200 HOUR YOGA TEACHER TRAINING
IN RISHIKESH, INDIA
– RYS YOGA ALLIANCE
Start your YTT journey today and meet your future teachers!
200 HOUR YOGA TEACHER TRAINING
IN RISHIKESH, INDIA
– RYS YOGA ALLIANCE
Start your YTT journey today and meet your future teachers!

4.78 on Yoga Alliance!

4.78 on Yoga Alliance!

TRAIN IN THE FOOTHILLS OF THE HIMALAYAS
– BIRTHPLACE OF YOGA!
Reveal a more radiant version of you! Akhanda 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training in Rishikesh, India, is a life-changing opportunity as well as a professional qualification. Study in the birthplace of Yoga with Himalayan Master Yogrishi Vishvketu and our exceptional teaching team and step with confidence into teaching and the rest of your life.
First trip to India? You’ll be taken care of from the moment you arrive with airport pickup in Dehradun, and transport to the uplifting Anand Prakash Yoga Ashram. The training is fully residential and includes three tasty vegetarian meals a day with Vegan and Gluten Free options.
Let us guide you to become a radiant and inspired holistic yoga teacher — Register with our early bird discount and start your pre-course today!
TRAIN IN THE FOOTHILLS OF THE HIMALAYAS
– BIRTHPLACE OF YOGA!
Reveal a more radiant version of you! Akhanda 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training in Rishikesh, India, is a life-changing opportunity as well as a professional qualification. Study in the birthplace of Yoga with Himalayan Master Yogrishi Vishvketu and our exceptional teaching team and step with confidence into teaching and the rest of your life.
First trip to India? You’ll be taken care of from the moment you arrive with airport pickup in Dehradun, and transport to the uplifting Anand Prakash Yoga Ashram. The training is fully residential and includes three tasty vegetarian meals a day with Vegan and Gluten Free options.
Let us guide you to become a radiant and inspired holistic yoga teacher — Register with our early bird discount and start your pre-course today!
Enjoy this video journal by one of our students!
Enjoy this video journal by one of our students!
GETTING READY FOR A YTT?
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Holistic Approach
Akhanda means whole and indivisible. Akhanda Yoga, designed by Himalayan Master Yogrishi Vishvketu (PhD) offers a holistic toolkit to bring forward ancient wisdom for a modern age. In Akhanda Yoga Teacher Training you will learn to teach artful, balanced sequences including a full repertoire of yoga techniques: asana, pranayama, mantra and meditation linked with themes to yogic wisdom. Our YTTs are renown for our interactive philosophy, Ayurveda, detailed techniques and engaged anatomy segments. You will also learn to lead foundational posture and breath workshops. Read more about Akhanda Yoga ..
Holistic Approach
Akhanda means whole and indivisible. Akhanda Yoga, designed by Himalayan Master Yogrishi Vishvketu (PhD) offers a holistic toolkit to bring forward ancient wisdom for a modern age. In Akhanda Yoga Teacher Training you will learn to teach artful, balanced sequences including a full repertoire of yoga techniques: asana, pranayama, mantra and meditation linked with themes to yogic wisdom. Our YTTs are renown for our interactive philosophy, Ayurveda, detailed techniques and engaged anatomy segments. You will also learn to lead foundational posture and breath workshops. Read more about Akhanda Yoga ..
Ashram Setting
All Akhanda YTTs in Rishikesh are fully residential at the spacious and uplifting Anand Prakash Yoga Ashram. The Ashram offers the comforts of home with two sofa sitting rooms and Western bathrooms alongside the traditional hallmarks of a yogic day including morning lemon water, daily fire puja and Ayurvedic vegetarian meals. The vaulted bamboo yoga hall is equipped with a full array of bolsters, back jacks, cushions and blocks. Read more ..
Ashram Setting
All Akhanda YTTs in Rishikesh are fully residential at the spacious and uplifting Anand Prakash Yoga Ashram. The Ashram offers the comforts of home with two sofa sitting rooms and Western bathrooms alongside the traditional hallmarks of a yogic day including morning lemon water, daily fire puja and Ayurvedic vegetarian meals. The vaulted bamboo yoga hall is equipped with a full array of bolsters, back jacks, cushions and blocks. Read more ..
