To sequence a vinyasa class around a peak pose is a planning tool. Yes, correct. It's not about doing the pose itself. It's about using that pose as a lighthouse in the distance, then navigating towards it. It's about preparing your students' bodies for a fair and safe chance to approach the pose. In reality, quite often you won't even do that pose. You certainly won't tell the class that you have a peak pose. It's a planning tool. How?

1. It gives you a direction and a physical theme. We cannot do all the fun stuff in every class, so this is a simple way of crossing out poses and cues that don't fit into the theme. 

2. It forces you to analyse a pose and dissect it, to taste it and try it and figure out its' components, energies, alignment and actions. For example, Flying Pigeon (Eka Pada Galavasana, demonstrated by BKS Iyengar above) is a Figure Four shape in the front leg on top of a Chaturanga, with the action of shooting the back leg upwards.

3. Once you have figured out the above, simply look for other poses with similar alignment, actions and angles. How can you teach the pose without doing the pose? We usually recommend identifying 5 key poses that pick up the components of your complex pose in a simpler way.

4. Now you can sequence your class. Use the key poses, the suitable actions and alignment as well as verbal cues throughout your warm-up and main part of class. Always plan a well-rounded and balanced class with all different movements the body can do, but use your peak pose to navigate. 

Interested to learn more? 
Vinyasa Flow Teacher Training in Portugal ››

Anatomy, philosophy and class sequencing – these are typical subjects that might come to mind when we think about advancing our yoga teaching skills and growing in our profession. But there are a whole range of less obvious skills that you'll need to develop in order to become a really good yoga teacher. Let's call them non-yoga skills. It's everything else you have to be good at, other than your topic. And it's a lot. 

Who else other than a yoga teacher gives a 90 minute memorised yet adaptable speech – a crazy mix of a technical manual, stand-up comedy and lecture all in one – several times a week? And these are just some of the skills you need to some degree in order to become a yoga teacher with an edge. Between doing your taxes, being a social media expert and organising events, it's a lot. You have to be a bit of a polymath – a person whose expertise spans different subject areas.

As a yoga teacher, it's clever to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Maybe by giving yourself a score between 1-10 from the list below. Then make a plan for the next couple of years. Play your strengths. Deepen your knowledge in areas you love. Become an expert in your natural areas of interest and skill. But don't just do that. Develop your weak areas as well. Especially if you have been teaching for a while already. Learn, grow and broaden. Gain confidence.

So what are some of these non-yoga skills?

1. Public Speaking skills. You stand in front of people and give instructions. This is the very definition of public speaking. You need to address the class without feeling nervous or awkward, whether you are facing 40 students or 2.
2. Customer Service skills. No matter to what degree you teach, you are a business. And customer service is the key to most successful businesses. You must help people, be reliable, give a little extra, answer questions, be cheerful and friendly. 
3. Communication skills. You have to give a 90 minute non-stop speech with well chosen words. You have to vary your language and it helps to have a sense of rhythm and poetry, to offer cultural references and have a sense of humor. Meanwhile you have to speak clearly. To the whole group, but also connect on an individual level.
4. Leadership skills. You have to be a good example. By practicing and learning, making healthy lifestyle choices and bringing your energy to the class. You have to share and relate experiences in order to help students understand the practice on all levels. You show rather than just tell. This also requires a deep understanding of who you are and a good dose of honesty.
5. Business skills. You have to understand how to price what you offer, no matter to what degree you teach yoga. You must create sustainable business models and probably run your own company. 
6. Patience skills. You cannot rush into this profession. Becoming a good yoga teacher will take about 10 years, most experienced yoga teachers agree. Be humble and let it take time. Don't take on too much. 
7. Voice skills. You use your voice a lot, and you can and should work with it. Your students' nervous systems are directly affected by how your voice is perceived. 
8. Branding and Marketing skills. You are a brand, no matter to what degree you teach. Knowing who you are, what your purpose is and who your target group is are essential components to efficient marketing.    
9. Networking skills. You will likely be more sustainable if you build a network of other teachers similar to you, other yoga teachers from other lineages, specialists (such as massage therapists, therapists, physio therapists etc.), yoga studio owners etcetera, rather than just struggle on your own.    

