Teacher Trainings

TEACHER TRAINING

Teacher training at Yoga Pod Fort Collins is designed to equip you with the knowledge, skills, and confidence you will need to safely and effectively teach yoga while deepening your personal understanding of this profound system of thought and action.

YOGA ALLIANCE CERTIFIED

Both of our yearly trainings are certified through Yoga Alliance. Successful completion will entitle you to a 200-Hour certificate that can be registered for RYT (registered yoga teacher) distinction, allowing you to teach anywhere in the world. 

Our Training Styles

Our training combines modern scientific, physiological, and anatomical understanding with classical yogic concepts from the Vedas to the Yoga Sutras and beyond. Contemporary but reverent, it is our goal to produce educated, safe, and thoughtful teachers who are distinguishable through their affiliation with our program.

Topics covered include:

  • Yoga history and philosophy
  • Anatomy and alignment
  • Pranayama and meditation
  • Placement cues and hands-on adjustments
  • Sequencing and theming
  • Building your business
  • And much more

We are dedicated to providing you with a well-rounded and comprehensive foundation for success – both in your personal and teaching endeavors. Committed to your progress and development, our lead and guest instructors will remain available during and after your completion of the program to provide support, answer your questions, and help you realize your full potential. Contact us today to learn more.

Vinyasa Teacher Training

Our Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training takes place in the fall. This program is overseen by carefully selected E-RYTs and will help you dive deep into flow-based yoga and the practices, such as Ashtanga, that were integral to its development.

You will leave this training understating how to build and lead a class through creative flows of your own design, along with a foundational knowledge of set sequences that can provide inspiration as you continue to develop as a teacher.

Hot Yoga Teacher Training

Our Hot Yoga Teacher Training takes place in the spring. This program is overseen by ERYTs and Level 2 teachers in the  Original Hot Yoga Association (OHYA) instructors, and will provide a wide-ranging overview of the traditional Hot series as well as practices from the Ghosh lineage that inspired its development.

You will leave this training knowing how to teach the traditional Hot Yoga series along with modifications and additions that can greatly expand and enhance the student experience.

MORE INFO

Scholarships

Here at Yoga Pod we offer scholarships for traditionally underserved communities. We recognize that structural and institutional racism exists in the yoga, fitness, and wellness community. While scholarships are not a new offering at Yoga Pod, we believe that a BIPOC & non-dominant identities specific scholarship is a necessary next step toward increasing the diversity and inclusivity of our teachers and our trainings at Yoga Pod and beyond.

We are currently offering  scholarships to the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) or other non-dominant identities/traditionally underrepresented groups such as LGBTQIA+.

To apply, please click the button below and submit the application.

Our Next 200 Hour Training…

Welcome All,

We are thrilled to be hosting our next Teacher training.  We have an incredibly knowledgeable and weighted teaching team as well a a vast staff of teachers at the studio to learn from. It should be an exciting time. We are honored to be able to lead you through this training. Reach out if you have any questions!

General Information

Weekly Schedule and Location*

Tuesday 7pm-10 pm

Thursday 7pm-10 pm

Saturday 7a-12 pm

Sunday 7am -1 pm

*Sessions will be held at Yoga Pod as well as our offsite location. A detailed schedule with locations will be provided prior to training.

**Time constraints according to studio schedule may mean we adjust the Sunday schedule

Instructors and Faculty-

  • Brad Hoback –Training Lead-  bhoback@gmail.com
  • Danielle Michael- Program Director
  • Jana Stratton- Studio Manager, Teaching Practicum
  • Carolyn Yates- Teaching Practicum
  • Kat Badong- Anatomy
  • Maj-Lis Delgado- Studio Owner
  • Guest Teachers

Materials

Online Resources

NEW Yoga Pod Online: https://yoga-pod-fort-collins.mykajabi.com

Yoga Anatomy

Additional

  • We will practice most of the time so bring your yoga gear and be prepared for practice. This includes a change of clothes, snacks and water.
  • Journal
  • Phone, Tablet or Computer
  • Props — If you find various props useful or necessary, please bring them. If you don’t have them, let us know. 
  • Sense of humor and Curiosity.

