The Genius of Yoga : A Teacher Training

10 courses in 10 months to enrich your practice and your teaching

Yoga is a practice, it is experience in and through our bodies as a means of experiencing and processing our lives.

Each of these modules are designed to come alive and you are invited to join in.

  • 1/ Modern History.

    The landscape of yogic history moves through time as the Vedas (ancestors), Upanishads (grandparents), Sutras (parents), Kundalini (teenagers). It moves right through our modern lives and we can call on its different teachings to meet different needs, the way we call on different friends for different conversations. Yoga is a continuum of experience and teachings that is alive in each of us and we interpret and inform the tradition for those who will follow us. This perspective helps us understand the fundamental questions: What are we seeking? Why do we why practice? Here we will move through the primary elements of movement: the hinge of the hips, the axis of the spine, the feet and hands.

    Sep. 12 - 14, 2025

  • 2/ Being present.

    Being present means observing and responding appropriately to whatever arises. When we live in the present, we have a full connection to what is real as it arises and falls, fluctuates and changes. This allows us to be fully engaged with our lives. Ayurveda asks “What is present? What is required?” What are the most basic aspects of practice that set a foundation to hold everything else? Standing poses connect us to the earth, to the place we came from and where we return. Here we focus on standing poses; energies of grounding, integrating, rising. We use the Yoga Sutras to consider how we begin things, get unstuck, and build momentum.

    October 3-5, 2025

  • 3/ Awakening Connection.

    Yoga is the (re)connection to Source and Self. It is a journey back and forth; we constantly join and separate. It is not the lack of real connection that causes a sense of isolation, but the illusion of separation. Some of our disconnection can come from the speed at which we perceive we are living. We can use the pace of our practice as a means of “re-pacing” our modern lives to enrich our senses and feel contentment and satiation rather than constant grasping. Here we learn the transitions between postures, sun salutations as an engine to establish our energy, and considerations of pacing/timing on and off the mat.

    October 24-26, 2025

  • 4/ Opening to Vulnerability.

    As animals, we have an instinct to protect our vital organs, our throat, our inner emotions, so we have a natural protective response to close our front bodies. While backbends feel liberating, a chance to free ourselves of the limitations of this protection, they can be difficult due to habit and sensations of vulnerability. By opening our front body, we demonstrate a willingness to be in the world, to feel, to be hurt, to be ecstatic, to activate latent energy of possibility. Here we explore backhanding and the energetic reply that waits here, subtle, surprising, elevating.

    November 14-16, 2025

  • 5/ Allowing Receptivity.

    When we encounter resistance we tend to think that we must try harder. It is vital to allow ourselves to sit with difficulty or confusion until there is an opening, a shift. In twists we encounter our edge, over and over, and learn to meet it with the spaciousness of our breath. In this way we open to new, unconsidered options rather than force or inner abuse. Here we work into and out of twists to digest not only our food but to process our experiences and bring them into integration with our Selves.

    December 5-7, 2025

  • 6/ Facing the Unknown.

    In all truth, we know very little about who we are and the universe around us. As we step into the future, we make calculated guesses about what will happen next and how to respond, but they are limited by our own awareness. Our relationship to the unknown is a very prominent, and largely invisible, part of our lives. Practices to help determine and choose our responses can change our future significantly. We become creative and conversational with what could be instead of hiding or bracing for the worst. Here handstands, shoulder stands, and inversions help us reimagine what we are capable and expand our perspective of what lies Beyond.

    January 9-11, 2025

  • 7/ Listening Inward.

    At the midpoint of our studies we strengthen our ability to slow down, to come to rest, to find places and purpose to pause. Many of us have filled up our schedules in the outside world to the point where there is no time or energy for looking inward. We have built the foundation of our practice, can we learn to slow down and to savor what we find, what is quietly revealed in our lives? Here forward folds serve us as we build what yogis call langhana, or the energy of calming, slowing, and restoring ourselves in terms of time, perspective, and quality of life/love.

    January 30-February 1, 2026

  • 8/ Changing Orientation.

    How can we fully shift the innate orientation we have to who we think we are, the systems we have chosen to be in agreement with, and the relationship we have with what is right/wrong, up/down? Headstand is a chance to rest in reorientation. Here the practice of headstand, one steady step at a time provides a freedom from what we have assumed to be true and opens our eyes literally and metaphorically to another way. We are constantly changing. Headstand here will compress the spine in new ways and then in its release offer new sensory awareness and orientation.

    February 27 - March 1, 2026

  • 9/ Moving Towards Balance.

