Ep 93: Anatomy Made Simple: Teach with Confidence

Do you feel overwhelmed by the thought of learning anatomy as a yoga teacher? You’re not alone. I'm sure you know the importance of understanding anatomy, but at the same time, it feels complicated, time-consuming, and intimidating. 

In this episode, I'll dissect the reasons why learning anatomy often feels overwhelming and how it doesn’t have to be this way. I’ll walk you through the most common 'thought barriers' yoga teachers have around anatomy, from lack of time to fear of complexity, and I’ll offer you simple, practical ways to approach learning it without all the stress.

Episode #35 - Anatomy Matters

Transcript

Monica: 0:00

Instead of talking about why anatomy matters, which we've already explored before in a previous episode, I want to unpack and dissect the very real overwhelm that you might feel when it comes to learning it. Because if we're honest, the roadblocks usually aren't about what the value of anatomy brings to your teaching. I'm sure you already know. It's important to understand. The roadblocks usually come from how hard it feels to learn. Welcome to the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast with me. I'm Monica Bright and I've been teaching yoga and running my yoga business for over a decade. This is the podcast for you. If you are a yoga teacher, you're looking for support. You love to be in conversation, and you're a lifelong student. In this podcast, I'll share with you. My life as a yoga teacher, the lessons I've learned, my process for building my business and helpful ideas, tools, strategies and systems I use and you can use so that your business thrives. We'll cover a diverse range of topics that will help you, whether you're just starting out or you've got years under your belt and you wanna dive deep and set yourself up for success. I am so glad you're here. Listen, I don't take myself too seriously, so expect to hear some laughs along the way. Now let's do this together. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Monica, and I'm so glad you're here. Here we talk about the anatomy, the injuries, the nervous system insights, plus all the real life knowledge you wish had been included in your yoga teacher training. I wanna take on a topic that I know can bring up a lot of. Feelings for you as a yoga teacher. It's the subject of anatomy, but instead of talking about why anatomy matters, which we've already explored before, that's in episode number 35, and I'll link it below just in case you haven't listened to it yet. But in this episode, I intend to unpack and dissect the overwhelm that you might feel when it comes to learning anatomy, because if we're honest, the roadblocks aren't usually about what the value of anatomy brings to your teaching. I'm sure you already know. It's important to understand the roadblocks come from how hard it. Feels to learn how intimidating it seems and how much time and energy it looks like it's gonna take. So if you've ever thought I should know more anatomy, but I just don't have the time, or it's too complicated for me, I'm not a science person. Or even it feels out of my scope of practice as a yoga teacher. Anyway, then this episode is for you. My goal here is to break down those objections and help you see that learning anatomy doesn't have to feel heavy or overwhelming. In fact, when you approach it differently, it can actually feel empowering and inspiring and even fun. So let's start with the most common thought. I don't have the time. I hear this all the time from yoga teachers, between teaching classes, building a business, practicing your own yoga. Maybe you have a full-time job. Maybe it's caring for kids or other family members. I get it. Life is full and anatomy sounds like a whole new subject that requires a ton of hours of study. But think of it like this. Learning anatomy doesn't have to happen in big chunks. It's not an all or nothing project. You don't need to carve out five hours a week to make progress. In fact, you'll retain much more if you take it piece by piece. Imagine choosing one pose a week from the classes you already teach. Maybe you pick Warrior two, spend just 15 minutes learning which joints are moving in, what direction of movement, which muscles are lengthening and which ones are stabilizing. Then bring that insight into your teaching. That right there is anatomy study that fits into your real life, not extra study on top of it over time, 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there starts to add up in a big way. The second big thought is that it's too complicated, and I totally understand this thinking. So many of us were taught anatomy in a way that was abstract. And disconnected. Maybe you remember looking at long lists of muscles and their Latin names, and it feels like you were memorizing random vocabulary for an exam, Which you probably were, but here's what I want you to know. Anatomy for yoga teachers is not the same as anatomy for medical school. You don't need to memorize every detail about every muscle. I remember when I was going through yoga teacher training, I did not have a background in anatomy, But my friend was in nursing school, so she gave me a copy of her anatomy book, and number one, it was super thick, super heavy. I opened the pages, the font was small, and immediately I was overwhelmed. I didn't crack that book open again because it was just too much information. Here's the thing, you need to understand movement. You need to see how the body works in real time. On the mat, that means instead of sitting with a textbook, you could actually learn anatomy by observing your students, by moving in your own practice and by making connections between what you see and what you feel anatomy is meant to be lived, not just studied. And when you live it, it makes it so much easier to learn. Now let's talk about another thought that teachers have, and this one really gets to me. It's the idea that learning anatomy is out of my scope of practice, and that