25 Forward Bends & Hip Openers
20-hour Online Intensive with
Live Sessions
Starts Oct 18 + 6 Months Access
20 Hours of Learning
Live Interaction
20 CEUs
6 Months of Access
Dawn Johanssen, RYT 500, U.K.
"My students are all so different from one another. It really shows up in Forward Bends and Hip Openers. With deep insight, Mark helped me learn how to work with my students in these poses in ways that I can really empower them to guide themselves. I was still pretty weak on anatomy, and now I know enough about the nuances of hips, hamstrings, and spinal flexion to feel a lot more confident with all of my students." - Dawn
TEACHING PEOPLE, NOT POSES
Teaching yoga invites us to guide our students in their postural practices in the most informed ways, with insights and techniques that help ensure that their practices are safe, sustainable, and transformational. We want to relate to our students in ways that honor and respect their unique and changing conditions and intentions – not in the one-size-fits-all ways that are all too common in yoga. This intensive focuses not just on the fundamentals of 30 Standing Asanas, but the various ways to guide them based on real students, in all of their beautiful diversity.
l. W
REFINE AND DEEPEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICAL SKILLS FOR TEACHING STANDING ASANAS TO A DIVERSE ARRAY OF STUDENTS, REGARDLESS OF THEIR SPECIAL AND UNIQUE CONDITIONS AND INTENTIONS.
This course provides a comprehensive exploration of teaching standing asanas to all levels of students and all styles of yoga with standing postures.
Starting with Mountain Pose (Tadasana), we will look closely at each asana and how best to approach it with different types of classes and unique students. We will cover optimal verbal cues, forms of visual demonstration, and various approaches to hands-on guidance. The detailed videos combined with study materials and live interactive Zoom sessions bring the course fully alive, complemented by a Community Forum for easily connecting with others in the course with you from all over the world.
While most other courses on yoga asanas give us the idealized forms of people that models perform or illustrators create, in this course we step up to understand real human beings in the realities of their practices. We look specifically at the array of conditions (such as different shapes, angles, ailments, injuries, and more ) that create both opportunities and limitations in practicing standing asanas – and that informs how as teachers we approach everything from sequencing and hands-on adjustments to the best ways to work with individual students in group classes.
THE BENEFITS OF THIS COURSE
Provide Your Students With Well-informed & Inspirational Guidance In Their Practice
Through A Deeper Understanding Of Standing Asanas
APPLICATION
Knowing the basics of standing asanas from personal practice and teacher training is a good start. Here we greatly expand on that learning to consider the finer details of the realities of asana practices – plus how as teachers we can best use this knowledge in guiding our students.
INTEGRATION
Just as yoga is a holistic practice, teaching asanas must always be considered as part of the whole fabric of yoga practice. In this intensive we integrate standing asana with core concepts and principles of yoga practice in ways that make it a natural part of practicing and teaching.
CONFIDENCE
Bringing it all together, your expanded and refined knowledge will increase your confidence and ability to teach safe, sustainable and deeply transformational classes to a diverse array of students. With deeper knowledge and better skills, you will more be at your creative best in all of your classes.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
IN THIS COURSE
In looking closely at each of 30 standing asanas, we start with the fundamentals of each asana, introduce and review its basic anatomy and bio-mechanics, and even tie it into yoga history (where did it come from?) and philosophy (why do it?!).
With each asana, we explore its benefits, risks and contraindications, alignment principles, energetic actions, modifications, variations, use of props, hands-on adjustments, and options for sequencing for different students, classes, and styles.
Moving from theory to the practice of teaching, we cover various verbal cues that emphasize different qualities of each asana, alternative forms for offering visual demonstrations, and detailed exploration of tactile cues (hands-on teaching).
This expanded knowledge of standing asanas will directly enhance your skills in designing class sequences, offering modifications and props, giving hands-on adjustments, and more deeply appreciating each one of your students.
It is, from start to finish, a practical course on teaching standing asanas that you can apply in your classes from the beginning of the course.
COURSE TOPICS
- Overview of Seated and Supine Forward Bends and Hip Openers
- Tadasana – From Pada Bandha to Sahasrara
- Moving Into (and out of) Standing Asanas
- Externally-Rotated Hip Asanas
- Internally-Rotated Hip Asanas
- Neutrally-Rotated Hip Asanas
- Standing Balance Asanas
- Postural Observation and the Application of Theory to Practice and Teaching
- Basic Alignment Principles and Alternatives for Unique Conditions
- Intentional Energetic Actions Within Asanas
- Asana Transitions
- Effective Blending of Verbal, Visual, and Tactile Cues
- Working with Injuries and Special Conditions
MATERIALS & REQUIREMENTS
This online course requires a strong internet connection so that the video content easily streams to your computer or other device.
COURSE MATERIALS
- Provided: High-Quality Videos covering 30 standing asanas; Printable Workbook with images & ample space for notes (PDF), Course Syllabus (PDF)
- Highly Recommended: Yoga Adjustments (book and/or card deck with booklet), by Mark Stephens
COURSE REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTIFICATION
- Watch all of the course video content
- Attend the live sessions OR watch the recorded replays of the live sessions
- Pass the Final Quiz
FORMAT & SCHEDULE
This Live Format course features 20 hours of learning that blends self-paced pre-recorded videos with live interaction via Zoom and directed independent study.
