Questions to Ask About Yoga Teacher Training
For a yoga student weighing a 200-hour or 300-hour teacher training, to bring to the information session or a call with the lead trainer before any deposit is paid. The list starts with the trainers and the group you would join, then moves through the curriculum, the schedule, the money and the certificate, and ends with what past trainees are doing now. Every question carries a note: what a solid answer contains, what should give you pause, or what to check for yourself afterward.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
People
Who are the lead trainers, and how many of the hours does each of them teach?
Why ask it
The name on the flyer is not always the person in the room. A clear answer gives each trainer's share in hours or modules. If the lead teaches the opening weekend and the closing one, ask who holds the middle, because that person is your teacher.
Where did you train, and which lineage or style does this program teach from?
Why ask it
You will come out teaching a version of what they teach, so the answer should sound like the classes that made you want to do this. Listen for named teachers and years of study with them. 'A blend of everything' can be honest, but follow it by asking what a graduate's class usually looks like.
How long have you been teaching yoga, and how many trainings have you led before this one?
Why ask it
Leading a good class and training teachers are different jobs, and the second number is the one that matters here. A first training is no reason to walk away. It is a reason to ask what they are changing from the training they took themselves, and whether the price reflects a first run.
How many trainees do you take, and what is the smallest group you would run it with?
Why ask it
Group size decides how often you get to teach and be watched, so get both ends of the range. A large group means sharing the trainer's attention. A minimum matters because a training that does not fill may be postponed or merged with another, and you want to know what happens to your deposit if it is.
Can I take your regular classes before I put down a deposit?
Why ask it
A few weeks in the lead trainer's ordinary classes is the cheapest research there is. Watch how they speak to the newest person in the room and what they do when someone is struggling. If you are tired of their voice after an hour, a whole training with it will not go better.
How many trainers or assistants are in the room on a typical day?
Why ask it
When the group splits up to practice teaching, one trainer can only stand beside one small group at a time. Ask who watches the others. Assistants who finished the program last year are common and can be helpful, but find out whether their comments are the only ones some trainees get.
Which guest teachers come in, and for which subjects?
Why ask it
Anatomy and philosophy are often handed to a visitor, so find out what that person does the rest of the year. Someone who works with bodies or texts for a living is a good sign. A second studio teacher reading from the manual is a weaker one.
How long should I have been practicing before I start, and is there anyone you would advise to wait?
Why ask it
Requirements differ from school to school: some want a year or more of steady practice, some take anyone keen, and a 300-hour usually expects a 200-hour certificate first. A trainer who can describe the applicant they asked to come back next year is choosing a group, not filling one. If you have an injury or are pregnant, say so now and notice how specific the reply is.
Can I take this training if I do not plan to teach?
Why ask it
Mixed groups are ordinary, and the mix changes the room. Find out whether practice teaching and the final assessment would still be required of you. If you do plan to teach, turn the question around: is the pace set for the people who will be in front of a class in six months?
Who would I go to with a concern about a trainer or another trainee?
Why ask it
A training puts a lot of trust in one or two people for months, so it is fair to want a second door. The solid answer names someone other than the lead trainer and points to a written code of conduct. In a small studio the owner and the lead trainer can be the same person, which makes the question more useful, not less.
Curriculum
Can I see the full syllabus, with the hours given to each subject?
Why ask it
This is the one document that lets you compare two programs line by line: postures, anatomy, philosophy, teaching method, practice teaching. If nothing exists on paper, the curriculum may live in one person's head, and it can change with their mood and their calendar.
How many hours will I spend teaching other people, and in which week does that start?
Why ask it
Good programs start small and early: one pose to a partner in the first weeks, then a short sequence, then a full class. The worrying answer is that all the practice teaching happens on the last weekend, when there is no time left to try again.
Who gives me feedback on my teaching, and in what form?
Why ask it
Applause from the group feels good and teaches little. Ask how many times a lead trainer will watch you teach, whether the notes are written or spoken one to one, and whether you get another turn after hearing them.
How is anatomy taught, and how much of it happens on the mat?
Why ask it
The useful kind is tied to poses: what a knee is doing in a lunge, why two people's forward folds look different. Slides of muscle names for two days is the weak version. Ask too what trainees are told about the limits of the role, meaning which questions from students get sent to a doctor or physical therapist.
How much time goes to philosophy and the history of yoga, and which texts will we read?
