upcoming workshops

A Four Week Course
Tuesdays, 7:30pm-9:30pm
October 2nd- October 23rd

Sign up here!

Join Michael Joel Hall in a functional yoga anatomy course that will help you become a more knowledgable, stronger, efficient and effective yoga practitioner and teacher. According to the Interational Association of Yoga Therapists, the two main causes of injury in yoga come from “excessive student effort” and “inadequate teacher training.” By learning how to practice in a manner that is built on a solid foundation of movement science, course members will learn how to practice smarter, not harder— taking the excess out of the effort.

By understanding how joints and muscles move, you’ll be able to talk about how they work (or don’t work!) in a professionally accepted manner— making it easier to work with students, physical therapists, doctors, and other movement professionals. More importantly, you’ll be able to be specific and effective in working with the body. This is so useful for practitioners and professionals alike.

This class will not be an exercise in rote memorization— instead, you’ll learn how to see, assess, and address all kinda of bodies in a safe and effective way. We’ll cover major landmarks, joints, and articulations, weed out misconceptions and incongruences, and have a lot of fun along the way.

By the end of the four weeks course members can expect to:

• Understand the basic arrangement of bones, muscles, and joints— and how they work.
• Become more proficient in organizing a yoga posture so as to maximize it’s physical benefit— more strength, flexibility,  safety and ease.
• Effectively communicate with medical and movement professionals, as well as other students of yoga.
• Develop a science-based approach to the physical aspect of yoga.
• Integrate classic hatha yoga concepts with modern movement science.
• Heighten the pleasure of their personal practice.

We’ll also begin to:

• Learn how to read bodies and assess postural patterns in many yoga poses dynamically
• Develop strategies for addressing common postural patterns and other things noticed during body reading and postural assessment

Each week, we’ll cover a different portion of the body: the spine/trunk/ the respiratory system, the upper body/shoulder girdle/arms, the lower body/pelvis/legs, and tie it all back together. The information will be presented in theoretical and contextual forms using slides, maps, and live demonstrations. We’ll get to work in a small group to try things out, bounce ideas off of one another, and develop a community of empowered, knowledgeable yoga practitioners.

Understanding anatomy is highly useful regardless of style or class type— These principals, concepts, and maps are effective for gentle, chair yoga, basic, flowing, Yin, ashtanga— frankly, this course will have you moving better and feeling better by the end. For those that are currently teaching, by understanding anatomy, it’ll be easier to spot misalignments in yoga poses, and know how to correct them in the moment in the best possible way for students of all levels.

Learning how to work with the body instead of against it will allow you to empower yourself and empower your students.

Sign up here!