Why Modern yoga teachers need to understand anatomy (not memorized it)
Jessica Stewart teaching how to demonstrate a yoga pose during the Sodasi 200 Hour Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training in London
Here's something I've never admitted before: when I started teaching yoga, I'd never opened an anatomy book.
I could tell you about the chakras and different forms of meditation, and I could quote passages from the Yoga Sutras by heart. But beyond GCSE biology, I knew very little about the human body.
That was over 17 years ago, and times have changed.
Back then it was common to apprentice under an experienced teacher—or, if you were lucky enough, spend time in an ashram in India. 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Trainings were not yet mainstream. When I eventually joined one a few years later, anatomy meant learning the names of bones and muscles, memorizing where they attached, and being tested on them. It was useful enough for naming the parts of the body or identifying which muscles I could feel stretching in a pose but I left not understanding how it was actually helping to taking bodies through asana.
Looking back, the contrast to that with what we now teach on the Sodasi 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training is wild and I’m so proud of what we have created.
After a few years teaching in London (believe me—a very different yoga scene to Sussex or India, where I had taught previously), I fell in love with anatomy and neuroscience in the same way I had first fallen in love with yoga philosophy and meditation.
Working with bodies—particularly in one-to-one sessions, but also in busy London studio classes—I became fascinated by how differently people moved through the very same posture. Regardless of experience, every student's body seemed to tell a different story.
This often sat in tension with some of the more dogmatic alignment models that were prevalent in the yoga world at the time. Many of my teachers, each from respected lineages, insisted upon the same verbal cues to guide every student towards the same aesthetic destination: the "perfect" yoga pose.
Something didn't quite add up.
Then I discovered the world of functional anatomy, thanks to teachers who became my mentors: Bernie Clark (Your Body, Your Yoga), Mary Richards (Teach People, Not Poses), Paul Grilley (Anatomy for Yoga), Peter Blackaby(Intelligent Yoga), and Jason Crandell, whose pragmatic approach to applied anatomy has influenced thousands of teachers.
Perhaps the phrase that stayed with me more than any other was Mary Richards' beautifully simple reminder:
"Teach people, not poses."
That one sentence fundamentally changed how I teach.
On the Sodasi 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training, we don't ask you to memorise muscle attachment and insertion points simply to pass an exam. Instead, we use anatomy as a practical tool that helps you understand the extraordinary diversity of the human body and become a more thoughtful, adaptable teacher.
Over the course of the training you'll learn to:
Understand how skeletal structure influences movement, and why the shape of our bones often determines what movements are available to us.
Recognise how muscles work together in chains and agonist/antagonist relationships to create movement, stability, strength and flexibility.
Distinguish between tension and compression, learning to recognise whether a posture is limited by stretching tissues or by one part of the body meeting another—and how this changes the way we practise and teach.
Modify yoga safely for different bodies, injuries and life stages, helping both yourself and your future students move with confidence.
Use verbal cues and hands-on adjustments thoughtfully, increasing awareness rather than chasing aesthetic ideals. There is no perfect pose—only an anatomically informed presence within the pose.
Understand the relationship between the nervous system and movement, exploring how breathing, previous injuries, emotional experiences and stress influence our flexibility, strength and perception of sensation.
Understanding anatomy doesn't diminish the mystery of yoga—it enriches it.
For me, studying the body has never replaced philosophy, meditation or the subtler aspects of practice. Instead, it has deepened them. The more I understand how people move, breathe and experience their bodies, the more compassionately and intelligently I can teach.
We teach anatomy and physiology through movement, discussion and direct experience. Online lectures introduce the science, while practical workshops bring it to life through practice, observation and teaching. Rather than memorizing anatomy for an exam, you'll learn to recognize it in every body that walks into your class—and to use that understanding to teach with greater clarity, confidence and care.
Because ultimately, anatomy isn't there to make yoga more clinical.
It's there to make yoga more compassionate.
Applications for the Sodasi 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training are now open. If you'd like to explore whether the course is right for you, I'd love to hear from you. Download the prospectus or book a free discovery call via the link below.
