Teaching Beginner Yoga Students
Some Yoga teachers forget the need for instruction at the beginner level. Recently, I have been guilty of that, as well. Many of your Yoga classes should still be geared toward beginners.
Some Yoga teachers forget the need for instruction at the beginner level. Recently, I have been guilty of that, as well. Many of your Yoga classes should still be geared toward beginners.
Once again, a potential student approaches you about private lesson because she is experiencing chronic stress, but she’s not sure Yoga works. Did your Yoga instructor training prepare you for this? Maybe not, but we have solid research for the skeptics in your life.
Pregnant students require a specialist who has completed prenatal yoga teacher training to keep a keen eye not only on the student herself but the child she is carrying. While most students require variations or adjustments to typical poses, pregnancy carries with it a unique challenge in ensuring the health and safety of both mother and child.
Out of all the yogic poses the sirsha asana or head stand is the king of all asans (poses). It is also the most advanced and difficult. Ancient seers laid great stress on this asana as it was also supposed to lead to nirvana -eternal bliss. I will caution a beginner who wishes to perfect this pose. Firstly a degree of physical fitness is essential to do this pose. I will recommend that to learn this pose it is best to consult a certified yoga instructor or join a Yoga school. In the 21st century the western world has realized the benefits of Yoga and a lot many teachers and schools are available to teach Yoga.
If you are a new Yoga instructor, teaching traditional pranayama practices to your students may seem intimidating at first. However, incorporating breathing exercises into a sequence of Yoga asanas will increase the benefit of the practice many times over.
Even beginning students can understand that breathing is important in yoga. The knowledge of this complexity can sometimes present a barrier to learning. As students become fixated with the length and quality of each breath, their concentration on other equally important aspects of the lesson weakens. In order to prevent this, the yoga instructor must teach the importance of breathing in a relaxed and conscious way.
If you are already a Yoga teacher, you can see a lot of potential to help others, but Yoga is not all you teach. Everyone teaches someone…
Having a yoga instructor can really help to boost your yoga practice. They will demonstrate the asanas (postures) so you can really see what you need to be doing and they will help you by watching what you do and making small corrections to keep your body aligned and safe. However Yoga is a wonderful tool for stress management that you can learn on your own with the help of a DVD or book.
There are some asanas that are not meant to be done for minutes at a time. It is not always true that holding a pose for an extended amount of time is better. For example, the Peacock Pose (Mayurasana), the Eagle Pose (Garudasana), and the Crow Pose (Kakasana), are asanas that might not be executed for very long time, due to their ability to cause internal or external strain.
When you are teaching a Yoga class, you may wish to introduce this elucidating Vedic concept during the beginning of a session, so that your students will be able to practice witnessing the thoughts and emotions that arise during asana practice.