Yoga Teacher Training: Basics

I’ve only really talked about my yoga teacher training experience in passing, but it was a pretty big deal for me, and it deserves its own post(s). Also, when I look around on the internet, I don’t find a lot of people telling you what to expect from TT. 

This is fair; I know different teacher trainings approach everything differently. Some are short and intense, some are spread out over months. Some are led by only one or two teachers, while others are taught by a bigger team. Again, there are probably other differences, but I can’t necessarily speak to those.

So, with all that said, I’m going to talk about CorePower’s 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training. I’m in no way being compensated for this; it’s not sponsored by CorePower. I just like telling you all about my life and giving you information so you can make decisions that resonate with you. In this post, I’m going to talk about why I chose CorePower, what the schedule for TT looked like, and what we did. In future posts, I’ll focus on yogic philosophy, mental shifts that happened for me during TT, what I wish I had done differently, and what comes next. If you have any questions about anything related to yoga or TT, reach out! I’ll do my best to answer.

Why I Chose Corepower

Well, partially for practical reasons. I live near 60th St. and there happens to be a CorePower on 53rd. It’s where I have gone to yoga ever since I came to school. I’ve considered teacher training at several points during my life, but it’s always been too expensive.

Frankly, it is expensive. Payment plans vary and you can work them out with the studio manager, but I made a one-time payment of a little over $2300. The timing of this training session coincided perfectly with a light–ish quarter of school, and I just really wanted to do it. At some point (and I recognize that I’m lucky to be able to think this way), your money is there to do things that help you and make you happier. I don’t have a ton of expenses (basically food, fun things, transportation), so I went for it. And cringed because that’s a pretty decent chunk of money. But I’m glad I did it.

I was kind of hesitant to do TT with a big chain, not because of my thoughts, but rather because I was afraid some super yogi would be like, “Psh, it’s too corporate to be real yoga.” Don’t ask. Just telling you the truth.

However, I really trusted CorePower because it was my home studio. I have always found my teachers knowledgeable and helpful and friendly. I don’t make a habit of go to yoga classes I hate, and I love CorePower classes. I imagine that if there is a teacher training at your studio, then you’d feel comfortable and excited about that. Ask questions. You do you.

The requirements

• Attend the training sessions
• Go to 20 C1 classes
• Observe 3 C1 classes
• Attend 3 non-CorePower yoga classes
• Attend 34 other CorePower classes
• Write 4 short essays
• Keep a yoga journal, where you write about all 60 classes and your teacher training sessions
• Take the final exams

I think this is at the instructors’ discretion, but these requirements don’t necessarily need to be met within the 8 weeks of the program. I’m just now finishing everything up, actually, and the studio manager is fine with that. She says there are some people who have been “working on it” for two years. My certificate is at the studio when I’m ready to turn everything in.

The schedule

We met for 8 weeks, twice a week. We’d meet for 6 hours on Sundays and 3 hours on Tuesday nights. The program is designed so that you can do it even if you work full time. I was the only undergrad in the session, but there were several graduate students and regular working people. It was almost harder to make it work as students than as normal adults, because homework.

We would do a mix of things at any given training session. To name a few:

• Talk about the history of yoga
• Learn about yogic philosophy and Sanskrit
• Study the C1 sequence (CorePower’s signature standard flow)
• Break down the proper alignment of the poses in the C1 sequence
• Learn how to perform safe and helpful hands-on adjustments
• Discuss helpful verbal cues
• Talk about modifications for poses
• Practice the entire C1 sequence
• Practice teaching the C1 sequence

In one of the last few weeks, we also taught a free community class together. Each of us taught a small bit of the class, assisted during another part, and then went back to our mats to flow with everyone else. In the last week, you take a final exam that isn’t graded. You just talk about the answers and take notes. Also, you teach the full C1 sequence to a partner while the teachers observe.

In hindsight, there are a few other perks of CorePower, as I see it. First, the CorePower teaching program is well known and has a good reputation. You walk out of TT with a pretty decent amount of teaching experience, even if you only did it in snippets. You have learned how to be loud, how to teach despite interruption, how to modify for pregnancy, and how to recover from mistakes (because you totally made some). Second, you graduate TT with a full sequence in your head. You get to take the hour-long C1 sequence with you anywhere to teach. Interviewing for a job at a gym tomorrow? You can audition with C1. You know it by heart because not only have you taken 20 separate C1 classes, but you have also practiced it in most of the TT sessions and taught it a bunch. And if there’s something you don’t love about it, you have enough knowledge to know how to replace certain poses.

Here's what it's like to do 200-hour yoga teacher training. #yoga #fituniversity #FitFluential Share on X

How it feels

It’s rigorous. The 8 weeks go by really quickly. Sometimes, you feel too busy to go to another yoga class or spend all day Sunday in a toasty yoga studio. A lot of the time, you might wonder why you signed up. Or, at least, I did.

Also, every single time I went – truly, no exceptions – I was glad I was doing TT. The people I met in this program are incredible, and I love seeing them around the studio still. Everyone feels pretty vulnerable in TT.

Whether it’s that you’re scared of standing up in front of everyone and totally blanking on the sequence or you’re just really insecure about the fact that you can’t fully get into a certain pose, you have to check that at the door and go for it. And you’ll probably get a ton of support every single time.

Your turn:

What’s something hard + rewarding you’ve done lately?

Any other questions?