UPCOMING YOGA TEACHER TRAININGS IN EUROPE

How to price yoga is always a big topic in our True North Vinyasa 200 hour teacher trainings. It can feel uncomfortable and even wrong to put a financial value on this practice that you love and want to share. For many, especially as studios and gyms may not be an option at the moment, starting where you're standing is a good idea. Most of our trainees have colleagues, friends or family who are interested in taking their classes right after training. The big question is, how much should I charge them? What am I worth as a new yoga teacher? And, should I charge at all actually? Isn't yoga supposed to be free? 

Let's start with the last two questions. While it's true that the wisdom of yoga was once a master to student teaching tradition without financial transaction, that is no longer the case. And even then, there was an exchange of gifts (food and other offerings). If you would like to be a modern day yoga teacher and take yourself seriously, you have to be okey with talking about money. 

The thing is, yoga is free. Breath and movement exist already in every body, ready to be released. To be guided by a professional who invested in her craft however, should not be free. Step one in pricing is to know your own worth.

Step two is to understand the industry you work in. Yes, it's an industry – a huge multi billion dollar/euro industry. Being a yoga teacher, although often passion driven, is a job. Even if you are just starting out and don't rely upon yoga as an income, please understand that many others do. And that one day, you might also want to. Think sustainably and price accordingly. You want to price as if you had to live off teaching even if you don't. Otherwise you sabotage for others. 

But what if you are a brand new yoga teacher then? Wouldn't it make sense to charge less than a more experienced yoga teacher? Of course, if that makes you feel more comfortable. The trick, and we can call this step three, is then to set a time limit on your little internship. If you teach a small group of friends because the practice of teaching has a high value for you, communicate this: "For 3 months, my classes will be €10 per person because I want to build experience teaching a group. After this, I will charge €20 per person (or whatever is standard where you live)". By the time the 3 months are up, if you have done a good job, they will stay with you and you will work sustainably, insuring high quality classes for your group and a chance for you to keep loving your new job.

A few more general tips on pricing:

• Setting a price per session rather than per person protects you and works well with corporate groups/set groups.
• Read up on general pricing principles if you have never run your own business before. Keep in mind your expenses, taxes and insurance costs – don't just make something up.
• As a yoga teacher, not all gigs will be paid well. Some are worth doing for free, if you get something else out of it (publicity, email addresses, access to a new demographic etc.). If there is no particular gain for you, don't do it. 
• Know that there is a lot psychology in pricing in general. A person will put a higher emotional value of something that has a higher financial value. In yoga that can mean that a higher investment will trigger a bigger commitment. And ultimately, committed students are good for you, and for the world.

MORE ABOUT LIFE AS A YOGA TEACHER
SKILLS FOR YOGA TEACHERS
UPCOMING VINYASA TEACHER TRAININGS

A while back we did a survey amongst our friends and graduates. We wanted to hear from you before setting a curriculum for our Advanced Vinyasa Teacher Training. Much of what we know got confirmed, and is now the basis of our 300hr YTT program. Some of what you helped us confirm:

• The main reasons you would sign up for a 300 hr YTT were to become a more skilled yoga teacher AND to re-connect with your personal yoga practice. Learning that the certificate was not actually a primary reason helped us decide to split the training into 2 and not rush the completion of the program. Our Advanced Training is a 2 week live-in program offered once per year, and it counts for 150 hours towards an optional 500 hr certification with Yoga Alliance.  
• You are longing for the "yoga bubble" – that little space where you live and breathe yoga with nerds like yourself in a beautiful place for a solid amount of time. This helped us confirm that we are not going online, we are absolutely doing an immersion style training with amazing food and venue, and we are certainly going for the concept of an up-levelled, filled to the brim yoga retreat for yoga teachers. 
• Advanced asana, transitions and physical assists will get a lot of attention through long morning practices, workshops and asana labs. 
• Class sequencing and the art of creating a personal yoga teacher style are high on your list of priorities. We love this, we are good at this, and we will do a lot of work in this area in our Advanced Vinyasa YTT.  
• We will allow more time for yin and/or restorative yoga as a complement to vinyasa flow. This will also help you design amazing retreats and events in the future. 
• As we suspected, many of you are craving more knowledge around the business of yoga. We will discuss topics like small business ownership, how to diversify income and how to build a yoga community.  
• The Advanced Vinyasa Teacher Training will include an opportunity to take professional pictures with our all time favorite and TNV team photographer Isla Grossi. 

One of the most common questions we get from potential trainees for our foundational 200 hour vinyasa yoga teacher training is, do you think I'm ready? If you are thinking about this, you are not alone. Most who show up to their first day of training are wondering if they are ready, glancing over at the other trainees and their yoga practice. Is she stronger than me? Is he more enlightened than me?  

