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Are you a yoga geek?  Have you been regularly practicing yoga for a few years? If yes, you may go for a teacher certification course. Even if you don’t want to teach, a good training program will give sheen to your practice and boosts your knowledge of anatomy, philosophy, sequencing, and alignment.

Are you eligible for Becoming a Yoga Teacher?

For many yoga training programs, you must meet some basic requirements. These requirements vary from program to program. But all programs need a recommendation saying that you have practiced for many years and have taken some classes from a teacher with whom you propose to get training. Some yoga enthusiasts, who cannot fulfill their wish of becoming yoga teachers because of their day jobs, hope that by becoming yoga teachers they can get out of their job situations. This may seem to be rosy. But you must know that the yoga teacher job won’t get you lot of money. Those who opt for working as yoga teachers should know that they are taking up a profession that doesn’t have health benefits, 401k, or job security.  Many yoga teachers manage a few classes a week, while keeping their regular jobs. web secure login . To know more about the yoga profession, read the stories of those who left their careers to become yoga teachers.

What is a Registered Yoga Teacher?

In the US, the Yoga Alliance, a nationally recognized organization, registers yoga teacher-training programs that meet certain standards. The organization gives two levels of Yoga Alliance certificates – 200-hour and 500-hour ones. Trainees need to complete a 200-hour program that is the bench mark set by many yoga studios for their teachers. Then some teachers go for a 500-hour program.

After completing a Yoga Alliance registered teacher-training program, teachers may use the acronym RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) after their name.

Many specialized types of yoga like Baptiste Power Yoga, Iyengar, Anusara and Bikram require that teachers complete a training program under their own auspices.

How to select a Teacher-Training Program?

If you go only for Bikram Yoga, your choice of a training program will be clear-cut.  You have lot more choices, if you opt for vinyasa or hatha yoga.  You can begin your search with your favorite yoga center. Many a studio offers teacher training programs, but you must study the curriculum they offer before you select one.  Yoga teacher training has become a money spinner with many trainees paying thousands of dollars as tuition fees.  Be sure the program you choose is registered with the Yoga Alliance.  This will guarantee that you will spend a specified number of hours studying asana, teaching technique, anatomy, and philosophy.

Better ask your teachers where they had received their training. If you don’t have teacher-training programs in your area, better go for an intensive program conducted by a yoga institute or an ashram elsewhere.  Visit the website of the Yoga Alliance to locate registered yoga schools in your area.

Stories written by aostler
Andrew Ostler started working for Employment Research Institute in 2008, and currently works as a content manager, writer, and editor for LawCrossing, EmploymentCrossing, and several of the company blogs. He is currently attending Brigham Young University - Idaho online.

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