4 Supplemental Training to Boost Your Yoga Career
As we strive to be the best wellness providers we can be, knowing our career path can be a bit staggering to say the least. Firstly, there are so many options to choose from. Secondly, finding good education can be a bit tricky and/or pricey. Finally, if said education is worth it, does it fit into our timeline. Considering these 3 factors alone, can transport our mental status into a whirlwind of worry. A teacher first and foremost, will always be a student. we grow professionally by constantly expanding our knowledge in our field. As yoga teachers we cannot just stop at our 200-hour training, nor after 300 hours. No. We must keep learning. Whether by acquiring new skill sets, specialisations, or by widening our scope as a wellness professional, we need to keep up the pace of this ever-changing industry. Below are some interesting possibilities to take your career to the next step.
1. Aerial Yoga
My wheelhouse. Of course I was going to talk about Aerial Yoga! Aerial Yoga is a practice with the assistance of a silk hammock in your asanas so that one may achieve a deeper stretch and practice inversions with ease. It is a wonderful skill to add to your practice arsenal because as a flexibility tool, the stretches are more profound. The hold of the silks on your body, provide a type of myofascial massage making you feel incredibly relaxed after an hour-long practice. Inversions while floating in midair is just something a floor practice cannot give nor I can describe. I can go on with about 20 more benefits but this is supposed to be a short article. As for the popularity, here’s my story: 6 years ago I decided that Aerial Yoga was where I wanted my career to go. The problem was, back then there weren’t many available places to learn this. Moreover since there wasn’t an official governing body to regulate the standards of teaching, training facilities were a mix of legitimate and dodgy. Fast-forward to 2018, these days everyone is offering Aerial Yoga in their studio. Its reached a point wherein a yoga center was out-of-date if they didn’t have a high ceiling and the rigging set-up. It may have started out as a semi- rejected trend, now there is a constant growing demand. There are many types of aerial yoga to choose from because there are several types of hammock sets out there. So In this section, I have enclosed the links to the courses I feel are the most thorough and will give you continuing education.
2. Yoga Therapy
Yoga therapy is the application of the principles of yoga to manage their clients´ individual health conditions. Therapists use meditation, breathing, Therapeutic asana sequences and ayurvedic techniques to aid in their practice and coping. It is done in individual sessions and at the client's´ pace. So the differences between therapist/teacher, student/ client are quite relevant. If you are the type of teacher that really enjoys her one-on-one classes, this might be for you. The therapist/client dynamic is a deeper relationship so you might need to get used to this new bond. Also, Training might take longer and be more difficult because we are dealing with actual health issues but you will be gaining a skill set that not a lot of teachers have.
3. Yoga Tune up
According to the site, yoga tune up is defined as a potently therapeutic style of conscious corrective exercise that strikes a balance between the worlds of yoga, fitness, pain management, and myofascial self-care. As practitioners, teacher or student alike, we cannot always have perfect form. As much as we try to get everything right, we make mistakes. we injure ourselves. When that happens, we can’t always afford to see a physiotherapist. A substantial part of our regimen is about self-care. The difference between yoga therapy and yoga tune up is that the prior, guides the client through their sessions, while the teacher in yoga tune up presents the student with the tools you need to manage physical issues autonomously. With this 70-hour course we can serve ourselves and our students much better. What caught my eye with this supplemental course is its versatility. it applies to fitness, yoga, and pain management. Anyone who gets this certificate will reap so many benefits for themselves, most importantly for their clients.
4. Yoga Medicine
Much like yoga therapy, Yoga Medicine is individualised for the client, with a difference, the yoga medicine practitioner also works with the medical team. This doesn’t mean that the yoga therapist doesn’t do the same. There is little difference between the two. Yoga Medicine however offers 200, 500, 1000 hours teacher training. Its curriculum is highly focused on anatomy, physiology, function as well as dysfunction of each body system. You will receive a hybrid online and immersive education that could be taken at our own pace. there is no time limit for the completion of your training. I grew up with a family of doctors and nurses so I grew up around western medicine. Now that I am a yoga teacher I have been reading up on more natural methods of healing yet there was never anything that bridges the gap between these hemispheres. Yoga medicine has achieved that and continues to do so by growing its community. I would say that this or a PhD in Yoga would be the highest attainment for education a practitioner/professional.
Wrapping up
We have Aerial Yoga if you want to add a new skill to your training arsenal, yoga therapy, tune up and Yoga medicine provide a more personal and altruistic approach to your yoga career. The practice of yoga adapts through the people who continue to break barriers in the industry. Allowing new methods to come into fruition each year. With so many opportunities to expand, I hope that this article provides you with a good starting point in your search to broaden your professional horizons. Namasté!
