevity in their fitness routine and everyday life?
I am a manual movement medicine person! I believe (and the research shows) that load bearing exercise is so important for the aging body, especially with women over 40. The loss of estrogen is deleterious for every system of the body. However, you are working with the symptoms that come along with the disappearance of estrogen in your system, there is no good reason to not do load bearing exercise to continuously stress your muscles so that they stay healthy. We lose our fast twitch muscle fibers at a very fast rate as we age. We also lose our ability to generate power, which weakens the muscles and weakens the bones, so our connective tissues stiffen, and we are more likely to have ruptures and tears. It’s important to do load bearing exercise that is likely beyond yoga. Yoga is important for whole body motion as well as stability. It’s incredible as a mind-body exercise to enhance focus and induce the relaxation response.

The aging body also needs self-myofascial release. Self-massage can get into nooks and crannies of the body that, unbeknownst to you, aren’t being moved by your exercise. Therapy balls can create motion where motion is not occurring well and can also help you update your mind’s ability to connect to your tissues so you can get a more robust contraction. There’s really great evidence about rolling being able to improve a muscle’s ability to create torque or force generation as well as improving your body’s proprioception. Slips and falls are the highest leading cause of hip fractures, and hip fractures are the leading cause of death in aging bodies.

We want ankles that move well, and we want to have good reactive hips and strong bones in those hips, so if we do fall, we are less likely to fracture.

Is there anything else you like to share with the readers?
My newer book, Body by Breath is all about that journey through the gut to embodiment. What I realized when I started to teach these methods to other people is that I got lucky because I healed my eating disorder. But these were applications that ended up helping people with neck pain, with asthma, with chronic shoulder pain, and with low back pain. There were so many varieties of people that were helped by doing these types of gut, massage, rib cage massage applications, and now, I see it’s really quite an endless side-effect free application. The traction just blows me away. This simple thing. This sad little bulimic girl laying down in her dorm room trying to wrestle with what she was struggling with, but there is this universal application that is way beyond what I thought.


Learn more: tuneupfitness.com

WHEN YOGA IS NOT ENOUGH: ADAPTING YOUR PRACTICE FOR LONGEVITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

WHEN YOGA IS NOT ENOUGH: ADAPTING YOUR PRACTICE FOR LONGEVITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

WHEN YOGA IS NOT ENOUGH: ADAPTING YOUR PRACTICE
FOR LONGEVITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

By: Jai Sugrim C.S.C.S, L.M.T, J.Y.T
Photos: Greg McMahon
YOGA
As a longtime NYC Jivamutkti Yogi and Broome Street Temple Ashtangi, I had mastered all of the asanas with dedicated practice in my late 20s and through all of my 30s. I remember training up to five hours per day in the beginning of my yoga journey. For a 12-year stretch, I immersed myself in vinyasa yoga while abandoning the strength training and running which had been part of my holistic training as an athlete.  

However, at around age 40, I began to notice subtle but significant shifts in my body—changes that made me realize yoga alone wasn’t enough to sustain my well-being. Approaches to practice that once yielded success, were now causing injuries and frustration. I was a world-famous yoga teacher with a successful yoga TV show and teaching sold out, 75-person classes at the most popular studio in Manhattan. Why were asanas failing me? After coming to terms with the idea that I was now in the second half of life, and that my personal records were behind me, a new perspective dawned. 

We must remember that an important aspect to yoga is “letting go of our attachments,” and keeping a pliable, flexible mind. Taming my ego opened a deeper exploration into how to adapt my practice to support a more sustainable approach to mindful aging. I realized that I needed to re-integrate the strength training that focused on weak areas that yoga did not train, and cardiovascular training for toning my heart, that I did before my days in yoga began. 

There are supplemental practices and approaches to asana that will keep you practicing through every decade of life, as long as you remain open to changing your routine, shifting things around, and tweaking what needs to be tweaked.  

We Must Account for Age-Related Changes

As we age, our bodies undergo several transformations that can impact our yoga practice. Let’s explore four key things that change for all of us by age 40. 

Decreased Flexibility Due to Fascial Changes

As we age, the fascia—the connective tissue surrounding muscles and organs—becomes less hydrated and more rigid. Muscles that are draped upon other muscles, at the shoulders and hips, no longer slide as smoothly on top of one another as they once did. This leads to reduced flexibility and a diminished range of motion.

