bikram yoga next teacher training

Hi guys.

I know this is an old post, but it is a good question never the less!!

I have just come back from the Bikram TT spring 2011. It had been a dream for me to go, for over a year – almost since I first started to do Bikram yoga. So when I got my studios acceptance of going – and a a lot of great support from teachers and fellow student, I was so relieved.

The Training was 9 weeks, and all located at a hotel in an airport area – not charming at all. We where staying at the hotel rooms, most of us sharing, having a small hotel fridge and the nearby supermarkets. The hotel also had a buffet especially made for us which was alright, but not very interesting especially as a vegetarian. No food was was included in the 10900 dollars this costs.

All classes (2/day, 1/saturday, free sunday) was in the big ball room of the hotel. So we were more than 430 people training together all the time. Imagine being on row 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10…?? Not much seeing your self in the mirror. There was never silence until the second class started (which for me is an important part of my training) and very quickly after the teacher left there was noise and chatting again! We didnt have any “plans”/goals with all that training. E.g. improving certain postures etc. Just in and out of the room. No guidance, no personal corrections, just mass production.

In between the classes we had lectures. Bikram was speaking a lot. The curriculum we had received before going, had made the topics he would speak about interesting, the traditional foundation theory of yoga, but the way he talked and made it so much about himself all the time, was just so simply boring and a waste of time. We heard a lot about his cars, his expensive watches, saw his favorite bollywood films until late in the nigths (were never allowed to leave, had to sign in for it all and stay there!)
We had anatomy classes which was OK, but nothing at all I couldnt have read in a book in a day myself. And then we had a lot of simply useless lectures, which seemed more to be there just to fill out the time. E.g. a lecture about womens menstrual cyclus, from some guy in Bikrams family. Some lectures from private people doing bikram, how it safed them, what it made them capable of etc. A few lectures a bit more spiritual, that focused on the powers of the mind, importance of discipline etc.. Interesting but not structured as an integrated part of the whole training.
It all just seemed very unstructured, and improvised. We never knew what we were going to hear about in the following lectures, or by who. And that very much seemed to be because the staff didnt either. I am sorry to have to say that I found the course quite ridiculous. Before I left, I thought that at least I would get two interesting months for my money (as I wasnt sure I wanted to teach) but that should definitely not be the reason to go. If you want a good quality course, with space to feeling free and if you really want to learn about the yoga, the postures, and the benefits, spiritual and physically I can not say that I recommend the Bikram TT.

After trying it out, I understand more than ever why Gabrielle has felled she has to make her own TT and a good book about all the postures. Because there is nothing within the Bikram world that gives us this. Not even as a teacher. It is scary to see how little we actually learned and now people are out there teaching – and all we did was go through this bootcamp with no much teaching, but just a lot of classes in a big hot room and a self centered “guru”

Yup. If you ask, I dont like the Bikram TT. I am mostly glad I went because I had to live out that dream (getting disappointed or not) and now teaching is a learning process for me too. Just as well that I know I am not the only one with that opinion, I do know that some says it was the bast thing they ever done and loved it! I will never understand that. I dont know if I regret going, it doesnt really matter now, except when I am asked if I recommend it. Now that it is done, it has lead my into a world of even more yoga, and I learn by teaching. But it is really just Bikram monopoly. I want to check out Hot Yoga where the Bikram spirit doesnt live, but the postures are the same – just as they also were thousands of years ago.

If you want to teach Bikram yoga – you simply have to go through the Teacher Training. But if you want to learn a lot of interesting things, and do not need to teach at a Bikram studio – find something else – I think Gabrielles course sounds so much better and she definitely knows what those people going through Bikram TT misses!! I also find that we didnt have much spiritual teachings at Bikram TT. I would like to try The Hot Yoga Doctor TT or maybe find an ashram somewhere and learn about more traditional yoga.

This was just my first thoughts on your question, and I think people have the right to know a little more true things about that Bikram TT before going. At the training they say that looking a Bikram is like looking at a mirror – which makes is quite hard for some to say, like I feel, that he is not interesting, not my guru, not peaceful. He is doing a lot of good things to so many people but I think it has all come to his head and somebody should tell him to calm down. They also say “trust the Process” throughout the whole training so when we were really feeling that we were lacking to learn about the postures and very disappointed with the overall quality, it was in the air that we couldnt ask, and we should just “wait and see”-kind of. The last few days we finally got a short introduction to the postures but it was close to worthless being 430 people in a room with a teacher and a model on a little stage in the center.

