Please select a series from my workshop offerings below. If you’d like a printable pdf instead, you can download one here.
Workshop Series
Biomechanics Series – 6 Workshops
Crash Course in Biomechanics
Shoulder Potential
Hip Dynamics
Foot Fundamentals & Ankle Articulations
This Is Spinal Map
Core Encore
Biomechanics Series – 5 Workshops
Crash Course in Biomechanics
Shoulder Potential
Hip Dynamics
This is Spinal Map
Core Encore
Biomechanics Series – 4 Workshops
Crash Course in Biomechanics
Shoulder Potential
Hip Dynamics
This is Spinal Map
Biomechanics, Breath, and Energetics Series – 6 Workshops
Safety in Yoga
Analyze Your Asana
Core Encore
This is Spinal Map
Breathing Spaces & Asana
Prana with a Twist
Umbrella Title and Description for Workshop Series
Yoga Meets Science Workshop Series
with Jules Mitchell, MS
In this workshop series weekend, Jules will lead insightful discussions, cite the most current research, and teach asana by blending her two passions: yoga and biomechanics. Jules isn’t shy about challenging the anecdotal instruction we were taught in yoga classes of our past but still upholds the tradition with the reverence it deserves. She is more interested in asking the right questions than knowing all the answers. Be prepared to transform the way you think, speak, and move within the practice of yoga. Please bring a journal.
Lead Workshop Descriptions
Crash Course in Biomechanics
Transform the way you communicate when teaching yoga! Learn the basics of biomechanics and how human musculoskeletal tissues behave under load. Distinguish between stress (load) and strain (stretch) to speak clearly and with confidence when speaking about the effects of yoga asana on connective tissue. Add the variable of time to the equation and we will question common yoga beliefs, bend classical alignment rules, rewrite the conventional script. Please bring a journal.
Safety In Yoga
The processes of healing after injury and avoiding injury are not as distinct as they might seem. For many decades, the prevailing approach for both has been to minimize load exposure, thereby preventing injury and re-injury. However, a new paradigm is emerging, suggesting that load exposure has a protective and therapeutic effect. Recent developments in rehabilitation research suggest that improvements in tissue capacity is multifaceted; capacity considers not only structure, but also function and pain. Jules shares a summary of these findings and highlights a few landmark papers while examining how these principles can inform the clinical approach to yoga therapy in the management of common musculoskeletal conditions. Please bring a journal.
Support Workshop Descriptions (Alphabetical)
Analyze Your Asana
Immerse yourself into an investigation of common poses you regularly practice. If you’ve ever been puzzled by contradictory cues or wondered if you’re even teaching the pose correctly and safely, this workshop is for you. We will look at normal human variation to learn why there is no right way but explore which approach may be best for you with specific outcomes in mind. You’ll learn to makes sense of what you see in individuals who look different in the same poses and to how to give general instructions that work for most. It’s a biomechanics breakdown with plenty of practical application. Come with an open mind and leave with your curiosity satisfied.
Core Encore
Explore the core in this fun and educational workshop that develops awareness and control through the center. Redefine the core to include systems beyond just the musculoskeletal system to explore the positional and functional relationships of your ribs, spine and pelvis. Learn to distinguish between stability and rigidity and investigate what the research says about core stability in relation to back health and safety. It might not be what you think! Discover ways to instruct asana where breathing mechanics take center stage and alignment simply follows. You’ll utilize the concepts introduced in this course again and again.
Hip Dynamics
Dynamics [dahy-nam-iks] noun
1. The branch of mechanics that deals with the motion
and equilibrium of systems under the action of forces,
usually from outside the system
2. The motivating or driving forces, physical or moral, in any field
3. The pattern or history of growth, change, and development
in any field
While the hip joint has the capacity to be a highly mobile joint, it also has the capacity to be quite strong. Contrary to conventional thought, flexibility and strength can be achieved together. Discover the potential for utilizing isometrics in asana and incorporate principles of co-contraction to help students develop both. You’ll also workshop how to modify yoga poses to deliberately target a specific hip action in a fun and creative way.
This is Spinal Map
Navigate the architecture of the spine and highlight how it IS designed to move over how it is not. Explore how the spinal curves evolved, how we interact with gravity, and how our limbs can leverage forces to the spine. Enhance your spinal mobility through phases of rest and repetition while gently and effectively building up to more challenging yoga poses. The workshop includes approaches to spinal articulations that consider current research on spinal biomechanics while addressing common misconceptions about back pain and spinal health.
Breathing Spaces & Asana
The average person takes over 23,000 breaths per day. It’s no wonder breathing habits affect how you move, how you posture, and how you yoga. Explore different breathing practices and how attention to space and direction can profoundly impact the work you do on your mat. The practices are designed facilitate sensing and feeling, while challenging you to identify and progress beyond your predictable asana strategies. Don’t let the title fool you into thinking this will be nap time. Suitable for all levels, breathing is the only pre-requisite.
Foot Fundamentals & Ankle Articulations
Stand up to your standing poses with the knowledge they deserve. Explore standing postures from the ground up, increasing awareness of foot and ankle mobility. Then explore standing poses from the top down to see how the pelvis, hips, and knees might influence foot position and alignment. Discuss how gait patterns might affect strategies and position in certain postures and workshop modifications that will promote change! Finally, establish a teaching vocabulary that emphasizes experience over aesthetics. Expect to leave this workshop standing tall and proud about your standing postures.
Prana with a Twist
The breath is a unique function of the body because even though it is mostly an involuntary process, it can be voluntarily controlled. Breathing can, therefore, be approached as a movement practice, prompting energizing responses in both the physical and physiological realms. Moreover, the basic act of breathing moves the ribs, in turn moving the spine for better side bending and more expansive axial rotation. Experience directed breathing practices and somatic lessons that get you twisting more with less external leverage. Shake up, or stir up, your yoga practice – whichever you prefer!
Shoulder Potential
The highly mobile shoulder complex can bear the weight of the body in yoga asana but does not always perform to its full potential. Instead, we often see limited range of motion, repetitive use injuries, and pain. In this workshop, we’ll simplify all the complex anatomy you may have studied in the past and equip you with approaches to get stronger, move better, and feel better. You will learn upper extremity biomechanics, learn to assess quality of movement, and incorporate practices to improve shoulder function, promote stability, and develop mobility. Apply these insights to a variety of asana including the everyday downdog. You may experience a departure from conventional cueing. Therefore, curious minds are encouraged. All shoulders are welcome – healthy or injured, strong or weak, hypermobile or not mobile enough.