LIVE! What Is Hypermobility?

Did you know that you don’t have to be a contortionist or able to put your leg behind your head to be hypermobile?  Or that mobility gains from yoga such as the ability to touch your toes may be the result of this underlying and often undiagnosed condition?

Hypermobility is far more common within the yoga world than many know, and its prevalence is often what causes people to believe that they aren’t flexible enough to practice yoga.

This set of workshops will explain how hypermobility is impacting yoga practitioners, teachers, classes, and possibly yourself. Gain an understanding of this overlooked, under-addressed, and misunderstood set of conditions. Discover the basics about Joint Hypermobility Syndrome / EDS and how it impacts peoples’ bodies, minds and even our understanding of yoga itself.

In this course, you'll learn:

• About the effect of hypermobility on your range of motion, sensory systems, and other correlating conditions like anxiety.

• How to adapt the current teaching method to suit non-hypermobile body types.

• How to address both hypermobile students and those who aren’t by adapting your current teaching techniques to accommodate for both groups.

• Hypermobile folks: you'll learn techniques to address this condition in both your practice and your activity off the mat.

• Those who aren’t Hypermobile: you'll learn how the poses utilized in classes today, including those considered basic or beginner-appropriate, often require ranges of motion that are only accessible to hypermobile bodies, and how not being hypermobile does not mean your practice is “less than”.

• We will also spend time addressing the way hypermobility has been glorified in the yoga world through imagery and its portrayal on social media, and how that pattern is directly and indirectly responsible for injury. We’ll tie it all into yoga philosophy through considering the core purpose of yoga practice, and how a better understanding of hypermobility allows us to practice and teach sustainably, inclusively and accessibly.

SESSION BREAKDOWN:

Session One - Hypermobility - The Basics

Discover the basics about all of the Hypermobility types. Learn about its impacts on range of motion, sensory systems, and correlating conditions like anxiety, plus its affect on sustainability and accessibility.

Session Two - Hypermobility & Your Practice

Learn techniques to address this condition so that your practice supports and reduces injury risk rather than exacerbating symptoms. If you’re not hypermobile, learn how the poses used in classes often exclude your body and how to adapt.

Session Three - Hypermobility & Teaching

Learn how to address both hypermobile and non-hypermobile students by adapting your current teaching. Gain practical tools that will allow you to offer inclusive, accessible and sustainable yoga classes for all.