My Experience with 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Bangkok Part-Time

I finished my teacher training with Trika Yog, Bangkok, Thailand, in 2019. It’s been a while, and it was a long journey from picking the right yoga teacher training school, choosing the location, to finally getting on-board. When people around me found out I was taking the yoga teacher training in Bangkok, I got a lot of questions. So I’ll list them here and tell you about my absolutely wonderful journey in my yoga teacher training with Trika Yog in Bangkok.

Is yoga teacher training worth it?

Absolutely! Yoga teacher training has definitely deepened my yoga practice. I have taught my friends and family since the training ended. During lockdown because of COVID, practicing yoga at home was possible because I had been taught the proper alignments already. That means I was more aware if my hips are squared in poses, and definitely being more careful of my lower back in all poses, and much more. I wouldn’t have known all this without the teacher training. Even if you don’t intend to become a yoga teacher, I still encourage the yoga teacher training as a good investment in yourself.

First day of yoga teacher training at Trika Yog

Do you have to be good at yoga to do a teacher training program?

I’d say no you don't necessarily have to be good. (Although my yoga master might disagree lol)There are so many different aspects of yoga, whether it's the physical practice or the Asana or more spiritual practice which some people choose to get into. And you really don't have to be an expert in anything. I mean, obviously, you're going into a teacher training program which is designed for being an entry level yoga teacher.
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With that being said you obviously need to have a desire to learn. And you also need to have some level of experience, so if you've never taken yoga before, you're not going to sign up for teacher training program anyway. And most programs will have listed on their website, which required at least a few months of yoga practice just so you have some familiarity when you start the training. For example, you should probably know what downward facing dog is and a few other basic postures. 

Having fun with classmates while learning alignment adjustment with our master

So for my background, I've been practicing yoga on-and-off for many years, and then consistently for about a year when I started to do teacher training program. And in terms of physical practice, I would consider myself as an intermediate practitioner. I can do some arm balances like crow, side crow, got myself into pincha and handstand with the wall. But my body was very stiff. I could barely do splits when I started. And there were also many students that are already very advanced who could do all the postures beautifully. There was a woman who was already an amazing yoga teacher who joined our class to refresh her knowledge.

So I’d say in a class where I did the teacher training program, the levels varied. Some could do more postures than others. And that was totally okay because at the end of the day, it's not really about getting the postures; it's about teaching people how to move in their bodies and to become more comfortable with their bodies, maybe get something mentally from it as well.

At the end of the day, as long as you have a desire to learn, you’ll be okay in the yoga teacher training program.  Most people in my program, including myself, already had a full time job and they were just doing it sort of to deepen their own practice and learn more about the foundations of yoga, that you couldn't get from a yoga class itself.

Learning how to teach handstand

Where to do your yoga teacher training? How do you pick the yoga teacher training program? how long is it going to be and how much does yoga teacher training cost?
It really varies, which is actually good because then you get to pick the program that works best for you
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I've been interested in doing teacher training for a while, but honestly never worked with my schedule as a full-time employee. I wanted to do a full-time training in India but beining away for one month just isn’t possible.
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So Trika Yog is the perfect solution for yoga teacher training in Bangkok for me because :

• They have one of the best yoga masters from India teaching the yoga teacher training in Bangkok. Aman is definitely one of the best yoga teachers you will ever meet.
• They offer it part-time, which I took only on Sundays for about 6-7 months.
• They also offer 5 practice teach sessions where I got to teach students who came into their studios (free classes). The experience was totally invaluable, and the feedback from real students were helpful.
• They teach pincha, handstand and many other advanced poses at the 200-Hour training. Most other places will not teach these poses at this level.
• We had a yoga teacher retreat for one weekend. It was a lot of fun. You got to meditate before the sun rose, and practiced yoga by the sea. And the group got so much closer from the retreat.  
• The best part is the friendship that you developped over the time you spent so much together during the yoga teacher training in Bangkok. You ended up with a new circle of friends. We still stay in touch even it’s been over a year after training ended. So that’s a big plus because if I had done my training abroad, it’d be difficult to keep in touch with one another. 

Yoga teacher training retreat to Pranburi. Definitely a lot of fun!

Anyways, typically most Yoga 200 hour programs, which is the entry level, offer either a 10 week period where you need a few times a week over 10 weeks, or there are intensive programs. The intensive programs are more destination trainings where you might go to India, Bali or Southern Thailand.

Obviously you're going to do what works best for your schedule. However, I’d still advocate for a one-month immersion program if you have that time luxury. Personally, it’s really hard for me to stay focused when I have to still work on weekdays and get ready for class on weekends. But doing the yoga teacher training in Bangkok part-time was the best option given my constraints.
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But I know some people who would enjoy doing a longer format so there’s time to digest the information instead of constantly being in class and just being flooded with information. So, it really depends on your preferences as well.

There are definitely different options. Just look at local studios that are near you or if you don't have a studio near you, that you particularly enjoy and maybe you look for more of those destination for costs of a program. I would say, generally, it's going to be between $2000 and $4,000, or somewhere in that range.

Most programs have payment options, so you don't have to pay it all at once at the front. But, if you do, you don't really get a discount. And you can choose to pay it monthly over a certain period of time. You can also choose to volunteer at the studio; maybe work at the front desk or do some cleaning and organizing and then you'll get an additional discount off of your training. My training didn’t have this option, but I did get a discount for early-birds. 

Practice teach as part of the 200-Hr yoga teacher training at Trika Yog Studio, Bangkok

Finally, the most important thing, I think, when choosing a program is choosing one that works for you. So like I said, there are so many different realms of yoga styles of yoga, you generally are going to be pretty familiar with yoga and want to learn more before you go into a training.

For me, I wanted to learn how to do pincha and handstand – as most studios in Thailand don’t teach this. Most 200-hr yoga teacher training programs in Bangkok that I found don’t teach this either; they typically save it for 300-Hr advanced training. So, when I called Trika Yog, and they teach this, I immediately signed up.
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So, I think it’s important to know what you personally want in a training and ask for more information from the school. Some yoga teacher trainings might focus more on the physical aspects and really go deep into anatomy. Other programs might be more spiritually-based, so they go back into the foundations of yoga. Yoga is 5000 years old, and it started mostly as meditation or a mental practice, and then the physical awesome is only around 200 or 300 years old.

Towards the end of our yoga teacher training, adjusting classmates during practice teach

At Trika Yog, the asana practice is rigorous, and it’s the main focus. There was one Sunday where we spent almost two hours practicing handstand and falling out of it into a wheel. That was the most rigorous practice of my life! They do teach spiritual practice along the way, but I wouldn’t say it was the focus. It worked fine for me because I think if you want to learn about meditation, you might as well join a meditation retreat; we have that everywhere in Thailand. You can read about my experience about meditation retreat here.  

Being able to do king pigeon for the first time ever in this 200-hr yoga teacher training!

Also, I would recommend looking for a teacher training program that is yoga Alliance certified because some are not.  And I would think in terms of applying for jobs in future studios, they would want a teacher that is certified. Having the yoga-allianced certificate allows you to work as an instructor anywhere in the world. 
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So that was my experience with my yoga teacher training in Bangkok. Let me know if you have any more questions in the comment below! Happy practicing yoga! Namaste.  

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