How to Become a Certified Yoga Instructor: All You Need to Know

To become a yoga instructor, comprehensive and specialized training is required. There are some tips and career development for a certificated yoga instructor.

Step 1: Understand the yoga instructor description and responsibilities.

Yoga instructors are fitness professionals in guiding students in yoga. By correcting the poses, they help students improve flexibility and strength. In most cases, they work in workshops, or one-on-one classes at yoga studios, fitness centers, gyms and so on. But how to become a certified yoga instructor? What should you do?

What is a yoga instructor do?

The main duty of yoga instructors should be conducting and leading students to do yoga. This can include preparing equipment for students and knowing students’ levels in advance to prepare proper classes.

Besides, a certified yoga instructor should actively help students to comprehend techniques and correct postures of yoga practice. To be a good yoga guide should be motivated enough to provide profound suggestions on postures and breathing techniques. They can lead students to move and act through the flows of music.

They should also be an expert in yoga philosophy. Yoga instructors can give many tips for achieving spiritual, mental and emotional fitness.

Step 2: Learn Best Tips to become a yoga instructor

A qualified yoga instructor acquires physical fitness and yoga knowledge, have special personal teaching styles and offer some fresh ideas about classes.

By researching the profession to know what tips are valued?

Foremost, it goes without saying that advanced yoga techniques. The more you've learned, the more you can offer to your clients, the more varieties your classes can perform.

Secondly, to be a special yoga instructor, you should have your own teaching style. While doing yoga practice, it's also a process of communication, not only physical but also mental. Thus to show your students a true self and authentic personality can enhance the exchanges among one another.

Last but not least, being a yoga guide, you can give innovative and creative thoughts and ideas to improve and upgrade your classes. For example, you can create classes based on different themes. Different seasons, different constellations can have various topics, which can involve diverse music, postures, elements, philosophical concepts into the special courses. The integration of the regular classes and special theme courses can appeal to the students.

Step 3: View Best colleges and universities for the yoga instructor

To have further studies in yoga practice and learn the subject in a comprehensive and systematic way, can help you become a professional yoga guide. Nowadays, more and more colleges and universities start offering yoga yogic degree programs. Here are four of them.

What kind of schools can I choose?

First, Loyola Marymount University: Master of Arts in Yogic Studies. The school located in Los Angeles, California and the program lasts two and a half years.

Second, Lesley University: Master of Arts in Mindfulness Studies. It's a two-year program, specializing in the general aspect of mindful yoga practice.

Third, Naropa University: Bachelor of Arts in Yogic Studies. Students here can choose whether major or minor in the yogic studies. It's for students who want to seek a solid foundation and deep knowledge of yogic practices.

Last, Maryland University of Integrative Health: Master of Science in Yoga Therapy. This short-term program is especially for the practice of yoga therapy.

Step 4: Think about whether is it worth to be a yoga instructor

Being a yoga instructor is not only worthy of making money, but it also offers physical as well as mental health for the person and gives freedom of time.

Is being a yoga instructor worth it?

Why do you want to become a yoga instructor?

Physically speaking, daily exercises and classes can increase muscle strengths and energy, improve digestion and metabolism, as well as increase physical flexibility. Psychologically speaking, yoga offers people mental easiness and relief, which alleviates much stress and depression. In addition, exercises enhance people's confidence and concentration.

The most appealing point for yoga career is yoga instructors have the freedom to when and how long they work. And nowadays more and more yoga teachers would like to take yoga practice a part-time job as an extra income, enabling you to pursue your other passions and interests.

Step 5: Prepare relevant skills for the yoga instructor

To be a yoga instructor, one must demonstrate himself to have the following abilities and skills:

What are the requirements to become a yoga instructor?

To begin with, you should have the advanced ability of yoga. To demonstrate this, you can try to apply for a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) with Yoga Alliance. With such a certificate, you can start your career journey, from small-medium sized studios to some large gyms or workshops.

Secondly, great communication skills may push you a lot. Gentility, humor, sensitivity and good taste are all shining points for you to outstand the counterparts.

How to get along with your students smoothly and quickly, how to attract clients' attention and interest and how to improve the interplay of the classes, these questions are of crucial importance for a qualified yoga instructors to tackle.

Lastly, keep in passion with your work. Lots of people may get bored after working for a period of time. However, passion and enthusiasm are the best facilitators for teachers to motivate and encourage students, especially when you want to become an outstanding yoga instructor.

Step 6: Find relevant yoga instructor jobs, and apply it.

Read some requirements on yoga instructor jobs that can help you understand the skills and demands of this job. In this way, you can compensate for your shortcomings and improve your advantages.

Where I can find relevant jobs

You can find jobs by searching in different yoga centers and in the job posting websites you can even start giving some private classes online via social media channels or at home.

In conclusion, we can figure out some basic requirements to acquire the yoga instructors' job.

Develop your career path

If you want to take a yoga instructor a professional career, great efforts and planning should be made in advance to achieve the goal. Here are several steps you need to follow.

What is a yoga instructor's career path?

If you want to become a yoga instructor, you have to take on a yoga teacher training and practice it often to lay a solid foundation. Then you can search what studios are to your taste and figure out the requirements of the company.

Increasing the chances of getting a new teaching gig and having an excellent yoga resume, you can accumulate experience in teaching because doing yoga yourself has huge differences in how to teach students. For instance, you may start teach 2-3 classes in a week. After that, step by step, you can become a yoga teacher in private or even one-on-one classes. As you work as a yoga instructor, you may start to make plans for the future: you would like to continue teaching, or start up your own studios, etc. The clearer a future goal is, the more promising your career path may be.