Hours Per Day
Last Updated: February 27, 2020
Yoga Alliance™ requires all Registered Yoga Schools (RYS™s) to allocate yoga teacher training hours by curriculum categories. Regardless of which RYS credential a yoga program holds, Yoga Alliance allows for no more than 14 hours per day of instructional hours. Additional information may be found below.
New RYS 200 Credential (launched February 27, 2020)
New standards underlying the RYS 200 credential took effect February 27, 2020. The new standards condensed the prior Educational Categories from five to four and requires all 200 hours to be classroom hours, increasing the emphasis on learning objectives transparently tied to instructional hours. All new RYS 200 programs beginning on February 27, 2020 will apply under this enhancement.
Instructional hours include:
- All 200 hours being delivered via classroom hours (versus the distinction between contact and non-contact hours); and
- An option of 40 of the 200 hours being delivered via online classroom hours.
- Up to 20 of the 40 hours may be in Anatomy & Physiology
- Up to 20 of the remaining 40 hours may be in Yoga Humanities
More information, including a helpful infographic showing the difference in the hour allocations of the RYS 200 credentials, may be found here.
Instructional hours under the new RYS 200 credential do not include:
- Other activities such as homework, reading assignments, personal/private practice, volunteer work/Seva, and public classes, regardless of the location where such activities take place.
Current RYS 200 and RYS 300, RYS 500, RCYS, and RPYS Credentials
New standards underlying the professional-level RYS 300 and RYS 500 credentials will be announced in June 2020, with those underlying the RCYS and RPYS specialty credentials to be announced later. RYSs with these credentials, in addition to current RYS 200 programs that have not yet up-leveled to the new RYS 200 credential, allocate hours according to five Educational Categories and distinguish between contact and non-contact hours.
Instructional hours include:
- Contact hours, which must take place in the physical presence of a faculty member; and
- Non-contact hours, which may occur without a faculty member present.
More information on contact versus non-contact hours may be found here.