Yoga Pod Program Expectations

OUR COMMITMENT

This Yoga Pod training is a vibrant learning experience that includes a well-rounded background of the ancient principles of yoga blended with modern asana perspectives. During this program, you will learn a multitude of tools and resources to apply to your personal yoga practice and to put into play as a professional yoga teacher. You will gain knowledge of teaching best practices and learn skills that apply directly to teaching dynamic yoga classes. This program is designed to meet and exceed the standards of a Yoga Alliance 200-hour RYT certified program. Upon completion and receipt of your certification, you may register with Yoga Alliance to receive your RYT designation and market yourself to the greater yoga community as a yoga teacher.

In order to receive certification, you must meet all teacher training requirements. Attendance requirement must be met to receive your certification. These policies and expectations are covered on opening night. Please be aware if you miss too many sessions. you will not be eligible for graduation. Your participation in this training does not guarantee you a teaching position at Yoga Pod.

Student Expectations

Journal — Keep track of your experience. A journal can be an incredibly effective way to measure small changes. Most of the information / presentation material will be recorded for later viewing and/ or posted on our learning platform. Choose to keep track of those ideas that create impressions and imprint deeply into your experience.

Practice — Each Day we will have a practice. Practice will logically fit the topic of the day. It will include elements of breathing and meditation practices. Chanting and ritual based practices will also receive attention. Ideally these elements will be approached with curiosity.

Outside Practice — Attend at minimum 20 classes over the course of the training. Maintaining a regular practice is instrumental in being a quality teacher. Don’t underestimate this fact. The intensity and frequency of your practice may change, making this difficult. Nevertheless, commit to the development of your practice. Learn to do yoga even when you don’t want to and you think you’ve had enough. Commit this experience to your journal.

Self-Study— Study is an under-represented, but essential practice within the yoga tradition. During this training, you can expect around 4 hours per week will be required for study. Most of this will be anatomy but we will also post readings, videos, podcasts episodes and downloads as a way to facilitate and deepen our engagement. Also, these can be shared on Facebook.

Observations — One of the most informative experiences for past students has been observing teachers. This is done without taking. Make sure you ask the teacher a head of time. These can be any of the Yoga Pod offerings including PodFIT and PodHOT. (Virtual students can observe classes posted to the Yoga Pod Youtube channel.

Teacher Interview— Schedule an Interview with a teacher, at Yoga Pod or elsewhere  whose teaching style you admire, who has had an important impact on your practice or someone who you’d like to know more about their own path as a teacher and student. Most teachers are more than willing.

Flipped Learning — The teaching strategy that informs the way we are holding the training is a highly effective teaching strategy where basic concepts are provided a head of time for pre-class learning so that class time can be used to apply and build on those concepts through engagement, active learning and discussion. Outside of class, you’ll be asked to engage by watching videos and other multimedia materials that introduce and explain concepts as well as provide context. This will make our class experience an opportunity for going deeper through lecture, discussion and experience based learning. Honor this as much as possible, but don’t let it be a hindrance for attendance.

Requirements

You will receive your 200-hour certificate once the below items have been satisfied:

  • Attendance of all sessions (make-up is difficult to schedule and will be offered at a minimum)
  • Complete all required Anatomy Modules
  • Complete all required modules on Kajabi, the Yoga Pod online-learning platform.
  • Complete all required outside class work
  • Teach 1- full class
  • Complete Final Exam on Kajabi
  • Tuition paid in full
  • Lots of smiles

Overview of Course Structure

This Teacher Training is designed to imprint the lessons of yoga by strategically placing similar conceptual frameworks in the same week. For example, the week we study feet, knees and hips in anatomy, we will also study standing postures, and foundational philosophical concepts taught in the yoga tradition. By placing like with like, we are able to establish connections that will provide an opportunity to bind conceptual understanding in the reality of physical experience. This is largely how yoga works, as a process of integrating and making whole the various aspects of the self so that we can fully embody our truest potentiality.

