BY ADITHI MATHEWS
Yoga is a personal practice. It’s a practice that caters to you on an individual level while keeping in mind your physical abilities and limitations. If we take a leaf from how traditional yoga was practised, the teacher personalised asana, pranayama and meditation methods based on the student’s needs. Cut to today’s modern studio environment where yoga teachers are leading students through pre-planned sequences, often unsure of how to adapt classical postures for the modern body. This could lead to students injuring themselves or feeling insecure by not having adapted postures for their varied abilities.
The Adapted Sivananda Yoga Course specifically aims to address this gap by providing yoga teachers with the tools to teach classes that are personalised and adapted specifically for the student’s needs. Over a Skype chat with the team from yoga.in, Lila Lolling, course director, Sivananda yoga teacher, yoga therapist and author shared that the course is meant to help teachers identify and provide variations of classical postures for students with limited physical ability. ‘’Most classical Yoga Teacher Training programs provide teachers with an understanding of how to teach asana, but this course will enable teachers to further personalise asana for their students, by providing them with a variation or adjustment.’’ Lila also shares an example of people with desk jobs who often suffer from lower back pain, herniated discs, and sacral issues. Should a student have a herniated disc they should avoid forward bends and instead focus on restorative and strength building poses and backbends.
Click here to read more about Sivananda Yoga.
This is a comprehensive 9-day training course which will be held this year from 9th – 17th December at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram in Trivandrum, Kerala. The course curriculum covers – Gentle pranayama, Yoga for healthy spine – asanas for stiff people or those with spinal injuries, Prenatal Yoga, Asana for fuller bodies and yoga for the specially abled. The course is open to all Sivananda TTC graduates or anyone who has a 200 Hr yoga teacher certification. ‘’The adapted course focuses upon classical Hatha postures and pranayama, so it would be ideal to have some background of traditional asanas such as Ashtanga or Iyengar.’’, explains Lila as the course predominantly covers the Sivananda Hatha yoga sequence. For teachers keen on adding credits to your profile, this course is 60.5 hrs of continuing education credits for Yoga Alliance, USA.
Interested in enrolling in a YTT in India? Click here to read why it’s a good idea.
The course will be conducted in the lush green surroundings of the Sivananda ashram near Neyyar Dam and will follow the ashram timetable and code of conduct. Basic accommodation and meals are provided by the ashram.
Click here to read about why Sivananda Yoga is a global movement.
Lila, who is based in the USA hopes to conduct this course annually at the Neyyar Dam ashram. None the less, kindly check the course links below to stay updated with the Adapted Sivananda Yoga Course schedule.
Official webpage of the course, click here.
To know more about Course Director Lila Lolling click here.