Reduced Muscle Mass and Strength

Known as sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass and strength is common with aging. This loss of muscle mass brings with it a reduction of our metabolic rate, and increased body fat. 

Slower Recovery Times

Older bodies generally take longer to recover from physical exertion. This slower recovery can lead to overtraining and increased risk of injury if not properly managed. Doing long, grueling workouts every day will now lead to injury. 

Decreased Bone Density

With age, bone density often decreases, increasing the risk of fractures and falls. This change necessitates special attention to maintaining bone health through physical activity.

Solutions for a Sustainable Yoga Practice

  1. Addressing Decreased Flexibility: 

To counteract the effects of fascial rigidity, incorporate a comprehensive warm-up routine before your yoga practice. You can experiment with gentle dynamic stretches, mobility exercises, a brisk walk or slow jog, and breathwork to prepare the body and enhance flexibility. 

You can also try walking 10,000 steps per day, six days a week. This will keep your fascia from getting sticky, and maintain hip extension, while enhancing your basal metabolic rate. Walking is a low impact and  low cost, while providing high yield, high return on your investment. Walking 10,000 steps per day will keep the heart, your body’s engine, running smoothly as you age. 

Additionally, use myofascial release techniques, such as foam rolling, to maintain fascial elasticity. Self-massage is an incredible form of self-care and maintenance. 

  1. Combating Reduced Muscle Mass and Strength: 

The aging yogi must incorporate weight-bearing poses that involve weight-bearing on the arms and legs. Longer holds for downward dogs, planks, warrior asanas, and tree pose stimulate bone growth and strength. 

Bringing in resistance bands to warm up the body with rows and pulling motions, and doing core work before the start of your yoga sessions would be incredible for adding strength and toning up the body holistically. Perhaps warm up longer, and cut the length of your yoga practice to strike the balance between stability and flexibility.  

  1. Managing Slower Recovery: 

Master sleep. Get eight hours of it. Go to bed and wake up at the same time to tune the circadian rhythm of the organs. Proper rest will enhance the functioning of your androgenic hormones, which help you to recover from training sessions.

You can also incorporate restorative yoga practices, such as Yin Yoga and Yoga Nidra, to facilitate deeper relaxation and recovery. 

To resist the pull of gravity, you will have to engage in positive habits. Getting older can be paired with increasing wisdom and refinement of our personality.  

  1. Maintaining Bone Density: 

Lift heavy things in a variety of planes. Kettlebells, dumbbells, and medicine balls are great, but bodyweight exercises like high-rep air squats, push ups, and assisted pull-ups will do the trick. In the second half of life, frailty is a disease. Lift. Heavy. Things!!!! 

Two 30-minute weight lifting sessions per week will extend your health span, and will help to keep you on the yoga mat well into your golden years. 

As you integrate these practices into your life, you will find that it’s important to exercise six days per week. On the days you lift, you may skip vinyasa yoga and add static stretching or self-massage. On your vinyasa yoga days, you may add 10,000 steps. The idea is that your aging body will crave variety and stay happy when you mix things up. 

Embracing Change for a Lasting Practice

Adapting to these changes has transformed my yoga practice into a more holistic and sustainable routine. By integrating these supplemental practices, and doing less vinyasa yoga, I have been able to address the physical challenges of aging while continuing to enjoy the benefits of yoga. This approach has not only enhanced my physical health, but also provided me with a deeper understanding of how to care for my body as it evolves.

I feel the benefits of holistic training. My endurance and heart are addressed, my bones and tendons are cared for, and my mobility is at fulfilling ranges that provide freedom to do the activities I enjoy. 

Healthy aging is all about staying pain-free while remaining active. Doing splits, handstands, and placing our leg over the head becomes a low priority when we are older. 

For those of you in the second half of life, I encourage you to embrace these changes with a proactive mindset. Your yoga practice can remain a powerful tool for well-being, provided it is adjusted to meet your body’s new needs. By incorporating strength training, cardio, restorative practices, and mindful adjustments to your training program, you can maintain a vibrant and fulfilling yoga practice well into the future.

Remember, yoga is not just about the poses—it’s about nurturing your body and mind through every stage of life. By adapting your practice thoughtfully, you can continue to reap the rewards of yoga while honoring the unique needs of your aging body.