We've had trainees from all walks of life graduate our program with flying colors. An 18 year old recent high school graduate having a taste of freedom. A 63 year old former marketing director looking for change. A 23 year old medical student on a gap year. A 34 year old psychologist in-between jobs. Along with most of our trainees (we've graduated over 100 at the time of writing), they have a few things in common. Do you recognise yourself in any of this?  

1. Practicing yoga is important in your every day life. You prioritise your practice. You sign up for workshops, look up vinyasa classes when you travel and you schedule your social life around your favourite teachers. 
2. You are hungry for more yoga knowledge. Ready to listen to the details of chaturanga dandasana. Ready to try challenging transitions and unusual poses. Ready to hear the story behind modern yoga. Eager to connect the dots. 
3. Your practice is so advanced that you know the unimportance of advanced poses. You know that listening inwards is everything. You know that progress is highly individual, and that an asana never ends. 
4. Your yoga practice is so important to you that you are not sure you want to teach yoga at all, but may just want to keep it to yourself. (That's right. Few trainees are career minded. Few know what they want. But all are very passionate about yoga and its' effects).
5. You are ready for change. In-between things. In transition. Tired of your job. Looking for meaning. Looking for like-minded people. 
6. You have already taught yoga casually to a few colleagues or friends, and noticed that you got away with it and actually had fun. 
7. You have a personal story behind your yoga passion. It has meaning and has had an impact on your life.
8. You are looking for a challenge and an adventure.
   
9. You haven't found a teacher your love where you live, and feel like you have to take matters into your own hands and learn the craft.  

Read about our next 200 hr vinyasa yoga teacher trainings here.  And feel free to contact us if you want to discuss if our training is the right one for you!

Less of a career choice, more of a heart's desire. That's what brought most yoga teachers to start teaching. Yet, it is certainly a profession, no matter to what degree you end up teaching. Here are few things we'd like to share that might help you if you are thinking about becoming a yoga teacher. 
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• HAVE A PRACTICE. Meaning, have somewhat of a journey in your own practice, a development, to refer back to in training and as you begin to teach. In our trainings we ask minimum 2 years of regular vinyasa practice. 
• HAVE A PASSION. Ask yourself why you would like to teach yoga. Make sure you have an answer that holds up. You will need to be passionate about your new profession – it's a competitive business out there and if your WHY is in place you'll have a great starting point. 
• COMPARE TRAININGS. This is a big one. It's time consuming. And confusing. You need to find a teacher training that suits you. A yoga teacher training is a big investment in time and money. They vary tremendously in quality because unfortunately it's a very unregulated field. There are various certifications and it can all be extremely confusing. Still, you will have to do it. Compare and read all the fine print. Contact the directors of the program if you don't already know them, and ask all your questions. Talk to them on the phone. Find out if there's a real connection. It's important. Ask for references from former trainees. Get them on the phone. Trust your gut instinct. Consider these things:

1. My local trusted teacher or a teacher I don't know with a more exciting sounding program? Well...sometimes the local option is the only option, depending on your life situation. If your local teacher offers a training and the program doesn't appeal to you, consider waiting until your life situation changes. Don't invest and risk your future relationship with your local studio owner if you're not 100% sure the program is right for you. 
2. A program on weekends for a year or a live-in 3-4 week intensive? Another one that depends on what suits you. Not everyone can take 3-4 weeks off work and life and step in to a bubble. If this is the case, the weekend set-up is great. The biggest positive with this format is that it allows plenty of time to digest all the content. But if you can do an intensive, consider it. To basically go to summer camp as an adult, for several weeks, living only yoga, is quite a treat. You are unlikely to do anything like this again in your adult life. You'll make strong connections with others, you'll check out of your regular life and get a chance to contemplate it all. Make sure you pick a training with decent quality housing and meals included though.  A program like this is quite intense and to have to scramble and shop and cook will take your attention away from the beauty of immersion. It's worth the extra money to go for the all-inclusive option.   
3. A celebrity teacher or a less known teacher? A well-known yoga teacher can look impressive on your resume and may also help future students to understand what type of yoga they can expect from you – if they know that teacher. Quite often, the well-known teacher's YTT:s are big group trainings, where you may or may not create a personal connection with the teacher. It can be soothing to be "left alone" and just do your own thing on the sidelines, but ultimately getting personal attention is of very high value. To be seen and supported is key in a training. Make sure you get to talk to a former trainee who can describe the learning environment before deciding. Be aware of guru-like hypes (they do exist) and with lesser-known and well-known teachers, inquire about the main focus of their training to ensure it suits you. 
4. In-person or online? Since 2020, many yoga teacher trainings have gone online permanently. Again, if this is your only option for lifestyle reasons, go for it. For online trainings, aim for a well established and well known teacher. This way you are more likely to be offered a professional technical solution and high quality digital material. Also, you can access teachers that may not be accessible otherwise, so go big! If you have the chance to do a yoga teacher training in person though, consider it. Yoga is all about connection and community. It's about bodies and minds and humans. It's about the senses. Spending 200 hours in front of your screen doing something this embodied and connected may or may not take you to a place of confidence as a new yoga teacher. If you can, take the opportunity to learn with others, to see others and be seen. 