Why ask it
Named texts, assigned reading and time set aside to discuss them show the subject is more than a slide. It is also fair to ask how the program talks about where the practice comes from. If the whole answer is one afternoon, this is a posture training, which is fine as long as you know it.
Will I learn to build my own classes, or to teach a set sequence?
Why ask it
Both are legitimate. A set sequence gets you teaching sooner and suits studios that run that style. Building your own takes longer and travels further. Ask what you could teach, a month after finishing, at a studio that has never heard of this school.
How much of the training is about teaching beginners, older students and people with injuries?
Why ask it
The people in a public class rarely move like the people in a teacher training. Ask whether you will practice teaching with props and easier versions to someone who needs them, or only hear it described. One mention in a lecture is not preparation for a stiff beginner in the front row.
What is your approach to hands-on adjustments, and how is consent taught?
Why ask it
Programs differ widely here, from teaching touch at length to not teaching it at all, and either can be right. What you want is a clear position and practice at asking. Check also how it applies to you as a trainee: you should be able to decline being adjusted without it becoming a topic.
How much breathwork and meditation is included, and will I lead those practices myself?
Why ask it
Being guided through a breathing practice is not the same as learning to guide one. Ask whether you will lead a few minutes of each in front of the group, and what the program teaches about students who should go gently or sit a practice out.
What do you teach about getting work as a teacher: auditions, pay, insurance, finding a first class?
Why ask it
It is often a single session, so find out what goes into it. The strong version has local detail, such as what new teachers around here are paid per class and how studios run auditions. Rates and insurance expectations change from place to place and from one employer to the next, so take what you hear as one trainer's picture of one town.
Schedule
What are the exact dates and hours, and are they fixed before I pay?
Why ask it
Ask for the calendar in writing, including the days that run long and any weekend still marked 'to be confirmed'. Then ask what your options are if the school moves a date after you have paid. You are arranging work and family around this for months.
How much of the training is in person, and how much is online or recorded?
Why ask it
Ask which subjects are live. A lecture survives being watched on video; teaching a room of people and being corrected mostly does not. If part is recorded, ask how long you keep access, and whether any registry you care about counts those hours the way the school says it does.
How many hours can I miss and still get the certificate, and how do makeups work?
Why ask it
Some programs require every hour before they will sign the certificate, so one missed Saturday matters. Find out what a makeup consists of, who it is with and what it costs, since private hours with a trainer add up fast. If you already know of a wedding or a work trip, name the date now.
How much reading, homework and home practice is expected between sessions?
Why ask it
The hours in the room are only part of the load. Ask for an estimate per week and what it is made of: journals, essays, sequences to write, classes to observe. Then set that number beside your real week, not your ideal one.
How many hours of physical practice are there on a training day, and what if I need to sit some of it out?
Why ask it
A training day can hold more time on the mat than some people do in a week of ordinary classes. A trainer who has thought about it will describe the balance of practice, lecture and sitting, and will say that resting is allowed without anyone remarking on it. If you are managing an injury or a health condition, get your own clinician's view as well as the school's.
Do I have to attend a set number of studio classes during the training, and are they included in the price?
Why ask it
A class requirement is common. A membership that covers it is less so. If it is not included, add the cost to your total, and ask whether classes at another studio or online would count toward it.
How do people with full-time jobs or children manage this schedule, and what do they find hardest?
Why ask it
An honest trainer will name the hard part without being pushed: the long Sunday, the month when the essays are due. Ask whether someone in the last group worked full time and would be willing to talk to you. Their account is worth more than the reassurance.
If it is an intensive, what does one day look like from waking to lights out?
Why ask it
This is for the month-long and retreat formats. Get the real timetable and look for the rest days, the free hours and the time the last session ends. One with no gaps in it is a worry: tired people do not take in much, and you will be away from your usual ways of recovering.
What happens if I get injured, fall ill or have a family emergency partway through?
Why ask it
Ask whether you can pause and finish with the next group, how long that offer stays open, and whether there is a fee. A kind answer in conversation is not a policy. Ask where it is written down.
Money
What is the total cost, and what is not included in it?
Why ask it
Have them list the extras one by one: the manual, the reading list, studio classes, makeup sessions, registration fees afterward. Add it up yourself. Two programs with the same tuition can end a long way apart once the list is finished.
How much is the deposit, and is any part of it refundable?
