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| I'm thinking about taking the Level 1 Teacher Training course. It's mostly for myself, but I may want to become an instructor some day. I know a weekend course is just the beginning, but I wanted to get any opinions. I've read a few opinions on this forum, but they were from awhile back. Any new info/opinions??
Thanks,
Carole
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Hi Carole - the opinions probably still stand. If you are wanting to study more for yourself, a really good option is to find a good local studio and work toward their teacher training program. Do you currently attend classes? |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State |
I don't know anything about yogafit other than what I've read on here, but
on the basis of that I would not go near it.  |
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| I've mostly been practicing at home lately, because I just had my third child a year ago. It's been hard to get to a studio before now. However, over the past several weeks I've been looking into local studios. Problem is, I used to live in California, and now I live in Nebraska. The pickins are pretty slim. There is one studio I really like, but the training course is very expensive and quite a time committment. I thought I might start with the Yogafit, and see if I even like the idea of teaching before I spend $3500 on the other program.
I've heard the Yogafit program has made a lot of changes for the better in the past few years.....
Carole
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| Wow, is that how much it is just for level I?
From what I know about it (which isn't much), the improvements they have made is to add levels II-IV onto the original level I. Now anyone who completes all 4 levels and does some additional testing at the end will qualify for 200-hr registration with the Yoga Alliance.
I have taken several classes with several teachers who did just the Level I YogaFit certification, and they were pretty weak. I did not get the impression that they knew anything about yoga, proper alignment, flow, even names of the poses. Generally this is the route for current aerobics teachers who want to also offer yoga. They already know some general anatomy and how to instruct a class, and this gives them just enough basic yoga info to be dangerous (and I do mean dangerous).
But, I've also taken classes with a teacher who took all 4 levels of YogaFit, and she was AMAZING. Really incredible teacher. Now, I'm not sure whether YogaFit is fully responsible for how great she is - she also does a lot of independent study, and she might just happen to be an awesome teacher of anything. But, it could be the YogaFit, she spoke very highly of it.
That's all I know about it! 
If you do decide to deepen your practice, teacher training can be a good way to do it. Definitely take some classes with other live teachers first, sample different styles. And take your time, research all the yoga schools that you can. There's one out there that's right for you, maybe it is YogaFit or maybe not. But there's no hurry! Yoga's been around for thousands of years, it will still be there no matter how long you take to decide! |
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| It also depends on where you want to teach . . . most gyms/YMCA's will accept YogaFit as a perfectly fine certification, but most yoga studios will not. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Carole - my very personal opinion is that if you have three young kids, you would do best to get to a regular class at whatever level you are and just go to that once a week for the next while. I'm talking years here - seriously! I do understand the lack of availability - I have a friend in Idaho who is from the coast and she is having a heck of a time finding the quality of teaching and availability of classes we have out here. My kids are 22 and 24 and I didn't start back to yoga until they were in their later teens and I am so glad I waited. I don't think I would have given yoga the time or attention it needed to draw me into it as deeply when I had small kids. I don't think that I had the energy, brain power or maturity to understand how important it is to my life and I would have probably done myself a disservice by having my energies pulled between yoga and my kids. Teaching yoga does take a significant amount of nurturing of both yourself and your students and you need to keep as much of that for your kids, yourself and (I presume) your partner as you can for the next while. rAs I say, my personal opinion - if I were you I would just do yoga for yourself for now and wait to think about teaching later. Of course, this is me and you are you Let us know what you end up doing! |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 418
Location: New York | I took YogaFit's levels 1 & 2 and I really enjoyed them. I had very knowlegable trainers for both workshops. However, I don't think that Level 1 (or even Levels 1 & 2) really prepares one to jump right in and start teaching.
In Level 1 in particular, they really just cover the very basics. I found the sequencing info to be particularly lacking. And you won't learn the real (Sanskit) names for the poses, as they don't recommend using them. (Which I don't really understand- kind of like not using French in a ballet class- but whatever . . . ) But as a springboard for perhaps a more in-depth training, I think it's fine. However, I also agree with Tourist that regular attendance at a class with a teacher you respect will be more beneficial/helpful. That has helped my own teaching far more than YogaFit did.
I've also found "regular" TTs to be in the $3500 range. I'm hoping to do OMYoga's 200 hour program in the fall and it is $3600. Yikes! |
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| Wow! Betsey Downing's is $1800 for 200hr... ofcourse, she's not in NYC, either.
I asked dh to send me to Bryan Kest's TT in Mexico in July, but it's 3 weeks and $4500ish. IMO, that would be money well spent!
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| Thanks for the input guys, I really appreciate it.
By the way, the Yogafit is $300 a Level. It's my local TT that is over $3,000.
Carole
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| The 2-week plus internship program (200 hrs total) through Integrative Yoga Therapy was $1795, plus 2 weeks of lodging at whatever facility they happen to be using. Usually room and board is reasonable. I also opted to purchase the home-study manual/mentor program about 9 months prior to the in-person training. All told, it was around $2500 total. I'm starting their 500-hr program in January, that looks to be a little more cost-intensive. |
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| I've been very happy with all of my YogaFit trainings. (I've been through 3 levels.) My trainers have been very knowledgeable. I have even had the opportunity to do a workshop with Beth Shaw (founder of YogaFit).
I also have taken yoga teacher workshops (not entire certifications) in Anasura, Iyengar, and Ananda. I feel that blending different styles of yoga has been beneficial in my teaching practices.
In my opinion, YogaFit makes more of an effort to keep up with safety guidelines of exercise science. I was learning a lot of modifications in 1999 through YogaFit that I am just now seeing the traditional yoga world begin to use.
