Weekly Newsletter

The Yoga Wars

If you have not yet heard of YogaFit, it is the new instant yoga teacher training program. It is the TV dinner version of yoga.

If you are a yoga teacher who has earned a 200 or 500 hour certification and continue to learn and study, you may be appalled or indifferent to the controversy that is being started by the statements made by YogaFit in recruiting new teachers.

YogaFit is starting to dominate the gym market of yoga. You can sign up for a YogaFit course and in 2 days be certified to be a yoga instructor. This requires zero background in yoga.

We have instant coffee, instant tea, and now we have instant yoga instructor.

How can a person qualify to teach a yoga class in just 2 quick days of training?

So far it is the only Yoga Alliance and ACE approved yoga teacher training program to train individuals worldwide.

Now I am certified by Yoga Alliance as part of a 200 hour intense training. I am well along the way towards completing my 500 hour training. And it shocks me that overnight someone can buy the title of yoga instructor.

If someone has no background in yoga, imagine how much harm they can do to their students' bodies.

I find this whole issue to be disturbing. One can't even compare yoga training to teaching Zumba (a combination of Latin dance forms.) Now to be a Zumba instructor you just need two days but to become a yoga teacher requires so much more intense study of the lineage and spirituality of yoga.

This does not mean that one has to incorporate chanting, or lighting incense when they teach a yoga class, but there is such a large spectrum in the yoga field. Teaching yoga is a lifestyle and not just a bunch of poses to make people sweat and tighten your buns.

Yoga should not be the latest cardio fad following on the heels of STEP classes or low impact aerobics classes.

YogaFit seems to be blatantly mocking the whole tradition of yoga and the roots of where it has come from. They wrote that director's of gym's don't want to deal with yoga instructors wanting higher wages , hotter rooms and that gym members felt uncomfortable with chanting and painful poses.

So in theory Yogafit justifies that they are responding to the major cries of the corporate world in Gyms by providing shaken' bake yoga teachers. As YogaFit states it's "real yoga for real people". This is quite a statement. This is a very bold company wanting to change the whole concept of yoga.

When Harlan handed me a 3 page Yogafit article and registration form, I was extremely unimpressed. Many people have become outraged that Yoga Alliance would associate or lend its name to an organization that is putting down traditional yoga teachers and seeking to drive them out of business by replacing them with 2 day clones willing to teach rubber-stamp scripted yoga sessions.

Harlan has studied the Yoga Alliance requirements for certification. He wondered how Yoga Alliance handles the core requirements including the study of ancient yoga texts and scriptures. Is there a separate Yoga Alliance curriculum for people who want to be instant yoga teachers?

For all the yoga teachers who spend a lot of money and time to earn their certification, this is demeaning and insulting. If you are newly certified, you may now be competing with a someone who just came out of a weekend training.

They may not know a quarter of the information on teaching yoga that you do but they're certified by YogaFit and the Yoga Alliance and may be asking for less money.

This is the competition you have to look forward to if you are applying for positions in the gym market.

Remember the gym owners are looking to save a buck and may not care you have more qualifications in your pinky then they have in their whole body.

I think you can represent yoga in an honorable way and give people some more meaning behind what yoga is all about, without chanting or burning incense.

Depending on where and when you are teaching, one may need to curve the way in which they teach. But how much can you really learn in a weekend training.

If I have insulted anyone who has sincerely taken the YogaFit training then I apologize. I think what YogaFit is doing is inevitably going to disturb a lot of people in the yoga world who firmly stand behind the deeper and greater meaning of yoga.

I think being a yoga teacher and being a good one takes a long time. It is a journey and a process that leads you down many rivers, it is a privilege to be a yoga teacher. It is a very old tradition, and hopefully as it continues to grow and gain more popularity, the teachings of yoga and it's intricate lineage will be preserved by the teachers that continue to teach in the real essence of Yoga.

We would be interested to hear what your take on this whole subject is.

I hope you are flowing inside the current of your life and you continue to radiate your light through your teaching.

And for the record, we contacted Beth Shaw the founder and director of YogaFit and invited her to be interviewed. Through her media person, she declined the offer.

Namaste,

Sara

The Big Move!
Harlan moved his office this week. His new office is larger with an entire area dedicated to yoga. But in the course of the move, he lost phones and internet for two days.

The September issue of our newsletter is going out the door. Folks, there's an audio interview with Harlan in it revealing a totally new strategy for getting clients. If you haven't subscribed, you can still get this issue and boy, is this one worth it.

There will also be a video critique of a yoga site, one of Sara's Savasana recordings too. In addition, the Craigslist ad for the month of September is going to be pretty bold. In fact, Harlan tested this months ad for me and it got a phone call within minutes of it being posted. It will get lots of attention. Remember you can get the first month free.
http://www.buildyouryogabusiness.com/ezine.html

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