“200 hours” sounds like a lot until you try to imagine what fills it. Then it sounds like a mystery. Is it 200 hours of downward dog? (No. Thank goodness.)
I’ve now been through teacher trainings as a student and led one as the teacher, so here’s a plain walk through what’s inside ours, the 200 Hour Foundations training we run in Costa Rica. Most good 200 hour trainings are built on the same skeleton, so even if you train somewhere else, this should help you know what to expect.
The Yoga Alliance framework
Yoga Alliance sets the core categories every registered 200 hour training has to cover. Ours meets and goes beyond all of them. These are the five categories:
- Techniques, Training, and Practice
- Anatomy and Physiology
- Yoga Humanities
- Professional Essentials
- Teaching Methodology
That list is a little dry, so here’s what each piece actually looks like in our training, and which part happens at home versus in person.
At home, before you ever get on a plane
About 50 hours happen online, on demand, so you can study at your own pace. We also meet four times on Zoom for two hours, on Sunday mornings, to review and ask questions. Those calls are optional and recorded.
Humanities is the history and philosophy of yoga, plus Sanskrit. It’s where you learn that the names I say in class aren’t decoration. When I cue supta baddha konasana and then say “reclined butterfly” in the same breath, like I do at the start of my Evening Release class, that’s two languages for the same shape, and you’ll learn both.
Anatomy covers the muscles and joints and posture. It’s the part people expect to be hardest. In my experience it’s the part that makes everything else click, because suddenly the alignment cues have reasons behind them.
In person, in Costa Rica
Then we spend 14 days together at Casa Colorado in Tamarindo, the same place I film so many of my classes, for about 150 more hours. We keep the group to 12 people.
Physiology picks up where anatomy leaves off. We look at the nervous system and respiration, and at what flexibility and stretching really are. Safety standards live here too.
Yoga techniques starts with the koshas and pranayama. It also covers other breathing techniques and meditation. If you’ve practiced with me you already know a little of this. In my Bedtime Yoga class I count you into equal breathing, five counts in and five counts out, before we ever move. In training you learn why that works and how to teach it.
We also practice meditation, not just talk about it. My Movement & Meditation class is a good example of the idea, twenty minutes of movement that exists mostly to prepare you for five minutes of sitting still.
Poses gets its own deep study, organized by family:
- Standing postures
- Twists
- Backbends
- Inversions
- Arm balances
My Wall-Assisted Yoga class is basically a preview of how I like to teach this, with a wall and props and lots of alignment cues, and no flowing between poses so we can really get set up. My Finding Balance class sprinkles arm balances into a flow, which is the other half of the skill: placing a hard pose inside a sequence so the body is ready for it.
Professional Essentials is the teaching side. It includes:
- Ethics
- Teaching foundations
- Themes and sequencing
- Music
- Business promotion, if you want to teach
My Strength & Balance class is built around one theme, the balance between effort and ease, and has a playlist I made to go with it. That’s this module in one class.
What a day looks like
Mornings start with yoga at 7:00 and breakfast at 8:30. Classroom time runs 9:30 to noon, then lunch, then classroom time again from 2:00. At 4:30 we break for sunset (it is Costa Rica). Evenings are dinner on your own and study time, with an extra practice a few nights. We also leave room to rest and reflect, because nobody learns well when they’re exhausted.
What you take home
You go home with our custom training manuals and lifetime access to all of the online course materials. You’ll also have a journal, and you’ll have had time with me to work through your own teaching questions. Graduates earn the 200 hour Foundations certification through Five Parks School of Yoga, a Yoga Alliance registered school.
And beyond the curriculum, we teach my own approach to yoga and to teaching. That’s the part you can’t get from a textbook. As I said in a recent class, if you want more yoga knowledge, or if you want to be a yoga teacher, join me in Costa Rica.
Classes that show the pieces
- Wall-Assisted Yoga, Deep Stretch, Inversions & Alignment Cues (1h 10m 42s). Pose study with props.
- Strength & Balance Yoga, Steady and Calm Flow (1h 4m 59s). Theme and music.
- Bedtime Yoga Class (24m 6s). Pranayama, counted.
- 30 Min Movement & Meditation in the Jungle (30m 24s). Movement that leads to stillness.
- Finding Balance Yoga Class (1h 3m 51s). Arm balances inside a flow.
- Evening Release Yoga Class (20m 50s). Sanskrit and English, side by side.
- Move that Energy! a 20 Minute Yoga Class (21m 5s). Short and lively.
Dates for the next training are posted on our teacher training page as soon as they’re set, along with how the application works. The Five Parks School of Yoga page has the rest, including continuing education hours if you already teach.
Practice it with me
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