It is difficult to pinpoint the beginning of this journey. Perhaps it began with Experiential Anatomy workshops I had led early in my entrepreneurial adventure. I began to teach in person about postural and core muscles, leading groups through exercises to find and feel these often mysterious and elusive muscles in their bodies.
Perhaps it began with my Yoga Teacher Training in the following years, where I identified a need for deeper understanding and teachings on anatomy and biomechanics within yoga teacher training programs, for practitioners, and the broader community. After all, my 200 hour YTT graduation project naturally grew into an experiential yoga biomechanics presentation to my class.
On the plane ride home from that training, I received clarity that I needed to build and produce a deep and thorough virtual course to share with the community and with the world. I feel like that is when this project really came into full form, even though the details and shape was still rather fuzzy at the start. But it was clear that this was going to be the culmination of many many years of practice, study, and enthusiasm.
The project grew and grew, step by step, with certain aspects lining up in what I would call divine timing and serendipity. Each piece led to the next, and it became clear that the visual aspects required hiring the right professionals for the job. I have no stomach or patience for filming, editing, or even marketing. That allowed me to focus on the most important part of the project, the CONTENT!
Teaching others about the body is my favorite part about being a physical therapist! If you've ever met me as a client, asked me a question about your cranky knee, or come to one of my classes or workshops, you have likely borne witness to the excitement that comes through me as I talk about the connections and partnerships between our muscles, skeletal structure, and nervous system!
I prefer to learn and teach through kinetic, physical, bodily experience. For example, when I work with clients in equine-assisted PT, I need to know and remind myself what sitting astride a moving horse feels like, and what specific movements and exercises feel like while on horseback. When we are learning and talking about postural alignment, core, and pelvic floor muscles, it is important to integrate this learning into our physical bodies. Many of us humans lose full access to or awareness of these muscles through modern life experiences, and movement patterns become ingrained into our nervous systems, outside our conscious awareness, and often contribute significantly to aches, pains, injury, and dysfunction.
Within this course, though some more didactic teaching is required around anatomical location and action, it was important to me to teach students how to locate, connect with, and activate these muscles in their bodies. How to contract and relax them, which muscles often over or underwork, and how they work with other muscles and structures to produce either movement or stability. The pelvis is an incredibly complex region of the body, one which takes clinicians many many years to fully appreciate, and one which is often shadowed by taboo, sexism within medical research, and cultural bias. But it really is the key to our health and wellness, especially for those of us with menstrual cycles and a uterus.
The initial intention of this course was to apply the above to the movement mechanics of yoga. To protect yoga students by giving yoga teachers a deeper understanding of the anatomy involved, and cuing to use in order to keep students safe. Modern students of yoga are often self-selected to be majority female and flexible, whereas the yoga traditions we practice today were originally intended for men's practice. In my experience both as a hypermobile yogi myself and as a physical therapist having treated yogis' injuries, modern practice often provides insufficient stability work and excessive flexibility work for modern lifestyles and the mostly female students who practice it. How can we better support all beings in their wellness and self-care journeys? How can we ensure that we are providing the medicine our students need within this yoga teacher-student context? The very basic and integral components of Mula Bandha and Uddiyana Bandha, the pelvic floor and core, are the most important and yet often most bypassed mechanics of modern yoga practice today. This course helps remove the stigma and mystery surrounding these areas for both yoga teachers and students or practitioners.
But what if (to quote the great Rupert Holmes) "you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain?" Maybe you want to learn about your posture and finding your core, or how to teach your clients in a different way, but the yoga piece is not for you. GOOD NEWS! I've set up the course to include or exclude the yoga module entirely! The first 2 modules on posture and core are available separate from the yoga module and stand strongly on their own. They can be applied to anyone and everyone with many diverse activity interests! So don't let the name of the course hold you back from this learning!!
Annnnnnnnddddd... I have a special coupon applicable to either course for you!!! follow either course link above and enter code: VIPSTUDENT at checkout to receive 20% off the full price of each course! The code is available through December 31st, 2023 and not one second after the ball drops for New Year's.
Share the code with a friend, or gift to a friend, family member, or YOURSELF for the holidays! Give the gift of knowledge, learning, and wellness!
This journey has been long, at least a year in the making since its full conception. And after initial launch, I took the summer to rest, adventure, refocus, and open myself up to new opportunities and projects. I am excited to announce I will be opening up my Monday schedule to see clients at Mountainside Community Wellness Center in Thetford, VT! I'll have availability starting October 23, 2023 from 9a-1p (with a little flexibility on either end). I will be continuing with a cash-based model for the near future, with the hopes of beginning the credentialing process to allow me to become in-network with some major insurances! This is a long process, so don't get too excited until I announce an update as to the credentialing timeline. Click below to view availability and for online booking at THIS location only!
Also a reminder that I do still also see clients at my Windsor location, Points East Acupuncture, and also at my Wilder location at Caroline Craig's office on a limited basis. Please email saralamiept@gmail.com to schedule these locations, as availability is limited.
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