Becoming a yoga instructor is one of the most burgeoning careers in the health and wellness industries. Unlike becoming a personal trainer, which is very regulated, becoming a yoga instructor doesn’t require the tests, certification and training that is mandated by the accredited personal training profession. There is both good and not-so-good in that.
First, because teaching yoga is a relatively new, albeit popular, profession, in essence, anyone who wants to become a yoga instructor can call herself a yoga teacher. This can easily lend way to unqualified teachers who take a few weekend yoga workshops and call themselves a teacher.
On the other hand, because of the lack of regulation, experienced yoga instructors who have been teaching yoga for years, maybe even decades, don’t need to go back and take hours of certification classes with a bunch of novices and learn information they already know.
It is this lack of regulation that has led to the Yoga Alliance, a national education and support organization for yoga in the United States that provides yoga certification for teachers. In September 1999, Yoga Alliance established a national Yoga Teachers’ Registry to recognize and promote teachers with training that meets their minimum standards. Teachers who meet these standards are eligible to register as Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT®s). (more…)
