Yoga Teacher Training

In general, a standard microphone / camera setup with a good internet connection will do. You will also need to have tools of yoga practice. Conventionally, this would mean a yoga mat, 2 yoga blocks, a strap, 2 yoga blankets, and a bolster. However, it is not necessary to own any of these props (not even the mat) as several household items such as an old sweatshirt, a family sized canned good, and bath towels can substitute for any of these props. We will have a full video on getting ready including household prop substitutions available for you shortly after you sign up.

It will also be helpful if you can find a practice space that will allow us to see you at multiple angles and without backlighting (bright light shining behind your body and the camera) and a free, open wall to use. Mainly, bring yourself.

This training is planned to be delivered pursuant to Yoga Alliance's temporary provisions (which have been extended) for allowing Registered Yoga Schools (RYSs) to offer contact hours in a virtual format, subject to additional future guidance, and will meet and exceed Yoga Alliance’s Registered Yoga School 200 Hours + competencies-based model, with 200+ online classroom hours in the following categories:

• 75 hours of techniques, training, practice (asana, pranayama, subtle body, and meditation)

• 60 hours of professional essentials (teaching methodology, professional development, and practicum)

• 40 hours of anatomy and physiology (anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics)

• 30 hours of yoga humanities (history, philosophy, and ethics)

Upon completion of this training, graduates will receive a certificate of completion for 200 hours of study with 21st Century Yoga on the Mat and can register with Yoga Alliance as an RYT-200.

In other words, your certification will be recognized everywhere.

In Addition to the basics, we will be using the following reading materials listed in the catalog:

• Yogabody by Judith Lasater

• Getting Real by Susan Campbell

• The Power of Focusing by Ann Weiser Cornell

• Teaching People, Not Poses by Jay Fields

We encourage you to get these books from a local seller if possible. Amazon links provided to make it clear which book we will be using. Feel welcome to get a head start with these books if you would like to “get some training started before the training.”

This training is not for you if you are looking for a single style, approach, or lineage to be an unquestioned “one size fits all” method. This training takes a pluralist perspective that will dive into everything from the ancient texts written by sages to modern disciplines of Anatomy & Physiology. We will look at yoga through many lenses from it’s history and traditional mindset to what western studies like biomechanics & movement science might have to say about the practice. We will also look at what fields like Bodywork might have to say what yoga is doing (like with fascia & tensegrity) to how competing lineages like Buddhism, Taoism, and Western Lineages might give us perspectives on the human condition as it plays out on the mat and cushion.

Primarily, the approach of this training is an evolutionary one where we believe that the best of what yoga needs to be to heal, inspire, and bring connection to the 21st Century is found by honoring yoga’s lineage while also remaining open to novelty and new discoveries, wherever they may come from.

This is not a training for those who are allergic to the ambiguity or uncertainty that is an inevitable part of the path when taking on yoga from so many angles aiming for depth. This is neither a traditionalist training, nor a ‘western physically focused’ training. This training believes that the needs of the 21st Century require yoga to adapt by taking advantage of this unique time where we have access to the wisdom and knowledge of several civilizations. We believe that fulfilling the promise of all human civilization will be found in understanding the best of all of them, and this is an absolutely essential task for the 21st Century.

In short, if this rings for you (you are excited / stimulated by this answer) and you want to make your yoga path an exploration rather than a system of beliefs. If you want to explore everything from the human condition, to the physicality of the body, to the ancient methods, then this training is for you.

The approach of this training is Integral. This means that our primary aims are Integration (such as Integrating Eastern & Western approaches, see 2 FAQs back for example) and depth. In recent history, yoga has been divided into styles. We will be teaching you what lies at the foundation of all yoga styles and how these foundations may be put together as “ingredients” of whatever style you’d like to make. In long history, yoga has similarly been divided into various lineages. This had occurred because different people find depth through different means. We believe that it is our job as 21st Century Yogis to preserve this depth and find ways to contextualize it in order that the hoop of humanity may find the fit that helps take them deeper.

We will note that this does not require you to take on any particular belief system. We are about process more than we are about “what to believe” or introducing a new dogma. We may ask you to “try some things on”, but your doubt, your questions, and your differing perspective are always welcome in our training. In our method, Living life yogicly isn’t about what to feel or think, but to think and feel from more than one perspective (pluralist).

We will practice some flowing on the mat, some yin, some restorative, some stop-and-go, some meditation, some pranayama, and so on as to get a feel for how all these yoga elements work and how they fit together.

Yes. A couple months before the training starts, we do a Live Q&A where we both talk about the training with each other as well as take your questions. Check Our Events Page.

Please feel welcome to come to a Q&A or send your question our way!