If you are an aspiring yoga teacher you may be curious to learn more about the various titles that yoga instructors hold – CYT, RYT, E-RYT to name just a few. I don't know about you, but it took me a bit of research to grasp all of this new jargon, because the world of yoga is abundant with abbreviations and acronyms! In this article, we’re going to break down and describe the various certification levels you can hold once you’ve successfully completed yoga teacher training. We’re also going to better define Yoga Alliance and what it means to be registered with YA as a school or yoga teacher.
Let’s take a look at the difference between a CYT and a RYT first and demystify some of this yoga lingo!
Article content:
(Click any link below to jump directly to section)
What is a CYT or Certified Yoga Teacher
What is a RYT or Registered Yoga Teacher
What is a E-RYT 200 or Experienced Yoga Teacher 200
What is a E-RYT 500 or Experienced Yoga Teacher 500
What is a YACEP or Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider
What is a RYS or Registered Yoga School
What is Yoga Alliance
Why would a school or yoga teacher choose to not register with Yoga Alliance
Yoga vocabulary
What is the difference between a CYT and RYT?
What is a CYT or Certified Yoga Teacher
A CYT or Certified Yoga Teacher is a yoga teacher who has completed any all-encompassing yoga teacher training.
A CYT has completed the number of required learning hours that their school has designated as the minimum educational hours (likely 200 hours) to complete and earn a yoga teaching certification from their program. They have become certified to teach yoga by their school.
Typically once a CYT has registered with Yoga Alliance, they will start using the title RYT which stands for Registered Yoga Teaching moving forward.
Anyone who completes a yoga teacher training should receive a yoga teaching certificate from the YTT or Yoga Teacher Training program that they complete.
Yoga Alliance does not issue teaching certifications, this is a common area of confusion.
If you've been wondering if you even need to be certified to teach yoga the answer to that is yes and no. Legally no, you do not need to be certified. But to be employable, yes, you need to be certified.
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What is a RYT or Registered Yoga Teacher
A RYT or Registered Yoga Teacher has completed a minimum of 200 hours of learning and non-contact hours at a RYS or Registered Yoga School with Yoga Alliance, and they have decided to register with Yoga Alliance as a yoga teacher after completing their YTT.
The RYT title indicates that the yoga school the yoga teacher attended has a yoga teacher training curriculum that is approved by Yoga Alliance.
A yoga teacher who attends teacher training at a Registered Yoga School can decide to register with Yoga Alliance as a Registered Yoga Teacher after completing yoga teacher training.
To make it simple – anytime the title begins with R it is associated with Yoga Alliance:
- RYS: Registered Yoga School
- RYT: Registered Yoga Teacher
Even after completing a 200-hour yoga teacher training program at a RYS, a yoga teacher is not required to register with Yoga Alliance, but many yoga teachers choose to register with YA or Yoga Alliance.
Yoga Alliance registers yoga teachers at 5 levels: 200hr, 300hr, 500hr, E-RYT 200 and E-RYT 500. RYT 300's are yoga teachers who have completed their 200 hour and their 300 hour certification courses.
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What is a E-RYT 200 or Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher 200 hour
This credential signifies that a yoga teacher has completed a 200-hour teacher training with a RYS, and has at least 1,000 hours of teaching experience since completing training, and has also taught for at least two years post-training.
What is a E-RYT 500 or Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher 500 hour
This credential signifies that the yoga teacher has completed a 500-hour teacher training with a RYS (or a 200 hour and 300 hour training separately), and has at least 2,000 hours of teaching experience since completing the training, and has taught for at least 4 years post-training.
What is a YACEP or Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider
You'll often see the title YACEP which stands for Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider.
The YACEP designation is designed for experts in the yoga community. A yoga teacher can only become a YACEP if they are already a E-RYT.
What is a RYS or Registered Yoga School
A RYS or Registered Yoga School is a school that is affiliated or registered with Yoga Alliance. They have paid the fee(s), had their curriculum approved by YA, and it meets the specific educational requirements designated by Yoga Alliance.
This means that students who complete their program have the option to register with Yoga Alliance upon program completion.
The yoga teachers at Registered Yoga Schools who are teaching yoga teacher training have also been approved by Yoga Alliance at a RYS.
According to YogaTeacher.org, it is important to note that Yoga Alliance does not certify yoga teachers. YA allows yoga teachers to register with them once they have completed a yoga teacher certification course at a RYS.
What is Yoga Alliance
That brings us to better defining what exactly Yoga Alliance is. Yoga Alliance was founded in 1999 to better regulate the yoga industry, to put it in layman's terms.
With the formation of the Yoga Alliance, the members and staff of the alliance created standards, rules, and a paid membership database for registered yoga schools and registered yoga teachers to join.
Part of their standards means better defining what a yoga teacher training should consist of and thus what a yoga teacher should theoretically know upon completion of YTT.
Yoga Alliance has deemed that a certain number of learning hours should be spent studying certain subjects or topics during teacher training for graduates to be effective and knowledgeable yoga teachers.
This includes topics such as: yoga history, yoga philosophy, yoga anatomy, pranayama and teaching skills. YA Standards are ever-evolving, see below for the most current Yoga Alliance standards.
The idea behind YA is to ensure that curriculum standards are being standardized worldwide for yoga teachers and yoga schools, so to speak.
A yoga teacher who has completed a YTT at a RYS in India should then theoretically have a similar in-depth understanding of the same core topics and concepts as a yoga teacher who has completed a YTT in the USA at a RYS.
Yoga Alliance also requires RYT’s to uphold their code of conduct and be committed to continuing education. These are known as CE or ‘continuing education' credits. RYT's must complete 75 hours of CE credits after initial registration with Yoga Alliance.
Why would a school or yoga teacher choose not to register with Yoga Alliance
There are a number of reasons why a school or yoga teacher may choose not to register with Yoga Alliance. One of those reasons being cost.
The Yoga Alliance charges a registration fee and an annual fee to both RYS’s and RYT’s. See below for Yoga Alliance 2021 fees.
Another reason a school may choose not to register with YA is that its curriculum does not align with the standards that Yoga Alliance has set. This doesn’t mean that their curriculum is inferior, but perhaps it’s just different.
A third reason for not participating is that a school or teacher has chosen to register with another association. World Yoga Federation, for example.
If all of this seems overwhelming to you, you’re not alone! You will come to understand all of this even better during the business portion of your yoga teacher training.
Vocabulary:
CYT: Certified Yoga Teacher
CE: Continuing Education
E-RYT 200: Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher, 200 hour Certification
E-RYT 500: Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher, 500 hour Certification
RYS: Registered Yoga School
RYT: Registered Yoga Teacher
TTC: Teacher Training Course
YA: Yoga Alliance
YACEP: Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider
YTT: Yoga Teacher Training
We hope this article has helped to clarify questions you may have had about yoga teacher training some of the acronyms in the professional yoga world! Our article about the differences between RYT 200, RYT 300, and RYT 500 delves deeper into the various yoga certification levels if you're unsure of which teacher training path is for you, or if you're simply wanting to learn more.
Another common topic that aspiring yoga teachers are curious about is if it is really possible to earn a living as a yoga teacher. Check out our article that divulges some of the secrets of the 6 figure yoga teachers!
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