How We’re Different
We teach yoga as a modern system of self-improvement that is highly adaptable to all people who want to make improvements in their lives. Although it was developed thousands of years ago, the process of using what is at hand: the body and mind- as a platform for positive change- is as necessary and functional today as it always has been.
We found a need for a training like ours, so we created it. Our programs are the end product of our faculty traveling all over the world, certifying thousands of actively teaching yoga teachers.
Through our graduates, YogaPoser is proud to be shaping the future of safe and effective asana practice around the globe and into the next century.
Where it started.
The most important feature of our program is that, from the first days of its creation, we’ve based everything on the firm belief, borne from personal experience, that asana (poses), can not only be beneficial to the body, but that it can also be profoundly instrumental to finding real happiness.
That is quite a claim, we know. But, it’s true. It happens when yoga is practiced well, following a few simple, but not necessarily easy, guidelines. To learn the tremendously positive practice of authentic yoga, you need a great teacher. Creating great teachers is what we are all about.
Online Content
One-hundred percent of our materials are available online, and constantly updated, so that you don’t need to buy or carry books, and so we save trees. As a YogaPoser graduate, you will have lifetime access to all of our most up-to-the-second updates and revisions to our content.
Real-Life Experience
In our training, you will teach actual students- not other trainees. Instead of being ready to teach your first actual class when you graduate, you will already have taught several.
After copious preparation, you’ll teach! In the Level One training, you’ll teach segments of our Foundations class; Level Two students will teach entire classes. And it’s all open to the public. Classes will be followed by verbal and written feedback from our faculty (and also by peers in the Level Two training), following clear criteria so that you develop teaching skill that works.
Multiple Points of View
Each training is taught by our entire faculty as opposed to one or two teachers. This gives graduates multiple perspectives and, more importantly, insight into how a teacher’s voice can be unique while adhering to the same essential core principles.
Clear and Authentic Content
Our deep understanding of the key elements of yoga philosophy has allowed us to separate the necessary elements of authentic yoga practices from the cultural (Indian, new-age, vegan, etc.) elements that are sometimes confused with or combined with yoga practice.
Tight Focus on Safe and Effective Asana
While we have respect for all personal practices, and encourage curious students to explore, in our trainings we focus on asana as a valid, complete practice that uses the readily available physical body as a gateway through which we access the deep practice of yoga as a science of the mind.
200-Hour Foundations of Yoga Teacher Certification Program
Overview
Upon graduating the Level One Training, you’ll earn a Yoga Alliance 200RYT Registration. In this course, you’ll begin teaching real students so you leave ready to be hired. You’ll be fully prepared to start teaching.
Throughout the Level One Training, trainees build a deep understanding of the foundations that support transformative asana practice because we focus instruction on the following simple foundational principles:
- Through personally experiencing the challenges, triumphs and plateaus of the process of deepening your own practice, you learn better how to guide others through their own. In this course we teach you to start from where you are and, by fully grasping the present, creating a better future.
- You can only teach what you know. So we focus more than half of the training on the asanas themselves with a heavy emphasis on precise alignment for effectiveness and safety.
- Likewise, we provide you with a practical, accessible and necessary awareness of the anatomy of asana. The objective for our anatomy course is that you know what you are talking about when you tell your students what to do with their bodies. It is here that you learn how to work in asana and why it’s important to be aware of risk and how to avoid it without fear.
- For a physical practice to be called a yoga practice, there are a few requirements. We aren’t big on rules at YogaPoser, but we do think you should know what makes what you practice and teach something called yoga. So, we’ve created a user-friendly, holistic application of the yoga philosophy that transforms physical poses into tools for learning how to live life better.
Our experience is that with these tools, graduates can teach confidently and creatively in their own unique voice while staying true to the deep purpose of yoga practice.
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Course Content
Techniques of Training and Practice
95 hours
In these tightly-focused, workshop-style practices, the details of each type of asana are studied. Each of these is followed by another lecture-type class in which we break down the component parts of asana, including: how to sequence asana; how to adjust students with different abilities and histories; and how to articulate the important steps to practicing asana in its fullest available expression.
Teaching Methodology
25 hours
In these classes, you’ll explore the theory and practice of pedagogy and andragogy: the art of teaching people. Through a combination of lecture, discussion and role-playing, students explore issues and tools common to all fundamental teaching precepts, as well as those that apply specifically to teaching yoga.
Philosophy and Ethics of Yoga
20 Hours In-Class, 10 Home-Study
One way we can ensure that your teaching, no matter what form it takes, is actually grounded in authentic yoga, is to make sure you see how the physical practice connects to the system as laid out in the ancient philosophical texts. Our belief is that if you can’t use it, its a waste of time. So, we deliver what you need when you need it in lectures with an emphasis on reflection, discussion and analysis.