Class Breakdown and Categories of Study

Our class structure is intended to meet the requirements for Yoga Alliance certification. This is a template and may need altered at times. This format will hopefully help everyone remain engaged, even if we are forced to go to the Zoom format. Guest teachers and zoom classes will also follow this organization if possible.

1. Anatomy 

We will discover modern principles of yoga as it pertains to anatomy, physiology and biomechanical processes as they pertain to the skeletal, muscular, respiratory, cardiovascular anatomy within the context of  the asana practice. In addition, we will pay specific attention to the internal or subtle anatomy that informs the nature of our physical practice, making it a process of realization and transformation. This will include: chakras, nadis, prana, and bandha through mudra and mantra.

We will review weekly readings and modules during class. The majority of the anatomy (20 hours) will be done online as part of the yoganatomy.com website. We will spend 10 hours in person reviewing what was covered online. As needed, this will be spread out over each of the 4 days, focusing on specific areas of the Anatomy lessons.

2. Practice Led practice.

The objective is to become established in the yoga practice. This is about your personal experience of yoga as we seek to encounter different aspects of the practice, different styles of yoga and explore the depth of yoga from different points of view. For this reason, practice will frequently include aspects of yoga-sadhana (yoga practice): Asana, pranayama, mantra, mudra, meditation and self-study. We will survey the practice of yoga as a continually evolving practice that continually transforms to meet the needs of those who practice. In this way, we will find ourselves to be contributors with yoga’s tradition as co-creators of yoga’s future.

3. Humanities 

In our Humanities section, our objective is to learn about the historical, philosophical, cultural and humanitarian aspects of yoga that shape the lifestyle, ethics and priorities that are foundational to yoga and the teaching of yoga. This will take various forms from readings, lecture and experience based learning.

We will encounter the history, lifestyle and ethics that are foundational to yoga and the teaching of yoga. Training will include a basic survey of yoga philosophy as taught in the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, Bhagavad Gita, and Hatha Yoga Pradipika as well as philosophical traditions such as Advaita Vedanta and Tantra. We will study Sanskrit, the language of yoga, as a way of decoding the nature of yoga.

4. Teaching 

Here you will learn about the classroom experience of a yoga teacher and practice using some of the sequencing tools, we will be learning, to teach the Fall PodFLOW 1 Sequence. It is a practice constructed with a solid variety of postures and sequences that should prove a valuable model for the planning aspects of teaching yoga.

As teacher students, we will study: Methods for teaching standing poses, floor poses, inversions, backbends and twists. We will discuss modifications for injuries, body limitations and special conditions. Learning how to cue movement, pace class, use of props and effectively communicate will be essential takeaways from this training. We will accomplish this by exploring how teach a postural exercise in stages from the most simple to most complex versions; sequencing a practice around a chosen posture in a way that will allow students of various levels to safely and effectively lead practitioners up to it, and then appropriately release them out of it, teach visually-instructed classes, verbally-instructed classes and simple physical adjustments and guidance.

Objectives

By successfully finishing this training you should have a cursory understanding of the following:

  • Teachings and techniques of the lineage of yoga you are studying
  • Applied anatomy and physiology of yoga
  • Safe and effective posture, movement, breathing and mental-focus for practicing different types of yoga
  • Using concepts central to yoga philosophical traditions as elements of theming.
  • Understanding teaching yoga as an act of service
  • The joys and challenges of owning and operating a yoga business

Through this training you will have opportunity to develop the following teaching skills:

  • How to teach a postural exercise in stages from the most simple to most complex versions
  • Choosing a posture to teach and structuring a sequence around it which will safely and effectively lead practitioners up to it, and then appropriately release them out of it
  • Teaching visually-instructed classes and verbally-instructed classes, as well as providing simple physical adjustments and guiding through touch
  • How to approach the teaching of individuals and groups and gradually progress them in a safe and effective way.
  • How to teach yoga with people in special or unique situations
  • Dealing with trauma

Investment: $3150. Watch the newsletter for Early Bird Pricing. Members are eligible for a 15% discount. Karma Yogis are eligible for a 30% discount. Payment plans are available!

FAQ

How do I sign up for Teacher Training at Yoga Pod Fort Collins?
You can sign up online, by phone, or in person at our Fort Collins studio.