• GO ALL IN ONCE YOU'RE IN TRAINING. Let go of everything else and focus fully on the content. This is your chance to immerse. You're in the conversation, in the bubble to some degree. Step in, dive in. 
• TRAINING BEGINS AFTER TRAINING. Yes. It does. Start teaching right away while all the content is fresh. Start with friends and family and just do it. Hopefully your yoga teacher training prepared you for this. Teach the same class over and over until you feel ready to create a new one. Allow everything to take time. 
• 1–2 YEARS LATER. After you start teaching, allow a year or two of a couple of classes per week until you feel comfortable delivering a class. Usually you'll enter a new phase here, of some doubt and a new longing for support and fine-tuning your skills and offerings. But that's another story. 

Interested in a vinyasa teacher training? Check out our Yoga Alliance certified 200 hour trainings here ››  And our certified Advanced vinyasa teacher training here ››

As vinyasa teachers we constantly crave and look for new and fun transitions, don't we? How to guide students from one pose to the next with elegance and maybe a little innovation is an art. Here are three fun, playful transitions that might give a little edge to your next vinyasa flow yoga class. To see them in movement, there are links below. You can find more moves if you head over to Elin's Instagram account and look under reels!

From all fours, inhale to extend the right leg back. Exhale to lift left knee and draw right knee into chest (big image). Inhale lower left knee, right leg presses back. Exhale lift left knee, draw right knee to chest. Now inhale to three legged dog. Exhale to step the foot forward between the hands. Inhale arms up to high lunge. See the reel here.
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From three legged dog, exhale to shift forward to three legged chaturanga. Inhale to upward facing dog. Exhale to sit back on your heels, grabbing the heels. Inhale press hips and chest forward to camel pose. Exhale to come all the way to down dog or child's pose. See the reel here.
​

Establish dolphin pose, ensuring that the elbows are pointing straight back, hands shoulder width apart. On an exhale, keep the elbows bent and shift the chest forward, squeezing the elbows in until landing in chaturanga. The arms never straighten. Inhale to up dog and exhale to down dog. See the reel here.
​

At the time of writing this, True North Vinyasa has graduated close to one hundred amazing, authentic vinyasa flow teachers at the 200 hr level. At this point we are getting ready to start designing a program on the 300 hr level (the two certificates combine into a 500 hr certificate). Our current plan is to launch the program in 2022. But we'd like your help in our pursuit to put together the best possible program!

If you are a yoga teacher, let us know what you are craving and longing for in an advanced teacher training. What is the most important for you? Please take 5-10 minutes and help us by filling out the survey below. More information about the advanced teacher training (we can tell you already that we'll have a lot of practice, anatomy, vinyasa sequencing and yoga business on the schedule!) will follow later this spring/summer. 

Link to the survey

Thank you!
Elin & Lisa

At the moment, Yoga Alliance has extended the possibility for yoga schools to offer yoga teacher trainings online for at least another year. Chances are, this is a permanent shift. It's now possible to join a certified training anywhere at anytime, for as little as €350. A difficult choice for someone interested in becoming a yoga teacher just became even more difficult. How do you compare a €350 training with a €4500 training? We think you don't. 

We discussed moving our training online when the pandemic first hit. Ultimately, our decision is firm. We will not offer our program online. These are some reasons why. 

