How to become a successful Yoga Instructor: Comprehensive guide

Yoga is getting popular by the day, the growing number of yoga studios and personal yoga coaching classes are a testimony to this trend. Here are some useful strategies to make a career in yoga.

Growing Demand

People in India are becoming more health conscious, and the government is promoting Yoga big time, as a result more and more people are getting into yoga, which in turn has fueled the demand for trained yoga instructors.

The popularity of Yoga among celebrities, big companies turning to yoga for their employees, makes it a lucrative proposition for yoga instructors. Experienced Yoga teachers can charge handsome rates for private classes, depending upon their number of years of experience.

Because of the huge demand, there’s now a shortage of trained yoga instructors around the world, including India. India today faces a shortage of few lakh yoga instructors, says the ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce of India) report.

The demand for yoga teachers is at an all-time high in Southeast Asia, where India has emerged as the biggest exporter of yoga teachers to Southeast Asia as well as China. Thousands of Indian yoga teachers are already teaching in China, and most of these teachers are trained in Haridwar and Rishikesh, considered to be the yoga capital of India (home to various yoga schools).

Yoga in demand, professionals are leaving full-time jobs to become yoga instructors

People from varied backgrounds are learning yoga to become teachers/practitioners. The potential right now looks so promising that many in high profile jobs have also opted for a career switch to take up yoga full time.

While there are some, who have taken up yoga not for the money but to take forward this ancient art and really help people, for many its about capitalizing on the emerging multi-billion market.

Several Institutes now offer yoga teachers’ training.
Several yoga teachers now sell their own outfits
Group classes, classes for individuals at their homes, are common.
Group classes are regularly organised in educational institutes, corporate houses, government training centres, residential societies, and so on.

Swapnil Nanaware: From software developer to Yoga Instructor

Young yoga instructor Swapnil Nanaware chucked his job of a software developer to pursue a career in teaching Yoga, as that gave him peace of mind. Swapnil now works a freelance Yoga instructor. Here, Swapnil reveals how he went about making a career in the fitness industry as a Yoga instructor.

I started doing my yoga at the age of 16 and did think of it as a career option but my relatives were against my this decision and wanted a secure job for me. I listen to them and became a software developer. But then I realized doing and teaching yoga makes me more happy than anything else.

I joined a professional diploma course in yoga education in govardhan school of yoga. Iskon is running this yoga school affiliated with Yoga Vidya gurukul, Nashik. The Yoga teachers there are highly qualified in teaching the science of yoga, techniques of teaching and philosophy behind it.

Now a days it is very difficult to find good schools in every field. We all know that as popularity of yoga had increased in the same way misleading in this field had also increased. I can only say that a school which focuses on teaching yoga the traditional way following the philosophy of patanjali yoga sutra is teaching the actual yoga.

Finding Work as a Yoga Instructor

People can join yoga teachers training courses to learn yoga and take their practice to the next level. Some people want to turn yoga into their career. They wish to become a successful yoga instructor. Yoga teachers or instructors help students to learn yoga poses and yogic philosophy.

While getting trained/certified in Yoga is not difficult, it can take some time to find work as a Yoga practitioner. Going from earning your certification to actually teaching classes takes some work, but it’s not impossible. Here are several practical ways to make it happen.

Easy Ways to break into the Yoga World once you have been certified.

Offer to teach for free initially. Be ready to offer private classes
Network. Meet people and let them know your skills
Be creative with your teaching space, you will not have an established studio in the beginning
Get certified even after you’ve started teaching.
Do your own thing, something special that will set you apart. Find your own unique way of leading classes.
Take advantage of social media.
Go corporate. Ask your friends if their companies are looking for yoga instructors. Meet someone from the HR department and ask if you could conduct a free session

A yoga trainer is one who is himself physically, mentally and spiritually fit and help their clients to achieve the same goal in their life by every means of asana, pranayam, mudra, bandha, kriyas and philosophy. Also, yoga trainers need to have a good experience in serving clients.

A good instructor must have strong speaking and communication skills, yoga skills, motivational skills, physical fitness and certification of a yoga teacher training program from a registered yoga school.

