HOW TO BECOME A YOGA INSTRUCTOR

I have been a yoga instructor for over thirty years and I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Not only have I taught a subject that I am passionate about but I have met some wonderful people along the way. I would encourage anyone who wants to teach yoga and who has a commitment to the subject to go ahead and get the training.

The key word is 'commitment', for your heart must be in it. Before embarking on a teaching course you should attend yoga classes for at least two years. There are many different schools or brands of yoga (Iyengar, Bihar, Dru, Ashtanga etc)and you should easily find a method that suits you and which you want to teach.

When you are ready to start doing a teacher training course, do a bit of research. The teacher you have been attending may be able to advise you of a suitable course. The World Wide Web, the Yellow Pages telephone book and your local library are other places you can go to to look for Yoga organizations that run suitable courses.

Avoid courses that offer to train you in a matter of weeks, even if they are the cheapest. Yoga is a huge subject and I suggest that you will need a thorough grounding in at least the following areas:

Asana (physical yoga poses), Pranayama (yogic breathing techniques), yoga nidra and other relaxation and stress management strategies, Methods of Teaching and Anatomy and Physiology.

Anatomy and Physiology is a particularly important area of study, for as a yoga teacher you will find people coming to your class who suffer from a variety of physical conditions and ailments. Sometimes they will come on the suggestion of their doctor and sometimes they will come on their own initiative but they will all hope that you will be able to help their particular condition. If you have been properly trained you will know just how much help you can give. In some cases you might have to say yoga is not what they need. Sometimes they will come to your class and not tell you that they have a particular problem and you are going to have to keep an eagle eye out for signs, let us say, of back pain. One sees a lot of people with back pain coming to yoga classes. Good training will have taught the yoga teacher what those people should or should not be doing.

Of course, plenty of fit people come to yoga, too, and a well-trained teacher will know how to integrate the class so that everybody has a good time.

Good teaching courses usually require 400 hours

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