500 Hour Yoga Teacher Training

Next Training Begins October 4th, 2024

This is the Advanced Training for students with no yoga teacher training experience or who want to "start over" after a previous certification. If you have an existing 200 hour certification and are looking to acquire 500 hour certification, you can add our 300 hour program (click here) to your existing 200 hour certification for 500 hour certification status. Note that your 200 hour certification must be yoga alliance approved. If it is not, you will need to complete a 200 hour training (basic) or a 500 hour training (advanced).

Free Yoga Teacher Training Q&A


FAQs

 
  • Our only prerequisite is that you have enough experience to make sure that you do no harm to yourself (what we call the practice of Ahimsa) as the starting point. If you know your body well enough to do this (usually 6 - 12 months of regular practice for most people) and you have a sincere desire to go deeper in this practice, then you are ready for the training.

  • In Addition to the basics, we will be using the following reading materials listed in the catalog:

    Yogabody by Judith Lasater

    Getting Real by Susan Campbell

    The Power of Focusing by Ann Weiser Cornell

    Teaching People, Not Poses by Jay Fields

    We encourage you to get these books from a local seller if possible. Feel welcome to get a head start with these books if you would like to “get some training started before the training.”

  • Absolutely. Traditionally, about 40% of those who sign up for the training do so to deepen their practice and understanding of yoga. However, we will warn you that historically 50% of those people change their minds (and decide to teach) over the course of the training.

    That said, a primary axiom of this training is that “We Practice for a Better Life,” which is to say that our approach to yoga is one of practice making your life tangibly better. In addition to the “hard skills” of teaching (sequencing, cueing), we will also focus on “soft skills” like presence, speaking from the heart, and teaching from an inner humility and dignity. These soft skills translate to many other areas of life just as your mat practice will.

    Many have taken this training for that very purpose of bringing valuable skills into life.

  • This training will meet and exceed Yoga Alliance’s Registered Yoga School 200 Hours + competencies-based model, with 200+ online classroom hours in the following categories:

    - 75 hours of techniques, training, practice (asana, pranayama, subtle body, and meditation)

    - 60 hours of professional essentials (teaching methodology, professional development, and practicum)

    - 40 hours of anatomy and physiology (anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics)

    - 30 hours of yoga humanities (history, philosophy, and ethics)

    Upon completion of this training, graduates will receive a certificate of completion for 200 hours of study with 21st Century Yoga on the Mat and can register with Yoga Alliance as an RYT-200.

  • Yes. If you’d like a preview, contact us here to ask for one.

  • The approach of this training is Integral. This means that our primary aims are Integration (such as Integrating Eastern & Western approaches) and depth. In recent history, yoga has been divided into styles. We will be teaching you what lies at the foundation of all yoga styles and how these foundations may be put together as “ingredients” of whatever style you’d like to make. In long history, yoga has similarly been divided into various lineages. This had occurred because different people find depth through different means. We believe that it is our job as 21st Century Yogis to preserve this depth and find ways to contextualize it in order that the hoop of humanity may find the fit that helps take them deeper.
    We will note that this does not require you to take on any particular belief system. We are about process more than we are about “what to believe” or introducing a new dogma. We may ask you to “try some things on”, but your doubt, your questions, and your differing perspective are always welcome in our training. In our method, Living life yogicly isn’t about what to feel or think, but to think and feel from more than one perspective (pluralist).

  • This training is not for you if you are looking for a single style, approach, or lineage to be an unquestioned “one size fits all” method. This training takes a pluralist perspective that will dive into everything from the ancient texts written by sages to modern disciplines of Anatomy & Physiology. We will look at yoga through many lenses from it’s history and traditional mindset to what western studies like biomechanics & movement science might have to say about the practice. We will also look at what fields like Bodywork might have to say what yoga is doing (like with fascia & tensegrity) to how competing lineages like Buddhism, Taoism, and Western Lineages might give us perspectives on the human condition as it plays out on the mat and cushion.

    Primarily, the approach of this training is an evolutionary one where we believe that the best of what yoga needs to be to heal, inspire, and bring connection to the 21st Century is found by honoring yoga’s lineage while also remaining open to novelty and new discoveries, wherever they may come from.

    This is not a training for those who are allergic to the ambiguity or uncertainty that is an inevitable part of the path when taking on yoga from so many angles aiming for depth. This is neither a traditionalist training, nor a ‘western physically focused’ training. This training believes that the needs of the 21st Century require yoga to adapt by taking advantage of this unique time where we have access to the wisdom and knowledge of several civilizations. We believe that fulfilling the promise of all human civilization will be found in understanding the best of all of them, and this is an absolutely essential task for the 21st Century.

    In short, if this rings for you (you are excited / stimulated by this answer) and you want to make your yoga path an exploration rather than a system of beliefs. If you want to explore everything from the human condition, to the physicality of the body, to the ancient methods, then this training is for you.

  • For the full training (plus lifetime access to all online materials):

    $ 3250 : Paid in Advance (Sept 25th)
    $ 299 : Pay-Per-Module Early Bird
    $ 349 : Pay-Per-Module