Learn more: theartofagingmindfully.com

INTERVIEW WITH DR. STEFFANY MOONAZ

INTERVIEW WITH DR. STEFFANY MOONAZ

INTERVIEW WITH DR. STEFFANY MOONAZ

PH.D., CMA, MFA, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500
FOUNDER OF YOGA FOR ARTHRITIS


By: Megan Twining

YOGA

Every one of us has a different story of how we found yoga. Often, new students come to my studio,  Sonder℠, located in the Washington D.C. area, because their doctor prescribed yoga to manage the aches and stiffness that seem inevitable as our bodies change. This truth led me to seek out advanced training as a yoga therapist which is how I was introduced to Dr. Steffany Moonaz. She is the founder of the Yoga for Arthritis organization, a certified yoga therapist, professor and research director at Southern California University of Health Sciences. Her philosophy is that everyone should have access to feeling as free as a dancer, even as our bodies change. She calls yoga a ‘whole person practice,’ a successful method for pain management and a way to access what matters most – a sense of self as we age. 

Thank you so much for being a part of this interview for the Celebrating Age issue. Can you tell us about your professional roles and background? 
I’m the research director at Southern California University of Health Sciences which trains integrative health professionals. I research the use of yoga for arthritis, chronic pain, and musculoskeletal conditions. I am also the founder and director of Yoga for Arthritis, an organization that I started over 20 years ago. The landscape of yoga was very different then because there were not a lot of ways for people living with arthritis to access safe, accessible, appropriate, evidence-based yoga practices. I train yoga teachers and yoga therapists, provide yoga to people who are living with arthritis, mentor emerging professionals, and I advocate for access and a change in the conception of how we manage arthritis and chronic pain. 

I have a PhD in public health from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where I also worked in the rheumatology department. That’s where my training and background in arthritis and rheumatic diseases comes from. I also have a Master of Fine Arts in dance, which is relevant in the way I think about movement and the moving body and expression. I’m also a certified health and wellness coach, yoga teacher, and yoga therapist.

I love your connection to dance. You’ve mentioned the balance between stability and free range of motion that happens simultaneously in dance and yoga; can you elaborate on this?
In my memoir, Yoga Therapy for Arthritis, I quote a song that says, “Are we human or are we dancers?” Which is something that my son and I ask each other all the time. What we’re talking about is the otherworldliness, the different ways of being in the world. When you have access to that, it’s transformative. It doesn’t require any particular movement ability to find ways of relating to and being in embodied experience.

I know you spent some time in an ashram, and it was there you experienced real clarity about how to serve through yoga. Can you please share more on this?
There are many yoga teachers who do not intend to become yoga teachers; they pursue a yoga teacher training program out of a desire to dive deeper into their own yoga practice and their own experience of yoga, to learn more about yoga in a deeper, different way. I was one of those. So when others come to me for training and say, “I don’t really want to teach,” I chuckle. Yoga was the one thing that I did only for me. 

In my early 20s, I was teaching at multiple universities. I was already leading and training in a variety of ways, but my yoga was mine. I went to an ashram because I wanted to have an immersive experience of yoga. When you’re trained to be a yoga teacher at an ashram, you are immersed in the yogic lifestyle along with the yogic teachings for the duration. Since this and many other experiences after, I am certain of Divine guidance.

I never would have gone to that yoga teacher training to become a leading expert on the science of yoga as it applies to arthritis and chronic pain. But clearly, I needed that training along with everything else that happened since. It was because of that training that I was hired as a research assistant in the Johns Hopkins Arthritis Center. A researcher there took a yoga class and thought that it was really a powerful, viable option for the patients with arthritis in their clinic and needed somebody who was a yoga teacher to partner with in order to begin studying this. Going to the ashram gave me the tools that I needed beyond asana, the physical postures. In the West, a lot of times, that’s what we think about when we think about yoga. But it is such a small fraction of what yoga is, and being at the ashram allowed me to get a broader understanding of the expansive toolbox of yoga, so that when I did take it into the clinic, I could optimize its usefulness for the patients there and beyond.

You mentioned that arthritis is a “whole person” disease. What does that mean? I get the impression that everyone’s going to get arthritis to some degree or another as we age. I first want to say that when we’re talking about the arthritis that is associated with aging, we’re generally thinking about one specific form of arthritis called osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, and the prevalence of osteoarthritis does increase dramatically with age. Age is a primary predictor of osteoarthritis onset. Arthritis, though, is an umbrella term that includes over 100 different diseases, and it can affect people anywhere in the lifespan.
There is juvenile arthritis in many forms that can affect babies and toddlers all the way up to the onset of arthritis at the end of life and everything in between. Each of these forms of arthritis has different characteristics and different risk factors. If you are fortunate to live long enough, then your body tissue will start to age. What starts to happen is that we have cell turnover all of the time. Our body is shedding old cells and making new ones throughout the lifespan.