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| You did Iyengar teacher trainings? Hmmmm. I don't know about elsewhere but in Canada you would have to be a strictly Iyengar student to do teacher training. I am not questioning you so much as wondering about the people doing the training. Were they Iyengar certified teachers or people who said they teach Iyengar "style"? |
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| I agree, it's very good to get some training from various schools of thought on yoga. I hope to one day take the training at White Lotus too. For now, I'm starting with Yogafit. I also do tons of reading on my own, lots of traditional yoga books. I guess you could say I have my own teacher training program.... ;)
Carole
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| I say go practice at a good studio regularly and attend lots of workshops with great teachers. There are lots of good weekend immersions at studios that will deepen your practice. Although, if there isn't anything else around, taking the yogafit level 1 won't be the worst way to spend your weekend. I wouldn't rush right out and call yourself a teacher after that though. |
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| YogaGuy-
What do you mean??!! I've already got my business cards printed up!!! ;)
Carole
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| Tourist,
To answer your questions about the Iyengar teacher I did weekend workshops (not entire trainings) under, it was K-lea Gifford. She offers workshops out of her studio in Nashville, TN. She is an Iyengar instructor, and I believe was (at one time) the chair for the Souteast Region of the Iyengar Membership Committee. She does open up her workshops to teachers in different disciplines of yoga, not just Iyengar. She also offers a weekend continuing education course for massge therapists, and intensive weekend workshops for yoga students who aren't instructors but want to deepen their personal practice. Sorry if I was unclear about teacher workshop vs. teacher certification in my previous post! 
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| I agree with YogaGuy. No training (YogaFit or any other) can adequately prepare you to teach an entire yoga class after just 16 hours of training.
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Thanks for clarifying Yoga chick. I can imagine that in some areas it would be necessary to open workshops to students of other traditions. A great opportunity for you! I have seen K-lea's name before - how the heck does she pronounce it? I imagine it would be Kay-Lee but it could also be Klee-Ah, I suppose. |
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| Tourist, you are correct. It is pronounced Kay-Lee. |
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| I just received several of the Yogafit DVDs, and they are pretty darn good. Especially the yoga for seniors, kids, and prenatal. I was surprised. I think they will be a good starting point for me. Their CDs/music is good too, so I ordered a few.
Carole
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| I just completed the Level 1 training this past weekend 6/18-19. There was a variety of people in the class - some who had been teaching yoga for years already and some that weren't sure whether they wanted to teach at all, but wanted to learn a lot more about yoga. I truly enjoyed YogaFit's training. It was thorough, showed modifications, talked about different styles of yoga and broke down all the basic poses piece by piece.
I had heard criticism of Beth Shaw's book (which I admit I have not read). Some said it was too "industry" based. I did not get the impression that YogaFit is concentrating too much on the money aspect or business side, rather I learned what I thought I should in a level 1 and much more. I definitely got the tools I need to start teaching yoga safely as well. The instructor was down to Earth, in top form and was able to answer 99.9% of our questions.
There were 22 people in the training and we all couldn't say enough good about it at the end. It's definitely worth the money. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Welcome Lotus C - I am curious about whether or not you have a yoga background already? The reason I ask is that something can seem to be "very thorough" to someone who is new to a subject even when it isn't. I have had 4 years of teacher training and won't do my final exam (a very large take-home written and a weekend of practical with 4 national level assessors) until October. So thorough is a very subjective word here. |
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| LotusC
Any chance you were at the Chattanooga, TN training? (If so, you were at my YMCA!) |
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| one of my teacher training apprentices has taken the yogafit trainings. she is a gym owner and a certified aerobics instructor who has been taking yoga with me for 3 years now and doing her apprentice training for 8 months. During this time, she decided to investigate yogafit for herself, since it is really catered to 'her industry.'
she found it to be informative, but also found some things to be really off. For the informative part, she said that she was repeatedly told that she should only, and could only, teach the level one class, as taught to them during the workshop. So, she would have the same script for that class over and over. she felt that this was a good idea, to limit people's teaching to the area that they would know after the workshop.
on the really off side, she said that she didn't necessarily feel comfortable with some of the other trainees in class teaching (again, as a gym owner, she is looking at it from a who-could-teach-for-me standard) just due to their lack of experience. but, she fully admits that she is spoiled in that she currently has 5 yoga teachers on staff, all of whom have studied for 5 yrs or more and taught for 3 yrs or more. So, we're all really experienced and comparatively, she said that she wouldn't feel safe putting her clients under her level of teaching (again, already in apprentice training) let alone under a single workshop of training.
she also noticed (and i've noticed from the books) a lot of alignment issues in many of the postures demonstrated in the pictures as well as some of the modifications being a bit 'off' or 'uncomfortable' for her. When she showed me the videos for senoirs, prenatal, we were both able to pick out potential repetitive motion problems that could come from certain movements, particularly if an individual was already weak in that area (for example, many senoirs are very weak in the shoulders. while many people focus on their weak knees, they forget the shoulders, and some of those movements could be too difficult or could cause problems in the long term).
i think that yogafit workshops may be a good idea for someone to get a 'basic' training or an idea of how classes can be run in fitness settings. But, with so many other high-quality programs out there that involve travel for weekends and real home-study with mentors (think Kripalu or WHite Lotus), i think it's possible to find excellent programs that really work from the yoga perspective, rather than the fitness perspective (either way, today there's a money perspective involved, so it's six and one-half dozen to the other).
i also like taking workshops from different disciplines, particularly for continuing education credits. i do this frequently. |
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New Info/Opinions on Yogafit?
