Anatomy is a required topic in yoga teacher training, and people either love it or hate it. I’m not talking about students; I’m talking about trainers for this one.
Students love to learn about anatomy when it is presented in a digestible way.
But in my experience as a trainer and with helping other trainers, it’s the yoga trainers who get very hesitant around this topic.
The Hours Anatomy Must Cover in Yoga Teacher Training
With Yoga Alliance Schools, at least 30 of the 200 hours of training must cover the Anatomy and Physiology category. Prior to the online training provisions during the pandemic, up to 20 of those 30 hours could be offered online.
I suspect the 20 hours gave trainers a way to bring in specialists in this topic if they didn’t feel confident teaching it all themselves, and I believe this was a wise choice on Yoga Alliance’s part given the number of trainers who feel hesitant about teaching Anatomy.
Core Competencies: Anatomy Section
When we set about creating the online training for the Yoga Trainer Fast Track program, Claire and I put in a lot of additional research and training into Anatomy to make sure we had the most up-to-date information. Much of what we had learned when we first became yoga teachers was out of date. We did a lot of Continuing Education in this category!
In the 2nd in our series on Core Competencies, we talk about the Anatomy section in the Anatomy and Physiology category.
Claire and I discuss what Yoga Alliance is looking for in terms of the major bones, joints, muscles, and muscle contractions and our experiences filling in the Yoga Alliance Application for this part.
If Anatomy is not your cup of tea, or you just don’t want to research and write and teach it all in your YTT, we’ve got you covered with the option to use the 20 hours of pre-recorded training that we made.
On the other hand, if you love anatomy, you can teach it. Either way, all 30 hours are planned and ready for you to teach with all the supporting material you’ll need in the Yoga Trainer Fast Track program.