Yoga Teacher Training Week One, or, getting my asana kicked in Rishikesh

If I’ve got one, it’s sore.

For the past week I’ve been in a 200 hour yoga teacher training course. It’s a very rounded mix of training in not only Hatha and Ashtanga asanas, or poses, but also the philosophy behind yoga, as well as breathing and meditation.

I knew coming into this that as a relative yoga newbie and as someone a bit older than most other students, that I’d have some work cut out for me. But the environment has been really supportive, and the only pressure I’ve had to get the poses perfectly (vs what this body is able to do) has come from my own delusions. 

Still, there’s a lot to keep up with: lots of reading about Indian philosophy, Sanskrit pose names and chanting to memorize, and of course, the physical aspects of the yoga as well. We’re up at 5 each morning, and finish the day around 9pm. Apart from some midday study time, there’s not much time to do anything else. We get one day off a week (Sunday), which will be mostly filled with study and practice.

Yet I’m really enjoying it. It’s challenging and at times painful, but feels worthwhile. The instructors are great, and my fellow students are a joy to be around. It turns out I’m not the only newbie, nor the only non-twenty something in the class. And we’re all feeling the crunch of both memorization and challenging our bodies.

So if I live through the next week, I’ll tell you all about it.