How To Become an Ashtanga Yoga Teacher

If you want to know how to become an ashtanga yoga teacher but don’t know where to start, don’t worry! Our guide will break down each step of the process so you feel prepared to get started with your career.

In this article we’ll cover: 

• How to Become an Ashtanga Yoga Teacher with the Right Qualifications
• Mapping Out Your Career Once You've Become an Ashtanga Yoga Teacher
• Advanced Career Options Once You've Become an Ashtanga Yoga Teacher

Before we start, the most important thing you’ll need to teach Ashtanga is a Level 3 Yoga Teacher Training Diploma. Without this qualification, you won't be recognised as a certified instructor!

To learn more about how you can turn your passion into a career, check out our article discussing how you can become a yoga teacher! 

How to Become an Ashtanga Yoga Teacher with the Right Qualifications

If you want to know how to teach ashtanga yoga the most important first step is sourcing and completing the best qualifications. 

We’ll run through the main two courses you’ll want to complete to become a successful yoga teacher and specialise in ashtanga. 

How to Become an Ashtanga Teacher with Level 3 Yoga Teacher Training

This is the first and main foundational qualification you’ll need if you want to become an ashtanga yoga teacher.

Level 3 yoga teacher training covers all of the essential knowledge and practical skills you’ll need to plan and deliver the highest quality classes.

You’ll learn about yoga anatomy and physiology, looking at how the body’s systems interact during a flow and particular postures. 

Though this is important for all yoga, it’s especially vital for becoming an ashtanga yoga teacher as the style is particularly focused on the systems of the body and developing strength and flexibility. 

You’ll also learn all of the vital skills for planning and delivering a full yoga class that is ideally paced and composed of a good mix of postures and breathing techniques. 

This will form the essential scaffolding for any class and you can then build on these skills so you know how to teach ashtanga yoga specifically. 

We’ll cover this now with Level 4! 

Learn How to Teach Ashtanga Yoga with a Level 4 Yoga Diploma

Once you’ve completed your Level 3 you can complete a Level 4 yoga course so you can specialise and become an ashtanga yoga teacher. 

This level is designed to enhance and build from Level 3 whilst giving you unique skills to teach particular styles and be a better teacher.

The course goes more deeply into techniques of teaching and delivering classes to get the most out of your class members.

You’ll learn more about what you should be looking for in class to check people are practising accurately and safely, especially in relation to their alignment.

You’ll learn how to offer enough adjustments so that you can cater for a wide range of different abilities, including the use of props like blocks and straps.

You’ll also be able to specialise in a particular style with Level 4, including ashtanga. This will mean focusing more heavily on the postures from the ashtanga series.

Mapping Our Your Career Once You've Become an Ashtanga Yoga Teacher

Once you’ve learned how to become an ashtanga yoga teacher you’ll need to decide how and where you’re going to work. 

You can either work: 

• Full time
• Freelance 

And you can work in a variety of locations but the most popular options are: 

• In a gym 
• In a dedicated yoga studio
• At home and online

Most people will start in a gym after becoming an ashtanga yoga teacher because there’s more of these positions available and a great way of gaining experience. 

Because of the size and membership numbers of gyms, these positions are a great way of teaching busy classes.

While it’s more likely that you’ll teach a generic yoga class in gyms, there are some holistic wellness spaces and health clubs, such as Nuffield Health pictured below, that will offer specialist styles:

These positions tend to mostly be freelance but there will occasionally be full time positions available. 

Positions in a dedicated studio are freelance which means you can work across several studios making connections with other teachers and growing your numbers for your classes. 

One important thing to remember is to check the insurance policy - you may not always be covered by the space’s policy if you’re working freelance. 

You will usually always be covered by the policy of the gym or studio but it’s worth checking because some positions will stipulate you have your own policy. 

Typically, the average flat rate for a freelance yoga teacher for a class in the UK is £30, so if you were to teach an average of 3 classes per day you’d have a take-home salary of over £25,000.

This is not accounting for additional revenue streams such as workshops and retreats, which we’ll cover later in the article. 

Advanced Career Options Once You've Become an Ashtanga Yoga Teacher

Once you’ve established yourself in the industry you can decide how to become an ashtanga yoga teacher with more advanced services and progress further with your career! 

We’ll run through each of these now briefly so you know what’s involved so you can decide what you might want to work towards. 

How to Teach Ashtanga Yoga Workshops 

One of the things you can do once you’ve established yourself as an ashtanga teacher is to develop a yoga workshop.

These are a great way of making money as a yoga teacher because you’ll be able to charge more for an intensive block of time.

These will often be more intimate events than classes too where you can focus on individuals and their needs.

A workshop will allow you to focus on each class member and help them to develop their practice at a deeper and closer level.

This also means you will build rapport and increase the chances of retaining existing class members as well as gaining new ones! 

The price you charge will vary based on the length of the workshop. Most of the time a yoga workshop will last 2-3 hours which means you’re getting at least the price of two or three classes in one go. 

This is a great way of having additional income whilst you’re building up your timetable and forging connections with studios and new class members.

How to Become an Ashtanga Yoga Teacher with Your Own Retreats

Another important additional revenue stream to think about is planning your own yoga retreat! This is usually over a weekend or a few days and offers several classes and other activities.

This will usually be somewhere more remote and relaxing so that some of the other activities can centre around the setting and class members being immersed in the experience.

A timetable for the weekend will include several different classes and meditation sessions usually with meals and other activities included as part of the price. 

Just like a workshop these are great opportunities to get to know your class members better and showcase your expertise.

This is another opportunity to gain more regular class members. People will bring their friends and family members and having a concentrated practice like this will show people how good your teaching is!

It’s also an incredibly lucrative revenue stream because, despite the added expense and time planning it, you can afford to charge quite a lot because of the extent of what you’re offering.

Find My Balance are a great example of how much you can make by having your own ashtanga retreats:

 As you can see there’s a maximum of 15 participants. This works out at £7,275 for a full retreat!

This is why if you want to know how to teach ashtanga yoga and make money by offering more services, you should consider having your own retreats!

How to Become an Ashtanga Yoga Teacher with Your Own Studio

Last but not least, once you’ve got enough experience and you’ve developed a strong brand you might want to start your own yoga studio!

Running your own studio will mean being in charge of the timetable, handpicking teachers to make up an impressive timetable, and having complete control over all aspects of your practice.

There’s huge benefits of running a studio including:

• You’ll get to keep the profits
• You’ll have control over the timetable and honing your niche
• Having your own studio builds on, and extends, the community built in your classes

There’s also huge financial benefits if you are willing to put the work in and have a strong yoga studio business plan complete with ideas to market and cement your business filling a gap in the market!

This is your opportunity to really focus on ashtanga and hone your niche with your studio. You could have a timetable with a mixture of abilities and styles of teaching. 

You can have a mixture of abilities as well as styles of class to showcase the variety within ashtanga and cater to lots of different demographics to grow your studio!

Before You Go! 

So there you have it! Now you know how to become an ashtanga yoga teacher and develop your career so you make as much money as possible and grow your classes and experience. 

Don’t forget to check out our Level 3 Yoga Diploma to see how you can start becoming an ashtanga yoga teacher with OriGym! 

You can also download and browse through our course prospectus to see what other courses we offer.