When we’re young, we grow more cells than we lose. That’s the growth that happens in early age. We have some homeostasis in the middle, where it’s an even balance. Then at a certain point, there’s more death than birth. We are losing connective tissue in the joints at a faster rate than we’re building it. We could think about that as being a natural consequence of aging, but there are reasons that it happens to some people earlier and more than others.

We are all losing connective tissue past a certain age, but not everyone feels it. Not everyone suffers from the experience of it because there actually is very little relationship between the amount of tissue damage and the symptoms that we experience. There are some people who have a lot of pain from very little tissue damage, and there are other people who have very little pain with a lot of tissue damage. You don’t go to your doctor about your knees unless they hurt. You may have what we would call pre-arthritic changes. There may actually be a wearing down of the cartilage in some of your joints, but because you’re not experiencing symptoms, it doesn’t really affect you.

And this gets to the “whole person” aspect of arthritis, because when you do have symptoms of arthritis, which for osteoarthritis the most prominent symptom generally is pain. But there’s also stiffness, swelling, fatigue, disability, and changes in the activities we’re able to do. All of this is different depending on the experience of arthritis, but also all of it can be changed without changing the tissue damage in the joint. While the experience of arthritis is a whole person experience, there are ways to address it that span all of the aspects of a person, too.

Oftentimes, when people hear that I study the effects of yoga for people with arthritis they go, “Oh, well, yoga is movement, and movement is good for arthritis. Arthritis is a disease of the musculoskeletal system. Movement is good for the musculoskeletal system.” What they fail to realize is actually what yoga offers to a person living with arthritis. Yes, it can directly affect the joints, but goes so far beyond changing the structure or the tissue and how it’s organized in the joint.

Can you share how yoga is a “whole person” practice?
Arthritis has no cure. It’s irreversible. You can’t build back the cartilage that you’ve lost, but you can strengthen the stabilizing muscles that surround the joint and help improve the integrity of the joint even while it’s losing tissue. We can slow the progression of the disease. We can also maintain physical function, even if we’re losing joint tissue. We can also use the tools of yoga to help change things like pain. People think of pain as being in the part of the body where you’re feeling it, but pain is actually a set of signals between the brain and the body. 

For example, if we’re talking about the knees, there’s a message that goes from the knee to the brain, that is the ascending pain pathway. Then there’s another signal that goes from the brain back to the knee, that’s the descending pain pathway. This is happening in the nervous system, not the cartilage, and there are all kinds of tools that we can use in yoga that change the functioning of the nervous system, including things like breath control. When we deepen the breath, we’re changing the state of the nervous system, which affects pain even if the cartilage doesn’t change. Tools of yoga can also help to lift our mood and can help change our mindset.

Do you have any success stories?
So many! There was one situation in a Yoga for Arthritis class at the Johns Hopkins Clinic with a patient who had a systemic inflammatory form of arthritis called rheumatoid arthritis, but she believed that she had osteoarthritis. The treatments are completely different, and she was not receiving the medical treatment that she needed. She was middle-aged and very disabled. She had a very difficult time getting around, let alone engaging in a physical yoga practice.

She was able to get down to the floor with some difficulty but could not get back up to standing on her own. One day, I walked over to support her and reached out my hand, and she waved me off without saying anything. It was clear that she wanted to do this herself. And so she was leaning forward, had one foot up, one knee down, struggling, but was finally able to bring herself up to standing. I was nervous about everybody staring at her struggling to get up, but as soon as she got to standing, the whole room burst out in applause.

It was such an important moment for her. It was the first time that she had been able to get up from the floor in as long as she could remember, and it also emphasizes the importance of community and support in that experience. 

If there were someone reading this that is suffering from arthritis and is looking at yoga as a potential means to help themselves, are there any pieces of advice? 
Something you can do immediately by yourself, without any assistance, is to breathe in a way that can help to manage pain. We all have experiences in our lives of using our breath to manage pain. We do it automatically, and don’t even think about it. An obvious example for anyone who has gone through childbirth, because you definitely are using your breath for pain management there. 