Why ask it
Non-refundable deposits are common, which makes the amount and the dates the thing to pin down. Ask what happens to it if you withdraw before the start, and separately what happens if the school cancels. Pay only once both answers are in the written agreement.
What is your refund policy if I withdraw after the training has started?
Why ask it
Read the written policy, not the summary of it. A careful school has a schedule showing what comes back at each stage. Nothing back after day one is a position some schools take, and you want to learn that now. Consumer rules differ by place, so for a large sum look up what applies where you live.
Is there a payment plan, and does it cost more than paying in full?
Why ask it
Get both totals side by side. Then find out what happens if a payment is late, and whether the certificate is held until the balance is cleared. An early price with a deadline is ordinary. One that has to be decided on the day you first hear of it is pressure.
Do you offer scholarships, reduced rates or work exchange, and how are they awarded?
Why ask it
Some studios have something and do not advertise it. Ask how many places there are, when the application closes, and for work exchange, how many hours a week it means. Front desk shifts on top of a training and a job make for a heavy season.
Can I read the enrollment agreement before I pay anything?
Why ask it
Whatever was said in conversation should be in it: dates, price, refunds, what earns the certificate. Take it home and read it slowly. A school that needs the deposit today and will send the paperwork later has answered the question for you.
For a destination training, what do the room, meals and transfers cost, and who do I pay for them?
Why ask it
Away from home, tuition can be the smaller part of the bill. Ask whether the room is shared, what is covered on days off, and who refunds what if the venue changes. Entry and visa rules for studying abroad depend on the country, so check those with an official source and not with the school.
Certificate
Is this program registered with Yoga Alliance, and at which level?
Why ask it
Yoga Alliance is a membership registry with a public directory, so you can look the school up yourself and see that the name and the level, 200 or 300 hours, match what you are being sold. A listing is a voluntary credential, and some long-established schools certify their own way instead. If this one is not listed, ask why, and what its graduates show an employer.
What exactly do I have to complete to receive the certificate?
Why ask it
You want a list: the hours, the practice teaching, the written work, any exam, a paid balance. Ask whether turning up is enough on its own, and how many people in the last group left without a certificate and why. Their reasons tell you what the paper measures.
Is there a final exam or teaching assessment, and what happens if I do not pass it?
Why ask it
Ask who assesses you, against what, whether you can try again and whether a second try costs anything. A trainer who can describe asking someone to do more work before signing them off is running an assessment. One who cannot may be running a ceremony.
Do studios and gyms around here accept this certificate when they hire?
Why ask it
Take the school's answer as a first opinion. The real check is to ask the manager of a place you would like to teach at what they require, since it varies by employer and by country. Some gyms and chains want a credential of their own on top.
After I finish, what do I need to do to register as a teacher, and what does it cost each year?
Why ask it
Registering is usually your own step with its own fee, separate from the school's certificate. Ask for the current steps, then confirm them on the registry's own site, because fees and rules change. Ask too whether you will need continuing education to stay listed.
If I want to take a 300-hour or specialty training later, will these hours count toward it somewhere else?
Why ask it
This matters most when the program is not on a registry, or when you expect to move. The school's answer is half of it. The program you might go on to, and any registry it uses, decide the rest, so put the same question to one of them. If prenatal, yin or kids yoga is the real goal, find out where earlier trainees went for it.
Graduates
What are the people from your last two trainings doing now?
Why ask it
The answer you want has detail in it: who teaches where, roughly how many classes a week, who decided not to teach at all. No school can promise you work. 'Everyone is teaching', with no names and no studios, is a line and not a record.
Can I speak with two or three recent graduates, including one who is not teaching?
Why ask it
Ask them what surprised them, what they still could not do at the end, and whether the final cost matched what they were told. The one who is not teaching often gives the most useful account. A school that offers only its favorite graduate has chosen what you hear.
Do you hire your own graduates, and how does someone get onto your schedule?
Why ask it
Studios often do hire from their own trainings, though the open slots are usually few. Ask how many people from the last group now teach paid classes there, as distinct from free community ones. If the path onto the schedule runs through another paid course, write that down.
Is there mentoring, assisting or a community class where I can keep teaching after the training ends?
Why ask it
The weeks after the last session are the ones when nobody is watching you teach anymore, which is when a next step helps most. Get the specifics: how many classes you would lead, who observes, how long it lasts. If assisting is unpaid, ask for how many months and what it leads to.
How ready to teach a public class do most people feel at the end, and what did they still need?
