Hatha Yoga Teacher Training: Learn How?

Answer 1

Yoga has become an increasingly popular physical activity among both men and women all around the world. Naturally, as demand for this ancient art has grown, so has the demand for yoga teachers grown. Hatha yoga itself, as one of the four main yoga traditions, is the most well known yoga style in the Western world. It combines control of breathing (pranayama) with the flow of different postures (asanas). Meditation is the goal of hatha yoga, and as a result, its effect on the body and mind is calming.

In order to become a hatha yoga teacher, most studios require some sort of certification and training process. This is because the teacher must be familiar with all yoga poses, their Sanskrit names, as well as the traditions and mysticism surrounding it all. The teacher candidate must prove that they can successfully perform all these poses and hold them for lengths of time, as well as enter a deep state of relaxation and meditation.

There are many available ways to go about getting certified. Some people, after having practiced yoga for years, decide that they want to become a teacher to be able to share their favored physical activity. These people are acquainted with most, if not all, of the poses and they have a broad foundation of yoga practice to draw from. This kind of person might only need to take a short intensive program to become certified to teach. Others are brand new to yoga, having maybe been to only a few classes, and fall in love with it so much that they decide to become teachers then and there. These people might need a longer program to become certified, as they must begin from step one.

Some programs have minimal requirements that maintain that you must have practiced yoga for several years already. In the United States, yoga teacher certifications are administered by the nationally recognized Yoga Alliance (http://yogaalliance.org/). There are two levels to complete to become a certified teacher: first one must complete a 200-hour training curriculum that focuses on the keys of yoga: meditation, asanas, chanting, mantra, and other traditional yoga techniques. Then there are teaching methodology hours, as well as anatomy and physiology of the human body hours. The next level is the 500-hour level, and this goes much more into depth of all the above topics, introducing more postures and methodologies. After completing these trainings, a studio is willing to hire a certified teacher.