A good yoga teacher training program is one step along that path providing a basic and solid foundation that gives the graduates knowledge, skills, and confidence to begin teaching yoga safely and mindfully. Yoga Alliance maintains a Registry of Yoga Schools that offer yoga teacher training programs of at least 200 or 500 hours. There are also home study yoga teacher training programs available. When looking at these, it's best to make sure that they also offer some type of way of interacting with the teacher/students while you are studying. This is usually done through online discussion groups or forums.

Finding Yoga Teacher Training

If you're uncertain about home study as a method for Yoga Teacher training, read what others have had to say about it and you may be surprised. Most Yoga teacher training camps will teach you what you need to know to become a certified Yoga instructor, but they will not teach you anything about how to operate your own yoga business - you'll have to either learn that on your own or search for a course that offers some business training. The learning environment of many online teacher trainings is filled with demonstration classes, lesson plans and sometimes even ready-to-use teaching tools.

What You Will Learn

In any basic yoga teacher training course you will learn how to practice and teach yoga - not as a basic physical exercise, but as a profound science that unites movement, breath, sound, concentration, meditation and prayer. Along with varying amounts of yoga philosophy, anatomy, and physiology, almost every other style of yoga teacher training today teaches technique; that is, how to teach a particular asana or pose.

Yoga Teacher

It's unfortunate, but true, many excellent Yoga Teachers and Masters do not know how to market their yoga studios. What makes yoga so effective, beyond teaching proficiency, is the presence and vitality that you, the yoga teacher, bring to the class. A teacher trains students in a specific method of yoga. Most teachers divide their day between group classes and individual instruction. Before attending teacher training, most schools require that students have practiced their style of yoga for one or more years.

Length of Yoga Teacher Training

Most teacher training programs take one year and are usually a mix of night classes and weekend seminars. As teachers, it is a necessity to know how to read your students and to know what they need: to know what's essential for them to learn from you. If you are considering becoming a yoga teacher, you may want to talk to your favorite yoga teachers about where they received their training. Your reward will be the certainty that you are meeting your highest goals and dreams about who you are and who you are capable of becoming as a teacher.

Yoga Styles

There are literally hundreds of styles of yoga, and each emphasizes a slightly different approach. Hatha Yoga is one of the most common styles taught in the USA, but there are many variations on this traditional approach. There are so many different yoga styles and approaches that focus on the varying aspects of philosophy and exercise (asana). Any instructor should know how to make use of generally accepted teaching methodology and have a thorough understanding of their own style of yoga along with a basic understanding of anatomy and physiology. These talents, all together make up an effective teacher.

Yoga Teacher Training Certification

White Lotus offered the first yoga teacher training and certification in America in 1968. Teaching certification is awarded on the basis of successful comprehension and mastery of the principles and practice of Yoga and the ability to communicate them to others. There are many yoga schools around the country that will give Teacher Training Certification with only a month of classes, and some give Certification after a single weekend training. There are also online schools offering certification, but it may not be type of certification that will let you begin teaching right away - so do your research first, and then choose the school which matches best with your own desire to complete your certification.