Expert Facilitators
Our 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training in Rishikesh, India is led by Himalayan Master Yogrishi Vishvketu and senior Akhanda trainers who are knowledgeable and passionate. With expertise in facilitation, they get groups bonded from the first day. Akhanda trainers share their knowledge of Indian wisdom traditions through inspired talks and interactive activities to help you apply yogic teachings to your own life. In techniques class, demonstration and pairwork give you real-time practice teaching and assisting. Meet our teaching team.
Expert Facilitators
Our 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training in Rishikesh, India is led by Himalayan Master Yogrishi Vishvketu and senior Akhanda trainers who are knowledgeable and passionate. With expertise in facilitation, they get groups bonded from the first day. Akhanda trainers share their knowledge of Indian wisdom traditions through inspired talks and interactive activities to help you apply yogic teachings to your own life. In techniques class, demonstration and pairwork give you real-time practice teaching and assisting. Meet our teaching team.
Professionally Written and Designed Manuals
Students commend us for our Akhanda YTT manual – an incredible resources on all aspects of holistic yoga including techniques, yoga philosophy, chakras, yogic lifestyle, Ayurveda and more. In addition to professional photos of each asana, our manual includes the benefits and precautions of each pose and indications on the associated chakra. The philosophy section has reflection questions helping you bring ancient wisdom to modern life.
Professionally Written and Designed Manuals
Students commend us for our Akhanda YTT manual – an incredible resources on all aspects of holistic yoga including techniques, yoga philosophy, chakras, yogic lifestyle, Ayurveda and more. In addition to professional photos of each asana, our manual includes the benefits and precautions of each pose and indications on the associated chakra. The philosophy section has reflection questions helping you bring ancient wisdom to modern life.
Tasty Vegetarian Meals
The Ashram provides three freshly cooked Sattvic vegetarian meals a day complete with Gluten Free and Vegan options. The menu varies daily and includes organic foods sourced from the Ashram farm. Breakfast includes Ayurvedic herbal tea, homemade muesli, porridge, parantha or fruit samosas, and fruits. Lunch and Dinner often consist of Dal (beans), vegetables (pumpkin, carrot, cauliflower, peas, spinach), rice and chapatti. Read More ..
Tasty Vegetarian Meals
The Ashram provides three freshly cooked Sattvic vegetarian meals a day complete with Gluten Free and Vegan options. The menu varies daily and includes organic foods sourced from the Ashram farm. Breakfast includes Ayurvedic herbal tea, homemade muesli, porridge, parantha or fruit samosas, and fruits. Lunch and Dinner often consist of Dal (beans), vegetables (pumpkin, carrot, cauliflower, peas, spinach), rice and chapatti. Read More ..
Culture and Nature Excursions
As part of your course, enjoy:
- An orientation to the village of Laxman Jhoola and its intimate chai stalls and markets for books, gemstones and malas
- A mountain hike to a local waterfall
- A stroll down the Sadhus’ Trail to Aarati, the sunset ceremony
- Beach Yoga afternoons by the Ganges
- Music concerts, visits with guest yogis and other events
- A colourful graduation ritual
Culture and Nature Excursions
As part of your course, enjoy:
- An orientation to the village of Laxman Jhoola and its intimate chai stalls and markets for books, gemstones and malas
- A mountain hike to a local waterfall
- A stroll down the Sadhus’ Trail to Aarati, the sunset ceremony
- Beach Yoga afternoons by the Ganges
- Music concerts, visits with guest yogis and other events
- A colourful graduation ritual
Charitable Initiatives
The Ashram offers food, medicine and scholarships to those in need. It also founded a rural school that offers free education to more than 250 under-served children. A percentage of your tuition goes to the Canadian charitable organization Helping Hands for India that raises funds to support the school. Yoga gives us so much – why not give back! Donate Here.
Charitable Initiatives
The Ashram offers food, medicine and scholarships to those in need. It also founded a rural school that offers free education to more than 250 under-served children. A percentage of your tuition goes to the Canadian charitable organization Helping Hands for India that raises funds to support the school. Yoga gives us so much – why not give back! Donate Here.
Fees
$2300 USD – Early-Bird Tuition*
About $18/day USD – Ashram Stay & Food
*Start your pre-course early and save $200
Travel Arrangements
Includes airport pickup in Dehradun and transit to the Ashram.
