Are you hooked on yoga? Do you constantly spread your yogic gospel to your exasperated friends and family? Do you want to talk about yoga to people who will actually listen? If you answered “yes” to all of these questions, you might want to consider becoming a yoga teacher.
The first thing that you have to do before even thinking about completing a teacher certification course is…take lots and lots of yoga classes! Learn as much as you can from your own teachers by listening to their instruction and talking to them about their experiences. The more yoga you practice yourself, the more you will learn to understand the ins and outs of yoga. This will make you a better teacher!
So, once you finally decide to take the big plunge, you will need to complete a teacher certification course. How do you find one? Well, the best place to check would be your own studio! If your yoga studio doesn’t offer its own certification classes, your instructor would be more than happy to direct to another location.
Since there are many different forms of yoga, there are many different types of teacher certification! Some specialized types of yoga, such as Bikram, Power Yoga, Iyengar, and Anusara require that their teachers complete a training program within their own auspices, so if you want to teach a certain branch of yoga, you’ll have to do a little more research about their own requirements.
If you’re ready to get hot and heavy, Bikram (or “hot”) yoga teachers need to complete a rigorous 2.5 month workshop that requires a mandatory two yoga classes a day, in addition to classes on anatomy, physiology, and eastern philosophy. If this sounds too intensive for you, don’t worry! Some types of certification are a lot less time-consuming.
Most general certification courses are offered in the form of 200-hour or 500-hour programs. In order to be a legally certified yoga teacher, make sure that these courses are under the supervision of the Yoga Alliance. When the course is completed, yoga teachers are allowed to use the acronym RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) after their names.
So, if the prospect of acquiring a fancy, new acronym to your name is exciting for you (just kidding—in addition to teaching something incredibly rewarding and fulfilling, of course), you just might make the perfect yoga instructor!