Ask me any questions and I will gladly answer my honest opinion.

Hi Padme

Thank you so much for baring your soul here. It’s important for people to know about what they would be in for. I am sorry that you had a poor and unsatisfactory 2 months at Bikram Teacher Training in LA. As you say, you’re one of very many who feel similarly to you.

Thank you for your support. I appreciate and am honoured by it. Let me know by PM or email if I can help you in any way.

Frankly, if you pay almost $11,000 for a “teacher training” course then by definition you should leave there with the skills to be a teacher. Words recited do not a teacher make! But you all know the way I (and we) feel about that!

Anyway, my teacher training program is designed to create world class hot yoga teachers. In a few days we’ll post the first of quite a number of videos from some of my participants. I do hope you enjoy them.

It is certainly an honour to walk alongside people on their journey and to watch their identities grow. That unfortunately is not really possible in a room of 430 people. OK, that’s enough from me. I just wanted to say, that I hear you and thank you!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

As a yoga teacher myself, I would like to point out that the main or only reason you should fork over $11,000 for a Bikram yoga teacher training is because you want to be able to tap into his name and brand and use this to teach this style. Otherwise, a good Hot Yoga Teacher training is all you need and will cost a whole lot less. So I would highly recommend you think about what your goals are first before you spend that kind of money. Good luck out there!

Hi Christina

I think if you scratch the surface you’ll find your fears would in all likelihood be realised. On the one hand we wish to send our children to schools with small manageable classes, that have teachers who uphold and foster basic teaching conditions such as proper behaviour exhibited and expected along with proper learning outcomes.

Perhaps you can examine what you might be able to get from a class of 400-500 students with one teacher at the front. Or even in a pose clinic of 50 people watching someone doing the pose well.

If you want a perverse way of looking at it, imagine standing by the side of the pool watching someone swimming so that you can learn how to swim. Learning just doesn’t work that way.

While I could talk about how great the Hot Yoga Doctor Pro program is :cheese: I really don’t think that it’s the right thing to do here. I suggest that you check out what my lovely newly graduated teachers had to say because what you want is your outcome. You can see that (and what having a ‘personal approach’ means) at the Hot Yoga Teacher website!.

Learning poses and how to fix your own practice is definitely one way to be able to improve your ability to teach a class. I think it’s imperative. If you’re going to any teacher training one of the main outcomes is learning to teach.

We spend a lot of time on that, and partly by using your own practice to get you there. Plenty of hands-on experience is required in order to do that. And what we also do is to relate that strongly and deeply to the workings of the body so that you can take just about any pose and work out how it works and how to teach it.

Christina, there are hundreds of people who do teacher training courses just because they want to improve their own practices. A good proportion go on to teach but not all. I am just curious as to where, on that continuum, you stand!

Feel free to ask further questions! I would love to welcome you to Costa Rica if that resonates with you!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi

I recently attended a lecture by Bikram in Seattle at Bellevue College. My studio (Bikram) was promoting the event. It cost $60 to attend. I have been practicing Bikram yoga for two and a half years and I love it.

The 3 hour lecture was held in a gymnasium and the audience had to sit on bleachers, ouch. The stage was set up as some sort of a shrine to him and the person handling the sound was neurotic about making sure it was perfect or “his ass would be grass” as he put it (it wasn’t, the sound system was terrible, lots of awful feedback). Bikram himself arrived about 20 minutes late, which I felt was disrespectful to the audience who paid a lot of money. He talked non stop for three hours, mostly about how great he was, his cars, his jewelry and all the celebrities he knows. Many of the audience members were Bikram teachers and they treated him like he was a god or something, often reciting sayings or phrases I assume are part of the teacher training. I love the yoga, but having first hand experience with the man himself really turned me off of the idea of taking his teacher training.

My impression of him is that he is a man who would charge people $60 to hear him talk in a cheap, uncomfortable venue while his every whim is catered to. Huge ego, and that is putting it mildly.

I would love to attend the training in Costa Rica, it sounds amazing and I will look into it. I’m not sure if I can make it work this year, so hopefully there will be another one.

TMD

Hi all,

I was also at the BYTT spring 2011 in LA and I agree with all that Padme wrote. Never have I spent so much money for so little pleasure and so little “bang” for my buck. All in all, a huge disappointment as far as value for money is concerned…..a mega ripoff.