Includes
- 200-hour certification course
- supportive pre- and post-courses online
- professional Akhanda YTT manual and yoga deck
- shared room for two at the Ashram (hot water/Western toilet/linens)
- 3 delicious organic vegetarian meals (Vegan and Gluten-free options)
- purified water
- cultural and nature excursions
- evening music programs
- airport pick-up/transit to the Ashram
- Akhanda Yoga T-shirt
- Jal neti pot and mala
- access to Ashram library
- Wi-Fi internet access (9AM to 9PM)
- 3 month free subscription at Akhanda Yoga Online
Daily Schedule
- 5:00 – Wake-up call
- 5:20-5:50 – Meditation
- 6:00-7:30– Akhanda Yoga class with Vishva-ji
- 7:50-8:20 – Fire puja (community chanting ritual)
- 8:30-9:00 – Breakfast
- 9:10-10:30 – Philosophy discussion
- 10:45-12:15 – Techniques class
- 12:30-1:00 – Lunch
- 1:00-2:30 – Personal and study time
- 2:30-4:00 – Methodology, Anatomy and Ethics
- 4:15-5:50 – Techniques and Practicums
- 6:00-6:45 – Dinner
- 7:00-8:00 – Kirtan and Transformational Experiences (Tuesdays and Thursdays)
- 9:00 – Silence begins and held until end of breakfast next morning
- 9:30 – Lights out
The Curriculum
The Yoga Alliance has set a widely-accepted international standard for YTT programs which includes a minimum of 180 contact hours across five areas of teaching: techniques, philosophy/lifestyle/ethics, teaching methodology, anatomy, and a teaching practicum. Here is how Akhanda Yoga explores these teaching areas in our 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training in Rishikesh, India.
Techniques
Asana, pranayama and kriya techniques will be taught, practiced and trainees will then practice teaching them to their peers. There will be time to develop one’s own asanas, learn about benefits, checkpoints and contraindications, as well as to teach and assist peers during group teaching sessions. Group teaching means that we form a circle and each participant demonstrates and teaches one asana while others either perform the technique or assist their peers.
Contact Hours: 107
Asanas
A variety of asanas from the following groups of asanas will be covered including gentle beginner and intermediate variations. Trainees will learn how to enter and exit a pose, how to use the breath in the asana, checkpoints for alignment, benefits and contraindications for the asana, and how to assist students in the pose.
Categories of asanas: standing and balancing asanas, forward bends, back bends, side bends, twisting poses, crouching and seated poses, poses on the abdomen, poses on the back, inverted poses and meditation poses. Trainees will also learn how to adapt the techniques for specific ages, levels, some ailments, and in the case of pregnancy. They will learn warm-up techniques and relaxation poses including the importance of deep breathing in relaxation to prevent muscle fatigue and the build-up of lactic acid in the muscles.
Pranayama
Teacher trainees will learn the form, benefits and contraindications of the following pranayama techniques, as well as when to incorporate them into the class and how to introduce pranayama techniques: abdominal breathing, the three-part breath, ujjai pranayama, bhramaree pranayama, anuloma viloma, and kapalabhati pranayama. Trainees will learn how to perform these pranayamas with the bandhas and with relatively short breath retention (Kumbhaka) when appropriate.
Bandhas
In order to perform the retention in the Pranayama breathing techniques, it is necessary to teach and learn Mula bandha, Jalandara bandha and Uddiyana bandha, the latter also being instrumental to kriyas such as nauli. The purpose of the bandhas will be discussed in its relation to the uniting of prana and apana to channel them into the shushumna nadi.
Kriyas
Trainees will learn the following kriyas, their benefits, primarily for their own practice, and later how to introduce the kriya to a class: jal neti, jal kapalabhati, agni sara, and tratak.
Meditation
In the theory section, the goal and paths of yoga will be discussed, thereby leading to the concept and techniques of meditation. Guided meditation will be explored, including creative visualization, meditation using yantra, mantra, ideation, ishta chakra and the withdrawl of the senses from external objects. Students will be guided in choosing a mantra for meditation, as well as an ishta chakra.
Mantra
We will explore the idea of mantra as a mystical energy encased in a sound structure in relation to both saguna (nama) mantras and nirguna mantras such as Om. Trainees will learn to chant and present yogic mantras for the beginning and/or ending of yoga classes (such as the Shanti mantra or the Jyothi mantra). Bija mantras for purifying the chakras will also be explored including the timing and procedure for using these mantras in meditation.
Transformational Experiences
During the transformational experiences evening program, students will delve into the practice of both nama and abstract kiirtan, as well as Vedic mantras such as: the Gayatri mantra, the Mahamrityunjaya (healing) mantra, the Shanti mantra, the Loving-kindness mantra, and the Akhanda mantra. Transformational experiences will also include some rituals, sharing, healing circles and creative movement.
