Breathing Mechanics 2026
Albuquerque
April 25-26, 2026 (Saturday-Sunday)
10:00am - 5:00pm
Location: JCC 5520 Wyoming Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109
Expand your repertoire of breathing practices and learn how to utilize these techniques in your yoga classes. While most yoga classes teach some form of beginner breath awareness, the leap to advanced pranayama techniques happens quickly. What about the space in between ujjayi breathing and challenging extended breath retention or hyper- and hypoventilation practices?
The all-new Breathing Mechanics course bridges the gap between basic breath awareness and advanced pranayama. You will expand your skills to include noticing the movement quality, sensing the direction of the breath, and layering imagery into your cueing. You will explore the anatomy of breath, breathing mechanics, and the role of intrabdominal pressure. Combined, these learning objectives become powerful tools to help you teach yoga postures in novel ways. Your classes and your practice will become more varied and will evolve creatively!
$450 USD until March 20, 2026
$550 USD after March 20, 2026
Breathing Mechanics and Asana: Course Objectives
This in-person course is for teachers who are passionate about the breath, are eager to know what the research says, and are looking for practical ways to introduce breath work without jumping straight into advanced pranayama techniques.
The 12-hour course offers theory, practice, and teaching applications. Includes a PDF of the slides and 12 CEUs upon completion.
In Breathing Mechanics, you will:
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Study respiratory mechanics and pressure systems in context of movement and posture
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Learn how to teach breath without defaulting to fixed rules or idealized patterns
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Challenge common assumptions about breathing and pranayama
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Break down complex ideas into teachable, accessible steps
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Rethink how you cue, observe, and interpret breath in yoga
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Understand coordination of the ribs, spine, and pelvis
Course Description
- Have you been told there’s one right way to breathe?
- Are you uncomfortable with the assumption that students have breathing problems?
- Do you want to know when to offer sama vritti (even) or visama vritti (uneven) breath cycles?
- Do you want to learn why advanced pranayama techniques aren’t suitable for all populations?
- Are you curious about freeing yourself from the same alignment script every other yoga teacher uses?
- Are you unsure of how to use directed breathing within yoga poses instead of only as a still practice?
- Are you still micromanaging what your students should feel?
- Are you curious about what the research says about yogic breathing techniques?
If you are a mind-body nerd, eternal student, or simply eager to infuse your yoga classes with fresh inspiration, this course is for you! Join Jules Mitchell for a 1.5-day intensive that weaves together asana with directed breathing practices to enhance the experience you offer your yoga students. The latest pranayama research and foundational principles of respiratory mechanics are discussed in an easy-to-understand, practical way that emphasizes student autonomy, promotes endless variations within yoga poses, and will immediately impact the way you teach and practice yoga.
Course Topics
- Identify a hierarchy of breathing practices
- Study the relationship between the diaphragm and abdominal muscles
- View pressure as a force variable
- Differentiate between respiration, ventilation, and gas transport
- Learn how pressure differentials move air in and out
- Review a comprehensive list of accessory muscles to breathing
- Highlight the benefits of slow breathing
- Explore force transfer between the ribs and spine
- Learn dozens of breathing lessions to teach inside of yoga poses
- Creative yoga sequencing to incorporate the themes of the course
About the Instructor
Jules Mitchell, MS, LMT, E-RYT 500
Jules Mitchell leads advanced continuing education programs in biomechanics for intellectually fearless yoga teachers. She helps them integrate principles of exercise science and applications of pain science into their classes. Jules is the author of Yoga Biomechanics: Stretching Redefined, a unique, evidence-based exploration into the complexities of tissue mechanics and the human body’s resilience and adaptability.
She leads workshops and courses online and worldwide, runs a popular 300 hour yoga teacher training, frequently serves as guest faculty, and hosts a comprehensive mentoring program to support teachers in both education and business. Her passion is bringing the most useful and applicable research-based concepts into the yoga community, even when it invokes a discerning analysis of popular opinions.
“I loved the learning environment. Friendly, professional, and not cookie-cutter. The course teaches you about breath mechanics AND allows you to experience breathing in some fun, accessible ways. The encouragement to feel what you feel and let your students do the same. Loved it. Learned a lot!”
"Thank you for such a lovely training!! I’ve pulled out several of the things we worked on already, and it’s totally refocusing all my sequencing, which is just exactly what I was hoping for.“
“The combination of theory (with visuals) + practice + teaching really helps to learn the concepts.”
