Yoga For Beginners Guide

By Kathryn Boland Many people set New Year's Resolutions with optimism and a good plan in place. Some of the most common are to lose weight, quit smoking or drinking alcohol, or even to improve one's relationships with loved ones and/or friends. Unfortunately, however, come February, several of these individuals find themselves struggling to keep with their resolutions - and their best intentions are left behind, to return to business as usual, not long after.

By Faye Martins How can you educate prospective yoga students? You don't have much time to capture the attention of anyone these days. People are distracted by the beeps and chirps of electronic devices. Therefore, when prospective yoga students seek you out for information about your classes, you must be prepared.

By: Virginia Iversen Warrior I is one of the fundamental standing poses of any Yoga practice. This pose is very grounding and invigorating. If Warrior I is taught and practiced correctly by your students, they will feel more focused, confident and stronger after practicing a vigorous sequence of Yoga asanas that includes a series of Warrior poses. With apt instruction, your students will be able to move into Warrior II and Warrior III from Warrior I Pose with little difficulty. As their practice progresses, they will also be able to move fluidly from a series of Warrior poses into Half Moon Pose and Eagle. Both of these poses are particularly nice to move into from Warrior III.

By Kimaya Singh Many graduates of Yoga certification courses tend to think that all of their students will be healthy. When one begins teaching classes it becomes obvious that Yogic methodology was created to relieve the suffering of mankind.

By Faye Martins Graduates of chair yoga teacher training programs have many opportunities in the corporate sector. If you've ever sat at a desk in front of a computer screen for hours on end, you know the aches and pains associated with an office job. By the time afternoon rolls around, many office workers are feeling lethargic, achy or even pain.

By Bhavan Kumar The romance between yoga and your hinge joints is a bittersweet one. In addition to being very conscious of your knees, it is also imperative to be mindful of your elbows. Either of these complex hinge joints can easily be hyperextended, which can lead to injury and pain. Generally speaking, hyperextensions require rest to heal, which means that holding postures will be better for you than flowing through them. For teachers, this means recommending a student to the restorative class and advising him or her to avoid the vinyasa class. Additionally, postures that stress the elbows will not help the healing process.

By Jenny Park As many of you already know. Yogic practices are good for both genders. Yet, Yoga teacher training programs are full of women. What makes Yogic techniques so popular with women? Yoga is a healthy way of life and one of the most versatile forms of exercise.

By Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500 There seems to be no single text that lists the contraindications for each Yoga technique; the reason being - the monumental task of listing, categorizing, and matching up each technique, with a corresponding contraindication, would be a feat that would take years to complete.

By Faye Martins The ancient practice of yoga, which dates back more than 5,000 years, improves skeletal health through skillful selection and consistent application of a variety of exercises. Yoga poses for skeletal health are chosen for their ability to improve posture, increase flexibility and relieve skeletal system tensions. Yoga assists in maintaining bone density. It also helps minerals that are stored in the bones, as well as the blood cells produced in bone marrow, to be released to the bloodstream for the body's use as needed.

By Sangeetha Saran Chances are you learned plenty about the use of props during your Yoga teacher training, but some of your students might have objections. You've tried to explain the value of good alignment, but many of those same students just don't seem to get it. Let's go over why props are essential and more than a mere marketing gimmick.

By Sarah Fisher After graduating from Yoga teacher training, I look back at where I was when I went to my first class. I was so stressed that it was difficult to get up for work. I was starting to make excuses to avoid leaving my home. Jobs are stressful, but these days, you want to keep the one you have. At the same time, I needed to get some physical activity. Luckily, my friends got me out of the house and into a fitness-based Yoga class.

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500 How can teachers establish Yoga student safety guidelines? For all Yoga instructors, the number one priority in our classes is student safety. Hatha Yoga is important for the health of the mind and body, but, unfortunately, it can be unsafe if not practiced properly. In comparison to many other physical activities, Yogic methods are in the lower risk category.

By Rachel Holmes Teaching Yoga to seniors is a skill that requires constant study. A chair yoga teacher training course is an eye opener, but to go out into the world teaching students is an awakening. As a result of its promise for low impact activity that both strengthens the body and makes it more flexible, yoga is becoming ever more popular among seniors. In fact, most people past middle age acknowledge how important to their health a regular activity is, and medical research demonstrates the necessity for body weight strength exercises that build muscle and can help reverse bone loss, as well.

By Kimaya Singh How can we teach Yoga to golfers? Golf centers, courses and retail stores can be found almost everywhere. Golf is a popular game that seems to involve hitting a small ball into a small hole. True golfers know it is much more than that. It's a game of great skill and precision, great concentration and focus. Many golfers complain of lower back pain due to the twisting of the spine during each swing. Yoga training can be an effective way to strengthen the core, loosen the spine and improve any golfer's focus. Private yoga sessions for golfers might be the key to their success on and off the course.

By Jenny Park Have you ever met someone who doubted that yoga is beneficial for health? You might be asked, "where's the proof" when you mention the good that yoga can do for practitioners. As yoga teachers, the following information should be made available to our students who have diabetes.

By Rachel Holmes How will yoga in schools change the future? With the use of technology and tight school budgets, children and young adults around the world need activity. As a result of this need, certified yoga instructors are finding work as independent contractors in public, private and preschools. It is no surprise, considering the global culture of instant gratification, that the current generation of children has a hard time focusing, does not get enough exercise, and does not get enough nutrition.

By Faye Martins How can yoga improve heart health. In recent years, yoga has become one of the most popular ways to stay fit in the modern world. Yoga originated, in India, as a form of physical and mental health maintenance, in hopes of attaining total peace. However, you do not have to be a guru to experience the many health benefits of a yoga routine.

By Amruta Kulkarni, CYT 500 More than twenty years ago, I was attending a yoga teacher training and the guru who organized it stated that there was too much emphasis on anatomy in typical instructor intensives. Yoga instructors see a wide range of students over the course of the week. Many of these students arrive either mildly or heavily out of shape, hoping their yoga practice will aid them in sloughing off extra weight while reshaping their lifestyle into something healthier. We also see a lot of students who are in amazing shape. These students lead generally active lives and practice yoga as part of their emotional or spiritual health. With some of these students, I suffer from body envy; their well-sculpted shoulders are strong and flexible. But I also find many of them struggle with shoulder pain, and they practice yoga in hopes of easing the effects of old injuries.

By Faye Martins What can Yoga do for chronic back pain? From a point of pure speculation, it might be a fair guess to assume that 10% of the world's population is affected by back pain. However, let's look at the statistics in just one country. Back pain is something that impacts more than 31 million Americans in a year's time, according to the American Chiropractic Association, and a study conducted in 2010 called the Global Burden of Disease, which determined that lower back pain is a leading cause for missed days at work. The majority of cases noted in this study were not caused by infections or disorders, whether metabolic or degenerative, but rather by mechanical problems like severe physical trauma.

By Amruta Kulkarni, CYT 500 When I graduated from my first yoga instructor training intensive, my first assignment was teaching beginners in a corporate gym setting. Those students were dedicated and I can easily say they taught me as much as I taught them. Most of them had very different ideas about what they thought yoga training was all about.