Anatomy for yoga trainings
Looking for an anatomy teacher for your 200 hour teacher training?
Olivia is passionate about making anatomical knowledge accessible and relevant for yoga teachers and students. She is experienced at co-leading her own 200 hour teacher trainings, running advanced trainings for existing teachers, being a guest teacher on trainings lead by other teachers and running standalone anatomy for yoga workshops. Olivia is currently studying for a masters degree in Sport Therapy, which is about helping athletes return to form after injury. She is continually curious about the amazing human body and how it works.
What would Olivia bring to your training?
The course outline Olivia has developed works methodically through the body from the ground up. Her approach focuses more on helping students to see the patterns and logic behind how the body works so that they feel empowered to apply their learning to situations they will face in class, and less on asking people to memorise lists of Latin names of body parts. Students will learn to appreciate and work with the anatomy and needs of their individual bodies to help them refine their own asana practice. They will also begin to recognise how different body types can appear in different yoga postures, and so the variations they might expect to see in their own future students. Olivia is approachable, down to earth and fun, and brings that to her anatomy teaching. Most importantly, as a yoga teacher herself, Olivia’s anatomy teaching is always applied to asana and how to make trainees more effective and intelligent teachers. We can provide a clearly written, fully illustrated and easy to follow anatomy manual for students.
Olivia can fit her anatomy training into however your YTT is set up. She will provide anatomy lectures followed by a led asana practice where students will feel and experience what they have just been discussing. Feedback from students is that combining mental and physical learning helps them to cement their understanding, and to appreciate how anatomical teaching can be weaved into a yoga class.
What is Olivia’s background?
Olivia is registered as a E-RYT 500 and YACEP (continuing education provider for other teachers) with Yoga Alliance International. Olivia has trained extensively with teachers including Jason Crandell, Alexandria Crow and Bridget Woods Kramer, plus undertaking more focused trainings in areas such as yoga for athletes, injury prevention, yin and yoga therapeutics. She has also broadened her training in anatomy beyond the yoga world: Olivia is currently studying for a masters degree in Sport Therapy. She is a certified Functional Range Conditioning mobility specialist, has completed 50 hours of undergraduate level anatomy training with Complete Anatomy from 34D Medical and has trained with Immaculate Dissection.
Before transitioning to teaching yoga full time, Olivia gained first class undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in law and worked in legal services for 10 years. Her last few years in the legal sector were spent in public bodies producing content about law that was designed to be read by the general public. This gave her a thorough grounding in taking complicated (and sometimes admittedly dry!) subjects and making them understandable and easy to digest. Olivia has been teaching yoga for 9 years and practising for 19 years.
To discuss anatomy teaching for your yoga training get in touch with Olivia here.
What have Olivia’s past students thought?
“Hey Olivia - thank you for the fantastically interesting anatomy learning and endless time given in answering my zillions of questions! I have loved learning with you. Thank you also for the feedback, the much appreciated encouraging words and the helpful tips for moving forward. All gems. I will do my best to take it all on. ”
“Olivia was an exceptional YTT tutor. Not only did she provide high-level tuition throughout the course, but she also helped to create a supportive environment where students felt comfortable to ask questions without fear of judgement. Having studied anatomy with her, I now have an increased understanding of my own body and feel confident that I can pass this information onto my students to enhance their practice. I have also come away with practical strategies for effective sequencing, including how to incorporate specific anatomical teaching points in an accessible way. Without question, Olivia’s guidance and feedback throughout the course truly accelerated my learning.”
“Olivia was an amazing anatomy YTTC teacher. Not only is her teaching down-to-earth and non-dogmatic, it is also just fun and interactive. Each hour of theory was followed by a practice which put into a real life context what we had just studied. I was worried I would have to learn by heart thousands of Latin names, instead I was left with a clear understanding of how and why the different body parts are shaped the way they are, how they interact with the rest of the body and how they might differ from one person to the next. It really informed the way I am looking at and adjusting poses on different students now.”
“Olivia thank you so much. I’ve done anatomy before but OMG I’ve never known someone who’s able to make it so easy to understand, take in and then put into practice as you did (& fun!!). So grateful to have you as a teacher. Much love :) B xx”
“Thank you for your chilled, real, funny, warm approach to everything”
“Thanks Olivia for teaching me stuff that I never in a million years thought I could learn (I really should have paid more attention in Biology!). And for your support and encouragement. Much love”