Why ask it
'Most need more hours in front of people, and here is how they get them' is the honest version. 'Everyone leaves fully ready' is the sales version. You can also ask what the trainer's own first year of teaching was like and what helped.
What do people say they wish they had known before they started?
Why ask it
A trainer who asks each group will have an answer waiting: how tiring the weekends were, how much came up emotionally, how long the essays took. If nothing comes, ask how they collect comments from trainees and what they changed last time because of them.
How to choose a yoga teacher training with these questions
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you contact a school
Decide what you want the training for
People sign up to teach full time, to teach one class a week beside another job, or to study yoga more seriously with no plan to teach. Each makes a different group of questions matter most. If you want to be hired, Curriculum, Certificate and Graduates carry the weight. If it is for your own practice, People and Schedule matter more, and you can go lightly on where graduates work.
Practice with the trainers first
Take the lead trainer's public classes for a few weeks before any conversation about money. You will learn how they teach, how they treat the slowest person in the room and whether you want to sound like them, which no information session can show you. For a training in another city or country, ask for recorded classes and a video call with the person who will teach most of the hours.
Read what is already published
Dates, price, the daily timetable and any registry listing are usually on the school's site or in its directory entry. Read them first so the conversation can go to what is not written: who teaches which hours, how feedback works, what happens when you miss a day. If a basic fact is missing from everything published, that gap is worth a question of its own.
Pick the questions that could change your mind
An information session or a call gives you room for perhaps ten. Choose one or two from each group, and put first the ones that would rule a program out for you, such as a date you cannot make or a refund policy you could not live with. The rest can go in an email afterward.
At the information session or on the call
Ask the person who will teach you
A studio manager or program coordinator can answer for dates and payment. Questions about lineage, feedback and how teaching is assessed belong to the lead trainer. If the trainer is not at the session, ask for fifteen minutes with them before you commit. How easy that is to arrange tells you something about how reachable they will be during the training.
Ask what happened last time
'How many people did you take last time?' and 'How many finished?' get you facts. 'What is your philosophy on group size?' gets you a speech. For nearly every question on this page there is a version that asks what happened in the most recent training, and that version is harder to answer vaguely.
Raise money plainly
Schools that are comfortable with their prices and policies answer cost questions without changing tone. You do not need to apologize for asking about refunds: it is a large payment for a course that runs for months, and plans change. If the mood cools when you ask to see the agreement, weigh that along with the answer.
Follow up with an email
After the conversation, send a short email that repeats what you understood about dates, the total price, the refund terms and what earns the certificate, and ask them to confirm. People move on, memories differ, and a friendly promise made at an open house is hard to rely on eight months later.
Comparing two or three programs
Put the same five facts side by side
For each program write down the total cost with extras, the number of trainees, the hours you will spend teaching, the hours the lead trainer is in the room, and the makeup policy. A program that looked more expensive often looks different once the cheaper one's studio membership and makeup fees are added in, and the reverse happens too.
Weigh the teacher above the brand
A well-known studio name helps less than you might expect once you are standing in front of a class. What you carry out is what one or two people taught you and how often they watched you try. If two programs are close, choose the trainer whose classes you would still want to take in five years.
Let graduates break the tie
Talk to someone who finished each program in the last year or two. Ask what they could do on the first day they taught and what they had to learn somewhere else. Their answers are the nearest thing to a preview of your own, and they have nothing to sell you.
Check what depends on where you live
Whether a registry listing matters, what insurance a studio expects, how refunds are regulated and what new teachers are paid all vary by country, region and employer. A school can tell you how it sees things. Confirm anything that affects your decision with the studios you hope to work for, the registry itself, or the consumer body where you live.
Mistakes to avoid
Paying to hold a place before reading the terms
Early prices and 'only three places left' are there to move you along. A deposit is often not returned, so read the agreement first, even if that costs you the discount.
Choosing by location or scenery alone
A month by the sea is a fine thing to want. Ask the Curriculum and Certificate questions with the same care you would at home, since the view does not come back with you and the hours of practice teaching do.
Expecting a job at the end
A first training is the start of learning to teach. Plan for a stretch of community classes, covering for others and small rooms, and ask the Graduates questions to find out how long that stretch usually lasts for people from this school.
Staying quiet about your own limits
An injury, a pregnancy, a job with unpredictable hours or a tight budget all change which program fits. Say so early. A good school will tell you how it would work or suggest a later date, and a poor one will tell you not to worry.