Yoga for Everybody
By Irene Ais, Unite Health Therapeutic Yoga Presenter, Physiotherapist, certified yoga teacher, AcroYoga teacher & Pilates Instructor. The practice of yoga provides a pathway towards the union of the body, the mind and the spirit. Traditionally the yoga teacher would guide students with knowledge and techniques that would balance their individual needs. Today, millions of people are exploring the practice of yoga, enticed by the physical, mental and energetic benefits. However, in the west, the modern yoga practice has evolved to match, rather than to balance our highly stimulated lives. We not only glorify being busy, too often we thrive on it and this has seeped into modern yoga classes. Our busy, fast paced, yang lives have led to the demand for short, fast-paced yang yoga classes. Busy, stressed, type A individuals are flocking to more stimulating styles of yoga rather than more grounding practices such as yin yoga and meditation. The modern western lifestyle has also become more sedentary, creating the tendency for bodies to be inflexible and our core stabilisers to weaken. Today yoga is taught in large mixed level public classes that not only favour faster paced styles but also make it challenging to offer precision and cater to individual postural needs. As a physiotherapist and a yoga teacher, I have often found it challenging to create classes that stimulate the majority whilst allowing the individual to experience the teachings that will deepen their practice. Fundamentally, Yoga lends itself to being taught to meet the students wherever they are. Such tailored attention provides an opportunity to not only enhance the precision with which the student practices but also to enhance the many therapeutic benefits of yoga.
Yoga is in its truest form therapeutic. A strategy for bringing the practitioner into a state of balance and harmony but just like any treatment program, it cannot succeed if the same recipe is given to each student. Some will need more stability and some more mobility. Some will need a more vigorous practice whilst others would benefit greatly from slowing down. Anybody can practice Yoga, yet it is the way it is being offered that turns some people away. Health professionals are uniquely placed in order to enhance the impact of yoga because our roles are designed to prescribe specific exercises and treatments to match our patients' needs. An existing knowledge of anatomy, physiology, human movement, understanding of pathology, clinical reasoning and keen observation skills also work to create a foundation from which we can embrace the teaching of yoga. The introduction to yoga course will teach you how to create yoga programs to match individuals’ physical needs. It will also offer Yoga poses, meditation and breath and just a few of the tools can complement any existing treatment program. If we can provide yoga therapeutically we will have a system that facilitates increased self-awareness for our patients as well as an opportunity to experience a yoga practice that an individual needs…a Yoga practice that is truly for everybody.
Therapeutic Yoga Level 1
Designed for allied health professionals, on this course, you will explore mindfulness and a holistic approach to treatment, learn to design clinically relevant yoga programs and relate scientific evidence to therapeutic yoga. Upcoming Courses