We can shift our energy by changing how we breathe. If you put a hand on your belly and a hand on your chest, you should notice that as you breathe in, your whole torso expands, and as you breathe out, it softens. The first thing is, if your belly doesn’t move when you breathe, change that. Some of us who are feeling stressed are breathing high up into the chest, we’re holding tension in our abdomen as a coping strategy, we’re not getting the benefit of full deep breathing. So that’s one way to start, just take deeper breaths, allow your belly to move. 

Another way is to slow down the exhale. Take a deep breath in and then let it out nice and slow, it helps to take us out of stress response into relaxation response. Stress makes pain worse, and pain makes stress worse. If we start breathing more deeply, and especially lengthening that exhale when we’re feeling stressed or when we’re feeling pain, you can feel an immediate shift in your state of being with just that simple technique. If there’s one thing that you’re going to do, it is to breathe more deeply. 

If you also want to get started with a yoga practice, with that whole big toolbox of postures and breathing practices, mindfulness, meditation, relaxation, applied philosophy, and all of the rest, you’re going to want a teacher. You want to look for a teacher who has training and experience working with people who have different needs, who have physical limitations. It can be called a lot of different things, yoga for seniors, chair yoga, or gentle yoga, but instead of just going by what the name of the yoga class is, contact the studio and ask, “Hey, I have arthritis. It’s hard for me to get down to the floor. Is this class appropriate for me?” Or, “I’m new to yoga, I’m a little bit older. Do you have a class that would be a good place to start?” If you can’t find a class that’s right for you, you might want to start one-on-one with a yoga teacher or a yoga therapist who can help you learn the basic skills of how to practice yoga at home, or how to go into a yoga class and know and keep yourself safe no matter what the instruction is that’s being provided.

If you try a class and it is not a good fit, don’t assume that there is no yoga for you. It’s the same when you go to a medical visit and you think “this is not a good fit.” You don’t give up on medical care, you go find someone else.

Is there anything else that you would like to share on the topic of “celebrating age.”
I think that it’s unfortunate that in our society, we tend to devalue the wisdom of older people. We have a lot of work to do to change that societally, but we can change that ourselves by appreciating our own wisdom as we age, by seeing all that we gain instead of only looking at what we lose. We’re gaining far more than we’re losing as we get older, and we can be such an asset to our families, to our communities. 

In yoga, there is this idea of different stages of life. And as we get older, we move from growing and developing as individuals to creating families, creating careers or creating households. Then we move into this stage of life that is stepping back and passing the torch to the next generation. Being mentors, being guides, being spiritually wise, intellectually wise. No matter what, you have a unique perspective to offer. Yoga provides a model for how we can show up as we get older in a way that is fulfilling to us and also useful to the world.

Learn more: arthritis.yoga

HOW TO BECOME A YOGA INSTRUCTOR: FROM TRAINING & BEYOND

HOW TO BECOME A YOGA INSTRUCTOR: FROM TRAINING & BEYOND

HOW TO BECOME A YOGA INSTRUCTOR: FROM TRAINING & BEYOND

Sponsored content from our partners at beYogi

YOGA
BIG BEAR YOGA FESTIVAL
Yes, yoga is huge — and its popularity is only growing! It really is a great time to become a yoga instructor.

The numbers don’t lie: Around 85,000 yoga teachers have been certified in the United States and a staggering 300 million worldwide, according to a 2019 report by Yoga Journal and Yoga Alliance. Just as the number of teachers is growing, so are the number of students interested in this often life-changing practice. Another survey in 2019 by Yoga Alliance estimated around 38.4 million Americans alone practice yoga.

Once you get called to sit in the teacher’s seat, you may wonder how to become a yoga instructor. There are many steps to work through as you begin this journey, which will be both challenging and rewarding for you and all the students you lead throughout your time as a teacher.

 

1. Understanding the Role of a Yoga Instructor

Before I completed yoga teacher training, I honestly thought being a yoga instructor involved just getting people in postures. I had no idea! The reality is that yoga instructors not only cue students through physical movements, but they also hold space for their emotional, spiritual, and personal development.

That said, the main role of a yoga instructor is to provide a caring and supportive environment for students to investigate and strengthen the connections between their minds and bodies. You must offer a safe space, through mindful cueing, as well as compassion and kindness. I always want my students to feel successful, even after the most challenging classes.

Yoga instructors must have excellent communication and planning skills, and they must remain aware and mindful before, during, and after each class.