The 3-week interactive portion of this course offers four live sessions via Zoom (10 hours total) in which you will directly engage with Mark and other course participants.
To make the most of attending the live sessions, we encourage watching all of the pre-recorded videos during the 3-week interactive portion of the course. This makes our live sessions via Zoom far more useful and productivein expanding your knowledge of practical yoga anatomy.
That said, we know your schedule can change at any given moment and that you may need more time to complete the course. That's why all the live sessions are recorded and available for you to watch at your convenience, and it's why we give you 6 months to complete the course.
Thus, you can either attend the live sessions in real-time or you can watch the recorded replays if you cannot attend live – or both!
This flexibility allows you to complete the course in as little as three weeks or as long as 6 months. It's your choice!
Why Study With Me
For more than three decades, I’ve been dedicated to the art and science of teaching yoga. Along the way, I’ve authored the most widely used yoga teaching textbooks worldwide and guided thousands of teachers in deepening their knowledge, refining their skills, and honing their authentic teaching voices.
My approach is both scholarly and practical: rooted in history, philosophy, and science, while always focused on how yoga comes alive in practice and teaching. In this training, you’ll have my personal mentorship and guidance, including direct support for your Independent Study.
With a deep study of yoga history and philosophy, human anatomy and physiology, social and interpersonal dynamics, and Eastern and Western theories of being and consciousness, I bring a non-dogmatic, accessible, and integrated perspective to my trainings that makes yoga a more refined resource for healthy living.
WHO THIS COURSE IS FOR
NEW & EXPERIENCED TEACHERS WELCOME!
Designed for new and experienced yoga teachers (& yoga teacher trainers), this course builds upon your current knowledge and helps you develop the refined skills for guiding students far more safely and effectively in their practices.
This course is for teachers who want to guide the practice from a deeper well of knowledge and understanding of how unique students experience standing asanas – and then make it your own in your unique and creative ways of teaching yoga.
- If you've ever been uncertain or confused about why different students have different experiences in standing asanas...
- If you are unclear about optimal alignment and energetic actions for unique students with different body type...
- If you want to improve your knowledge of alignment, cueing, and sequencing...
- If you want to learn more about helping students with injuries and special conditions...
- If you want to teach from a deeper well of your own knowledge...
THIS COURSE IS FOR YOU!
BENEFITS OF ONLINE LEARNING
Both in-person and online workshops and trainings come with their own strengths and weaknesses, and neither one is superior. My online workshops and trainings offer the same quality as my in-person offerings do, and even include some added benefits. When deciding what's a good fit for your development as a yoga teacher, consider your options and what will best suit your unique needs.
FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE
+ BALANCE
Not everyone can take time off work (or from other responsibilities) to advance their learning and deepen their studies. If you are juggling multiple commitments and responsibilities, the flexibility of online learning offers you an opportunity to study when it works best for your unique schedule. In lieu of taking time off work or missing family dinners, you can log-in and learn when it’s convenient for you, making it easier to balance all that you do and love in life.
PLAYBACK CONTROL
+ SELF-PACED LEARNING
Unlike in-person workshops or trainings, online learning allows you to pause, rewind, re-watch and even slow the speed of video lectures and classes. This playback control helps to ensure you don’t miss any critical information being presented when you need to pause to take notes, do additional research or contemplate an idea. Those who don’t speak English as their native language especially find value in slowing down the video speed to help with translation. Plus, you can re-watch the videos repeatedly to make sure you fully understand the material before moving onto the next topic. This added control allows you to work through the material at your own pace and get the most out of your learning experience.
STUDY FROM ANYWHERE
+ GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
Traveling for in-person workshops and trainings can present many challenges, including an added cost and time commitment, that prevent teachers from being able to study with Mark. Online learning means you can train with Mark from anywhere in the world, without the need to travel and from the convenience of your own home. Plus, online learning attracts a wide range from participants from all over the world which lends itself to a deeper, global perspective that enhances the learning experience during live group sessions on Zoom.
MORE ACCESS
+ TIME FOR INTEGRATION
For most people, learning requires repetition, but in-person workshops and trainings are live which means you can’t “rewatch” the material or access it again. With online learning, you can watch the video lectures and classes as many times as you like during your time of access (generally 6 months or more). Not only does this improve your ability to understand the material, it also provides ample time for integration of the information; you have time to go out and apply the teachings, methods and theories in your classes and then revisit the material or ideas that didn’t make sense during application or that you didn’t fully grasp.
Heidi Crandall, E-RYT 200, RYT 500, Florida
"I've been leading 200-hour teacher trainings for a few years now and just feel really lucky to have studied forward bends and hip openers in Mark's online 300-hour YTT. It's truly amazing how he seamlessly ties together yoga philosophy with anatomy and technique. before they felt so separate. He help me get clearer about the path of the teacher. One thing I liked about the online learning was how it was both self-paced but also had all the live sessions with Mark on Zoom. Amazing!" - Heidi
FAQs
What if I can't attend a live group session?
How many hours is this course?
Will there be "homework" or additional hours of study?
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Will I be able to ask Mark questions?
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Jimmy Corneyre, RYT 200, France
