Have you been practicing what you’ve been taught but don’t always understand why you’ve been told to do or avoid certain things in asanas? Or Are you teaching yoga and feeling stuck in your cues? Well, biomechanics might be the answer to your questions.

For today’s episode, I sat down with Jules Mitchell.

Jules is a Las Vegas-based yoga teacher, educator, and massage therapist. She blends the tradition of yoga with her extensive study in biomechanics to help teachers develop their craft and empower them with education. She regularly contributes to yoga teacher training programs and leads workshops worldwide, balancing the somatic aspects of yoga with the most current exercise science. Her book, Yoga Biomechanics: Stretching Redefined, is now available through Handspring Publishing.

Listen to the full episode here:

MY 5 BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

1- Biomecanic is a field of study that included anatomy. Anatomy is dissecting and naming parts, where biomechanics includes force, the propriety of motion, forces involved in motion, and how we respond to force. The tissue mechanic is how our tissues react to that force.

2- Tissue Mechanic knowledge can help you question, understand and support what you say about the body when you teach, or when you are taught. You can understand and choose your cues better, realize that there is no one right way or wrong way to do these poses.

3- Optimal loading includes progressive overload, variable loading (angle, frequency, time), and specificity.

4- To understand your cuing better, start asking yourself these questions: Why are you saying that? Does it actually need to be said? Can you find other reasons for saying that than this are what I was taught or this is how the pose looks? Why are you doing this particular pose? Can you relate it to the following poses? What are you trying to accomplish?

5- You can’t know what your student needs, so you need to teach them how to make decisions for themselves.

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QUESTIONS SHE ANSWERED IN THIS EPISODE

• So we are all on the same page, can you explain the difference between anatomy and biomechanics?
• In tissue mecanics, what is force?
• Why should we learn and care about it as yoga practitioners and particularly as yoga teachers?
• What are basic tissue mecanic concepts we can apply to our yoga?
• What sparks adaptation in the tissues?
• How do we choose the right type of stretching?
• How do we improve our cues?
• What is healty movment? How can we stay/teach for that?

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Jules Mitchell MS, CMT, ERYT500 is a Las Vegas based yoga teacher, educator, and massage therapist. Her unique approach blends the tradition of yoga with her extensive study in biomechanics to help teachers develop their craft and empower them with education. Jules’s methods intend to achieve ease in movement through deliberate effort, thus her teachings integrate numerous modalities, balancing the somatic aspects of yoga with the most current exercise science. Bringing the most useful and applicable pieces of that science into the yoga community is her passion. She regularly contributes to teacher training programs and leads workshops and courses worldwide. Her book, Yoga Biomechanics: Stretching Redefined, is now available through Handspring Publishing. As adjunct faculty at ASU, she serves as a yoga consultant on various research studies measuring the effects of yoga therapy on special populations. Her most influential teachers include Greg Lehman (Reconciling Biomechanics with Pain Science), Leeann Carey (Yapana Yoga), Gil Hedley (Integral Anatomy), John Casey (yoga philosophy and Sanskrit), and the many dedicated scientists who collect, analyze and publish data so we may continue to ask more questions, even when it invokes a discerning analysis of popular opinions.

Website: www.julesmitchell.com