Yoga Medicine’s Guide to Therapeutic Yoga (Udemy.com)

Make the most of your precious time on the mat! In our time-starved lifestyle, the moments we spend in yoga practice must have the most beneficial effect possible. This essential course is designed for any level of yoga practitioner—from aspiring to experienced yogis—to learn to approach any class or practice with greater integrity, so you can gain the maximal therapeutic effect possible, no matter when, where, or how you practice. 

The founder of Yoga Medicine, internationally acclaimed teacher Tiffany Cruikshank, L.Ac., MAOM, E-RYT, has designed this course to make the groundbreaking techniques of Yoga Medicine accessible to everyone. Yoga Medicine teachers are rigorously educated in a fusion of anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics with the traditional practice of yoga. Yoga Medicine extensively trains teachers to work with students and healthcare providers to find a yoga practice that is an appropriate therapeutic adjunct to medical care.

After teaching for over two decades, training thousands of yoga teachers, presenting at conferences around the world, and working with tens of thousands of patients, Tiffany has distilled the Yoga Medicine training down to the most important factors that help everyone get the most out of their yoga practice. Sharing many of these findings for the first time, Tiffany’s course is an essential supplement for anyone who practices yoga and wants to enhance the therapeutic effects of their practice. 

In Yoga Medicine’s teacher trainings, we pride ourselves on teaching our students the what, why, and how of the poses, so teachers can empower their students to take their practice and health into their own hands. In this course, you’ll access this teacher training directly, learning Yoga Medicine’s key insights on anatomy, physiology, and mental health that you will be able to immediately put into use. You will learn how to develop your practice with a three-dimensional approach to address the physical body, the internal organs, and the mind simultaneously, in harmony with your body’s physiological reflexes and instincts.

This course features five sections with 28 unique lessons. In each lesson, you will learn critical information, alignment tips, and pose modifications that help you elevate your practice in whatever time you have. By the end of this course, you will be able to confidently approach any style of yoga with greater integrity, knowing you have the skills and knowledge to get the most out of every moment on the mat.

Each lesson will begin with a structured lecture by Tiffany, during which she will review the key points of learning and how the training will build upon itself with each section. During her lectures, Tiffany will refer to medical illustrations and notes that are provided in your handouts, to help you make connections and deepen your understanding. After each lecture, you’ll begin a thematically-linked yoga sequence, guided by Yoga Medicine’s most accomplished teachers, to help you make the embodied connection between the ideas and the practice so you can feel the core concepts of that lesson at work in your body. 

The course flows as follows:

Section 1: Introduction

• Introduction (1:59)
• Overview (6:10)
• Key Preliminary Points (7:01)
• Handout for this course (Yoga-Medicine_Udemy-Handout.pdf)
• Mindfulness in Action (3:44)

Section 2: Physical Practices in Yoga

• Introduction to Physical Practices (4:37)
• Shoulder Structure (6:03)
• Shoulder Anatomy (11:50)
• Shoulder Therapeutic Applications (6:07)
• Shoulder Asana (35:06)
• Spine Structure (9:13)
• Spine Anatomy (9:54)
• Spine Therapeutic Applications (13:01)
• Spine Asana (36:40)
• Hip Structure (3:41)
• Hip Anatomy (5:13)
• Hip Therapeutic Applications (6:45)
• Hip Asana (47:28)

Section 3: Yoga and the Nervous System

• Anatomy of the Nervous System (10:26)
• Application of the Nervous System to Yoga (6:04)
• Pranayama Effects on the Nervous System (10:17)
• Asana Practice for the Nervous System (36:07)

Section 4: Mindfulness in Yoga

• Anatomy of the Mind in Yoga (3:11)
• Anatomy of the Mind in Meditation (6:37)
• Traditional Yoga and the Mind (8:27)
• Asana Practice for Mindfulness (52:17)

Section 5: Conclusion

• Bringing it All Together (4:59)
• Establishing a Regular Practice (3:47)

Rather than simply provide a set of classes for you to repeat (and become dependent upon!), this course teaches you the key biomechanical concepts needed to approach any type of practice with the maximum physiological, mental, and emotional benefit. You’ll learn about the interaction of the nervous system with the poses, and how mindfulness meditation and specific methods of breathing can help you further tap into your body’s innate rest-and-recovery response. By the end of the course, you will have learned to move your body in more specifically healing ways, in all settings, so you can experience greater integrity and therapeutic effect from any yoga practice. These individual lessons and practices will be here for your review at any time, but the intention is for this education and these core concepts to travel with you, enabling you to tap into them at will.

Pain and stress are reaching epidemic levels, affecting so many aspects of our health and well-being. The ability of yoga to combat the ravages of daily life has become essential in today’s world. But with more and more scientific research validating yoga’s therapeutic and medical applications, the more intensive healing power of yoga has become undeniable, making an individual yoga practice an indispensable tool in any complete holistic health and wellness approach. These lectures and practices help you tap directly into that therapeutic effect, pairing cutting-edge scientific findings with hands-on instruction that helps you get the most targeted positive impact possible from your yoga practice. 

(Note: This course is not a replacement for medical advice nor is it a replacement for a yoga teacher who can give personalized guidance.)

Check out Yoga Medicine’s Find a Teacher resource on the YogaMedicine website to locate a qualified instructor near you.