If someone wants to become a yoga teacher than he/she should consider the things that are important to make a successful career into yoga. Here are some tips you should consider to make a career into yoga-

Make your network strong
Completion of a yoga teacher training course does not guarantee a job. You should make a strong network with your teachers and classmates while in the school. After completion of course, know your market and distinguish yourself from other instructors with a unique approach to beat the competition. For example, you can offer yoga tailored to athletes.
Get certification in CPR
Many school or centers require a certification in CPR so that they have skills to deal with a health emergency. You can also take a CPR course with your yoga training course.
Get RYT credential
It is voluntary to apply for organization’s RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) credential after completion of your training course. Many centers and studios prefer a credentialed candidate.
Earn advanced credentials
A Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) required completing 75 hours of continuing education every three years. She/he requires teaching for 45 hours and additional classes for 30 hours. Keep continuing education to earn advanced credentials and attend workshops and seminars to keep you up to date.
Establish yourself as a healthcare provider
When you help someone stay healthy, keep positive state and truly heal with issues is health care. Healthcare is not only about to cure us when we are sick, it is also about to keep you away from diseases. Yoga is a healthcare tool that prevents us from many diseases and makes our body strong. It also helps cure many diseases. As a healthcare provider, you can better serve your students. You should think out of the box and know your purpose of what you are doing.
Teach private yoga classes online or offline
Yoga instructors are paid well around the globe. In starting, you have to be creative with your extra income sources with a unique yoga specialty. You can teach private lessons. Teaching private classes takes skills that you will gain with time and experience. Make long-term relations with private yoga students, it may be a great foundation of your extra income sources.

To become a successful yoga instructor, you need to fill all requirements set by your employers along with your formal yoga course. Join a registered yoga school with Yoga Alliance and be aware of making a career in this customer service field.

Common Problems Faced by Students

Here are the common problems that yoga students may face:

The problem to adjust your breathing
Breathing is an important part of your yoga practice. It is “Inhale when open your chest, Exhale when close your chest” in the coordination with performing physical movements of a yoga pose. There may be some people who struggle to be comfortable in a pose and have difficulty with their breath. When you feel uncomfortable with yoga pose and breathing adjust the variation of pose according to your body. A continuous practice routine will develop body skill to keep your body in shape of proper alignment.

Problem with proper alignment of yoga poses
‘Alignment’ is to take your body in a proper position of a yoga pose to get its full benefits. Improper alignment can cause injury and take you away from the full benefits of yoga pose while a good alignment prevents injury. You may feel some problem when you stretch your body to take it in a proper alignment. Understand your body’s weakness and strength in a pose and work to improve alignment.

Lack of theoretical knowledge of yoga
The Practical and theoretical knowledge of something makes you perfect in that field. Theoretical knowledge makes you able to know about the techniques, importance of the name, precautions to be taken and benefits of yoga poses. So, it is also important and as a beginner, you should also get the theoretical knowledge about the yoga poses.

The risk for injuries
Wrist and knee problems, back pain and stretching in muscles are the possible risk of injury with yoga. Proper instructions and guidance to do a yoga pose keeps you safe and prevents from the injuries. A regular practice of yoga builds your muscles strength, improve flexibility and make you able to understand your body that reduces the risk of injuries with yoga. Try to difficult poses with fun under the supervision of a teacher.

Not enough focus on rest and eating
When you practice yoga you need a proper and balanced diet with quality and enough sleep. Otherwise, after a little yoga practice, you feel very tired and sleepy. So, also try to focus on complete rest and proper eating when you are in your yogic lifestyle.

Feel pain, tired and sleepy
As a beginner, your body is not habitual to attend a long session of yoga practice. You may feel some pain and tired after a long session of your yoga practice, that’s natural. When you will follow the same routine continuously, you will feel better and more energetic than before. It makes you strong and able to fight with pain and anxiety.

Tips for New Yoga Teachers

Yoga practitioners are growing by the day, so there’s no surprise that so many newly trained yoga teachers are entering the industry. If you’re a new Yoga teacher and eager to begin sharing your knowledge with others, do remember these points.

Be a Committed Yoga Student Yourself & Commit to Personal PracticeIn order to most effectively serve your students, it’s imperative that you also remain a committed yoga student.
“When individuals graduate and become registered yoga teachers, their focus often shifts as they become entrenched in teaching classes and spending time focused on preparing for those classes,” says Jane Bahneman of Blue Nectar Yoga.

“Keeping up a regular practice not only provides an opportunity to relieve the stresses associated with the dynamics of being a new yoga teacher, but it also serves as an incredible opportunity to listen to experienced teachers’ refined cueing and to experience their thoughtful sequencing.”
Network & Learn from Other Yoga TeachersOne of the best ways to bolster your teaching abilities is to immerse yourself in your local yoga community.
As a new teacher it’s important to get involved and to attend regular classes and workshops in your local area. Its important to network with other yoga teachers and also learn from those who are a bit more seasoned in their teaching.