They also need to be knowledgeable in what they are teaching. There are many different kinds of yoga, from yin to hot vinyasa to stand-up paddleboard yoga to chair yoga and so many more. If you are drawn to one style, you may consider additional training after your 200-hour teacher training to specialize your career path.

 

2. Personal Preparation

Not everyone who has completed yoga teacher training wants to learn how to be a yoga instructor, and that’s fine if you don’t want to teach. You may just want to deepen your personal practice.  Assess your motivations and commitment to sharing yoga with others before you plan to teach. When you know your “why,” you’ll be more likely to overcome any obstacles on your path to the teacher’s seat.

I personally practiced yoga for more than 10 years before becoming a teacher 13 years ago, but all you need is a strong personal practice and experience to be prepared. It’s also important to feel physically able as well as mentally able. If you’re struggling in your life, it might not be a good time to learn how to be a yoga teacher.

 

3. Choosing the Right Yoga Teacher Training Program

The biggest decision you’ll need to make is choosing the yoga teacher training program. I encourage you to choose an accredited certification program, like those partnered with Yoga Alliance. Everyone starts with a 200-hour course, although many committed teachers go on to pursue 300-hour and even 500-hour certifications.

As you begin your research, you’ll discover a wide variety of locations, styles, instructors, and costs. You may want to go to a destination and complete the training through an intensive three-week course, or your schedule may be better able to fit in a local course that stretches over 12 weeks or even a year. My advice is to not rush your training. Yoga teaching requires a lifetime of learning, and it can take time to integrate new concepts into your daily life and practice.

Learn more about the options with our Yoga Teacher Training Guide.

 

4. The Yoga Teacher Training Experience

I was right in that yoga teacher training would provide the practical steps instructors need to get students into safe postures, but that’s just the beginning of the experience. Topics in a good training program will include:

  •       Anatomy
  •       Spiritual philosophy, including reading texts like the Yoga Sutras and the Upanishads
  •       Proper sequencing and structure of classes
  •       Ethics
  •       Professional business and marketing strategies

This material will take as many hours as the course states: 200, 300, or 500. But as I mentioned, these hours can be packed into a few weeks or spread out over a year. These hours don’t include homework, and there will be lots to study! If you’re like me, you’ll find great joy in learning about yoga.

Yoga teacher training also always includes practice teaching with feedback from your instructors. It can be challenging to receive criticism, but it will help you be a better yoga instructor. Make sure to build a supportive community and network with your fellow trainees to lean on when the training gets challenging.

 

5. Obtaining Certification

To receive your certification, you’ll need to complete the required hours of training with one accredited school. This will likely include a written exam as well as leading your first yoga practice for the rest of the class. It’s a big accomplishment to complete this process, and you should be proud when you do!

Next, you’ll likely want to register with Yoga Alliance or another certifying agency as a yoga instructor. This will let your future employers know that you’re a professional who will uphold proper ethics.

Once you start teaching, you may consider adding on additional certifications. These can include continuing education in general yoga teaching or specialties. For example, I am certified in teaching chair yoga and SUP yoga, and I’m considering a certification in yin yoga. Keep learning along whatever path brings you the most passion and excitement.

 

6. Get Yoga Teacher Insurance

Even before your first class, look into getting yoga teacher insurance. The last thing you want is for someone to injure themselves in one of your classes, but it happens. It’s better to be prepared and covered with professional liability insurance.

Check out beYogi’s insurance coverage, as it’s a popular option with yoga instructors. You can sign up online in just a matter of minutes. It’s easy to choose from a list of yoga styles you plan to teach and coverage limits for your financial situation. You can also get umbrella coverage for a variety of bodywork and beauty practices that many yoga instructors add to their resume.

Plus through YOGA♥ Magazine you can get $20 off a professional insurance membership when you use our affiliate link.

 

7. Building Your Yoga Teaching Career

Once you have completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training, are certified, and insured, you’re ready to find a class! One of the best ways to do this is to simply sign up for classes at the studios, gyms, community centers, and online platforms that interest you. Talk with the owners and ask about availability in their schedule.

Create a resume with your training and interests. With time, you will have a portfolio of classes and a strong network within your local yoga community to help you find better opportunities.

Popular yoga teachers also market themselves on social media, but that’s just the start. You need to have a website, a logo, and a consistent style for your advertisements. If you are insured through beYogi, you actually get a free website as an added benefit to help you market yourself professionally.