Do you offer financing for your teacher trainings?
We would be happy to discuss a flexible payment plan with you. We have also partnered with a local bank to offer financing for students who find that option preferable. Stop by or call to learn more.

Do you offer discounts for teacher training?
Members receive a 15% discount. Karma Yogis receive 30% off of training. You can apply for the Karma Yogi program here; choose “Fort Collins” from the drop down and select “Karma Yogi” as the position. 

What is your cancelation/refund policy?
Students who have paid in full may request a full refund within three (3) business days of payment. Cancelation after three days but before the commencement of training will result in a $150 administrative charge. Students who cancel after the commencement of training will be entitled to a refund less the administrative charge and fees for the percentage of training that has been completed.

Can I practice at Yoga Pod Fort Collins while in training?
Trainees are entitled to unlimited classes at Yoga Pod Fort Collins during the course of teacher training.

How many people will be in my training at Yoga Pod Fort Collins?
It is our goal to produce thoughtful and proficient teachers who will be sought after by studios in Northern Colorado and beyond. In order to meet this objective, we cap our trainings at 20 to maintain the appropriate teacher/student ratio. 

Is Yoga Pod Fort Collins a Registered Yoga School (RYS)?
Yoga Pod Fort Collins is a RYS. Our teacher training programs are accredited by Yoga Alliance. Students who successfully complete our 200-Hour programs may register with Yoga Alliance as RYTs. This means that your certificate will make you eligible to teach yoga throughout the world.

Is Yoga Pod Fort Collins affiliated with a specific linage or tradition?
We offer Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Hot, Yin, Restorative, and Fit classes at our Fort Collins studio. Our lead instructors have individually attended trainings at the Colorado School of Yoga (Vinyasa), Bikram’s Yoga College of India (Ghosh/Hot), and Yoga Workshop (Ashtanga), but we are not affiliated with any specific tradition or lineage. 

What are the pre-requisites for Teacher Training at Yoga Pod Fort Collins?
Our 200-Hour Teacher Training programs are best for students with at least six months (preferably a year or more) of consistent yoga practice. Having a base understanding of the postures is essential for becoming a safe and effective teacher.

How long is teacher training at Yoga Pod Fort Collins?
Our Vinyasa training takes place on Wednesday evenings, and all day on Saturday and Sunday over the course of eight weeks.

Our Hot Yoga training takes place on Wednesday and Friday evenings, and all day Saturday and Sunday for a period of six weeks.

Both of our trainings are designed to end before major holidays and PSD breaks (including Spring Break). 

What is the attendance policy for teacher training at Yoga Pod Fort Collins?
We expect trainees to attend all classes, lectures, and workshops. If you are unable to attend a segment, you will be required to make arrangements with the teacher to get necessary information before training is completed. 

Ours is a rigorous and disciplined training, which is necessary for producing capable and thoughtful teachers. Several of our instructors will make themselves available during lunch breaks and outside of training hours to accommodate emergencies or unbreakable plans, but daily participation is the expectation.

What if I don’t want to be a teacher?
You do not have to teach upon completion of one of our 200-Hour training programs. In fact, many people choose to take these trainings just to gain personal knowledge and deepen their own practice. 

We encourage you to enter training without expectations, allowing yourself to grow in whichever directions it takes you.

Will I be hired by Yoga Pod Fort Collins after training?
Yoga Pod Fort Collins upholds the highest standards for our teachers. All teachers undergo an interview and audition process with both management and senior teachers, and must be able to demonstrate confidence, intelligence, and proficiency while teaching a class. If you are interested in working for our studio after completion of the program, we will happily set up an interview and audition. 

Some of our former trainees are on our sub list. Some have joined our permanent teaching staff, but a job with Yoga Pod Fort Collins is not guaranteed.

Many of our teachers are willing to work with former trainees as mentors to help them develop further – even in cases where the trainee is not hired by the studio. We can discuss this with you in person if you are interested in learning more.

How can I get more information?
You can stop by our beautiful Fort Collins studio, send us an email, or give us a call at 970.829.8751. We’d love to talk to you in person. Reach out today!