HOW TO CHOOSE A YOGA TRAINING

We collected the top questions to ask before taking a Yoga Training and answered them "Are you registered with Yoga Alliance?"

If you want to be certified to teach anywhere in the world as a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) you will need to make sure that whatever course you take provides certification through the Yoga Alliance. The minimum amount of hours needed to become an RYT is 200 hours.

"What’s a typical day of training look like?"

To become a yoga teacher and learn everything required of a Yoga Teacher in under a month is not a small task. If you're considering a training you want to be sure that the facilitators are working hard to fill you with as much knowledge as possible. If the training has a lot of personal time and breaks this can be nice but it could have been time used to further your studies.

"How do we learn to teach?"

A 200 hour Yoga Alliance certified Course needs a minimum of 10 hours of practicum experience. However, if you're wanting to feel confident and ready to teach when you leave, this is not enough time. At Anuttara, our students start teaching from the very first day and have an hour to practice every day. By the time they have graduated they will have over 20 hours of practice time plus an additional four hours where they have taught full classes that they have sequenced themselves.

This may not sound like a lot but it really is when you consider that most

trainings don’t get the students teaching until the end and this is typically only for a 30 minutes - one hour.

"How many Facilitators are there?"

Unfortunately many Yoga Trainings are created for the money and not for the love of it. Yoga Trainings that have over 30 students and only 1-2 experienced-facilitators are often in it for the money. The more students there are and the less facilitators there are the more likely you are to get lost in a sea of students. To become a Yoga Teacher it is really important that your questions are answered and your alignment is mastered. If you do not have a sufficient amount of face time with your facilitators it is likely that you will come out less than satisfied with your abilities. You will want a maximum of a 10:1 ratio, 10 students to 1 facilitator maximum! This way you're sure to fully understand, get lots of time to ask questions and have those much needed adjustments to master your personal alignment. "What is the Experience of the Facilitator?" The Yoga Alliance says that in order to lead a Yoga Training you need a minimum of 2 years and 1000 hours of experience. In order to be a Good Facilitator it should really be at least 5 years of experience teaching and one year experience assisting or leading a Yoga Training. In order to be a Great facilitator they should have over 10 years experience teaching, 2 years experience assisting or leading Yoga Trainings and have specific areas of Yoga that they specialize in. In order to be a Fantastic Facilitator they should have over 20 years experience teaching, many years experience assisting or leading Yoga Trainings, have specific areas of Yoga that they specialize in and they don't just consider yoga a job or hobby but Yoga is a fully integrated and integral part of their life. If you can ind a training with these kinds of facilitators you're bound to learn a lot and walk away with much more wisdom than if you'd join a training without that kind of experience. "What Lineage do you teach from?"

Yoga International says, “The trainers should be able to give you a clear

indication of their lineage and...India should be in there somewhere”.

The reason their are a lot of faulty Yoga Trainings (and teachers) out there is because the Yoga Facilitators themselves don’t know the truth of what they’re teaching.

Anuttara Yoga has been birthed out of two lineages that do

indeed come straight out of India. Sri Prem Baba of the Sacha Baba Lineage and Guruji Raj Kumar Baswar of the right-handed path Tantric Path. We teach two different Hatha Yoga sequences one that is a more modern sequence and the other is more of a meditative style. All of our sequences deal with kundalini, the chakras, non-duality or jnana yoga and the heart is the source of inspiration in all of our classes.

"What are the learning objectives for your course?"

It is important for you to have a clear understanding of what kind of teachers the Yoga Training is trying to produce. To have a very concrete understanding of what is important for them to have their students walk away with is integral. Some Trainings do not care for philosophy, or anatomy. Some courses are more heavily based on Marketing but not ethics. The Anuttara curriculum, aims to have each of our

graduates take what they have learned and adapt it to

honour their own belief systems, experience and inner wisdom.

We do not want cookie cutter teachers, we want our graduates to

leave with a deeper understanding of who they are, which is a

necessary part of becoming a teacher and whole being. We believe that it is through an authentic connection with themselves that they will be able to make more authentic and longer lasting connections with their

students and all of those who come in contact with them.

Our graduates will be able to adapt their classes and teaching

style based on the needs of their students. They will apply their

extensive knowledge of the doshas, gunas, and the chakras

system, understanding that each of their students is a unique

combination of these and that we cannot blanket a yoga class

assuming it will be good for everyone.

Our graduates understand that yoga is more than a physical

practice and they are able to teach yoga in multiple forms

including, Pranayama, Meditation, Self-inquiry, Kriya Yoga,

Kundalini, Yin Yoga, Vinyasa, Prenatal, Restorative, Yoga Nidra and more.