Maria Ian Challenges Yoga Misconceptions Through ISSA Training

Dr. Maria Ian's journey with yoga began during a difficult period. Five years ago, she experienced what she describes as "a pretty bad health breakdown" – struggling with high blood pressure, breathing difficulties, and extreme exhaustion. Conventional medical advice left her dissatisfied, as doctors attributed her symptoms to normal aging.

"I started researching ways that I could help myself because I was extremely dissatisfied with the responses I was getting from medical doctors," Maria explains. This self-directed research led her to basic exercise routines that incorporated yoga elements.

Initially drawn to yoga because of its reputation for being gentler, Maria soon discovered this perception was far from accurate. "The myth that it shattered is that yoga is just this soft thing that you can just do, which is complete nonsense," she says emphatically. What began as 10 minutes of daily practice gradually increased to 20 minutes, and Maria noticed significant improvements.

Beyond App-Based Training

For two years, Maria relied on a yoga app for her practice. Eventually, she found the experience becoming "very repetitive and monotonous." When she tried modifying poses independently, she realized she needed more guidance.

As an existing ISSA member who had already completed several certifications, Maria received an email about the ISSA Yoga 200 course. "I said, 'Wow, I think this is what I need to get the poses figured out because there's no way on earth that I'm going to have my questions answered by just following apps.'"

The decision to enroll proved transformative. "It answered all of my questions," Maria shares.

Transforming Her Practice

The ISSA Yoga 200 course revealed that Maria had been practicing "incompletely" – not incorrect enough to cause injury, but not deep enough to reap yoga's full benefits.

"I didn't hurt myself because I was very careful, but I just didn't get as many benefits. You really have to stretch very deeply, and I was barely stretching because I didn't know the technique," she explains.

Today, Maria's yoga routine spans about an hour daily, five days a week, with a shorter 45-minute session on the sixth day. Even on her rest day, she feels the need to stretch – evidence of how integral yoga has become to her physical wellbeing.

Beyond Physical Strength

Maria's perspective on strength training shifted dramatically through her yoga journey. "If I would have continued thinking I have to do strength training to get myself to be strong, I would never have done any real productive strength training just because the mindset required for strength training is so totally different from the mindset required for Yoga, at least as far as I am concerned," she reflects.

As a Master Trainer with numerous ISSA certifications, including Certified Personal Trainer, DNA-Based Fitness, and Health Coaching, Maria now incorporates yoga principles into her teaching methodology. She particularly emphasizes "the specific mindset that you need to get yourself into an energy balancing state."

Advice for Fitness Professionals

When asked what advice she would give to other fitness professionals about yoga, Maria doesn't hesitate: "They should really start with it."

Drawing from traditional Chinese medicine concepts, she explains, "If the energy in your body doesn't flow and if you don't have an idea of balance and really deep stretching, if you don't know what it means to enter into an energy resting state, then all of the other stuff is really redundant."

Maria likens this approach to other athletic disciplines: "If you want to be a really good bodybuilder, you should start with ballet... absolutely start with yoga because it's going to teach you a tremendous amount about who you are as a person and how your body works."

The Power of Precision

The ISSA Yoga 200 course taught Maria the importance of precision in each pose. "Even if you're being nit-picky and super specific about which way the knee points, if it points to one toe or another, that can make a whole lot of difference," she notes.

She also discovered the benefits of meridian yoga, which focuses on poses that work with specific organs in the body. While careful to note she's not claiming medical cures, Maria shares her amazement: "If you can figure out which poses work with which organs in your body, that is phenomenal because it actually works."

Meridian Yoga helped close the gap for a chronic, decade long stomach condition that probiotics still left. “When I first noticed this benefit, I had to be very careful not to eat junk food again because I knew with Meridian Yoga, I can always fix it again, or it won’t be as bad!” But the before and after stays very clear. A person may see no reason why, once feeling much better, eating as before should not be an option again. But the power of Yoga teaches us that our bodies work on energy channels, and our health depends on maintaining and caring for these.

A Holistic Transformation

From wall-assisted movements to daily hour-long practices, Maria's story demonstrates how yoga can transform not just physical capabilities but one's entire approach to fitness and wellbeing.

Through the ISSA Yoga 200 course, Maria gained the technical knowledge to deepen her practice and share these powerful principles with others. Her experience proves that with proper guidance, yoga can be a foundation for lifelong health and a gateway to understanding your body in entirely new ways.

Want to transform your yoga practice or add yoga training to your fitness expertise? Learn more about the ISSA Yoga 200 course today.