Description

Watch the Course Intro

Course Overview

Module 1 | Introduction: In this section, you’ll be introduced to the course’s 250-page manual, as well as the course’s structure into “the 5 P’s” of Medical Fitness Yoga program design and delivery. You’ll also learn more about the 5 koshas – a powerful framework that helps clients to conceptualize their 5 layers of self and well-being.

Module 2 | Promotion: In this section, you’ll learn how to promote yourself as a Medical Fitness Yoga Specialist to prospective clients while staying in your scope of practice and practicing Dr. Carmack’s 6 Chakras of Health Promotion.

Module 3 | Preparation: In this section, you’ll learn how to assure that you and your client are properly prepared for your work together, including an overview of insurance, health data privacy management, waivers, and screening tool needs.

Module 4 | Planning: In this section, you’ll learn how to combine both talk-based interviewing and asana (pose)-based assessments in the yoga program planning process, so that you can co-create a yoga program for your client that works well for them on and off of the mat.

Module 5 | Programming: In this section, you’ll learn how to adapt the FITT-VP exercise prescription framework for yoga program design. Plus, you’ll learn how to use Dr. Carmack’s signature ABCDE practice design framework in the design and delivery of yoga practice sessions – to assure that every client session experience is assessment-based, centering, and empowering.

Module 6 | Progressions: In this section you’ll learn how the concept of yoga progression takes yoga into a way of life, through the practice of the 8 limbed-path of yoga. Plus, you’ll learn how you can add simple yoga mudras and mantras to a philosophy and posture-based yoga program, to support clients with centering self-care practices they can take into their daily life.

Along the way, you’ll learn and love the Traffic Light Method, developed by the MFYS course author and yoga therapist Dr. Suzie Carmack and MedFit’s chronic disease course author Dr. Dan Mikeska. You’ll learn how you can apply this method in giving clients red, yellow, and green options for “driving” their practice on the mat safely, based on their medical needs, stress management concerns, physical capabilities, and intuitive guidance. Plus you’ll learn how you can apply this method in the client assessment process; in the planning of a yoga program and in the practice of 44 different asanas (yoga poses).

Course Delivery and Assessment

This is an online, self-paced course; all materials are delivered digitally. This course includes narrated slide videos and course manual. Comprehension of the material will be measured via a mandatory competency assessment requiring a minimum of 80% correct responses.

Prerequisites

The completion of this specialization course, and the passing of its corresponding competency assessment, leads to a Certificate of Specialization. All of the online courses on MedFit Classroom which lead to a Certificate of Specialization are considered advanced level education, and are meant to be taken by fitness professionals who have previously acquired education and experience as a professional within the health and fitness industry. In order to receive the Certificate of Specialization, upon completion of this course you will be asked to provide proof of the following:

1. Evidence of a bachelor’s or master’s degree in fitness or health related field AND/OR possess a certification from a nationally-recognized certification, NCCA or ANSI/ISO accredited program OR a current yoga certification at the 200–hour level or above AND
2. Evidence of professional liability insurance.

*If you do not meet the requirements for a Certificate of Specialization, you can request a Certificate of Completion.

Renewal of Specialization

This Certificate of Specialization will be considered valid for a period of two years. To keep the certificate current, you must complete 10 hours of continuing education, on relevant subject matter, and formally renew the certificate prior to the date of its expiration. As with many certifications and specializations in our field, professionals should anticipate some costs to continuing education and renewal of this certificate.

MedFit Classroom CEUs

The Medical Fitness Yoga Specialist course provides 10 CEUs toward renewal of MedFit Classroom fitness specializations.

Other Continuing Education Credits

Approved for credits by:

• NASM for 1.0 CEUs
• canfitpro for 4 CECs.
• Yoga Alliance for 10 CECs.
• Pending continuing education credits from ACE.
• If your certifying body is not listed, you may be able to petition for credit. Check your certifying body’s policies for petitioning.

