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Course

Anatomy 101 for Yoga Teachers: Making Muscles Meaningful

Instructor: Ariele Foster, DPT, E-RYT 500

Muscles and their attachments to our skeletons forge an astounding array of breathtaking asana. However, yoga practitioners are vulnerable to injuring muscle and tendon as we play at these potent edges of our capacity, sometimes even in simple postures.

Yoga teachers quickly discover these risks, but it can take years of additional dedicated study to begin to articulate meaningful workarounds. Articles such as the New York Times piece titled "How Yoga Can Wreck the Body" do not help our cause, therefore its more vital than ever for yoga teachers to augment their education as it pertains to the human body.

Harnessing the power of muscles involves a delicate dance between strength and length, push and pause. The most effective and safe asana teaching -- the kind where student breakthroughs on the mat occur again and again -- isn’t just based on intuition. It incorporates what we know from science into the sometimes esoteric field of yoga.

Why is understanding muscles so vitals for yoga teachers?

  • It will enhance the efficacy of your hands-on adjustments
  • It will strengthen your verbal cues that target muscular effort
  • It will teach you to use reflexes to your advantage
  • It will unveil the science of safe stretching
  • It will spark more creative teaching for the prevention of injury and for healing in yourself and others
  • It will allow you more freedom to progress at what you do best: continuing to influence many lives for the better

What’s in this eCourse?

This course is designed to open a world of possibility in which you and your students can play at the edges of asana in a safe, intelligent and increasingly capable way.

It is a digestible download of the author’s eight years of anatomy and biomechanics study in her quest for her physical therapy doctorate, and her experience rehabilitating injuries, including her own muscular injury from yoga.

In this eCourse, you will also discover:

  • The importance of length & strength balance and the length-tension curve
  • Meaningful muscle and tendon cell structure and how it applies to optimizing asana
  • Descriptive terms like agonist, synergist, antagonist
  • Types of muscle contractions - eccentric, concentric, isometric
  • How to use reflexes to your advantage
  • The science of safe stretching
  • Basics of tendonopathy
  • A deeper understanding of the most common muscular injuries

… all while referencing asana to keep the content alive for you

The results?

  • It will enhance the efficacy of your hands-on adjustments
  • It will strengthen your verbal cues that target muscular effort
  • It will teach you to use reflexes to your advantage
  • It will unveil the science of safe stretching
  • It will spark more creative teaching for the prevention of injury and for healing in yourself and others
  • It will allow you more freedom to progress in what you do best: continuing to influence many lives for the better

How does it work?

The course content is delivered via online streaming video and organized in 5 Modules with 15 lesson videos total, plus a downloadable glossary of terms. The course also has a knowledge assessment at the end to help gauge your learning and to credit you as having completed the course. A discussion feature on the first page of the course under the video is included so you can interact with Ariele about your insights and questions. The total running time is 1 hr and 45 minutes. While viewing these videos be ready to stand up and try some yoga poses with Ariele to experience your muscles directly!

Level:

This course builds on Ariele's primary course, "Anatomy 101 for Yoga Teachers: Essential Language & Terminology". It is designed specifically for all yoga teachers wishing to gain more credibility and expertise in their field and inspire their students through a more thorough understanding of the human body. It is also great for dedicated yoga practitioners wishing to deepen their practice through a greater grasp of human movement and asana. Some knowledge of sanskrit asana names is helpful.

This eCourse meets Yoga Alliance's non-contact hours requirements for continuing education.

By purchasing this product I UNDERSTAND and AGREE to the TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Sharing Policy
This course contains copyrighted material only viewable by registrants of the course. Any sharing, reproduction, distribution of the course material without prior consent is expressly prohibited.

NOTE: For questions email: info@vesselify.com



Lessons

Module 1: Muscles 101

Introduction
2:15
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Part 1: Basics of Muscle
14:24
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Part 2: On Tendons and Fascia
 
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Part 3: The Micro of Muscles
 
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Module 2: The Mind-Muscle Connection

Part 4: Stability and Stretch
 
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Part 5: Harnessing Reflexes
8:43
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Part 6: Neuromuscular Control
5:09
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Module 3: Muscles to Know

Part 7: Major Muscles of the Lower Extremities
18:48
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Part 8: Major Muscles of the Trunk
8:37
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Part 9: Major Muscles of the Chest, Shoulders and Arms
15:02
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Part 10: Major Muscles of the Wrist Extensors
2:56
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Part 11: Major Muscles of the Neck
4:35
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Module 4: Common Injuries

Part 12: Common Muscular and Tendon Injuries
16:00
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Module 5: Integration

Part 13: Applying Lessons to Teaching
 
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Closing and Knowledge Assessment
 
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