Always look for new avenues to expand your reach to new students. Eventually, you’ll have a class of people who resonate with your style. It may take time but keep persisting.

 

8. Continuing Education and Professional Development

Teaching yoga can be a hobby, or it can be a career. You get to decide! The best yoga instructors, though, invest in their skills through ongoing learning and professional development.

Look for workshops, retreats, and advanced training opportunities that interest you. Stay up to date with trends in the industry and new practices. When you keep a “beginner’s mind,” you make it easier for your students to do so, too.

But yoga isn’t like other careers; instructors must invest in their personal development as well. Yoga teachers need to maintain a regular personal practice and take care of their needs. This can range from getting enough sleep to eating well to working with a psychologist. The more centered and content you are, the better you’ll be as a teacher.

 

9. Challenges And How to Overcome Them

One time when I was teaching preschool yoga, one of my students accidently went to the bathroom on his mat. They don’t teach you what to do then in yoga teacher training!

You’ll discover many obstacles during your training and in the following years as a teacher. Here are a few challenges (and solutions!) that I’ve experienced or learned about from my fellow instructors.

Challenge: No one comes to your class!

Solution: Have faith that you will find your students with time. You’ll learn your market and the desires of potential students, and you can adjust when necessary. Stay flexible on and off the mat!

Challenge: A more popular yoga teacher scheduled a class at the same time as yours.

Solution: Instead of comparing yourself with more seasoned yoga teachers, engage them as mentors. Consider offering a completely different style of practice: If they teach hot vinyasa, offer a yin class.

Challenge: A student might say something hurtful. One time a student actually told me he hated me for offering so many chaturangas!

Solution: Smile. Their practice isn’t about you, even if they think it is. It’s about them. If they are mindless in their speech, demonstrate extra compassion.

Challenge: You’re burned out. You may have committed to too many classes a week.

Solution: It’s crucial to make time for self-care and know when you’ve taken on too much. If you’re having trouble staying motivated or inspired, go back to the basics: Talk to the yoga teachers who ran your training or another instructor you respect. Reach out for help.

Challenge: You love teaching, but you’re simply not making enough money to pay the bills.

Solution: Depending on your location, the popularity of your classes, and whether you’re teaching in a gym or a dedicated studio, your pay can vary dramatically. Don’t be afraid to talk with your employers about pay and be ready to change locations if you can earn more.

Think of each hurdle as a necessary learning opportunity, because that’s exactly what it is.

 

10. Beyond Teaching: Expanding Your Career

Finally, this article on how to become a yoga instructor wouldn’t be complete without discussing all the complementary ways that you can leverage your training to enhance your career. The best-paying opportunities are private classes, workshops, and hosting retreats. Once you are confident in your teaching, you can expand and earn more.

You can also expand your career through specialization, such as therapeutic or prenatal yoga. I earned a lot more working as a standup paddleboard yoga instructor than I did teaching a more traditional class at the local gym, in part because SUP yoga requires additional training. Consider specialization as an investment in your future as a yoga teacher.

You can also use your knowledge like I do, as a professional writer! Not only do I teach four classes a week in my community, but I also enjoy writing, blogging, and creating online content. Not only is it possible to make additional income, but you can also use your work to market your teaching to more students.

And that’s really just the beginning. As you gain experience, you may want to lead your own yoga teacher training program. Maybe you have an idea for yoga-themed products, such as journals, straps, clothing, or even aromatic sprays.

Once you become a yoga teacher, you’ll have many opportunities to grow as a professional — and as a person.

3 YOGA POSES TO TRY WITH YOUR PARTNER TO BUILD A STRONGER BOND

3 YOGA POSES TO TRY WITH YOUR PARTNER TO BUILD A STRONGER BOND

3 YOGA POSES TO TRY WITH YOUR PARTNER TO BUILD A STRONGER BOND

Yoga Director at YogaRenew Teacher Training, Patrick Franco

Sponsored Content from our partners at YogaRenew Teacher Training

YOGA
YogaRenew Teacher Training

Finding precious bonding time with your partner can be difficult. Whether you set aside 10 minutes a day to connect or schedule weekly date nights, quality time creates a sense of closeness and should not be overlooked. One way to better connect with your partner is practicing partner yoga. You can deepen your stretches and relationship, all while having fun, with a playful partner yoga practice.

