Professional Training
Contact &
Questions
Contact AVI student advisor Dona Robinson for more information on any of our Professional Training Programs. Dona is an experienced Viniyoga Teacher and Viniyoga Therapist who can guide you in your yoga career path.
Program Curriculum
In Leslie Kaminoff’s 9-month intensive Online Yoga Anatomy Course, you will discover:
- The evolutionary science of supporting body-weight on your arms.
- A simple body measurement you can teach your students to help them set up for a safe and successful headstand.
- How many yoga-related lower body pains really boil down to what Leslie has termed “Yoga Butt,” and how you can avoid it, or heal it.
- How to get more effective hip-opening from standing postures, and why floor work can be counterproductive.
- How to help older students re-gain their sense of balance (and how to keep younger students from losing it!)
- Warning signs that you are pushing a joint too far.
- The truth about Ujjayi breath, and when you should stop doing it.
- Little-known factors that could affect your asana longevity.
- Why more students are getting injured in yoga class than you think, and what you can do to change it in your class.
- Leslie’s top 10 tips for individualizing student experience in group classes.
- How to identify knee problems before surgery.
- How to resurrect fallen arches.
- How breath re-patterning can transform your practice.
- How to tell when repetition will heal, and when it will injure.
- Learn the Warrior Series, and how you can modify it in any context.
- One simple trick to protect the knees in (almost) any posture.
- And more…
Trimester #1: Breathing
- Introduction to core concepts of yoga and anatomy
- Breathing as shape change
- SLOIRA – The Diaphragm Formula
- Relations and Actions of the Diaphragm
- The Diaphragm as the Engine of 3-D Shape Change
- The Accessory Muscles: The Steering Mechanisms of Breath
- Brmhana / Langhana - Fundamental Energetics of Breath
- A Guided Tour of the Pelvic Floor
- The Vocal Diaphragm & the Anatomy of Sound
- The Role of Bandhas in Support and Movement
- Kundalini – Energy or Obstacle?
- Breath – Centered Practice
Trimester #2: The Spine
- An evolutionary and developmental history of the spine
- Architectural principles of spinal structure – Tension/Compression as Sthira/Sukha
- The spine’s major curves
- The spine’s major movements
- How to recognize and analyze spinal range of motion
- A yogic perspective on asymmetry
- A breath-centered approach to twisting, and why we need to protect T11/T12
- Healing the cervical region with “Drishti” and other sensory-driven movement cues
- Disc structure, function and dysfunction – Why most back pain is not discogenic in origin
- Symmetry vs. Balance – Special scoliosis presentation
- Detailed range of motion practice and observation – strategies for teaching and healing
- The special case of axial extension – Mahamudra
Trimester #3: The Articular Body
- Evolution and development of the limbs
- The architecture of the foot – bones and arches
- The musculature of the foot – pulleys, cables, fulcrums and layers
- How to analyze and re-pattern gait
- Teaching strategies for awakening and integrating the arches
- Yoga and the knee – includes surgical videos
- The hip joint and pelvic articulations – The truth about “Yoga Butt”
- The shoulder girdle – using the hand as a foot
- Arm support strategies – headstand analysis
- Arm balances: a new perspective
- The warrior series: fundamentals and modifications
- Strategies for individualizing group practice
