WHY TRAIN YOGA TEACHERS?

Before describing a basic 200-hour Yoga Instructor Training (YTT), let me quote Yoga Alliance. For example, according to Yoga Alliance, the program includes 100 hours of practice, 100 hours of technique, 25 hours of teaching methods, 20 hours of physiology and anatomy, 30 hours of yoga philosophy, 10 hours of teaching courses, and 15-20 hours of written assignments. That’s a lot to take in. Yet, on paper, everything sounds. Genuine to read this article to find out more on online yoga teacher.

‘Is YTT worth it?’ As a fellow yoga teacher, 200-hour certified yoga instructor, and permanent yoga student, I’ve been invited. Ideally, yes, since yoga is beautiful and always for it, but for specific individuals and training, no. So I am starting with my own experience of becoming a yoga instructor and what all these hours entail.

MY YTT EXPERIENCE

In 2005, I had recently graduated from college and was a huge yoga fan. In early 2006, I joined in a YTT at Yandara Yoga Institute in Baja, Mexico. Maybe it was to spend some time alone in an exotic place or improve my yoga practice. Looking back 13 years, I’m sure it wasn’t only to obtain a yoga teacher certification. I believe this is true for many YTT participants, and I will elaborate later.

Yandara was a life-changing event. Our days began with dawn beach walks and circle meditation. Then we performed qigong, a Chinese movement and breathing technique to quiet the mind and harness chi, or vital life force. Then we ate a vegetarian breakfast and drank tea. After lunch, we returned to the shala for technique training, followed by yoga philosophy or anatomy, depending on the day. There was also vegetarian lunch and supper and an opportunity to socialize with our fellow yogis. Getting 200 hours done in a month felt intense. We slept tired in our tents soon after dusk. I have mainly good recollections of those days and do not regret the experience.

A fantastic instructor led the 100 hours of yoga practices. Iyengar, one of the first yogis to introduce yoga to the west, taught him. This yoga approach discusses the health benefits of postures and how to perform them correctly. Iyengar yoga poses aren’t full of new-age nonsense. Our daily sessions were a virtual dissection of all the basic yoga postures, almost to the point of minutiae. But I liked learning how yoga performs the poses properly to avoid injury and build and tone the body. I recall creating intricate prop sets to get the practitioner into a stance. We’d utilize chairs, bolsters, blocks, and blankets to modify poses to fit any physique. It was awesome. Our instructor was a guy with a great sense of humor. This was my favorite and most informative portion of the yoga teacher training. It altered my yoga practice because I understood how to feel the postures.