Fit2B Teaching Other Teachers

The training for which I wrote a huge section on diastasis awareness in Yoga also gave me 5 hours with the instructors over this past weekend!! This group soaked up everything I said, asked so many high-level questions, and we all finished wanting more! It was very encouraging to be invited to contribute my knowledge to this RYT-200 course at Epidavros in Gresham, Ore.

We began with an hour of lecture and discussion on what causes and perpetuates diastasis recti, and how yoga can help or hinder core dysfunction as the larger {actual} issue. We talked about how it doesn’t just affect women who’ve been pregnant, but also men, children and women who’ve never had a baby. The information was received well, and the banter was so fun!

I was able to lead a 75 minute practice, demonstrating some basic nourishing exercises and breathing patterns that can be flowed right into various asanas. It was so hard to wrap up that portion of my instructing time, because all of us wanted to keep moving and talking while we moved! But it was time to talk tummy checks!

I was able to spend a lot of time with individual instructors teaching them a basic belly check for diastasis and covering modifications for classic Yoga poses. I emphasized that truly honoring the meaning of Yoga – union of mind, body and spirit – sometimes means NOT doing the classic if that causes disunity – separation – in our bodies, especially our cores. Just because the “classic” breathing pattern is to inhale through certain motions, that doesn’t mean we are bound to that. There is no law that says we cannot exhale into a pose if that serves our cores better.

Tara McGuire, the founder of Epidavros, has already brought a lot of diastasis awareness into her studio after recovering from it after each of her 5 pregnancies. Tara is not only an ERYT-500 level yogi, but she’s also worked as a childbirth educator who included info on diastasis rectus abdominus in her classes! She and I are definitely kindred spirits, and it’s a huge honor to work so closely with her, learn from her and now teach with her!

She pointed out that Desikachar offers the option to try both kinds of breathing: inhaling in transitions or exhaling, which you can read for yourself in the book The Heart of Yoga on page 48. “The breath to movement is not a hard and fast classic teaching. And, over 60% of the way you taught breath for DR was in harmony with what we are teaching to everyone any way. It’s certainly not an ‘opposite’ of what is taught.”

A great deal of my time was spent answering questions about breathing and alignment and how the core figures into aspects of our lives BEYOND asana (the physical aspect of Yoga) even into potty posture, giving birth and more!

And that is my passion: To teach people that what they do on their mat is so valuable – whether it’s yoga, pilates, weight lifting or whatever – but it has to translate to the other 23 hours of their day to make a real difference in their lives.

Teachers are positioned to affect how people move when they’re off their mat, at home, grocery shopping, playing at the park, and all the things Life tosses at us! When we teach people how to truly and deeply connect with their core cylinder and put it back to work, it’s rewarding to see how their energy, posture and outlook all change for the better.

The saddest part of my teaching time though, was that moment when one frustrated instructor asked why they weren’t taught this before. It’s not that Tara hasn’t taught it; this is the first big training she’s put together, and she made sure to include me and get this info in there, but it was: Why didn’t their doctor mention it? Their nurse? Their OBGYN? Their first fitness certification? Suddenly the room was abuzz with 29 different conversations…

I have my theories on why so many doctors don’t understand diastasis, but I let the room hum and get loud for a couple minutes, resonating with their feelings, because I felt the same things, the same anger, the same shock 6 years ago. I let them rant and rail for a bit amongst themselves, but then I turned their questions about all that around on them and said, “Now you know. And you are positioned to pass this on to your clients and classes. You have the ability to spot it and bring awareness. I firmly believe you are here today because you are meant to change lives. You are positioned to help people heal.”

And nothing excites me more than having contributed to so many stellar instructors who are on their journey toward doing that {many already are!} this past weekend.

But I didn’t have nearly enough time with them, so we’re building it out into a longer course for stand-alone CEU’s next year! Right, Tara? 😉