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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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)