Utah State University announced that it will offer Yoga Instructor Certification this fall. The new Utah State University program beginning fall semester will allow students to earn a yoga instructor certification and do it by taking an integrated curriculum approach to the increasingly popular fitness routine billed as moving yoga “beyond the mat and into the classroom,” according to a USU news release.
The program will offer courses in yoga literature, history, philosophy and practice for students working to earn a yoga teacher certification through Yoga Alliance, a nonprofit representing teachers, students and studios.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed commended USU for coming forward and providing an opportunity to students to study multi-faceted yoga. He urged other US and Canadian universities to offer yoga studies programs.
Zed said that yoga was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.
According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to a recently released “2016 Yoga in America Study”, about 37 million Americans now practice yoga, and yoga is strongly correlated with having a positive self-image, Zed said.
