Episode 151: Jules Mitchell: Teaching Asana and Hypermobility

Jules Mitchell MS, CMT, ERYT500 is a Las Vegas based yoga teacher, educator and massage therapist. Her unique approach blends the tradition of yoga with her extensive study in biomechanics to help teachers develop their craft and empower them with education. Jules’s methods intend to achieve ease in movement through deliberate effort, thus her teachings integrate numerous modalities, balancing the somatic aspects of yoga with the most current exercise science.

It is Jules’s passion to share the most useful and applicable pieces of science with the yoga community to build confidence in students and teachers by having a well-grounded understanding of the science behind the how and why of asana. Jules regularly contributes to teacher trainings, as well as leads workshops and courses worldwide. She also assists private clients in achieving all types of movement goals, anything from simply aging well to sport specific outcomes.

As adjunct faculty at ASU, she serves as a yoga consultant on various research studies measuring the effects of yoga therapy on special populations including pregnant women, women with depressive symptoms associated with perinatal loss, and cancer patients. Her future research goals include the effects of asana on tissue adaptation and bridging the gap between exercise science and yoga research.

Jules’s most influential teachers include Greg Lehman (Reconciling Biomechanics with Pain Science), Leeann Carey (Yapana Yoga), Gil Hedley (Integral Anatomy), John Casey (yoga philosophy and Sanskrit) and the many dedicated scientists who collect, analyze and publish data so we may continue to ask more questions, even when it invokes a discerning analysis of tradition.

Along with authoring posts on her popular science-meets-yoga blog, she is also the author of Yoga Biomechanics: Stretching Redefined, a comprehensive text for yoga teachers, now available through Handspring Publishing.  You can find Jules leading workshops at your favorite local studio or study along with her at home by downloading one of her educational online courses. She also has over 100 premium and free online practices for you to enjoy.