Why You Should Steer Clear of Cheap Online Yoga Teacher Trainings

Are you thinking of yoga teacher training? If so, you have probably done some research and found that there are many ways to get a certification online for a surprisingly small amount of money. You’ve also likely noticed a huge price range for 200-hour teacher trainings. You may have seen online trainings for as little as a couple hundred dollars and in-person trainings for several thousand dollars. So what’s the difference? Why pay more when you could pay so little? Sounds too good to be true, right? That is because it absolutely is.

Our lead teacher trainers at Yoga Baum have experience in teaching outside of the yoga setting, and we know what it looks like to teach something well, using both in-person and virtual resources. Now, don’t get us wrong, we absolutely LOVE the opportunities that online learning has brought. BUT we also know about pedagogy and how to effectively implement a blended learning model and a flipped classroom model. And it’s not as simple as having students watch videos and hoping that they absorb the information through osmosis. It takes planning, follow-up, and evaluation. 

We want to help you navigate this confusing world of yoga teacher trainings.

Here are some big red flags that can help you eliminate the less serious and less effective trainings right away:

There is little to no oversight. You could push play on your assigned videos, leave the room, and once the video has run its course, it’s counted as “seen.” Bam. You learned it. But not really.

There is little to no interaction with skilled instructors. Sometimes no interaction with humans, sometimes the interaction mostly or exclusively takes place with the other trainees, which, while better than no interaction, still doesn’t provide you with the expert guidance you can get from a human who is leading a training.

It’s a bargain. If it’s really cheap, it’s highly unlikely you are getting a skilled person’s input. It’s 200 hours—it should cost something. Without getting into an involved discussion of ethical wages in the yoga world, it simply makes sense that 200 hours of a person’s time should cost something. And it’s not only those 200 hours of training to take into account in the price of a solid program. Curriculum development, the trainers’ continuing education, space rental, and other supply and labor expenses are all involved in a well developed teacher training. While some of those expenses are mitigated in the online format, simply being online doesn’t eliminate all of the time and effort the school took to develop the program and platform. That means the only way it’s worth their while is to not give you any or much of their LIVE time. In the bargain trainings, the student is deprived of the full experience a training should offer because they didn’t pay for the part that matters the most in the learning process—the skilled expert’s time to help the student integrate and implement the information. Yoga teacher training is meant to be a career training, like going to school for something. In school, there are evaluations. The live meeting time in a yoga teacher training is where that evaluation takes place. Make sure you’re at least getting a conversation or direct feedback and follow-up on your submissions.

Final thoughts…

Not all online trainings are equal. Not all in-person trainings are equal either. There are schools who offer excellent online trainings and personal attention. But those are not the cheap ones. 

So now what? You don’t need to spend an excessive amount on training for it to be a quality training. Price out trainings near you and see what yoga schools in your area are charging on average for teacher training. In order for an online training to rival one of those, it should cost around the same as those and there should be some live components and interaction. 

Some tips for choosing a 200-hour yoga teacher training:

Look for lots of LIVE interaction with the lead trainers. This could be in-person or virtual, but live interaction is important in a foundational training like the 200-hour yoga teacher training. Of course supplemental online materials are awesome too and can be approached at their own pace, but there should be live follow-up about this material.

Be suspicious of low price points. What have they cut to get prices so low? Are there so many trainees enrolled that you won’t receive one-on-one attention? Ask questions.

We love leading teacher training. A huge part of our passion for our jobs comes from getting to personally know the students in our trainings and helping them grow into their own roles as teachers. 

We love teaching yoga, and in order to nurture that love for teaching in our trainees, we need to get to know their unique goals and strengths. If you’re ready to expand your knowledge and skills, check out our 200-Hour Yoga Teaching Training while you’re shopping around. We keep our cohorts small so we can provide mentorship and feedback, and that mentorship is what sets our training apart from the rest.

Learn more about Yoga Baum’s 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Louisville, KY here.