• A True North Vinyasa training means making connections for life. In a way that you never really get to do much as an adult. You know, like going to summer camp. Or like moving into the dorms at university. Or staying in hostels in Australia. In that way when you really get to know people because you hang out with them all the time. We wouldn't be able to create this human connection online. 
• A True North Vinyasa training is an immersion. It's 3 weeks of escaping your every day life, creating new habits and patterns that might stay with you forever. We cannot create an immersion online.
• A True North Vinyasa training is development of your yoga practice and of yourself. Daily feedback from your teachers and fellow trainees will do that. We cannot fully see you or assist you online. 
• A True North Vinyasa training is high quality down to every detail. From the paper picked for the manual to the food on your plate. We cannot guarantee this type of quality online. 
• A True North Vinyasa training is real. We hug. We dance. We laugh. We challenge you. We get to know you. We boost you. It's hard to believe we could give you this experience online.  
  

So, instead of re-inventing our program and trying to squeeze it into a screen, we will stubbornly stick with our 3 week intensives through 2021 as well. This is what we are passionate about. This is what we do best. 

PORTUGAL APRIL 2021
SWEDEN SEPTEMBER 2021
PORTUGAL NOVEMBER 2021

If you're a yoga teacher, you're also an online yoga teacher now. Whether you like it or not. Overheard in a yoga podcast last year, oh so true. We've had to adapt and adjust, fumble around with cables, software and angles like never before. Here are a few things we've learned so far about teaching vinyasa flow online to a live group.

1. SOUND | Sound quality is by far the most important technical aspect of livestreaming. Assuming your cues are super clear. A microphone with a transmitter does the trick. A lav (one of those little skin coloured thingies that attach to your head) can be in the way when you teach vinyasa as you're moving a lot. The Røde Wireless Go (around €220) is a fantastic device that Elin uses. Lisa decided to go with AirPods Pro (also around €220), which can double as a microphone. And of course, the AirPods are also useful when you take an online yoga class yourself. We've both had positive experiences.
2. VISUALS | Video quality is trickier to deal with and not as important as people are doing yoga, not eating popcorn and watching from the sofa (we think). We've tried using the iPhone as a camera, the laptop camera and a webcam. The conclusion is that the visual quality is only as good as your internet connection. In addition, unless you are operating a production company, your visual quality will simply never be as good as if you're using a real video camera. With livestream, it will also be a little on the grainy side for most of us. Acceptance is good here.  
3. NO-GO | Using a good "real" camera/video camera is great for producing yoga videos. For livestream, it requires a lot of extra tech and it's healthier for most of us one-person-shows to think of livestream and production as two different things. The set-up has to be simple, so that you can focus on giving an awesome class.   
4. PLATFORM | Zoom works fine, but there are services popping up designed for teaching yoga online. Both of us are currently working with vstudio, a smaller start-up specialising in making it easy for us as yoga teachers. The big win here is the professional look and the integrated payment system. It's easy for your yogis to sign up and pay, and easy for you to use. You pay with a percentage of your revenue, so it feels like a win-win. There are other services doing similar things, like Ribbon that we also heard is good.
5. MUSIC |  If you have a good microphone you're music (if using) will not be picked up. Either instruct people to play their own music at home, or send a link to your playlist on spotify, which most people have. During class, tell your group when to turn on the playlist. 
6. SEQUENCING | As much as we love mandalas and half mandalas, funky transitions and spinning around – this is difficult for people at home since they are being instructed from a screen and screens don't move around the room. Try not to confuse your class, keep it fairly simple.  
7. MODELS | When teaching the class, it can really help to have a couple of people in the classroom, if that's available. Even just one student will take pressure off you to demo everything and it will also give the person at home a studio feel. And another body to glance at. You will unavoidably demo the entire class – a little less if you have a few bodies practicing. It's hard to demo and teach – you'll feel your heartbeat and start to sweat. When your class is in downward facing dog, it's a good idea to sit on your knees a little. It will be more calming for you.
8. CLARITY | Being clear is even more important when you teach online. Say not too little, not too much but just enough.  
9. RELEASE | It can be good to record your classes – you can keep them as pay per view or post them for free. It can also be calming to let livestream be only live, to not record, and to release the experience completely.    

Your can find both Elin, Lisa and Nazareno online streaming away in the winter and spring of 2021. Take a class with one or all of us to get an idea of what you can expect in a daily practice at a 200 hour vinyasa teacher training.

Inpsiro Yoga's (Lisa & Nazareno) Virtual Studio ››
Elin Jensen's Virtual Studio ››