Ravings of a Textual Deviant

Last weekend was my Level One re-training, or “integration,” for my Registered Yoga Teacher 200-hour certification. I have a break for six weeks or so, and then, at the end of July, the schedule gets very, very interesting.

But first things first. Originally, when I found out that re-training was required for Levels 1-3, I was skeptical. However, having done the first one, I can see the benefit. My first training was a transforming experience, but at the same time, there was so much material that I felt mentally and physically overwhelmed by the end of it. Being able to go back and pick up what I missed the first time around is a major benefit. I had huge amounts of sympathy for the first-time students, especially the ones who were coming into the class as group fitness instructors without a yoga background.

Also, the same material can be completely different depending on one’s instructor, and while both of the instructors I’ve had for Level One are very good, they had radically different pespectives. One was a group fitness instructor who was certified in a number of areas (spinning, aerobics, etc.); the other was an Ayurvedic practitioner with a theology degree. Furthermore, I hadn’t started teaching when I took Level One the first time, and now I’ve got six months of experience, so I could focus on areas that I knew I wanted to improve, rather than try to absorb a ton of brand-new material.

I always enjoy the training weekends, even when they take a lot out of me, and this was no exception. I have yet to come out of a training weekend without some stiffness and soreness to let me know I’ve had a really good workout. However, this time it was in my triceps—and only in my triceps, which is a considerable improvement. I did have a bad moment when I woke up from my post-workshop nap on Sunday and couldn’t move my legs, but that had a much more external cause—twenty-two pounds of cat on my ankles. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 13th, 2006 at 8:17 pm and is filed under Yoga Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.