    Balance is the ability to recover our center and inner sense of contentment, again and again. There will be disruptions, interruptions, disagreements. The whole of the process and practice of Yoga serves to provide ways to return and reestablish ourselves so we stay open to the shifting tides of our lives and pliable in our reply. We learn how to reorganize, regroup, find relaxation again deep inside the body in the present set of circumstances. Here, instead of individual groups of postures, we feel the ride of the whole sequence and start to determine for ourselves what outcome is needed and how to get there.

    March 20-22, 2026

  • 10/ The Subtle Body.

    The physical body is the home of the energy that runs through us throughout our lives. the shapes we make, hands high or folding forward, direct this energy and create direction and recognition. The whole body is an antenna and postures are basically the means to tune into different stations. We can then shift the clarity or density or intensity of that station, that energy center. This is the place of Kundalini kriyas as a means of activating and stabilizing deep, innate energy in connection to something cosmic. Here we move through the subtle body of nadis, how they gather into chakras, how the right / left, individual/collective, solar/lunar come into conversation in our lives.

    April 10-12, 2026

  • 11/ Making It Your Own.

    It is essential that we feel equipped to come to our practice on our own. There are patterns of resistance and habit that can limit what we believe we can do. Simply coming to our mat can be an act of great significance because it enacts choice and inner integrity. In the yoga sutras Patanjali says a meaningful, impactful practice is done “Over time, without interruption, with devotion.” We will leave with 3 simple, general practices that we can adapt and apply for any circumstance to return to connection with ourselves. Here we will consider the 3 keys of repetition, time, and technique as means of claiming authority and progress in our lives.

    May 1-3, 2026

  • ALL 10 MONTHS.

    Each month I will be teaching the training element through my Radiant Body Vinyasa classes. When we discuss headstands, I will emphasize headstands, modeling how they can be presented. When we discuss standing poses, for the following weeks I will teach with an emphasis on standing poses. Come in to TRIBE and explore for yourself how these principles and considerations can be felt as daily practice.

    As part of the 10 month program you will also have topic-specific sequences to practice at home. Every day will have a practice that is related to our theme of that month.

    Yoga is a practice, it is experience in and through our bodies as a means of experiencing and processing our lives. Each of these modules are designed to come alive and you are invited to join in.

Get the details.

We will move at our pace. We will not leave oversaturated, drained, or exhausted.

We will live into our understanding and application of yoga. We will live into the wisdom of ourselves as modern practitioners and teachers.

  • For students invested in the quality of their practice and their lives. After this training you will know how to design your own practice at home or how to benefit from any taught class

    For students looking to become teachers in group settings. Provides 200hr teaching certification. Ideally you already have a 200 hour training as a foundation.

    For teachers looking to deepen or refresh the content that they love. This is another dimension, another layer, a refinement. This is the training I wish I had had along the way. Bring what you know and be ready to evolve.

  • Cost

    $500 non-refundable deposit

    plus  $3700 for 10 months

    or plus $1400 every 3 months

    or $500/month drop-in individual weekends

    Some scholarships are available. Contact marthamcalpine@yahoo.com to set up time for a conversation as needed.

  • Friday

    6-9 group practice, introduction to the topic of the week, small groups, nidra to complete

    Saturday

    9am - 12, philosophy / anatomy 1

    12 - 1pm lunch

    1 - 4pm postures and anatomy 2

    4 - 5pm snack / rest / game

    5 - 8pm integration / partner work / cuing + language / teach each other

    Sunday

    12 - 2pm lecture and public private of postures - ‘seeing’ each other

    2 - 3pm breath + meditation

    3 - 5pm snack + lecture / Q+A, recap, + designing personal practice until next session

  • Required Texts

    • Moving Towards Balance, Rodney Yee

    • The Inspired Yoga Teacher, Gabrielle Harris

    • The Genius of Yoga, Alan Finger

    • One Simple Thing, Eddie Stern

    • Sanctuary app of Rod Stryker

    • Plum Village app

    We will not have a manual. We will use the resources I often turn to to design a class. These books will serve you to create sequences for yourself or for groups for years to come. Additional readings will be brought per weekend.

  • For those who choose to register for all 10 months, particularly with the aspiration of becoming or refining themselves as teachers, there will be an ongoing aspect of apprenticeship.

    Each weekend one participant will be co-teaching with me. You will help to design the material, select readings and resources, determine the related anatomical aspects, and run parts of the weekend yourself.

    Apprentices will have 3 private sessions with Martha, one at the start, one at the middle, and one towards the end. These will serve to name personal goals or concerns and to celebrate discoveries and growth.

    Those who are not apprentices through the program can make arrangements with Martha separately if they want to include a 1:1 in relation to the content of any given weekend.

Any further questions are welcome. You can email marthamcalpine@yahoo.com

or call Tribe Baltimore 443-835-1270 for more details.