What I Realized in a 200 Hour and 300 Hour Yoga Trainer Coaching

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The primary time I walked right into a yoga studio, I used to be on the lookout for a distinct health routine. Nothing extra.

It was 2018 and I used to be dwelling in San Francisco. I shortly fell in love with a category at CorePower Yoga referred to as Yoga Sculpt, which was a mixture of yoga, weights, and cardio. Appreciating the impact it had on my thoughts in addition to my physique, I fell laborious sufficient for it to coach as a Yoga Sculpt teacher. By that summer season, I used to be instructing two lessons per week.

I’d additionally fallen for the studio, the place I felt a deep sense of neighborhood. I started spending all of my free time there, and once I was requested to take a administration position, I went all in. I’d simply misplaced my job as a content material supervisor, so the timing couldn’t have been extra aligned.

I hadn’t deliberate on enrolling in one other coaching whereas I used to be adjusting to my position on the studio and instructing twice per week, however in some way I discovered myself enrolling in an eight-week 200-hour yoga instructor coaching (YTT) by way of CorePower.

From the second I made that call, it appeared like every little thing in my life began to vary at an unprecedented tempo. Abruptly my days have been consumed by yoga.

My 200-Hour Yoga Trainer Coaching

The coaching required us to fulfill three evenings per week for 3 hours. It was fast-paced, however our two lead trainers and their assistant coaches reassured us that we have been precisely the place we have been imagined to be and inspired us to belief the method.

My Introduction to 200 YTT

The first focus of the 200 YTT was to learn to train CorePower’s set sequence, which is a “Degree 1” energy vinyasa yoga class consisting of a sequence of the identical poses taught in the very same order every time. Our curriculum was designed to assist us memorize the set sequence in addition to study cueing and respiratory formulation, hands-on changes, yoga philosophy, chakras, fundamental Sanskrit, anatomy, prenatal yoga, and the enterprise of yoga.

With no time to lose, we dove straight into practising methods to train. The sequence was damaged down into 11 sections, every containing a number of poses. Having discovered formulation for cueing and breathwork in my Yoga Sculpt coaching, I felt assured in my potential to guide college students by way of a number of of the fundamental poses, together with Solar Salutation A and B. However I wanted to follow having a newbie’s thoughts as we explored instructing much less acquainted poses and transitions and discovered the underlying why behind the order of the sections.

We completed memorizing the sequence within the first three weeks of the coaching.

By week 4, we went deeper into anatomy and changes. I used to be additionally required to look at lessons, which suggests I sat in the back of the room and took cautious notes on the cues, pacing, and general expertise as one other instructor led college students by way of their follow. I began to note refined issues I hadn’t been conscious of earlier than I started coaching, like have been the lights too dim or too vibrant? Was the music too distracting or simply proper? I discovered myself being overly vital of sure issues.

Later within the coaching, we practiced instructing in small teams. We obtained suggestions from our trainers on “glows and grows,” or issues we did nicely and issues we might enhance upon. That suggestions was important for serving to us enhance, though when it was my flip to show, I all the time felt like my coronary heart would beat out of my chest. It’s a sense that I typically nonetheless expertise once I stand in entrance of a category, though it dissipates once I bear in mind to focus much less on myself and extra on my college students.

Religious Sparks Fly

Given the limitation of 200 hours, we targeted totally on asana, or the bodily postures. However we additionally lined some religious and philosophical elements of yoga within the coaching, and that’s what most captured my consideration.

Throughout week 5, we discovered concerning the chakras, that are the seven power factors in our physique that run alongside a central channel. And every week, we have been anticipated to show in homework and studying assignments on yoga philosophy, together with the yamas and niyamas. Our publicity to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra got here from studying the translations included in the back of our manuals, though we have been assigned to learn The Interior Custom of Yoga by Michael Stone, a psychotherapist and instructor of yoga and Buddhism, and that provided some further perception into yoga philosophy.

There was one lecture that I vividly recall. In it, our trainers referred to “little s and massive S.” The “little s” is what we understand as our self—our self-image or ego. The “large S” is our true nature or pure consciousness, which a number of the lecturers translated as our spirit or soul. To this present day, this is likely one of the ideas I depend on most for self-reflection.

We utilized what we have been studying by collaborating in a Karma Yoga Undertaking. My fellow trainees and I volunteered at a homeless shelter and helped put together meals and handed them out, an expertise that offered us the chance to attach with one another and the bigger neighborhood whereas demonstrating that a part of dwelling your yoga is being of service to others.

