Like any educator, yoga teachers must continue to learn throughout the entire tenure of their career, keeping themselves up to date and refreshing their skills at regular intervals. For most states, this means a required number of hours of continuing education every three years. Continuing education for yoga teachers involves several things.

Hour Requirements

Continuing education for yoga teachers means more than sitting in a classroom. To maintain registration as a yoga teacher, one is expected to teach at least 45 hours per year. In addition, teachers are expected to undergo at least 30 hours of training every three years from their initial registration date. 10 of those must be in contact hours, and no more than 20 may be non-contact hours. Contact hours means in the presence of another instructor; this can mean taking part in courses, workshops, study groups, and yoga teacher training.

Non-contact hours are measured slightly differently. Because the activities involved are not as work intensive, they are measured on a 5:1 ratio. Whether it is reading a book or article related to yoga, watching a video that explains a technique, participating in correspondence with an instructor, making their own videos, or publishing books on the topics, yoga teachers must perform each activity for at least five hours for them to count one hour towards the requirements.

Categories

There are five main categories of continuing education: techniques training and practice, teaching methodology, anatomy and physiology, yoga philosophy, lifestyle, and ethics, and practicum. These five categories cover the basics of yoga education and what teachers absolutely must be able to convey to students.

Techniques Training & Practice covers the topics of asana, kriyas, mantras, meditation, and other techniques that are considered part of the standard yoga repertoire. Continuing education in this category covers not only how to teach, but assisted practice in performing these.

Teaching Methodology covers the basics of teaching, from the styles used to the qualities expected to be found in the teacher.

Anatomy and Physiology covers the human body and its systems, as well as the energy channels of chakras, andis, and more.

Yoga Philosophy, Lifestyle, and Ethics for Yoga Teachers covers the study of everything related to yoga, from lifestyle to basic belief systems.

Practicum covers the drier elements of teaching: watching and learning from others, giving and receiving feedback, and more.

Providers

There are five main places a yoga instructor can look to in order to obtain continuing education:

RYT500

E-RYT 500

E-RYT 200, RYT 500

E-RYT 500

Or anyone else with more than 100 hours of relevant experience in one of the main yoga categories.

Practical Approaches

The hours of continuing education should not be difficult to obtain if a teacher is performing their job properly. Between the natural interest one might have in learning more about the craft and the personal practice most teachers participate in, the non contact hours should be covered. Making time to meet with an instructor for the contact hours can be taken care of in the span of a month; by approaching the requirements over the course of three years, there should be no final rush to obtain all the requirements.

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