I’ve gone through two Yoga Teacher Trainings with different teachers: First the 200h and the advanced 300h training soon after that. In this post, I share my experience with the 300h Yoga Teacher Training with Briohny Smyth (Aligned Yoga)*.

Why Online Yoga Teacher Training?

I had planned to do a Yoga Teacher Training for quite some time, but traveling to some exotic destination for a month didn’t feel like the yogi way to me. It’s pretty far from Germany and I prefer to avoid flights for environmental reasons. So that wasn’t a real option for me.

I looked into local trainings, but wasn’t ready to spend a couple thousand euros and months to years on a training, along with weekend getaways and teachers, with whom I might have not connected well. So that didn’t sound great either. That’s why I’ve chosen a Yoga Alliance registered Online Teacher Training.

There is also a ‘practice’ path available to deepen your own Yoga practice without the focus on teaching – check it out here! You can also sign up for a free trial to see if it works for you!

Is it beginner-friendly?

Yes. The 200h Aligned Yoga Teacher Training* is open to all levels as it is a foundational training and a prerequisite to take an advanced 300h training. Click here to sign up for the free Trial of the 200h Training!

There are also smaller courses if you just want to focus on your yoga practice, your teaching skills or the business side of yoga. You can check them out in detail here*.

If you feel like you could use some extra guidance, there are also mentorship programs* available where you get 1:1 support by Briohny Smyth.

300h Teacher Training

Soon after finishing my 200h YTT, Briohny Smyth* – a teacher I admired for a long time – rolled out her online teacher trainings*. I’ve already heard about her in-person trainings and would’ve loved to participate in one, so I took the chance and decided to join her for the 300h Online Yoga Teacher Training*. It’s vinyasa-based and with a focus on all things yogipreneur (in the 300h training).

Content and Structure

The first 2 modules (The Practice Plus and The Teaching Plus) of the Aligned Yoga Teacher Training are organized by days, but you can take it at your own pace. You can take days or weeks off, or split one Training Day into a couple of days.

The days consist of a yoga practice lead by Briohny (one of her alomoves classes) and theory (asanas, alignment, anatomy). On most days, there is also a lecture about kriya, pranayama, kirtan or philosophy lead by Mathieu Boldron. At the end of each day, you are supposed to answer a few questions to test your knowledge and to deepen your understanding.

The 300h training further included an (amazing!) section about advanced anatomy lead by Dr. Santo, Doctor of Physical Therapy.

The last module on “The Business” is organized by topics. There are sections for when you are just beginning your teaching journey, to hosting workshops, retreats, teacher trainings and even starting your own studio.

Additionally, there are Live Yoga classes and Q&A’s via Zoom (about 2 per month) that you can rewatch anytime on the trainee platform. Those live streams were lead by Bri, Dr. Santo, Mathieu or Jess.

Time Commitment

Each Teacher Training day takes about 3h – sometimes a bit more, depending how much you need to study. It took me about 6 months to finish it completely (until my certification). All with taking breaks, working, teaching yoga and building my website for my final project.

Pro’s & Con’s

TL;DR Top-notch content about vinyasa yoga, asanas, alignment and practical anatomy – delivered through videos. Less philosophy and written content than I had expected. Practice session material is shared with alomoves.

Con’s

• While taking the training, the way it is structured by days was really convenient. BUT: if you want to look something up later or dive back into all of the alignment cues at once, it’s a little bit annyoing. Lots of clicking around and searching. The search function works, but for me, I would like to have all alignment, anatomy and philosophy parts organized in their own places.
• Speaking of philosophy, I find this came a bit short, especially for a 300h Training. I would have loved to hear more from Bri about Yoga teachings and philosophy.
• I really missed more written content on pranayama, philosophy and kriya. While Videos are great, I like to read when learning. For Asanas, there’s a great teacher manual, but there’s nothing alike for Mathieu’s content.
• You just have 1 year access to the content. That gives you plenty of time to finish, but I would like to revisited the content after that.
• While I loved Bri’s alomoves classes (and practiced them before the training), I would’ve enjoyed it if there where at least  some exclusive classes for the teacher training.

Graduation & Certification

To successfully graduate from the 300h, you need to send in a video of you teaching (5 Minutes) and a business project (content calender, website or something similar).

Is the Online Aligned Yoga Teacher Training the right choice for you?

This highly depends on your ability to work and study on your own, how well you know your body and if you know how to correct yourself. I don’t think that an online training is the right choice for everyone, but if it’s something you feel called to, give it a go!

For me personally, it was just what I needed. I like working and studying on my own and actually prefer it over in-person courses because of the flexibility it provides. Not feeling good one day or other things to do? You can always take a break and continue once it feels better. For knowing my body, I benefited from practicing yoga and horse riding for many years, so being self-aware, working on alignment and correcting myself comes pretty natural to me. Usually I practice with a mirror, that’s a helpful tool.. Taking videos of your practice also helps.

TL;DR | Final Thoughts

All in all the Aligned Yoga Teacher Training is an amazing course and I’m very happy I joined it. I built a strong knowledge base and confidence in teaching and cueing. Especially if you want to dive deeper into arm balances, handstands etc, this course will give you all the tools you need.

The Business module is an amazing and resourceful addition as it provides a good insight into what you need to take into consideration when hosting events or opening a studio. Especially since it all shifted online, knowing your way around the web and social media is key, so the provided workbooks were helpful.

Now it’s your turn! If this post was helpful & you’re ready to deepen your yoga practice or want to teach yoga for a living, click this link* to join!

Do you have more questions? I’d love to help! Leave me a comment below, send me a dm on Instagram or via Email!