Our coaching additionally required us to attend lessons at completely different studios. I hadn’t anticipated this to be such an integral a part of my understanding of yoga philosophy, however l will always remember attending a category at Love Story Yoga within the Mission District of San Francisco the place we chanted mantras in Sanskrit earlier than we started shifting our our bodies. On the time, as a result of it was so completely different from CorePower’s teachings, the chanting felt very on the market for me. Little did I do know a seed was being planted in my soul.

Studying to Educate Poses

The eight weeks went shortly. Along with the lectures and homework, I took round 60 studio lessons throughout that point.

Within the final week of our 200-hour coaching, my classmates and I ready for last written exams and took half in a “Convey a Newbie” evening. As lecturers in coaching, we have been anticipated to facilitate an inclusive and well-rounded class atmosphere for somebody who had little to no expertise with yoga. We guided the scholars into poses with none of us messing up our cues or forgetting any sections. Afterward, the newcomers gushed concerning the class, which we took as a mirrored image of how well-prepared we have been to show.

The instructing instruments have been particular to CorePower’s sequence, which I discovered to be an clever means of studying methods to safely ship cues and adapt the follow to the wants of scholars in a supportive method.

On the day I obtained my 200-hour certificates, my classmates and I commemorated the event by taking photographs in enjoyable poses. I celebrated with headstand, a pose I used to be proud to follow as a result of I had lately discovered how.

However I knew my yoga journey was nonetheless at first. My 200 YTT had given me the instruments to show a protected and complete asana class, however I used to be nonetheless largely at nighttime and inquisitive about yoga scriptures, philosophy, pranayama (breathwork), and meditation.

A couple of years later, I moved to South Lake Tahoe, California. As earlier than, I discovered a neighborhood at a yoga studio the place I taught some lessons. It was a boutique studio, and with out the principles and requirements of CorePower, I discovered myself changing into extra inventive and exploring a distinct instructing voice.

As my potential to guide others by way of asana progressed, I knew that I nonetheless had a lot extra to study. I felt a void. I used to be additionally instructing however barely practising so the voice of imposter syndrome crept in. I consistently requested myself, do my college students really feel linked with the follow of yoga past the bodily? Ought to I be doing extra to share that with them? Can I name myself a yoga instructor once I can’t even keep a constant private follow?

On the similar time, I knew that I used to be being pulled elsewhere.

My 300-Hour Yoga Trainer Coaching

The subsequent chapter in my story started with a Google search. One evening I typed “birthplace of yoga” on my keyboard and the small city of Rishikesh popped up. I spent hours watching YouTube movies concerning the place generally known as the “yoga capital of the world.”

I felt instantly drawn to this vacation spot and commenced on the lookout for yoga colleges that have been primarily based there. The Himalayan Yoga Affiliation (HYA) appeared to align with every little thing I used to be searching for. Over 27 days, I’d practice for 300 hours in hatha, Ashtanga, pranayama, meditation, Ayurveda, anatomy, alignment, and yoga philosophy.

“That is it,” I believed. “I’m lastly making it occur.”

My Introduction to 300 YTT

A lot of the nervousness I felt concerning the coaching was soothed by the truth that one other yoga instructor I knew had agreed to hitch me on the journey to India. On March 1, 2023, the 2 of us and the remaining college students in our 300-hour yoga instructor coaching have been welcomed by our 4 lecturers with a hearth ceremony. It ended with kirtan, an act of devotion which includes chanting mantras in Sanskrit. It took just a few songs for us newcomers to really feel comfy singing, clapping, dancing, and chanting with one another, since we’d solely met just a few hours prior. It was a stupendous method to immerse ourselves within the coaching.

The next day, we have been instantly thrown into the deep finish with a jam-packed schedule and what felt like data overload. We began simply after daybreak with nasal cleaning practices, reminiscent of jala neti and sutra neti, adopted by pranayama, meditation, and hatha yoga. These practices strengthened that yoga isn’t only a bodily follow however a whole system of practices that features bodily postures in addition to respiratory strategies, cleaning practices, and life-style changes.

By late morning, I used to be famished. In between philosophy and anatomy lessons, we took a break for a strictly vegetarian lunch with numerous lentils, potatoes, veggies, and rice. There was chai, however I missed espresso. I typically struggled to focus in the course of the post-lunch class, wishing I might take a nap or sip an espresso.

