Career as a Yoga Teacher or Instructor

Updated On: 16-Feb-2023

Yoga is a kind of lightweight exercise that includes different poses and breathing exercises. A yoga teacher is a trained professional who properly teaches the different yoga poses. Its important one should have in-depth knowledge about all aspects of yoga and have been practicing for many years.

The day-to-day activities of a yoga teacher/instructor includes:

Designing courses and plan for students
Teaching the positions and assessing the students
Along with teaching the position, explain the benefits of the pose to students
Adapting positions for conditions like for pregnancy or arthritis
Reviewing your own courses and teaching skills
Continue practice and learning new positions

Skills Required:

You'll need the following skills:

Personal fitness, strength and flexibility
Good communication skills
The ability to motivate individuals and groups
Positive attitude
Commercials skills, if you want to start your own business
Attention to detail

Scheme for Voluntary Certification of Yoga Professionals in India:

Just after the 1st Yoga international day, 21 June 2015, the Indian government launched the "Scheme for Voluntary Certification of Yoga Professionals".

The Ministry of AYUSH identified QCI to develop a Voluntary Scheme for the Evaluation and Certification of Yoga Professionals recognizing that QCI has expertise in developing such quality frameworks based on international best practices. The focus of the Scheme for Voluntary Certification of Yoga Professionals, as it is being called, is to certify the competence of Yoga Professionals who provide Yoga lessons/classes.

QCI has designed the Scheme for Voluntary Certification of Yoga Professionals by adopting the principles and requirements laid down in the international standard.

If you want to get this certification, you can apply to QCI (offline or online), pay the fee, and then get examined at a chosen center. The examination will include a written test, a practical demonstration, and an oral interview. You will qualify if you score at least 70% in the written exam as well as in the practical demo + interview. The certificate you obtain will remain valid only for 3 years, after which you would have to re-apply for certification.

Top Institutes to learn yoga:

Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, Pune
Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute, Mysore
Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, Chennai
Parmarth Niketan Ashram, Rishikesh
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram, Trivandrum

Check out other Yoga and fitness institutes here

Top Yoga Courses:

Certificate Course in Yoga (CCY)
Bachelor in Naturopathy and Yoga science
Bachelor in Arts (Yoga Philosophy)
UG Diploma in Yoga Education
PG Diploma in Yoga Therapy
Master of Arts in Yoga

You should do a certified yoga course from a reputed institute and along with it a teacher training program can help you in career growth.Follow the steps mentioned below to become a yoga teacher:

1. Learn Yoga and do regular practice: Take yoga courses from any reputed institute and try different types of yogas like Ashtanga, Anusara, Hatha, Vinyasa, and Bikram yoga to determine which type of yoga you would like to teach. Make habit of regular practice for deeper knowledge and get an expert.

2. Teacher Training Program:Join a teacher training program from a reputed institute, learn and get experience in different teaching techniques. It'll also help you in meeting with teachers and peers. That'll help you in finding a job later. If you want to work with any gym, studio, or spa center then, you must do a teacher training program.

3. Get Certification:Pass the exam conducted by Quality Council of India and get the government certification.

4. Find Job: After completion of training program, you can start job search.

If you are passionate about yoga, appreciate its health benefits, and want to share these benefits with other people, then you might be the perfect candidate for teaching yoga.It's all up to you, how you want to work. You can choose to work part-time like morning classes, evening classes or weekend classes, or full-time.A beginner can earn Rs. 10,000 to 20,000 easily and it will go up with experience. One can earn higher with personal (one-to-one) classes as compared to group classes. With the group or personal classes it can be hourly or per basis or if you join any gym, school, or spa then you will get a monthly salary.
An experienced yoga teacher can easily earn Rs. 30,000 - 40,000 monthly.As the health awareness toward health and fitness is increasing among people, the demand for yoga teachers also is getting increased.
You can join any fitness center, yoga school, gym, or spa center or start your own yoga classes also. Nowadays big celebrities also take the help of yoga to stay fit and they hire a personal yoga trainer for that.
After having a good experience and a name in the yoga field, you can become a yoga teacher trainer too.
Yoga is nowadays used as a therapy also for the treatment of some diseases, so you can become a yoga therapist too.