When it comes to yoga, fitness, and anatomy, Leslie Kaminoff has seen it all. Just don't call him an expert. Because as any yoga student knows, the more you learn in this practice, the more you realize you just don't know.

Leslie started his yoga career down the street from Jane Fonda's first fitness studios in L.A. He was working at the Sports Medicine Institute when one of the studio instructors started teaching therapeutic yoga to physical therapists at the Institute. Leslie shares what it was like to have a front-row seat for this intersection of yoga and fitness in the West.

He was in the right place at the right time and found himself on that first committee of the Yoga Alliance. Leslie helped set the standards that many yoga studios and health clubs use today to hire teachers and trainers. At the time, standardization was needed because the popular demand for yoga greatly outweighed the supply of experienced teachers. Today, our modern climate inspires us to ask: are hours really the way to gauge whether someone is qualified to teach yoga?

Leslie breaks down the Yoga Alliance origin story, how these hourly standardizations came to be, and provides a new perspective for us to see where and how these Westernized expectations surrounding yoga came about. He also speaks to the effect of yoga on physical therapy and how the yoga community responded to injuries, asanas, and the path to healing.

Teaching a therapeutic style of yoga that doesn't adhere to the sometimes strict rules of the asana practice took a bit of practice itself. Leslie had to learn a new way to speak to students that encouraged them to inquire about the sensation of the practice rather than setting some expectation of the sensation.

Of course, the nature of the asanas is to provide a framework for the student to see how and where their body fits into the pose. How else do you learn something new about yourself if you don't try a new physical position or style of breathing? However, the poses often look different for each person and learning how to teach individual students rather than the perfect asana sequence was key to Leslie's experience of becoming the therapeutic yoga teacher he is today.

I am so excited to have Leslie come and teach at the Miami Life Center. Having him teach an in-person class means so much to me. We have lost so much during this pandemic, but seeing a classroom full of yoga students in person is something I miss the most. If you would like to take a class with Leslie, keep an eye out for his schedule on his website at YogaAnatomy.org.

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If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, get in touch with me at [email protected]. You could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.