First weekend Yoga Teacher Training

"I brought my pencil, gimme something to write on, man." : David Lee Roth 

My first weekend of training is now in the past.    17 more to go.   There is so much to learn..

My class consists of 15 people.    There are 13 women and 2 men.   I would say the age range is 22 to 60.    I do not think I am the oldest but I am in the top 2 or 3.   I actually learned everyone's name by day 2.  That is a minor miracle for me.  

Much of the first day  (class is five hours each day) was spent on Yoga history, the Eight Limbs  (Ashtanga) of Yoga,  and Ayurveda.  Ayurveda is an ancient health system predicated on the balance between mind, body and spirit.  The Ayurveda was all new to me and was interesting.    A good amount of the discussion on it focused on diet and exercise.. We talked about the three general Ayurvedic types (or Doshas)  and then we went through a Yoga flow looking at poses for each of the different types.   I did discover that five hours is a long time to be in one room and to be sitting on a rubber mat on a floor.  Bolsters were necessary along with frequent seating adjustments.

The second day started with basics of two Yoga poses , Down Facing Dog and Chaturanga,  and the breaking each pose down to component parts.   It is interesting to practice something for a long time and to then to look at it at a minute level.   It is also interesting (and I see this often) , to find that one teacher tells you one way of doing something and another tells you a different way.    My shoulders are still sore from the amount of time we spent in Down Dog trying to feel the nuances the teacher was trying to get across to us as well as being the "student" for another trainees.  

In addition to the breakdown of these two poses,  we were started at the foundation level for a Yoga practice and for teaching.   We talked about the foundations of Asana.  This is a general way of looking at a Yoga practice both from a personal practice and from a teacher perspective.    There was a good amount of detail in these foundations and much useful information for me.   Even after reading my notes and typing them up,  it is still hard to get it all internalized.

We ended the long day discussing the five fundamental steps to leading or teaching a Yoga pose.
This was the best part of the class as it brought a paradigm to me that I have been thinking about but have not systematized.  These steps are;

  Center students (breath or another cue)
  Position the posture - getting into the pose
  Begin cue on alignment - adjustments / minor tweaks
  Support the posture
  Guide out of the posture
  Return to centering.


As homework, we were assigned a good amount of reading on Anatomy that we have to do over the next two weeks.  Additionally, we have to prepare the teaching of a foundational Yoga pose.   We have to set up, shape, and cue the pose.  This is the fun part of the learning and why I am here.  A hard part will be picking one.

My feelings are a mixture of happiness that I finally decided to do this with a sense of dread that one day I have to go in front of a group of people and lead, check and adjust them.   There is just so much detail to remember.    My mind is swimming in the middle of all of this.  


Namaste

Prepping for Yoga Teacher Training / Dealing with a back issue.

Because I am a total geek,  I have already bought all my required books for my Yoga teacher training.  (actually a total geek would have probably read them all but I digress) We have a total of six books to purchase and read and they are now piled up on my dining room table.  I found one at a local used book store and bought the rest on line so they came in piecemeal.     The books are a mix of anatomy, Yoga poses,  breathing, and Yoga philosophy and they are all somewhat intimidating.      Holding a full time job and training will be somewhat of a challenge.   February 25 is coming up fast.   

To get ahead of the game, I was able to find some musculoskeletal anatomy classes on www.edx.org.  This is a great website where universities all over the world post on line classes for free.   The list of  universities include such  places as Michigan, MIT, and Harvard.   Free is good and the content is generally as well.   I would highly recommend using the site for general knowledge as there is a wide variety of classes.   I find complexity of the human body is just fascinating so it was a pleasure to take the courses.    This pre-studying has alleviated some of my trepidation about what we will be learning from the anatomy side. 

Over the past few weeks,  I have been dealing with an odd back pain.   I am not certain where it came from,  but it has curtailed my Yoga practice.  If I sit in a certain position and move suddenly, I have a sharp pain in my left lower back.   It is not chronic pain (meaning that it is not there all the time),  and I am able to do all of my daily activities.  I have even taken a 10+ mile hike with no difficulty or pain each of the last two weekends.    As a result of this pain and wanting to give what ever is injured time to heal,  I had not done a flow practice in nearly three weeks.   I have been limiting myself to restorative, stretching and Yin sessions.    I am only now beginning to add some flow back into my practice but I have been fighting the urge to overdo it.    I have not gone to a class during this time either.    I feel it getting better but it has taken some time to get there.

This injury has made me realize a few things.   The first thing is that I have acquired the patience to work with my injury and not fight through it.   Sitting in restorative poses for ten minutes can be somewhat boring and there was a time when I probably could not do it for two minutes.  Secondly, is that Yoga can be practiced in many ways , and just because you have pain or limitations,  does not mean that you cannot practice.    It is possible to work around your limitations and injuries and to also work on healing them through your practice.    The difficult part is to know when to say this is enough for today.  

12 days to go until I start on my teaching journey.   It will take time away from hiking (especially)  and my other non-Yoga activities but I am up for the challenge.   I am looking forward to all that I will learn both about myself , my practice and Yoga.  

Namaste.

My Book Pile