200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training

Awakenings at Vida Asana 200-Hour Teacher Training

Awakenings 200-Hour Yoga Alliance Teacher Training at Vida Asana is a one-of-a-kind experience that will change your life. Designed to lead participants through a path of insights and transformation. Developed so that students can experience yoga in an authentic way, students build incredible connections with other like-minded individuals, themselves, and nature. More than a Vinyasa training, you will leave with a sense of self-love, unity, community, a deeper understanding of yourself and sense of self worth.

HOW AWAKENINGS WORKS

Becoming a skilled and confident yoga teacher takes more than completing 200 hours. It takes time to learn, space to integrate, opportunities to practice, and meaningful feedback along the way.

Awakenings is built around that process.

PHASE 1 — BUILD THE FOUNDATION

10 Weeks Online · 60 Hours

Learn the foundations gradually before arriving in Costa Rica, with time to study, practice, ask questions, and integrate what you’re learning.

PHASE 2 — IMMERSE

12 Days at Vida Asana · 120 Hours

Practice, apply, teach, receive feedback, and experience the training together during an immersive 12 days at Vida Asana in Costa Rica.

You graduate at the completion of Phase 2.

PHASE 3 — TEACH

4 Weeks Online · Included Post-Graduation Mentorship

Return home as a certified yoga teacher and continue working with your teachers as you begin putting what you’ve learned into practice.

Our program is registered with Yoga Alliance, which means that upon completion of the program, you'll be eligible to register as a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) and teach yoga worldwide.

We offer ongoing support and mentorship to ensure that you have the skills and resources needed to succeed as a yoga teacher.

Whether you're looking to deepen your personal practice or start a new career as a yoga teacher, our yoga teacher training program can help you achieve your goals and make a positive impact in the lives of your students.

Our mission is to provide an immersive and transformative experience for students who are seeking to deepen their yoga practice and become certified yoga teachers. Led by our experienced and knowledgeable lead instructor, Alejandra Torres, we believe that yoga is a powerful tool for personal growth and transformation, and we are dedicated to sharing this practice with others in a supportive and empowering environment.

Through our comprehensive curriculum, expert guidance, and the serene surroundings of Vida Asana, we aim to create a space where students can develop their skills, knowledge, and confidence as yoga teachers. We strive to cultivate a community of like-minded individuals who share a passion for yoga and a commitment to personal growth.

We believe that yoga is a journey, and our program is designed to provide students with the tools they need to continue on this path long after their training is complete. Our graduates are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to share the benefits of yoga with others and to make a positive impact in their communities.

At Vida Asana, we are committed to upholding the highest standards of excellence in yoga education, and we are dedicated to providing a safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environment for all students. Alejandra Torres and our team of experienced teachers are committed to supporting each student on their unique journey and to providing personalized guidance and feedback throughout the program.

PHASE 1 — BUILD THE FOUNDATION

10 Weeks Online · 60 Hours

Your Awakenings journey begins ten weeks before you arrive in Costa Rica.

Rather than encountering philosophy, anatomy, alignment, meditation, sequencing, and teaching methodology for the first time during an intensive training, you’ll have time to learn gradually, ask questions, practice, and begin integrating what you’re learning.

Saturdays · 7:00 AM Costa Rica Time

2–3 Hour Live Training Session

Our primary weekly session explores yoga philosophy and history, asana and alignment, anatomy, teaching methodology, sequencing, meditation, and the foundations of skillful teaching.

Thursdays · 10:00 AM Costa Rica Time

90-Minute Live Session Every Other Week

These sessions are more experiential and interactive and may include asana, meditation and pranayama, pose analysis, teaching exercises, sequencing, Q&A, and feedback.

You’ll also complete approximately 90 minutes of independent study and practice each week through reading, recorded practices, reflection, sequencing assignments, and early teaching exercises.

The intention isn’t simply to accumulate hours.

It’s to give you time to experience, question, practice, and integrate what you’re learning.

PHASE 2 — IMMERSE

12 Days at Vida Asana in Costa Rica · 120 Hours

After ten weeks of learning together online, we meet at Vida Asana in beautiful Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica.

Because you’ve already built your foundation, we don’t have to spend our time together starting from the beginning.

Instead, our twelve days together can focus on what is most powerful to experience in person:

Practice · Application · Teaching · Feedback · Connection · Community

Your days include asana and meditation, in-depth alignment work, applied anatomy and Ayurveda, yoga philosophy, teaching methodology, sequencing, teaching labs, practice teaching, pranayama, and direct feedback from your teachers.

You’ll also study with guest faculty who bring different areas of expertise and perspectives into the training.

