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What’s in a Foot?
Today in my yoga teacher training, I learned a lot. It was another all day class. My class learned basic foot anatomy (our teacher for the day was a pre-med student) and quite a few new poses. The poses were focused on opening the hip and the groin (yoga hip openers). As far as anatomy, I was surprised to learn that the foot has 26 bones. It was interesting to learn about the different functions that each bone performs. I also learned that there are 3 arches of the foot: medial longitudinal arch, lateral longitudinal arch, and transverse arch.
The arches of the foot are supported by the tibialis anterior and tibialis posterior. Although there are multiple muscles that assist in the arches, these arches are important in the balance of our feet.
New Yoga Poses Hip Openers
Some of the new poses that we learned were:
- Side Angle (Parsvakonasana) – Opens the hip and groin, works multiple muscles
- Peaceful Warrior (Virabhadrasana Variation) – Opens the hip and groin, tones legs
- Squat (Malasana) – Opens hip and groin, opens the heart, engages the core
- Half Moon (Ardha Chandrasana) – Opens hip and groin, works gluteus medius
I was already pretty familiar with all of them but it’s like I’m learning everything over again for the first time since 1) I’m learning the correct form for each pose and 2) I’m not just learning each pose for the sake of doing it, I’m also learning so that I can teach others.
In addition to learning about the different poses, we broke out into groups to practice giving each other cues to get into the various positions. This is always the most challenging part for me but I actually think that I did okay. We had to do another intermediate class as the end of our training day but I LOVED the way that the yoga instructor purposely incorporated the new poses that we learned today into the yoga class. (The actual class is comprised of my class and regular yoga studio customers).
Looking Towards the Future
Overall my confidence is certainly improving. I still see a ton of work on the horizon but I’m feeling more like I’ll be able to overcome whatever obstacles come my way. Plus I had another salad today for lunch and I put packet tuna fish on it. That made me happy. It was delicious! I was surprised by the number of people who didn’t really eat anything. I was starving.
We are on break for 3 weeks. When we come back we have been given individual groups with specific assignments. I have to teach a warm-up consisting of 3-5 minutes. Once I decide on my routine, I’ll come back and post about it.
Namaste!
Need to catch up on my daily recaps?
Check out:
- Just say, “No” to Gifts – Day 5 Recap
- Day 4 Recap
- Day 3 Recap (6 hours of yoga!)
- Recap of Day 2 – I should have brought a salad
- My 1st Day of Yoga Teacher Training
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