10 KEY

STEPS
To Learning Anatomy
So You Can Be A
More Confident Teacher
 Whether you’re a new teacher who graduated from your 200 Hour
Training within the past 3 years or a teacher who has been teaching
longer than that, you may have realized that you don’t understand
anatomy. Maybe the information wasn’t presented well in your training or
it was reviewed quickly. Whatever the reason, you’re teaching now and
it’s apparent to you that you just don’t understand it. This usually shows
itself via a hesitation around sharing cues, a presentation of confusing
sequences and for the teacher, it shows up as a feeling of overwhelm
and a lack of confidence.

So, what can you do? Start with these steps to build your anatomy
knowledge. Breaking down the task of learning anatomy into key steps
can decrease that common feeling of overwhelm and help you approach
this complex subject in a manageable way.

STEP Get Down to Basics

1
One of the most common challenges around learning anatomy comes
from the fact that it’s such a broad subject. A good place to start is to
outline the reasons why you want to learn it in the first place. While this
may seem obvious, it helps us narrow the scope down to applying
anatomy to yoga.

Example: One good example of this is the student that comes in

with an injury or a need to modify. Having an overall understanding
of anatomy will help you as a teacher provide them with helpful
information so they can practice safely.

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STEP Focus on Applying Anatomy to Yoga

2
We have to keep in mind that we’re learning anatomy to apply it to yoga.
Because anatomy is such a big topic and is the central component for
medicine, the reasons to learn anatomy can range from someone
studying to be a physical therapist to someone learning to be a massage
therapist to yoga teacher. As teachers, we have a specific set of topics
within the broader subject of anatomy we need to learn in order to do
the key things we need to do: cue correctly, build safe sequences and
answer students’ questions.

Example: One of the fundamental principles in anatomy, regardless

of profession, is “anatomical position.” Everyone from medical
students to yoga teachers should understand this “home base” of
postural shapes. In this position, we stand with our feet at hip
width, with hips level, palms facing forward and head centered over
the body. As teachers, we can assess basic posture in our students
from anatomical position but we can also call back to it as we teach
and pull from it KEY qualities (like having the head centered over
the body) that we’d want to see in other poses too.

STEP Look at the Key Parts of the Body

3
(not every part)
One of the best ways to make learning anatomy for yoga teaching more
manageable is to focus on just the specific things we need to know. Even
within these broad categories (like the muscles in the body), it’s
necessary to hone in even more on the key aspects within each one.

Example: You’ll need to learn major bones of the body although to

start, breaking down all the bones in the hand and foot for instance,
won’t be necessary.

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STEP Look at Muscles in Poses

4
Once you’ve built a good understanding of the key parts of the body,
including the major muscles, you’re now ready to review muscles as they
work in poses. First, you’ll need to understand a little bit about how
muscles work and how muscles can play different roles; sometimes
muscles create an action, where they’re acting as an “agonist” and
sometimes they resist the action or moderate the rate of that action,
where they’re acting as “antagonist.” This is the framework for a list of
things to note about each pose and to start to build the basis for the
anatomically based cues you can offer.

Example: In Warrior 1, you’re using your psoas to flex the hip on the
bent knee side and using the gluteus maximus to extend the hip on
the straight leg side.

STEP Look for Specific Ways You Can

5
Share Anatomy with Your Students
Just as you don’t enjoy the feeling of overwhelm that comes with
learning anatomy, students won’t appreciate being overwhelmed by tons
of anatomy-infused cues. Using anatomy in your teaching should be
done to help people understand the actions to take on the mat to create
a steady posture. It can also be used to teach them something about the
body, like what muscle might be helpful to intentionally contract to
stabilize the pose.

Example: One way to weave an anatomy lesson into your teaching

is to cue to the rectus abdominus, the abdominal muscle that can
help level the pelvis in lunges. If you find that students are dropping
the front edge of their pelvis (anterior tilt) in poses like Warrior 1
and Crescent Lunge, cue them to “draw the belly button in” (a
common yoga cue) and then add that this contracts the rectus
abdominus, “a muscle that runs up the middle of the body.” Add a
little more detail about how it will help “keep the pelvis level and
keep the lower back from caving in" (called a “lordosis”).

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STEP Help Your Students with Your

6
Newfound Anatomy Knowledge
A great reason to learn anatomy is that you can help your students by
identifying alignment issues that are considered “red flags.” A “red flag”
is something you’d want to encourage a student to do differently to
prevent possible injury. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll get
injured in that particular class but over time, doing poses incorrectly can
create muscle imbalances that can lead to injury. It’s often these issues
that students brush off upon hearing the correction, which is why it’s
critical you share the reason why. Saying, “Don’t let your knee go past
your heel” in a lunge without an explanation as to why is not as effective
as explaining why. In this way, you help students link your cue and any
corrective action you suggest with the rationale for it. Moving forward,
they’ll be much more likely to remember it and perform the pose
correctly.

Example: In the example above, keeping the knee in line with the
heel below it decreases strain on the knee. As we let the knee slide
past the heel, due to the four heads of the quadriceps all inserting
on the patellar tendon on the kneecap itself, the pull of these four
muscles against the kneecap will increase the more the knee moves
forward. Over the long term, this can damage the knee, the knee
capsule, the kneecap and or the ligaments and tendons around the
knee.