This is where what you’ve been learning begins to become embodied.

Where knowledge becomes experience.

And where you begin finding your own voice as a teacher.

YOU GRADUATE AT THE END OF PHASE 2

Upon successfully completing the 10-week online foundation and 12-day Costa Rica immersion, you have completed your 200-hour training.

You’ll graduate from Awakenings, receive your 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training certification, and be eligible to register with Yoga Alliance as an RYT 200.

Phase 3 is not required for graduation. It’s included because we don’t believe our support should disappear the moment you become a certified teacher.

THE VIDA ASANA EXPERIENCE

For twelve days, Vida Asana becomes home.

Located in Playa Hermosa on Costa Rica’s Central Pacific Coast, we’re surrounded by tropical jungle and just a short walk from the beach.

You’ll wake to the sounds of nature, practice in our open-air yoga shalas, share meals with your teachers and fellow students, and step away from everyday life long enough to fully immerse yourself in the experience.

Vida Asana has always been about community. When you come here, you’re not simply attending a course—you become part of our family.

There is time to work hard and go deep, but also time to laugh, connect, enjoy the pool, visit the beach, explore Costa Rica, find a hammock, or simply be still.

Throughout your stay, our kitchen prepares three fresh, nourishing meals every day, using locally sourced ingredients whenever possible, with vegetarian, pescatarian, and plant-based options.

The shared meals, conversations, friendships, and moments between classes often become just as memorable as the training itself.

NOURISHMENT IS PART OF THE TRAINING

At Vida Asana, meals are part of the experience.

Our kitchen prepares three fresh, nourishing meals each day during your immersion, with vegetarian, pescatarian, and plant-based options using locally sourced ingredients whenever possible.

The table is also where a lot of the connection happens—sharing meals, talking through the day, laughing, and getting to know the people you’re training alongside.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

Awakenings offers a comprehensive approach to yoga and the art of teaching. You’ll study the traditions and practices of yoga while learning how to translate that knowledge into safe, intelligent, and authentic teaching.

Asana & Alignment

Explore foundational asanas through alignment-focused practice and workshops. Learn how poses work in different bodies, how to modify them, and how to teach movement safely and intelligently.

Our approach draws from Vinyasa, Hatha, Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Restorative Yoga.

Anatomy & Physiology

Explore bones, joints, muscles, movement, functional anatomy, and the relationship between physical structure and yoga postures.

Our anatomy training is practical and directly connected to teaching, helping you understand why poses feel different from one body to another and how to adapt accordingly.

Yoga Philosophy

Explore the history and evolution of yoga along with foundational teachings from texts including the Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita.

Our intention isn’t simply to memorize philosophy. It’s to explore how yoga can actually be lived—on the mat and in the way we move through the world.

Meditation & Pranayama

Develop your own meditation and breathwork practice while learning techniques you can confidently introduce to your future students.

Teaching Methodology & Sequencing

Learn how to structure classes safely and intelligently, sequence with intention, communicate clearly, demonstrate effectively, offer modifications, and create a welcoming teaching environment.

Most importantly, we’ll help you discover your own teaching voice rather than teaching you to imitate ours.

Practicum

You won’t spend 200 hours learning about teaching without actually teaching.

You’ll create sequences, teach your peers, observe others, experiment with language, receive feedback, make changes—and teach again.

Your Yoga Teachers

Alejandra Torres

Ale, a native of Costa Rica, resides in the picturesque region of Playa Hermosa in the Central Pacific.

In 2006, Ale's transformative journey with yoga began, providing her with the guidance she sought during a period of darkness and self-discovery. Through yoga, she found solace, overcoming anxiety, sexual abuse, and trauma, and rediscovering her true self.

To Ale, yoga is a sacred ritual that honors the body as a temple, a pathway to reconnecting with our authentic selves and experiencing the vastness of Absolute Reality. This profound joy ignited within her a passion for sharing the practice and serving others, making it her life's mission.

Even before her yoga journey commenced, India beckoned to Ale's heart. Answering the call, she ventured to India in 2011 and returned three more times, spending several months during each visit. This humbling journey immersed her in intensive studies of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, and Kashmir Shaivism under the guidance of esteemed masters.

Driven by her dedication as both a practitioner and teacher, Ale continues to deepen her knowledge through constant study under renowned teachers. She has completed numerous trainings and workshops in Costa Rica and India. Presently, she teaches weekly group and private classes, hosts transformative retreats, and leads comprehensive teacher training programs in Costa Rica. With every ounce of her being, she pours her heart and soul into her teaching, delivering profound, insightful, and enjoyable experiences to devoted students and fellow teachers.