Lifestyle
We will present and compare Yogic and Ayurvedic concepts of nutrition, as well as those of daily cleansing rituals, self massage, and other practices.
Lifestyle
We will present and compare Yogic and Ayurvedic concepts of nutrition, as well as those of daily cleansing rituals, self massage, and other practices.
Philosophy, Lifestyle and Ethics
Our program attributes quite a bit of emphasis to this section, as we believe that Western students of yoga tend to focus more thoroughly on the physical aspects of yoga: alignment, health benefits etc. than on the philosophical base and framework of yoga, including the practice of yoga off the mat. This section will introduce yoga psychology and philosophy through discussions on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Chapters One and Two. Trainers will present sutras, and also use pairwork and group work discussions to give trainees the opportunity to explore how these sutras relate to their practice, and how they live their lives.
Patanjali’s eight-fold path is the climax of chapter two, and the trainers will offer concrete examples of how to implement Yamas and Niyamas in our daily lives. Trainees will have the opportunity to discuss their understanding and experience of these yogic guidelines. They will also be guided to see the interrelationship of all of the ten principles, as well as the interrelationship of the different paths of yoga. The paths (Bhakti, Karma, Raja and Jnana) will also be introduced in both a philosophical and practical light.
Students will be required to give a 15-minute talk on one of the Sutras or on a comparison between Yoga and another esoteric system.
Contact Hours: 33.5
Ethics
As a natural extension to the ten principles (Yamas and Niyamas), as well as the discussions on Teaching Methodology, we will flow into a discussion of professionalism and ethics in the teaching profession in general and the yoga profession in particular. We will present our Statement of Professional Standards, and discuss as a group the importance of having and maintaining codes of professional standards.
Teaching Methodology
Practical teaching methodology includes how to demonstrate, observe, cue and assist students. This will be integrated with the Techniques class. We will also model the importance of language used to describe entry, maintaining and exiting poses. For example, in the forward bend, the image of “surrendering the body to the force of gravity” is a useful, and gentle image, as is “inhale release slightly, exhale and sink into the pose – feel the pulse of the pose”, as opposed to “pull” or “push”-style language.
Theoretical discussions of methodology (pedagogy) aim to explore how to become a transformational facilitator, or teacher rather than just an instructor. This includes such topics as: the art of sequencing, creating a safe space, establishing a student-centered class, managing group dynamics, language and cuing, the ethics of assisting, and creating a yogic environment for learning, (including the dress of the teacher, yogic colours, the direction of the class etc). Trainees will also discuss qualities that will be instrumental to them as teachers.
Contact Hours: 22.5
Anatomy and Physiology
In the 21 hours of anatomy and physiology class, students will be learning both about the physical system and the subtle body.
Contact Hours: 21
Physical Anatomy
This class aims to teach trainees about anatomy and how it relates to yoga. Teachers and students will be guided by resources such as Anatomy and Asana, and The Anatomy of Movement. Subjects will include the study of the skeleton, muscles and joints, the cardio-vascular system, the respiratory system and the endocrine system and how they are benefited by yoga.
Subtle Anatomy
Subtle anatomy is the yogic teaching regarding the three bodies, the physical body, the astral body and the causal body, as well as the five corresponding sheaths, and the yogic techniques that purify each sheath. Further, the concept of nadis, and chakras will be explored. The shape, location, associated glands, and characteristics of each chakra will be explored. This subject will be complemented by the practical meditation sessions and chanting sessions which will explore meditating and chanting to purify the chakras. It will also complement the discussion of the ida, pingala and shushumna nadis that is intrinsic to any discussion of pranayama and the bandhas.
Practicum
In the first half of the program, trainees will be gradually introduced to teaching by teaching a peer one pose in the Techniques class. This will progress towards teaching one pose to the whole group ‘Group Teaching’. In second half of the course, the trainees will each teach three classes with a peer. Each will teach 40 minutes for a whole 1 hour and 20 minute class. They will then get 20 minutes of feedback from their peers and from the trainer. The first round will be a beginner’s class; the second round will be an intermediate class; and for the third round, teams can choose to teach either a gentle, prenatal, dynamic, beginner, all levels or intermediate class. The practicum is the main factor in graduation from the 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training in Rishikesh, India.
Contact Hours: 15 (Including 5 hours of individual teaching a partner, small group and classes)