About the Course Author

Dr. Suzie Carmack, PhD, MFA, MEd, ERYT 500, NBC-HWC, C-IAYT is an award-winning yoga therapist, #1 best-selling author (twice), public health scholar, trainer, and trusted c-suite coach to senior leaders in the private and public sectors.

As the Creator of the YogaMedCo Method, Dr. Carmack has trained 100’s of coaches and yoga teachers on 5 continents in her signature and evidence-based approach to supporting clients in bringing the practices of yoga, lifestyle medicine and coaching together. She currently serves as the Department Chair of Yoga Therapy and Ayurveda at the Maryland University of Integrative Health, where she guides the training of tomorrow’s Yoga Therapists and Ayurveda specialists in the only accredited M.S. and C-IAYT program in yoga therapy in the world. She has also trained 1000’s of yoga teachers at the 200- and 500-hour levels globally since 2006.

As a pioneer in the office and school yoga movements of the early 2000’s, Dr. Carmack has been demystifying yoga for providers and patients for over two decades. Her two #1 best sellers (Well-Being Ultimatum, 2015 and Genius Breaks, 2017) help the world’s busiest people to bring more yoga into their daily lives (on and off of the mat). She was the leading science contributor and stress management chapter author for Weight Loss for Life (2021) by Johns Hopkins Press, and she has authored multiple book chapters, journal articles, and adjudicated conference presentations focusing on the mind-body connection and the science of compassion. Her mindful movement vitamin intervention (2007; 2012) helped to raise awareness about the importance of bringing more movement into the day to counteract the 28 adverse health outcomes associated with sitting disease.

Dr. Carmack is regularly commissioned to co-create yoga, mindfulness, resilience, and well-being training programs, interventions, workshops and keynotes for federal and global health organizations such as the Pan American / World Health Organization (2013-2015); the Department of Defense (2015); the U.S. Air Force (2018; 2019; 2021; 2022); the U.S. Treasury Department (2020); and the U.S. Department of Education (2021-2022). She was also personally invited by then Gen. James Michael Holmes, USAF (now retired) to develop and deliver the first-ever resilience training for senior leaders (2-, 3- and 4-star generals) for the U.S.A.F. (2019). She is currently collaborating with the USAF’s 37^th Training Wing on the delivery of her Well-Being CONOPS intervention, inspired by her book Well-Being Ultimatum.

As a change agent and advocate, Dr. Carmack dedicates a portion of her time to promoting systems change in healthcare and public health. She currently serves on the Education Advisory Board of MedFit; as an Advisor to the Health Coaches Australia and New Zealand Association (NCANZA); and as a Senior Scholar with the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being with George Mason University. She also serves on the Group Coaching Committee of the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching, co-authoring the forthcoming group coaching competencies. Previously, she was the lead researcher and story-teller (conceptual designer) for the 2020 U.S. Surgeon’s General Report, guiding a team of scientists in exploring the intersections of public health, community development and business to advance the social determinants of health and health equity. She has conceptualized, designed, delivered and evaluated award-winning large-scale health communication campaigns, including the change management campaign that brought the Cloud to the CDC in 2016.

Concurrent to her work in the practice field, Dr. Carmack has 30 years of experience teaching in higher education as a multi-disciplinary scholar, educator and practitioner. Before joining MUIH, she most recently served as an Assistant Professor of Global and Community Health at George Mason University (a Research 1 institution), where she trained MPH students in community-based participatory research, leadership, advocacy and ethics.  She is the recipient of the 2018 Alumnae of the Year Award from George Mason University’s Department of Communication, where she earned her PhD in health communication in 2014. As a multi-disciplinary scholar, she also holds an MFA in Theatre (1991) and an MEd in Kinesiology (2009) — giving her a unique and transdisciplinary vantage point at the intersections of the social sciences, natural sciences and humanities. As a mind-body fitness instructor since 1997, she has earned multiple credentials, including national board-certified health coach; third-generation Pilates teacher; ERYT 500 with the Yoga Alliance; and C-IAYT with the International Association of Yoga Therapy.