Getting hired at Corepower Yoga was exciting because I had been going to classes there for a year and the instructors are all wonderful. Unfortunately for me, the excitement dissipated within a month. The studios are wonderful, students are amazing, but the ROI on time spent wasn’t there for me. There are also certain expectations of sales to move up in the totem pole…typical for a corporate company. Below is a list of all pros and cons from my short stint there.
PROS:
1. Yogis of all ages and ethnicities
2. Good acoustic and heating in studio (decent amenities for showers)
3. A lot of feedback from yogis before and after class once you get to know them
4. Paid training classes to improve teaching
5. Free classes for interns and instructors (+1)
6. Lots of opportunity to sub for other instructors
CONS:
1. Pay is minimum wage and untimely
2. Time commitment is huge (you have to arrive 30 min before class and stay 30 min after class to check in students, charge people for towels, water, etc.)
3. No pay for admin time (making playlists/sequencing)
4. Lack of diversity in peer teachers
5. Selling teacher trainings as part of a rating system
6. Amateur management
7. Intern period for 30 classes
8. Limited time slots for newbies
After figuring out the pros and cons, I decided that I would practice at Corepower to support for fellow yogi teachers but will definitely teach elsewhere as there are many other studios that pay teachers to skill accordingly. Corepower generally has a high turnover of instructors and most of them are in their early 20s. The company incentivizes selling of teacher trainings through bonus structure mentioned here.
How much does it cost to become a yoga instructor? There isn’t a straightforward answer. There are all sorts of payment plans depending on which training and what was being offered that season. It’s so secretive to figure out the pricing when I tried googling online. I’ll explain which training I chose, which payment plan I was on, and my experience in figuring out which studio I wanted to go to for teacher training.
Why I chose CorePower Yoga to do my teacher training
Easy commute after work (literally 2 blocks from my full-time job)
Time flexibility (I could do teacher training after work and on the weekends, and have 1 year to make up any classes and still get certified)
Cheapest plan I found without going abroad (There are definitely cheaper plans available if you can pay for a flight to go abroad to Thailand, Bali, etc. for an immersive training. Going abroad would’ve been my 1st choice if I had the time)
A yoga teacher convinced me with a coffee date, during which she bought me a Matcha latte with oat milk (keep in mind, they are commissioned with bonuses to reel students in to participate in teacher trainings)
I liked the consistency of the CPY format of classes (I like hot yoga + vinyasa flow)
Why I chose the 200 hour teacher training
It is Yoga Alliance Certified, so it’s recognized in the yoga world (not only at CorePower) to give you the flexibility to teach anywhere (unlike the Yoga Sculpt program)
The class size was about 14-15 students per 2 co-lead instructors and 4 coaches (I found this out at my coffee date), so I felt like I had sufficient attention from the instructors. Plus, they were a cool group of women!
The 200 hour training is for all level teaching and has heavy focus on the breath-posture-cue for each asana vs. the exercise aspect of sculpt
How much did it cost?
The MSRP price was around $3300 in the Bay Area in 2019
I was a black tag member (BTM) so I got the 20% discount (best if you have this because you’re going to be attending about 60 yoga classes in 2 months) – BTM is about $150/mo for me (Bay Area)
If you sign up and pay a fee a couple months before the start date, they also run a promotion to get $XXX off (I got $200 off)
They also run a scholarship for $500 at each studio (I did not get this)
Tip: If you are cash strapped, they offer discount pricing on Teaching Training (TT) and BTM if you work at the studio. It mostly involves cleaning and checking students in at minimum wage (I didn’t have the luxury of time so unsure of this discount)
You do the math 😉
How much time did you invest and was there a good ROI (return on investment)?
200 hrs = 200 hrs of time invested and a lot more hours in practice teaching (this is the bread and butter anyway)
You get what you put into it (I really wanted to teach right after, so I completed everything within the 2 months so I could get my certificate asap)
About half the class, 6-7 of us, became yoga instructors (part-time because many of us already had full-time jobs) after the program
Did you complete Extensions?
Extensions is something CPY advertises as TT comes to a close. It is about $500-$600 more for an additional 4/5 weeks of practice and lessons on Theme-ing and creating music playlists for your class. My instructor already prefaced this, so it didn’t come as a surprise. It is yet another revenue generator for CPY. I wanted to audition asap and didn’t want to invest more dollars, so I took a different route and did something called Intensives (which are free – more to come on this).
All in all, it’s never easy dropping a few grand on a yoga training, but if you’ve been thinking about it for a long time, definitely give it a go! TT has changed my life for the better in ways that can’t be quantified in numbers and helped my own practice immensely. From self-correcting my form to being able to connect on a different level with other humans, it’s been rewarding in more ways than one.
