If you are interested in becoming a certified yoga teacher in Los Angeles, California, be prepared for a very competitive market. The high demand for yoga classes has resulted in a huge boom since the mid-1980s, when many gyms and YMCAs held classes for its members. Now there are yoga classes offered in sleek yoga studios, at the office during lunch hour and at very high-end health clubs.Certification is available on a national level, such as through Yoga Alliance, or through individual yoga organizations. These individual yoga organizations offer specific types of yoga.Classical yoga styles include Ashtanga, Iyengar, Anusara, kundalini and integral yoga. In gyms and yoga studios, categories are often simplified to Ashtanga, “power” yoga, vinyasa flow or, most generically, Hatha. What is important is that you first have a very solid foundation in your own physical practice. You can only teach what you have safely learned from your own practice. It may take years to develop this physical fluency.
Instructions
1. Learn your physical craft and practice it daily. If you have been practicing yoga asana for less than 2 years, get your physical practice to a place where you are not physically struggling in the poses. This may require daily practice and also close work with a skilled, qualified veteran teacher.
2. Determine where you want to teach, since that will determine the kind of certification you need. Gyms such as LA Fitness or the YMCA generally require CPR certification and national yoga certification. These kinds of rudimentary qualifications are not difficult to attain. For example, you could obtain a basic yoga certification in a weekend session and attend a CPR training, and that would fulfill these basic requirements.
3. Be ready to boost your certification and training if you want to teach at established, well-regarded yoga schools and at high-end health clubs. These places require more substantial credentials. For example, at SportsClub LA or at Yoga Works, a 20-year-old school with more than 16 locations in California and New York, yoga teachers must have a minimum of a 200-hour foundational teacher training certification and perhaps also a year apprenticing with a senior teacher, as well as 2 years of teaching experience.
4. Determine your level of interest and commitment. If you are mainly interested in teaching at your gym, a weekend format certification may be appropriate. If you want to teach at established yoga schools or at high-end health clubs, you probably need to obtain a more rigorous certification. Prices for a weekend format are under $250, while those for 200-hour to 300-hour programs are nearly $4,000. The more rigorous programs require perhaps 6 months or a year to apprentice with a senior teacher as well as homework assignments and additional projects.
5. Obtain more rigorous certification at 200-, 300- and 500-hour levels for more job opportunities. While these certifications are offered by different schools of yoga (again, according to the specific style of yoga), these hours do accrue, and you then apply those accumulated hours to obtain a national certification. For example, completing 500 hours at Golden Bridge in Hollywood in teaching kundalini yoga in the tradition of Yogi Bhajan will allow you to register for a 500-hour level of certification through Yoga Alliance. Thereafter, your yoga training will bear the words "RYT-500" to designate this level of training.
6. Complete more rigorous certification and training programs to ensure you are teaching safely and give you broader knowledge. Whereas the very brief, weekend-format yoga training programs acceptable at some gyms may focus solely on the physical practice, those offered at Yoga Works, Golden Bridge and others include extensive injury prevention and management training, philosophy, history, subtle anatomy and specialized training in teaching pregnant women and other special-needs populations.
7. Obtain liability insurance. Teaching in gyms, you will be covered under the gym's umbrella insurance coverage. If you choose to teach privately with individual clients in your home or theirs, or elsewhere, insurance is a must. See Resources below.
8. Find a mentor. It is almost impossible to successfully move through the ranks from teaching at the local Y for $20 per class to teaching at a yoga school or high-end gym for perhaps four times (or higher) that pay rate. There are many landmines to navigate when you are teaching yoga, and having a veteran yoga teacher to mentor you is almost a requirement.
9. Maintain your certification. Depending on where you are teaching--family-priced budget gyms, high-end health clubs or established yoga schools--the requirements will vary on how often you must update your certification. Typically at gyms, your “weekend format” certification must be updated every 2 years, as well as your CPR certification. Generally, well-established yoga schools allow teachers certified at 500 hours to continue taking additional educational workshops and training programs informally. They normally do not ask for specific recertification, but it is understood that all teachers continually study with other senior teachers and attend yoga-related educational and trade conventions to stay abreast of new developments.
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