What is the Optimum Time To Be A Certified Yoga Teacher?

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For every yoga teacher aspirant, the first question that comes to mind is what time it will take to become one. Or, to put in another perspective, what time is sufficient to be a yoga teacher. There are a number of yoga teacher training courses being conducted in different parts of the country with varying time duration, ranging from 100 hrs to 500 hrs generally.

This question has no easy answers. Two important factors on which the answer to this question depends are-

a)  the ability of the teacher to train the student and

b)  the adaptability of the body of the students to do the poses.

Let us first examine the student factor. Yoga styles require your body to be flexible and strong. Both of these are time taking processes. Young students have more flexible bodies which enables them to learn the poses quickly than the elder ones. Different styles of yoga require preparation of body in a graded manner, bit by bit. This takes time. The fact of the matter is that the attainment of flexibility and strength does take time. And, this can even be months before you are able to do the postures properly.

In the ancient times, the pupils used to reside in the ashrams and the regular practice of yoga was done for years to be an expert. However, this is not the case nowadays and one hardly goes beyond the 500 hrs. time duration.

Now, talking of the teachers it can be said that the longer the course duration, more money they make. Monetary considerations are driving trainers to make yoga classes a longer affair than what is required. They would certainly like you to go for as longer a period as you can. This is even true of the trainers in the divine cities, such as Rishikesh. Divinity associated with the city has not absolved the monetary considerations in any way. The yoga teacher training in Rishikesh is offered for 100 hr, 200 hr, 300 hr and 500 hr duration and is done in groups. The charges are in thousands of dollars, all inclusive including residential facilities and meals. Now, 100 hr time period might be too less and 500 hr time period a bit too much. So, what is the right time period to be a yoga teacher?

Yoga Alliance, the US-based body which defines the yoga curriculum for different time period courses and provides certifications, has concluded that RYS 200 hr certification is the optimum one for yoga teacher training course. This translates to about 3 weeks of course with classes being held for 5-6 hrs per day for 5 days a week. It has recently revised its curriculum for the RYS 200 hr certification to make it more comprehensive. This new course is discussed in another article.

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