Anatomy for Yoga
10 hours In-Class, 10 Home-Study
Before you start asking people to do things with their bodies, you need to know how the body works (and how it doesn’t). Our anatomy course has two objectives: you know exactly what you are asking people to do in any asana; and you know how to sequence asana so it makes sense. The 20-hour anatomy module is a comprehensive, stand-alone course designed to teach students the physiological fundamentals essential for any teacher of body movement, particularly yoga teachers.
Practicum
(10 hours)
Our experience has demonstrated that students learn significantly more in a real teaching environment and are able to gain more applicable teaching experience that better prepares them for job opportunities after graduation. So, you’ll co-teach actual public classes, observed by our faculty and followed with ample constructive feedback, to gain actual teaching experience by employing the tools acquired during the training.
Independent Study
20 hours
The remainder of the 200 hour program is focused on homework and outside study.
Schedule Format
There are two schedule formats: Monday through Friday 8 hours daily for 4 weeks, OR Weekend classes 7 hours a day over a three to four month period. See our website for an exact schedule.
Tuition Options
The base tuition for our programs is $3250 with substantial discounts available for early signup. This includes unlimited classes until 30 days after your program ends.We also have easy pay-as-you-go options. Contact us for details.
Free Classes Until 30 Days After Graduation!
Nothing teaches better than practice! During your participation in either format of our teacher training programs, you may enjoy unlimited classes at our studio for no additional cost. This privilege begins when you have paid your tuition in full and extends until 30 days after the end of your course. See you there!
300-Hour Master Yoga Teacher Certification Program
Overview
We strongly encourage 200RYT graduates to continue their studies in our Level Two program, whether immediately after the 200RYT or after a break. The Level Two training takes good teachers and makes them great teachers. The Level Two Course will help you hone your practice and teaching of asana as a means to find your way to your authentic self as a practitioner, a teacher and as a person.
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Course Content
Techniques of Training and Practice
100 hours
There are eighteen two-hour asana workshops and five one-hour pranayama workshops in the 300-Hour course, each focusing on something a little different from the others, but always based on the common elements of good and effective practice. You’ll also meet four times throughout the course of your study with an assigned faculty member so we can track your progress and see how things are going. During your training, you’ll also be responsible for practicing with YogaPoser faculty outside of teacher training classroom hours.
Teaching Methodology
50 hours
The Teaching Methodology module’s hours are spent predominantly on further developing your skills in sequencing asana, giving effective and safe hands-on adjustments, and learning to give verbal cues in class that both teach the physical aspect of asana and clearly connect it clearly and deeply to the deeper system that is yoga practice.. In addition, you’ll learn more about teaching restoratives and teaching beginners; and you’ll take part in a three-part Career Plan-of-Action Workshop that’ll get you positioned to take your new skills to the people that need them most.
Philosophy and Ethics of Yoga
30 Hours
A combination of two- and three-hour long lecture/discussions, the philosophy module takes a deeper look at the Yoga Sutras, which we have found takes on a deeper and more personal meaning after you’ve had some time to digest what you learned in your 200-hour training. You’ll also be guided into a practical look at the Bhagavad Gita, which is introduced after a lesson on the effectiveness and use (and misuse) of myth and metaphor in general.
Just like in the 200-hour course, if you can’t use the philosophy, it’s a waste of everybody’s time, so we keep it all practical and easy to grasp for maximum effectiveness.
Anatomy for Yoga
30 hours
The 30-Hour Anatomy Module has 11 two- or three-hour long workshops. There are special workshops on core stability, the shoulder and the knees; along with several that deal with particular anatomical challenges in different areas of asana. We also study the anatomy of ujjayi pranayama and the bandhas so you can teach and practice these often elusive concepts in an accessible and practical way..
Practicum
(60 hours)
Towards the end of your program you’ll put all of your new skills into action in the Practicum portion of the training. We’ve included far more than the minimum number of hours required by Yoga Alliance in this category because it’s important. You’ll also spend 30 hours assisting with a mentor from our senior faculty chosen especially for you. And you’ll take part in 16 trainee-taught asana classes followed by structured peer and faculty review. And you will teach the entire class yourself a minimum of three times and you’ll give peer feedback up a minimum of 13 times.
Independent Study
30 hours
The remainder of the 300 hour program is focused on homework and outside study.
Schedule Format
We’ve woven highly flexible scheduling options into the Level Two Course. More like a University program than a tightly scheduled single course, you’ll have a list of modules required to complete and you can complete them at your pace, taking up to two years to graduate.
There are two schedule formats: Monday through Friday 8 hours daily for 6 weeks, OR Weekend classes 7 hours a day over a four to five month period. See our website for an exact schedule. In addition to classroom hours, you will spend 30-hours being mentored individually while assisting and meeting with a member of our senior faculty.
Tuition Options
The base tuition for the program is $3250. With that, you get two years of unlimited classes (a $2700 value). We also have Pay-As-You-Go options. Contact us for details.