Yoga Works offers one of the most comprehensive Teacher Training programs in the country for aspiring teachers and serious students of yoga. Our cohesive, multi-specialist approach to teacher training blends the best of the yoga tradition from the East and the West. Our mission is to provide yoga teachers with the foundation to teach skillfully with compassion, integrity and safety, while honoring his or her unique voice and style.

The dynamic and conscious practice of asana is the cornerstone to the Yoga Works approach to teaching. To deepen their education, students will also study anatomy and physiology, explore yoga's philosophical underpinnings, practice meditation and pranayama as well as investigate the subtle body and the science of Ayurveda.

Since 1988, Yoga Works has trained hundreds of new teachers and continues to offer on-going curriculum to its graduates. Our Teacher Training program includes a 200-hour foundational course, a professional program for developing teachers and a certification assessment.

Theory and Practice of Yoga
This foundational training will emphasize deepening a student’s personal practice, as this is the source for their creative teaching. It will also include a comprehensive study of the techniques and mechanics of fundamental yoga postures, while providing the tools necessary to teach yoga to others. To facilitate a more scientific understanding of the body, the training includes the study of functional anatomy-including units devoted to the feet, legs, pelvis, spine and shoulder girdle as well as the physiology of inversions, breathing and the nervous system. In addition, to give developing teachers a balanced understanding of yoga, the Yoga Works training moves beyond the physical with the study of meditation, pranayama, Ayurveda and the chakra system.

Topics Include:

• Intensive asana study
• Beginning anatomy and physiology
• Introduction to meditation
• The principles of pranayama
• Understanding restorative yoga
• Introduction to ayurveda
• Overview of subtle body/chakra system
  

Yoga Philosophy
Over 2,000 years ago the sage Patanjali described the process of Yogic movement toward higher consciousness and peace in his treatise “The Yoga Sutras.” His teachings are a living, practical model that, once understood, can be applied to all aspects of life today. They serve to deepen the awareness of our relationship to ourselves, to others, and to our environment. Participants of this course will be introduced to the vast wealth of inspiration available in the Yoga Sutras.

The Theory and Practice of Teaching
The art of teaching is a form of yoga in itself requiring sensitivity, compassion and practice. A teacher must encourage and inspire, being sensitive to both the needs of individuals as well as those of the group. The practical and subtle aspects involved in teaching, to be addressed in this course, include:

• How to be an effective teacher
• Use of voice, body language, touch
• The art and science of sequencing
• Learning how to see and understand bodies
• The purpose and use of props: in personal practice and class setting
• Hands on adjustments
• Practice Teaching