There have been two yoga asana lessons a day, and so they weren’t precisely a stroll within the park, which meant I went by way of plenty of Tiger Balm. The coaching ended at 7 p.m. with alignment and Ashtanga, and at evening I used to be bodily and mentally exhausted. I used to be studying what felt like a lifetime’s value of knowledge and my physique was nonetheless making an attempt to regulate to the bodily follow.

I discovered myself fully overwhelmed.

My favourite class was the late-morning philosophy lecture. Our instructor had an aura about him that lit up all the room. He taught ideas about yoga that I had by no means heard of earlier than and that additionally utilized to a number of Japanese religions, together with Hinduism and Jainism. I used to be fascinated by samsara, the wheel of life, the place we’re all repeatedly experiencing delivery, demise, and rebirth. I discovered about moksha, which is breaking free from the cycle of samsara and attaining the very best type of human life during which our Self or Soul turns into one with the divine. It was one other large S second.

These ideas of divinity and reincarnation opened my eyes to new methods of considering life. I couldn’t assist however surprise if these ideas could be taken severely in my lessons again dwelling. How would my college students reply?

A Utterly Completely different Understanding of Yoga

The coaching in India uncovered me to elements of yoga I had identified nothing about. Maybe this could have been no shock, since I got here to India with the intention to discover extra of the religious facet of yoga.

First, there was the bodily follow of yoga. Most Hatha lessons within the West are slower-paced and beginner-friendly. The hatha lessons at HYA felt like boot camp. I didn’t know you possibly can do a push-up in Wheel Pose till, nicely, I did a push-up in Wheel Pose.

I had solely practiced Ashtanga a handful of instances previous to my coaching in India. It consists of a number of sequence of set sequence of poses, starting the first sequence adopted by the intermediate sequence. My 300-hour YTT lined the intermediate sequence of Ashtanga yoga, which focuses on backbends. However having little or no background within the main sequence, I confessed to my instructor that I felt fully misplaced.

Stunned, he requested, “Didn’t you do the first sequence in your 200-hour instructor coaching?” I used to be embarrassed to confess that I hadn’t. A couple of others within the 300-hour had the identical expertise, and fortuitously our instructor was form sufficient to interrupt down the poses within the main sequence for the primary few weeks earlier than shifting on to the intermediate sequence.

Apart from being pushed to the bodily restrict with the asana practices, I used to be blown away by how important pranayama, meditation, Ayurveda, and yoga philosophy have been to the custom of yoga and those that practiced yoga in India. We discovered a whole pranayama sequence, and I witnessed the development of my respiratory as the times glided by.

We have been additionally uncovered to completely different meditation strategies and have been requested to learn a superb portion of the Yoga Sutra. Our instructor had us chant every sutra in Sanskrit earlier than diving into its which means.

Every part appeared so disciplined, from the schedule to the principles. There was how and what and why it’s best to eat, based on Ayurveda, which is the sister science to yoga. There was additionally what was thought of the very best instances to follow pranayama and meditation.

The yoga life-style in India was a whole 180 from the yoga life-style I used to be used to within the U.S.

Studying to Educate Yoga

Whereas we discovered numerous new expertise and an enormous quantity of knowledge, we didn’t learn to train any of it. In reality, we didn’t train in any respect. I requested my instructor if we have been going to obtain suggestions or follow instructing. “That’s what your last examination is for,” he stated.

Closing exams at HYA took a whole week. There have been written checks for anatomy and philosophy, and verbal checks for pranayama, meditation, hatha, and Ashtanga. The hatha examination additionally required us to show a brief class that included joint actions, Solar Salutations, ahead bends, twists, and inversions.

For the Ashtanga examination, we have been break up into teams to show all the intermediate sequence. Fortunately, we have been allowed to have our notes in entrance of us. It was our first time instructing since we’d discovered the sequence. I can’t think about how this might have gone with out my notes. With gratitude, I handed.

The Trainer—and Scholar—I Am At present

My two YTT experiences have been equally transformational however in fully other ways. Every has made me not solely a greater instructor however a a lot better scholar.

Yoga within the West has introduced me nothing however optimistic experiences and opened my eyes to conscious dwelling. However in the course of the 4 weeks I spent increasing my follow in India, I got here to know that yoga is a steady bodily and religious follow that’s consistently unfolding nicely past the partitions of any studio. With that understanding, my follow and I each underwent a real metamorphosis. One during which life itself grew to become the varsity.

RELATED: I Realized Yoga in India. Then I Did My Yoga Trainer Coaching at CorePower.