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If you landed on this page, chances are you care deeply about helping people feel better in their bodies—on and off the mat. You’re already teaching (or you want to be), but maybe something’s missing. Maybe your teacher training didn’t fully prepare you for real-world classes. Maybe you’ve been teaching for a while and know it’s time to upgrade how you work with the human body.
Welcome to Mastering Functional Yoga—a 5-session, advanced teacher training for yoga teachers who are ready to build classes rooted in real movement science, actual body mechanics, and functional progress.
Because let’s be real: your students don’t just want to nail a pose...
They want to:
👉🏼 Tend to their garden without back pain the next day
👉🏼 Keep up with their kids and grandkids
👉🏼 Move freely and confidently as they age
👉🏼 Sit, stand, walk, and live without needing help
👉🏼 Feel damn good in their own bodies
They want to be able to move freely, without pain, while also building bodily strength and resilience so they can make actual progress in their yoga practice, progress that is observable, measurable and feels GOOD!
And you have the power to help them do that. This training will show you how.
It is time to stop teaching poses so you can start teaching people!
“Gina teaches you to take the traditional yoga poses and adapts them to make them functional for everyday movement.”
— Yoga Student
What you will be doing:
Session One: The Anatomy Myth
Problem: You may have studied a lot of anatomy and learned how poses should look—but not how bodies actually move. Cueing based on idealized form or where body parts 'should' land on the mat often ignores real human movement. This approach can lead to dysfunctional patterns, discomfort, or even injury. Without biomechanics, anatomy is just trivia.
Solution: We’ll flip your script. Learn to see yoga poses through the lens of joint function and movement mechanics, not just shape or alignment. Understand the why and how behind movement—not just the what. Learn to teach functional movement—movement that supports real life.
What your students | clients get? A practice that actually supports their body. They’ll be able to move confidently, transition with control, and hold poses with strength and stability so they have a yoga practice that supports their whole life. This is about helping them move better, avoid injury, and thrive in everyday moments.
Session Two: Poses Re-imagined
Problem: You learned a lot of individual poses based on what you see on the outside without understanding what is happening on the inside. Leaving you with a lot to memorize for about 100 or so postures.
Solution: Learn Asana Families base on biomechanics. This is where you take what you learned in session one and apply it to the poses you teach the most. Instead of learning different rules, scripts, cues or anatomy for 100 poses, you learn the biomechanics of a handful of asana familes, so you can cue and sequence based on functional movement.
What your students | clients get? Movement that make sense, pose variations that are doable, powerful and easy to implement - which leads to observable, measured progress. Your people will be estactic as they actually learn something about how their bodies work.
Session Three: Your Cueing Gets an Upgrade (part one)
Problem: You memorized cues for poses... but no one told you why those cues matter. Mostly because the cues are focused on WHAT the poses should look like, not the action people should be taking. Alignment-focused cueing misses the mark on how the body moves.
Solution: Ditch the script and learn how to cue based on body mechanics so your students feel empowered in their own bodies. In this session we will go over the action behind poses so you can cue and teach people HOW to work from the inside vs focusing on what it looks on the outside.
What your students | clients get? Freedom. Power. Progress. You’ll help them do the pose, not just look the part. That’s what makes it land.
Session Four: Upgrading Your Cues (part two) + Elevating Your Sequencing
Problem: Your sequences are solely focused on traditional yoga poses with the hopes that if students and clients do the poses over and over again, long enough, they will "get it." Hard truth - that isn't how the body works.
Solution: This is where skills work and pose breakdowns come into play. When you teach specific movement patterns that build into more complex poses, the body can neuromap new pathways for movement. You will learn new ways to transitions and add in skills work & functional movement patterns based on joint actions, primary movements, and peak poses—all grounded in real anatomy.
What your students | clients get? Classes that are fun, challenging, progressive—and keeps them coming back week after week, because they are learning about their bodies & seeing real progress.
Session Five: Assisting, Cueing, Leading That Works (putting it all together)
Problem: You teach by repeating the same things you know, relying on demos, training them to watch you if they are confused and/or by moving them yourself with your assisting. It is time to turn your teaching into true leading.
Solution: Learn how to work the room, orient and teach from their bodies, mirror teach when demoing, use your words in ways that work, & show them self-assists that their bodies will remember. The solution is to get clients moving and grooving with confidence by transforming how you step into the teacher role.
What your students | clients get? Autonomy. Confidence. Clarity. The ability to understand and control their own bodies—and that’s where the real transformation happens.
BONUS - you will practice teach in every single session we hold! Learning is one thing, application & implementation is another and in this training you get both.
“Before I first started practicing with Gina, I had been experiencing chronic back and hamstring pain that flared up frequently and was triggered by certain yoga poses. Heart & Grit classes are totally different. I learned some modifications to help with pain in certain poses and transitions, and after just handful of classes I didn’t even need the modifications anymore because my pain had totally resolved. I’m so glad I found Heart & Grit and have been able to revive my yoga practice pain-free. I’m 37 classes in now and I feel stronger in all areas of my life as a result!”
- Simone
What You’ll Learn
✅ Cue based on joint movement and muscle action
✅ Understand functional anatomy & biomechanics as it applies to asana families and movement patterns
✅ Sequence for real bodies: by movement, not just shape
✅ Design warm-ups that actually prepare people for the work ahead
✅ Use biomechanics to reduce injury and increase strength and mobility
✅ Help students engage the right muscles for better results in transitions and poses
This Is for You If...
✨ You’ve finished a yoga teacher training program
✨ You care deeply about helping your students live better lives
✨ You’re ready to teach with clarity, purpose, and actual science
✨ You want your classes to stand out because they actually work
If you are a current yoga teacher and have been looking to upgrade and modernize your teaching to fit the world (and bodies) people live in today, look no further, I’ve got you covered.
“I can feel how the poses and flows we practice on the mat translate to moving better and more easily in my daily life activities.”
— Yoga Student
Hey, I’m Gina!
Founder of Heart & Grit Yoga, Not-Your-Average-Yoga-Teacher
I started teaching in 2001, kickboxing was my first class and it was then that I fell in love with "movement." While teaching was a hobby back then, I spent most of my time in research labs studying pathology and the cardiovascular, endocrinology and nervous systems. I transitioned into yoga full time when I opened my first yoga studio in 2015.
Since then, I've leveraged my education & experience in exercise science, academic research, and higher-ed teaching, along with my love for personal growth, to train over 100 yoga teachers with education based on solid science.
Early in my yoga career, I quickly noticed a gap in how yoga was taught, particularly in the areas of body safety and mechanics.
To address this, I rebranded my studio to focus on a functional, science-based approach to yoga. This shift not only elevated my teaching but also brought significant improvements to my student's health and well-being.
That’s what I want for you and your students.
I created the HEART & GRIT School of Yoga to give you the high-quality resources emerging yoga teachers so desperately need so you can improve your teaching and your students’ yoga experience.
But before you can help others heal and grow stronger, you must know how the body works.
If you’re looking to fill your classes, elevate your students, and rekindle your passion for teaching, THIS is where it all starts.
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