“Find an experienced teacher who inspires you and become a humble observer, quietly watching as they teach classes. Take notes about sequences or stand-out cues and develop thoughtful questions about their personal journey. You can also offer any help they might need, as establishing sincere rapport with these teachers can serve as a doorway to future opportunities.”
Get to Know Your Students ThoroughlyAs a new teacher, understandably, your focus will be on getting things right – the music, sequence, what you’re going to say and so on. However, its very important to develop rapport with students on a personal level and allow them to see teachers as humans, which helps in creating an environment that is welcoming, accepting and truly transformative.
It’s important not to lose sight of what you are really there for, which is to guide and serve students on a deeper level.

“I see many new teachers caught up in ‘getting in right,’ as it relates to the technical skills of sequencing and cueing, which are undeniably important. However, the experience of being a yoga teacher becomes so much richer when we simply recall why we took that seat in the first place, which is to share the joy of yoga and the profound impact that the practice can have on the human spirit.”

“It seems like the more we appropriately get to know our students, the more we realize we are on the journey together. And for the new teacher the nerves organically settle and we can begin to feel more comfortable being our authentic selves when we are holding space for others in the yoga room.”
Offer Sequences to Fit the Bodies of StudentsAs a Yoga Teacher, it’s important to offer progressions and regressions of each pose in order to best serve a wide variety of students.
Providing modifications allows your students to let the pose fit their bodies without trying to force or strain into a position.
Avoid Teaching Things That You Do Not Yet Deeply UnderstandWhile it can be tempting to show-off, experienced yoga teachers caution new teachers against assuming an expert role or teaching things they do not yet deeply understand.
You should always be ahead in your own practice of whatever you plan to teach in a class, and to always understand the what and the why behind what you’re offering to students.

“When we graduate with our 200-hour yoga teacher training certificate we may teach something in the way we were taught how to do it without really questioning or understanding the why behind it,” says a Yoga Instructor.

“As we evolve our personal practice, gain experience teaching classes, and continue our personal studies through workshops, reading materials and other endeavors, we can truly become teachers and understand the how and the why behind the material. We can then offer the information in a way that engages students and meets them where they are, while also ensuring their safety and preserving the intention and the tradition of the teachings.”
Be PositiveYoga teachers should utilize positive and inclusive language to create a memorable, multi-level experience that is rooted in empathy and compassion.
As teachers, it’s important to practice ahimsa (non-violence) in your thoughts, actions and speech.

“There’s no place for negativity in a yoga class.”

Celebrity Yoga Instructors in India

Eefa Shroff

Ace yoga instructor Eefa Shroff has been teaching yoga for more than a decade, and has celebrity clients such as Hrithik and Suzanne Roshan, the Goenkas, Abhay Deol, among others.

Several years back, Eefa Shroff was run over by a drunken kid driving a truck; Eefa was told by doctors that her life would be confined to a wheelchair. But she refused surgeries and turned to yoga completely.

“I did yoga a lot, walked, ran and waited to turn 30 – and did that quite a few years ago. And no wheelchair!” says Eefa.

The ace yoga instructor says that there is no one style that fits all, when it comes to fitness. “This is the real world where you have to do your own push-ups, run your own runs and eat your own food. Simply hiring a trainer or nutritionist and refusing to break your old habits isn’t going to make you lose weight. It will only help you lose time and money!” says Eefa!

Eefa Shroff also conducts fitness workshops where she teaches:

Fitness Nutritional Strategies used by international athletes and celebrities to create top class energy for high performance and gold standard bodies.
Yogic secrets used by the ancients to live beyond normal life expectancy.
Neuro Linguistic Programming strategies to reverse even the worst of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Deepika Mehta

Deepika Mehta is a famous yoga teacher and professional fitness expert, who has clients all over the country. Yoga guru Deepika is one of the very few authorized teachers of Ashtanga practice in India.

Deepika was the master trainer on the show ‘The Biggest Loser’ in India. She has featured in Vogue magazine 2014, has been the face of the fitness campaign 2015 in Elle India, and has featured in various other publications.

Here’s what Deepika has to say about Ashtanga Yoga:

Ashtanga is a spiritual practice but in terms of movement it is a superlative form of exercise. It works on Core Strength with every Chaturanga,Jump back,jump through,arm balances etc. It works on endurance and stamina because of the continuous Vinyasa element of breath and movement connection and the continuity and flow. It works on the entire body as a unit, therefore giving you amazing functional strength and fitness. It makes you more agile because of the gymnastic quality.