could not be further from the truth. This one comes up a lot, especially for teachers who wanna be careful and respectful. We know that as yoga teachers, we are not diagnosing injuries or prescribing medical treatment. But understanding anatomy doesn't mean you're stepping into that role. It means you're becoming more skilled at teaching movement. When you understand how joints and muscles function, you could give clearer cues, sequence with more purpose and recognize when a student might need a variation that supports their unique structure that's not outside of your scope, that's doing your job with more clarity and confidence. The fourth thing I often hear is I'm not a science person. Have you ever said that to yourself? I used to. This really is a limiting belief rooted in how we were introduced to science in school. If your memories of science class involve complicated formulas, long lectures, and feeling like you were never good enough. Of course you're going to shy away from it now, but yoga anatomy is not high school biology. It's about understanding the body. You're already teaching and you already know more than you think. If you've ever said Lift your chest or bend your knee or lengthen through your spine, you're already speaking in anatomy terms. You just might not realize it. The next step is simply to deepen that knowledge so you can see the connections more clearly. Here's another sneaky thought that gets in the way of learning anatomy, and it's the belief that I'll figure it out as I go. And while it's true, that experience teaches us a lot, this mindset can sometimes keep you stuck without a foundation in anatomy. It's easy to fall back on teaching the way you were taught. Recycling cues. You don't fully understand or sequencing based on what feels creative rather than what prepares the body. The danger here is that you may not notice when a sequence unintentionally one area, or when a cue doesn't make sense for a student's unique body. Learning anatomy gives you the ability to teach with intention rather than guesswork. Now, let's shift to some solutions, because I can't just talk about problems and not give you some solutions to follow. The question is how do we make. All this feel less overwhelming. The first thing is to start small and specific. Choose one part of the body or one movement pattern at a time. Don't try to learn the whole shoulder in one sitting. Instead, ask yourself, what does the shoulder actually do in downward facing dog? How does it move in Chaturanga? What stabilizes it side plank Ask yourself those questions separately. Not all at once, but when you learn anatomy this way, connected directly to the poses you teach, it becomes easier to understand and remember. The second solution is to practice embodied learning. Don't just read about a muscle feel it. Notice what it feels like to contract your quadriceps versus relaxing them. Notice how your pelvis tilts in cat cow. Can you isolate the pelvic movement instead of moving the entire spine? By experiencing anatomy in your own body, you'll not only remember it better, but you'll also be able to explain it to your students in a way that resonates. The third solution is to learn in community or with guidance. Trying to teach yourself anatomy from books or scattered online resources is one of the fastest ways to get to overwhelm. But when you learn from a teacher or a mentor who connects anatomy to yoga practice in a clear, practical way. The pieces click into place much faster. You don't have to figure it out alone, and having someone to answer your questions can save you so much frustration. And finally, give yourself permission to learn in layers. You don't have to get it all at once. Anatomy is a subject you'll return to again and again. Each time seeing something new each time, connecting it more. Deeply to your teaching. Think of it as a spiral rather than a straight line. Each time you come back, you're not starting over. You're actually going deeper. So if you've been putting off anatomy because it feels too big or too complicated, or even too far outside of your comfort zone, I want you to know this. It doesn't have to be that way. You are capable of learning this. And not only that, you might find that once it's broken down into manageable, relevant pieces, you actually enjoy it. Because anatomy isn't just science. It's the language of the moving body. And when you speak that language with confidence, your teaching expands, your students feel more supported, and you step into a whole new level of confidence. Remember, you don't have to master everything. You just have to start, and each small step you take will build not only your knowledge, but also your ability to show up with clarity and care for your students on a different level. So my question to you is, what are you going to start with today, this week? What new muscle will you learn about? What new direction of movement will you practice? What new understanding of anatomy can you teach yourself and think about teaching your students? Understanding anatomy, biomechanics, and the effects yoga Asana have on the body helps you help your students. If you've been enjoying these episodes, I know that you are a yoga teacher who's ready to teach with more intention and less fear around injuries. Let's continue to raise the bar for how yoga supports real bodies in real life. It's so important for us to have these conversations so that you remember that students of all shapes, sizes, alignment, and abilities come to your classes and you can serve all of them. You know that my goal is for you to love the yoga teaching life. It's important to understand movement and the issues students come to your classes with. Subscribe to the podcast so you're always in the know when a new episode drops. And share it with another yoga teacher who you think would love to be in on these conversations. And finally, thank you for helping to spread the word about this podcast. Alright, thank you for listening. That's all for now. Bye.