200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training (Part 1) GOYA & Yoga Alliance

Explore experiential anatomy for yoga teachers, linking muscles, bones, fascia, and the nervous system to safe, inclusive practice through online modules on joints, planes, and cues.

Explore the skeletal, muscular, and fascial systems and how joints and ligaments shape yoga alignment. Also consider the sciatic nerve and piriformis, with pigeon pose as relief in safe practice.

Master the bone song to memorize the skeleton, learning humerus, radius, ulna, carpals, metacarpals, phalanges, femur, tibia, fibula, pelvis, ribs, sternum, clavicles, cranium, and spine in a call-and-response chant.

Explore the bare bones of the axial and appendicular skeleton, from the spine and pelvis to the shoulder girdle. Learn about cervical, thoracic, and lumbar sections and key joints.

Learn how joints are named and located, and identify the six synovial joint types—ball-and-socket, hinge, pivot, saddle, condyloid, and planar.

Move beyond fixed posture by mastering anatomical position, relative terms, and body planes, embracing movement over posture, and applying concepts like the best pose is the next pose.

Explore clear terms of movement and how joints like the spine, shoulder, and hip articulate in yoga poses, mastering flexion, extension, abduction, rotation, and circumduction.

Guided relaxation guides all levels through a full-body release, breath awareness, and visualization of a golden light to quiet the mind and deepen stillness.

Explore how muscles contract in isometric, concentric, and eccentric actions, and how agonists, antagonists, and synergists—plus origin and insertion concepts—shape yoga movements like forward folds and chaturanga.

Explore the upper body muscles essential for yoga, including the trapezius, deltoids, lats, pec major, and rhomboids, with emphasis on origin–insertion, actions, and scapular movements during chaturanga.

Explore the rotator cuff muscles—supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis—and their roles in shoulder abduction and internal/external rotation, with safe yoga cues for injury considerations.

Explore arm and forearm muscles, including brachialis, biceps brachii, brachioradialis, coracobrachialis, and triceps brachii, and learn elbow, shoulder, and wrist movements such as flexion and extension, with finger involvement.

Examine pelvis and abdominal muscles during yoga movements, detailing hip flexion and extension, abduction and adduction, external rotation, and the roles of glute max, glute medius, piriformis, and the psoas.

Explore leg and thigh muscle anatomy and actions, from hip and knee movements to ankle dorsiflexion, inversion, and eversion, with adductors, quadriceps, hamstrings, tibialis anterior, peroneals, and calf muscles.

Explore stretch and strength in yoga postures, examining isometric and eccentric contractions across poses like bridge and downward dog. Embrace body variation with flexible cues to balance strength and stretch.

Explore injury and pain in yoga: distinguish acute and chronic signs, apply safe teaching, modify postures, and use mindful movement to reduce pain within a pain-free range.

Explore common yoga injuries and pain conditions, including adductor strains, sprains, sciatica, frozen shoulder, and arthritis, and learn warm-ups, posture modifications, and private yoga options to support students.

Explore stability in hatha yoga through breath-guided sequencing from child's pose to standing poses, incorporating mula bandha, uddiyana bandha, and alignment cues for all levels.

Trace the history of yoga from ancient roots to post-classical paths, and explore how karma, yana, raja, and bhakti yoga quiet the mind and guide practice.