Continue Your Yoga Education
Yoga certification at a Highland yoga school or another qualifying yoga school is necessary for all yoga teachers. Yoga Alliance, the association that oversees professional yoga certification, requires 75 hours of continuing education every three years from its teachers. Continuing education in yoga benefits teachers and students alike. At Internet Matrix, Inc., we believe in staying on top of current trends and techniques, and we hope that all yoga teachers employ the same attitude. Continued learning means that the instructor strengthens her knowledge and the student experiences a more enriching class as a result.
How Continuing Education in Yoga Benefits Teachers
Continuing education in yoga benefits teachers by deepening their knowledge and honing their teaching skills. An instructor is first and foremost a yogi, or practitioner of yoga, and continuing education at our Los Angeles yoga school helps the yogi strengthen his or her practice and ability to guide others on the yogic path. Conferences, classes and retreats offer yoga teachers a sense of community.
Continuing education gives beginning yoga teachers the opportunity to earn more advanced credentials. Basic yoga certification, or RYT 200, requires 200 hours of teacher training; the next level, RYT 500, requires 500 hours of training; the next level, E-RYT 200, requires 500 hours of training, two years and 1,000 hours of teaching experience; and the highest level, E-RYT 500, requires 500 hours, four years and 2,000 hours of teaching experience.
Los Angeles yoga teachers -- indeed, all yoga teachers -- must complete 75 hours of continuing education every three years to maintain their certification. Forty-five of them can be teaching hours -- the hours spent leading classes. The other 30 hours must be training hours.
Of the training hours, ten must be contact hours, meaning that they must take place in a class with another certified teacher. They must include instruction in anatomy, technique, teaching methodology, and yoga philosophy, as well as teaching practice. The other 20 hours can be non-contact, and can consist of correspondence courses, online courses, reading books, producing videos, speaking to a mentor over the phone, publishing yoga-related materials, and similar activities. A teacher must perform five real hours of these activities to log one non-contact credit hour.
How Continuing Education in Yoga Benefits Students
Continuing education for Highland yoga teachers, and teachers throughout the country, ensures that students receive the best possible level of instruction from teachers who are constantly growing and evolving in their own yoga practices. The continuing education requirement means that our students don't have to worry about our teachers being rusty or out-of-practice.
When you come to East Highland Yoga, you will benefit from your instructor's years of personal experience as a yogi as well as their continued efforts to expand their knowledge. When you step through the doors at East Highland Yoga, you are entering the caring hands of instructors who are equipped with not only their own personal experiences, but also a continued education. Feel free to ask as many questions as you want to, and take advantage of the wealth of information that your instructor has to offer to you.