Partner yoga helps foster communication and connection.  It also builds trust and teaches us how to physically and mentally let go. It’s a completely different experience than rolling out your own mat and practicing on your own in silence. These poses require two people to work together to get the biggest benefit.

The poses can range from simple seated twists that are great for beginners to Acro poses that require a good amount of strength and flexibility. Whether you’re looking for a simple stretch to try or a challenging pose that’ll require a lot of mutual effort, read on below for three different partner yoga poses to try!

Seated Spinal Twist

This is a great “ice-breaker” partner pose because it is simple and everyone can practice it!

  • Both parties start seated cross legged, back to back
  • Both parties extend their arms into a T-shape and twist to the right holding the left knee of your partner and the left hand rests on your own right knee. Repeat twisting to the left.

Lizard on a Rock

This pose is a little more complex but both students get a great stretch.

  • Student #1 starts in child’s pose
  • Student #2 sits sacrum to sacrum on Student #1 and extends backwards.
  • Student #2 extends arms overhead and Student #1 grabs their wrists for a deep stretch
  • Student #2 can extend their legs as well to get a full body stretch if comfortable
  • Switch positions

Down Dog / L-Shape Handstand

This is a classic partner pose that’s fun and playful and goes upside down!

  • Student #1 starts in downward dog
  • Student #2 places feet outside Student #1 hands and then places their hands on the floor
  • Student #2 takes one foot at a time onto Student #1’s sacrum (the triangular bone between the pelvic bones). Student #2 is in an L-Shape Position.
  • Student #2 has the option to lift up one foot and then the other as if practicing L-Shaped Handstand at the wall
  • Switch Positions

Thank you to our partners at  YogaRenew Teacher Training for sharing this fun sequence with our community!

Seated Spinal Twist

YogaRenew Teacher Training
Lizard on a Rock
YogaRenew Teacher Training
Down Dog / L-Shape Handstand
YogaRenew Teacher Training
WEAVING INSPIRATION TO THE HEART

WEAVING INSPIRATION TO THE HEART

WEAVING INSPIRATION TO THE HEART

By Ingrid Baquero @ingridsolbaquero

YOGA
WEAVING INSPIRATION TO THE HEART
Storytelling is a powerful tool to engage the heart. 

During the Sedona Yoga Festival this past April, I had the pleasure to sit in and learn from Rachel Scott, yoga teacher trainer and professional instructional designer, through “The Art of Theming,” workshop. 

In yoga, some teachers practice opening an emotional connection through dharma talk, centering students through a universal theme before the journey unfolds on the mat. The practice of dharma talk allows students to elevate their awareness and movement with a personal intention based on the theme provided by the teacher. 

Rachel shares that, “Theming provides a ‘why’ for the ‘what’, which then informs the ‘how’. It provides a pathway to bring heartfelt philosophy into the physical body, and provides us with a tangible way to live our yoga – both on and off the mat.” 

Weaving a theme into class might feel overwhelming, but if we take time to reflect as teachers, our everyday experiences can become relatable learnings to share with others, awakening the Shakti energy in our students beyond just the physical asana practice. 

Rachel’s workshop provided a helpful process with questions to guide teachers on theming and inspiring the heart. Here’s what we learned to create a positive ripple effect through sharing our own experiences. 

The Story: What’s your story? What is life teaching you right now? Reflect on a recent experience that taught you something. Share your short story, and make sure it has a relatable context for others. It must be a resolved experience. Very important! Our story is to be of service for others for positive learning. 

The “AHA,” moment from an “I,” standpoint:  What did I learn from this experience? Be specific on your theme. Some examples: Be Present. Listen to the Heart. Accept Surrender. 

The “Find the Light,” from a “We,” perspective: How is my reflection a universal truth learning that can apply to all? We all go through similar experiences that make this theme relatable. What should we keep in mind?

The Application & Tools: How can this theme be expressed through language, mudras, poses throughout the physical or philosophical practice? Create a theme toolbox.  

The Close: Reiterate your theme with a closing statement. Could be a quote, a gesture, or a closing mediation that channels your theme. 

Overall, theming is a creative and meaningful way to connect with your students. 

Rachel is launching several “Summer School” opportunities. Check out her 4-month long Sequencing Mentorship, the 60-Hour Program, Integral Anatomy for Yogis, or her full 300 hour YTT.  To find out more, check her website and follow her on IG @rachelscottyoga.

Happy weaving!