Most yoga teachers spend hundreds of dollars a year on continuing education, and most of it never makes them better teachers. After more than 20 years on both sides of the equation, first as a teacher investing in my own growth and then as a school owner offering CE to other teachers, I’ve watched what genuinely changes how someone teaches and what just adds letters after a name. In the video below I walk through how to evaluate any workshop, training, or course before you hand over your money. Here’s the short version.
Teach first, then find your gaps
The best continuing education fills gaps you’ve actually discovered through teaching. Not the gaps you imagine you might have, and not the ones a marketing email invented for you, but the ones you’ve felt in the room with real students in front of you.
If you’ve just finished your 200-hour training, or you’re a few years in, the most useful thing you can do before spending money on CE is teach. Teach regularly. Teach different populations when you can. Pay attention to the moments where you feel stuck. Maybe a student with a cranky knee shows up and you freeze a little because you aren’t sure how to modify. Maybe your sequences feel random and you want a real framework for sequencing instead of more sequences to copy. Maybe you’re leading a restorative class and you know you’re . . . guessing.
Those moments are gold. They tell you exactly what to study next. A good 200-hour training leaves you with a clear sense of how much you don’t yet know, and that awareness is what should guide your CE choices.
The training trap, and why it’s so tempting
There’s a pattern I see all the time. A teacher finishes the 200, feels nervous about actually teaching, and instead of getting in front of students, signs up for another training. Then another. Before long they’ve got 500 or 800 hours of training and very few hours of real teaching.
I say this with compassion, because I understand the pull. Learning feels safe. Teaching feels exposed. And there’s always another certification promising to fill the gap. But in 20 years I’ve watched it play out the same way again and again: confidence comes from teaching, not from credentials. A new certificate gives you a boost that fades if you’re not regularly in front of students putting it to work. More certifications won’t automatically make you a better teacher.
So be intentional. Ask yourself whether you’re investing in something because it addresses a real gap you’ve noticed, or because you’re avoiding the scarier work of getting out there and teaching. If it’s the first, wonderful. If it’s the second, go teach a few more classes first. The right opportunities will still be there when you’re ready.
Four signs continuing education is worth your money
First, you can use it in your next class. The best CE is immediately applicable. You finish a workshop or a module and you teach differently on Monday, with new tools and new ways of seeing the students in front of you.
Second, it deepens how you teach, not just what you teach. There’s a world of difference between learning a new sequence and learning how to think about sequencing. The CE that sticks changes how you think, not only what you know.
Third, it’s taught by someone who’s actively teaching. Someone still in the room every week, working through the same challenges you face, brings a different kind of insight than someone who left the classroom years ago.
Fourth, it respects your time and your money. A $500 weekend that hands you one interesting idea isn’t much of an investment. A $500 self-paced course that changes how you approach a whole category of teaching might be the best money you spend all year. Price doesn’t equal value, and a firehose of information in a single weekend rarely sticks the way steady, spaced learning does.
CE hours and training hours are different buckets
One practical thing worth knowing: Yoga Alliance counts continuing education hours and teacher training hours separately.
CE hours are what you accumulate through workshops and courses offered by YACEPs (Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Providers). You need a certain number to maintain your registration. Teacher training hours, like a 300-hour advanced training, are a different track that counts toward the RYT-500 designation, not toward your CE requirement. A 300-hour training doesn’t replace your CE hours, and your CE hours don’t count toward a 300-hour credential. It isn’t complicated, but it trips people up, so just know which bucket you’re filling when you sign up for something.
How I’d choose, if I were in your shoes
Start with the gaps you’ve noticed in your own teaching. If sequencing is the struggle, look for CE that gives you a framework you can lean on rather than a pile of new sequences. If you’re teaching a specific population, athletes, older adults, or people who’ve been through trauma, invest in something with enough depth that you actually feel more capable afterward, not a weekend overview.
And if you’ve been teaching a while and your classes feel stale, the issue might not be knowledge at all. Sometimes what you need is fresh inspiration and a few teachers to think alongside. Whatever you choose, look for continuing education you can move through at your own pace, revisit, and fold into your teaching over time.
Where to start
If you want to feel what thoughtful, useful CE is like without a big commitment, my Fundamentals courses are a good place to begin. They’re self-paced, CEU-eligible, and built around tools you can use right away:
- Fundamentals of Teaching Yin Yoga
- Fundamentals of Teaching Restorative Yoga
- Fundamentals of Teaching Balance
- Fundamentals of Teaching Trauma-Informed Yoga
- Fundamentals of Teaching Yoga Nidra
The Prep Station includes 3 CEUs a month along with sequences, planning tools, and monthly live calls. And if you’re ready for a deeper investment, my 300-hour advanced training lets you build your credential modularly, on your own timeline.
One more invitation: you don’t have to sort through any of this alone. The Zone is my free community of 3,000+ yoga teachers working through these same questions together. It might be the best continuing education you never have to pay for.
What’s the best CE you’ve ever done, the one that actually changed how you teach? I’d love to hear about it.
