Updated March 18, 2022.
Yoga's popularity is undoubtedly spreading. What could have been a fad in the wellness and health industry has become an established practice for millions of people worldwide. It's no wonder studies have linked yoga to a variety of health benefits, from better blood pressure, higher endurance and strength, flexibility, and self-perceived lower stress. Anecdotal evidence has shown that people with various body types and states of wellness can benefit from the many variations of yoga's intentional breathing work, movements, and held poses.
If you're a long-time yoga instructor, you probably understand these benefits for yourself, and you have taken a 200-hour yoga teacher training registered through the Yoga Alliance. However, in pursuing a deepened practice, yoga teachers can take further training, a 300-hour course that prepares them to become registered yoga teachers at the 500-hour level (RYT-500).
Among the many benefits of this programming is training others to be yoga instructors yourself. Here are a few ways this certification can benefit you and teach you how to become certified to train yoga teachers.
Extending Yoga Instructor Certification
One of the first reasons people choose to pursue a 300-hour course toward their RYT-500 certification is to deepen their practice. Suppose you are the most advanced practitioner in your own yoga school or in the courses you currently teach. You may crave the experience of other advanced practitioners around you who are interested in learning more. This course furthers the confidence and capabilities of already-adept teachers, all while integrating them into their local yoga teacher community.
Portland Community College's two immersion weekends connect practitioners who otherwise are learning through live-streamed online classes, bringing an excellent combination of communal experience and flexibility to the space and time you have available.
Benefits of the Course
The course strengthens knowledge in many areas, from a practical understanding of anatomy and physiology so that you can wisely advise your class participants to the backing and yoga philosophy involved in the methods and practice you employ.
Many registered yoga teachers get focused on a particular style or background in yoga and may forget aspects of the broader yoga tradition that they don't use as often. Taking a 300-hour course can be a way to refresh in the fundamentals while going deeper, preparing a yoga teacher to incorporate new styles, design more advanced courses, or cater practices to groups with individualized mobility needs.
Finally, an RYT-500 certification can be a strong credential if you move from teaching courses in someone else's yoga school to launching your own center or program. Getting to know other leaders in the world of yoga can help you get started by offering your yoga instructor certification to the most promising practitioners in your community, fostering the next generation of yoga teachers.
Why Teach the Teachers?
RYT-500-eligible coursework helps you develop your RYT-200 certification program, showing you how to teach the very coursework that helped you become a yoga instructor in the first place. Many yoga devotees find a great community in a particular yoga school but realize that even the most advanced courses no longer challenge them as much as they used to. These passionate students often turn to yoga teacher training to give them a new aim and help them share a love of daily yoga practice with other newbies. It's such a positive impact on many people's lives that they cannot help but want to share it!
Teaching yoga teachers how to teach can be very rewarding since you will often have a uniformly high level of passion, interest, and knowledge in the room during your training. However, you'll want to challenge yourself to be as knowledgeable as possible since the questions from yoga teacher trainees are often complex and essential. One of the best ways to have great answers to these questions is to pursue extensive education yourself and get your RYT-500 certification.
Create More Opportunities for New Students
Even if you first think, 'more yoga teachers will make more competition for me and my classes,' remember that yoga communities generally flourish when there are always a wide variety of opportunities to grow and a variety of participants. Not everyone who pursues yoga teacher training will immediately open a competing school: instead, you can recruit teachers to work as a substitute or additional teachers in your school, knowing that their training was top notch (i.e., from you!) and you can grow their loyalty to your school if you provide outstanding training rather than sending them away to another program.
Want to learn more about the 300-hour course at Portland Community College that balances the flexibility of online courses with the in-person experiences of two immersion weekends? Check out the yoga courses available at PCC today.
