What Is Doing A Yoga Teacher Training Like Post Covid?

What is doing a yoga teacher training like post Covid?

So anyone who is a yogi might notice that the number of Yoga studios across Canada are now less post Covid. This is for the fact that health mandates across Canada due to covid cause up to 30% of yoga studios in Canada to shut down permanently. 

Being unable to operate yoga classes or trainings for months and in some cases years was the main cause. So now that in person yoga teacher training (ytt) are on again, they have somewhat changed. Here are 3 of the main things you might notice if you are interested in doing an in-person ytt now.

They Are Not Maxed Out

When I did my first officer training back in 2010, I did it in a room approximately 500 square feet with 20 other individuals; there was just enough room for the teacher to walk down between students.

Now even though the majority of Canadians have been vaccinated for Covid the spacing between students and other Covid measures are still in place.  For example, many yttt sizes are intentionally 30% to 50% less than their max, this is allow for Covid spacing specifically.

They Are In General More Expensive Now

Like anything’s overtime things go up in price – especially with inflation being 7% for all products and services in Canada now.

On average, before Covid, ytts were about $2,000 nationally. Now most are $2,500 to 3000. This is to account for the fact that there are less studios offering in person trainings and the added costs of keeping covid related measures in place (e.g. sanitizer).

Technology Is Much More Extensive

Before Covid all ytt were conducted in person. This meant that the majority of the testing, learning about the topics and poses, were  all done in one room or space with 10 to 20 other students.

In March of 2020 , when Covid started, all ytt had to move online. Skype, Google Meets and other online platforms became the main way that teachers taught  yoga topics and students did the certification class in front of the classmates. 

Now with post covid technology is still being used. Many programs are run with 50% of the program still being done online. The other 50% of the time students meet in the space to do specific things like practice classes and certification classes.

Nothing will replace the magical experience of being able to do a ytt in person, but covid has had a tremendous and permanent effect on how it will be now conducted: Its costs more now and alot of it is done online, but none of this should discourage you from taking a yoga teacher training in person.