RYT-500 Training: Teaching Restorative Yoga
RYT-500 Training: Teaching Restorative Yoga
On paper, restorative yoga seems like a breeze to learn how to teach. Many sessions only have five to eight poses, including an extended savasana. How challenging can that be? It turns out, this may be the trickiest style of yoga to lead.
Restorative yoga is the ultimate way for your students to decompress and relax. Removing stimulants, instilling peace, and physically supporting every bone and muscle in the body is more than bolsters, slow music, and deep breathing. As a registered yoga teacher, you must be able to guide your clients’ minds into deep relaxation.
Broad-spectrum considerations for teaching restorative yoga
When can your students receive the most benefit from a restorative yoga class? It might be at the end of the workweek to unwind from life's challenges or prepare for upcoming work at the end of the weekend. Evening classes provide a logical way to transition into a peaceful sleep.
The physical setting for restorative yoga care is also critical. Props, music, lighting, and temperature combine into a supportive space.
Collect bolsters, pillows, soft blocks, straps, walls, and even chairs to support the physical body. Community props should be freshly laundered, clean, and preferably stored in a warmer location.
Music is typically most conducive for relaxation without lyrics. Finding longer songs and arrangements also reduces any distracting transitions between songs. Experiment with silence to allow for more effortless concentration on the sounds and movements of breathing.
Lighting is often best when darkened, although some students may prefer dim lighting. It may be essential to create soft and consistent lighting instead of allowing light beams and bright spots to draw one's eye towards unevenness.
The room should have appropriate warmth. As the body relaxes, it drops the temperature. Without movement, many students find themselves a bit chilly. While additional blankets can help, you may want to set the room's temperature in the lower 80's for maximum comfort. It's also helpful if the air conditioning or heating doesn't directly blow onto a client.
Sequencing a restorative yoga session
There are a few guidelines for sequencing. Begin and end class with neutral spine postures, adding twists, folds, or openings in the middle. Supported inversions are an option as well. Options range from the simple, like legs up the wall, to something more challenging like a supported headstand.
It's essential to link poses logically, with minimal fussing while transitioning. Supine poses can lead into another supine pose and then work from there. Use hips as a fulcrum to move from folds to bends. Hips are also a helpful grounding point to swivel legs around instead of getting up and sitting down differently.
Let an extended savasana or yoga nidra wrap up the session. The body language you observe will tell you if vocal guidance is needed or if silence is best.
Encourage your clients to use rolled-up blankets or bolsters under the spine for maximum comfort. Placement may include under the neck, lumbar spine, knees, or any combination and will vary from student to student. During twists, any thickness of prop can move under the knees, torso, head, or shoulders.
Restoring your client’s mind
Relaxation is a challenging state to reach, even in the most perfectly designed spaces. Careful language, appropriate themes, and body-conscious posing contribute to the experience. Knowing your client’s injuries or medical conditions will help rule out postures that are contra-indicated.
Your clients can remain in poses longer because the physical shapes are fully supported. Watch for fidgeting, tension in the jaw, and moving hands and feet, indicating an irritated mind. Provide guidance or decide to transition into another pose.
Make the space safe for emotional releases that often accompany restorative yoga. Many hip openers stimulate emotional release, so be judicious in including these postures.
Provide a slow return to awareness. Guide with pranayama, gentle music, a subtle change of lighting, and parting words about carrying this relaxation forward.
Expand your teaching experience, pursue advanced yoga teacher training with lessons in restorative yoga
There is an art and science to restorative yoga. Advanced teacher training, like the RYT500, provide education and practice to include restoration and yoga nidra into your skillset.
Digital courses are available, allowing for self-paced learning and connecting to mentors and other yoga teachers alike.
PremaYogaInstitute.com invites you to pursue Advanced Yoga Teacher Training to learn more about Restorative Yoga!
Reach out to us at Prema Yoga Institute (RYS300). In fact, we’d love to invite you to enroll in our online course, “Prema Yoga Therapeutics Essentials,” which covers topics like Restorative Yoga Essentials, Yoga for All Bodies, Pranayama, Philosophy, Slow Flow Essentials, Intro to Ayurveda and One-on-One Yoga, and Care for Caregivers (restorative yoga). Enrollment is open now and the course begins February 1, 2022.
Visit Prema Yoga Institute (RYS300) to learn more about our training, which is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022! Courses count as CE Credits with Yoga Alliance OR towards your RYT500 at Prema Yoga Institute.
Prema Yoga Institute is longer limited to New York City and is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022. PYI is an RYS300, IAYT-accredited program based in New York city with a certified Yoga Alliance RYS300, teaching students around the globe through online classes. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you advance your yoga practice and teaching!
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