Yoga Teacher Training Forum

Namaskar Edward and Amy,

You both have made very good points here. We can all agree that Yoga is much more than Asana. There will always be objections to categorization in any activity. However, participants often feel quite safe with labels like "Beginner Yoga" or "Chair Yoga."

During the course of a week, I teach to mixed age groups within the same class, but I also teach classes that specialize, such as: Chair Yoga and Kids Yoga. To be honest, the participants are quite happy with others who have common experiences and interests. Sometimes, these bonds in the Yoga class become a social network outside of class.

In some classes, everyone is in a wheelchair; but in senior centers, the classes are full of mobile seniors who have different levels of health. I have one class, with mats for seniors. Some senior centers worry about students going to the floor and taking a fall.

Although most seniors can get to the floor, some of them cannot. Getting up or down can be difficult, depending on the state of our health. Therefore, they are shown options for the floor and for the chair. I'm sure there will be more categorization as the number of seniors will continue to grow in leaps and bounds.

OM Shanti,

Paul