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STEP Identify Other Key Ways You Can

7
Share Your Anatomy Knowledge
Another way you can assist your students with your anatomy knowledge
is to offer them modifications for poses if they’re injured.They may
mention an injury to you before class. In these instances, it’s helpful to
have a list of questions you can run through when a student approaches
you. These questions can be used to gather key information so you can
make a few suggestions about how to modify the practice.

Example: For students that complain about wrist pain in Downward

Dog, the first thing to check is if they can withstand any pressure
on their hands. If they can, teach them how to use their lower body
muscles more to decrease the pressure on their wrists. Because
Downward Dog is an inversion, if they’re not using their core or legs
in the pose, all the weight will fall on their hands. Position them
with the hands a bit further back than forward, cue them to engage
the rectus abdominus (as in the earlier example) and have them
squeeze a block between the thighs to engage the adductors. This
should help them feel the contraction of these key muscles and will
take some of the weight out of the hands. They can remove the
block but now they have a sense of the action you want them to do
and can use it even when the block is not there.

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STEP Leverage Your Anatomy Knowledge

8
to Build Sequences with Anatomy
Themes
As a newer teacher, it’s important to have one standard sequence you
offer all the time so you can build effective cues and build your
confidence. In this way, you can be available to manage all the other
things that will inevitably come up as you teach. As you gain experience
and learn anatomy, you can start to build anatomically based sequences
that focus on a particular part of the body or anatomical action, like
external rotation of the hips. Note: The time to do this is after you’ve
completed all the above steps. Many teachers try to build complex
sequences before they have a good handle on anatomy and this can be
confusing for students. If you’re in a learning phase when it comes to
anatomy, stick with a basic sequence and invest time in training so you
can learn the anatomy first.

Example: One theme you can bring into your classes is a balancing
theme. When we stand on one leg, the lateral hip stabilizers have to
activate to help us balance. Focusing on balancing poses gives us
a chance to teach our students about these muscles, including the
gluteus medius and IT band.

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STEP Provide Clear Cues That Teach

9
Your Students Something about the
Anatomy of the Pose
Learning anatomy by following these steps will help you increase your
impact as a teacher. One of the ways you’ll do this is by providing cues
that are specific and understandable. The library of cues that are in the
yoga industry are sometimes vague or require deep knowledge of the
body to understand. There is also the challenge of teachers who are
merely repeating cues they were taught and don’t understand the WHY
behind the cue. Once you learn anatomy in the process as described
above, you’ll be able to provide clear cues that students will understand
as soon as they hear them. Plus, you’ll understand the associated
anatomy for the cue so you’ll be much more confident in sharing them.

Example: One of the common cues that teachers often use is to

“drop the shoulder blades” when in Warrior 1. One of the important
actions to understand are the movements the scapula make. When
the shoulders are flexed as in Warrior 1, the scapula upwardly
rotate so the humerus can clear the acromion of the scapula. This
is necessary to maintain a good connection between the humerus
and the scapula at the shoulder joint. If we cue students to “drop
the shoulder blades” when in flexion, we take the joint out of
congruence and the humerus is actually coming away from the
glenoid fossa of the scapula. This decreases stability of the arm
and can also damage the joint.

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STEP Apply Your Anatomy Knowledge to

10
a Specific Self-care and Teaching
Technique Called Myofascial Release
A key part of the body reviewed in Step 3 is fascia. Fascia is the
connective tissue under the skin that runs throughout the body. It
responds to pressure applied to it though massage as well as with foam
rollers and massage balls. Using these two tools is part of a self-care
practice called myofasical release. The practice focuses on relaxing
receptors in muscles that are overly excited and therefore creating
increased tone and sometimes even trigger points. Learning about MFR,
while not necessarily something you’ll offer in class, is a helpful
technique to learn as a teacher. It is often something you can suggest
students do to address areas of injury and might even be something you
weave into a workshop.

Example: The exercise science industry has looked at the

population in terms of muscles that generally are tight or those that
are usually weak. They have found that the upper trapezius is
generally a tight, overactive muscle in many people. We see this in
poses like Warrior 1 where students lift their shoulder blades up
towards their ears. Using a foam roller or MFR ball on the upper
trapezius can relax the muscle so the range of motion at the
shoulder is better.

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Now that we’ve gone through the steps,
what do you do now?
This outline is designed to give you an approach
to learning anatomy but not the actual information
you need to learn. It’s important to approach this
broad topic with a roadmap, a blueprint of sorts,
so that you can take the right steps when it
comes to your learning. My signature program IS
a blueprint; in fact, it’s called The Yoga Anatomy
Blueprint Learning Program. It provides you with
live coaching from me, an online course, a
practice portal so you can view sequences and
practice with them and an anatomy manual.
Karen Fabian, Founder,
Bare Bones Yoga

To get on the wait list for the next enrollment into my program, click here.

Not sure if you’re ready for the full program?Take my mini course that will
walk you through the blueprint of steps and pick up skills you can use
RIGHT NOW to feel more confident and grow your impact. Click here to
find out more.

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