What qualifications do you need to be a yoga teacher?

If you are a dedicated practitioner who could happily while the hours away proselytizing the benefits of yoga...the thought of training to become a yoga teacher may have crossed your mind (more than once). 

But how do you go from a passionate yoga student to a professional yoga teacher?

Firstly, it is highly advisable that you have at least 2 years of regular yoga practice before enrolling on a yoga teacher training course. This experience ensures you can keep up with the course content and focus on developing your teaching skills and knowledge, not advancing your practice. 

Practice experience under your belt, you can look into the qualification needed to teach yoga. 

For Yoga Alliance Professionals, the minimum qualification required to teach yoga is a 200-hour teacher training course. Traditionally this is carried out in person, however, over the last 2 years, more trainers have moved some, or all, of the course content online. We recommend that at least some portion of the course is held in person so that you get a thorough understanding of working with “real” bodies. 

A 200-hour or foundation training course will typically cover modules on the history and philosophy of yoga, anatomy and physiology, teaching skills, and physical asana. It is also becoming increasingly common for training providers to offer business advice to support the professional success of their graduate teachers. 

Watch our guide to choosing a yoga teacher training course HERE! 

Completing a yoga teacher training course that is accredited by Yoga Alliance Professionals also allows you to easily access teaching insurance when you graduate. 

CLICK HERE to find an upcoming yoga teacher training course

As mentioned, a foundation yoga teacher training is really the minimum qualification required. It is highly recommended that you undertake additional training throughout your teaching career to build your knowledge of yoga and advance your teaching ability. 

There is a multitude of further and specialist yoga training courses you can undertake to expand your offerings and provide a higher level of teaching. For example, if you are looking to teach yoga classes to children, you would need to undertake a training course in children’s yoga. The same goes for teaching pre and postnatal yoga, or aerial yoga. Whatever area of yoga you are teaching, you should have a qualification to match that. 

Many newly qualified yoga teachers also choose to undertake an “advanced 300-hour yoga teacher training” to gain a more in-depth understanding of teaching yoga as a profession. 200 hours is, after all, a relatively short time frame to cover everything you need to know about yoga teaching. 

A 200-hour yoga teacher training is the minimum qualification to teach yoga. However, becoming a successful, talented yoga teacher requires continuous training and professional development.