Today, Ale's unique style transcends traditional yoga classes. She skillfully combines modern postural yoga with mobility drills and various approaches to flexibility and stability. Through her yoga teacher training programs, Ale equips aspiring teachers with the tools to nurture their inner teacher and unleash their creativity through thoughtful class planning.

For Ale, yoga is a path of embracing one's true self without apology, a journey of self-discovery and personal growth.

Adriana Leiva

Adriana started to practice and teach yoga 19 + years ago, back in 2002 while studying in Centro de Balance Integral Gaia where as well she studied Holistic massage, Reiki and others. She studies two years of Anthropology before she finally got her litentiate degree in Physiotherapy. This background made her teaching approach deeply focused in asana alignment, smart sequencing and biomechanics. She did more than 200 hrs of Anusara Yoga training from 2004 to 2008 which empowered her alignment based practice.

In 2011 she travels in India during 5 months and gets immersed in the devotional practice of mantra chanting, harmonium playing and in Benares she meets her philosophy, Kashmiri shaivaism, Anuttara Trika Tantra teacher Dr. Mark Dyczcowski with whom she still studies on a weekly basis. As well in this travel she did her first Ayurveda massage training and Ashtanga Yoga immersion.

In 2013 Adriana further her yoga studies doing a 500 hr. training with italian Hari Om Yoga school, after which she joins as a teacher for their YTT’s in Costa Rica and Italy until 2015. Then she joins as a guest teacher for teacher trainings for the Caribe Yoga Academy in 2016 and Awakening Teacher Trainings in 2017.

In 2018 she moves fro 1 year to Buenos Aires, Argentina to pursue studies in Ayurvedic Medicine and becomes Ayurveda consultant and therapist. In early 2020 she travels to India and undergoes a Clinical Training in Ayurvedic Medicine in the Gujarat Ayurveda University.

Since 2020 Adriana has dedicated to an in depth scholar study of Yoga, yoga history and Sanskrit.

Adriana lives her passion as she continues to spread the teachings of yoga after all this years. She lives in the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica with her partner and her 6 year old son, where she co/owns  Samadhi Wellness Temple where she practices bodywork and soulwork.  Her yoga practice consists in Ashtanga yoga, pranayama, meditation, chanting and more.

Marco Amador

Marco Amador has been involved into movement and meditation since very young. Raced in the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, running, cycling and surfing came natural for him. And at the same time he felt inclination for meditation since he was young. At the age of 18 years old he discovered yoga, but it was not until 24 when he decided to dig deep into the “yoga world”.

For more than 14 years he has studied and practiced yoga in Central America, India and USA. He has studied with great teachers as Saraswati (Ashtanga, in Mysore), Richard Freeman (Ashtanga), Tim Miller (Ashtanga), John Friend (Anusara), amongst others.

He has found the balance between yoga and sport lifestyle. For that reason ESPN chose him to film a special edition of Yoga and sports in 2016.

Marco is now an sponsored athlete of various sports such as Mountain bike, Trail Running and Triathlon.

Currently, he is the director of ZENFIT where he coaches amateur and elite athletes. He is also a Crossfit Level 1 certified teacher, massage therapist and graduated physiotherapist. Nowadays he regularly appears in national TV as a movement and physiotherapy expert.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How does the Awakenings Hybrid Yoga Teacher Training work?

Awakenings is a 200-hour Yoga Alliance Certified training completed in two phases: 10 weeks of online foundational study (60 hours), followed by a 12-day immersive training at Vida Asana in Costa Rica (120 hours).

After graduation, we also include four weeks of post-graduation teaching mentorship to support you as you begin putting what you've learned into practice.

When do I graduate?

You graduate after successfully completing Phase 1 and Phase 2—the 10-week online foundation and 12-day Costa Rica immersion.

At that point, you'll receive your 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training certification and be eligible to register with Yoga Alliance as an RYT 200.

Is Phase 3 required for graduation?

No. Phase 3 is included post-graduation mentorship and is not required to receive your certification.

We include it because the first weeks of actually teaching are often when the most important questions arise, and we want you to continue having access to your teachers during that transition.

Do I have to attend the online sessions live?

Live participation is strongly encouraged because discussion, questions, interaction, and feedback are important parts of the training.

If you have a scheduling or time-zone conflict, please contact us before registering so we can discuss whether the training will work for you.

What styles of yoga will I study?

Our approach draws from several yoga traditions and methodologies, including Vinyasa, Hatha, Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Restorative Yoga.

Rather than training you to teach one rigid style, our goal is to give you a broad foundation and help you develop your own authentic approach to teaching.

Is Awakenings registered with Yoga Alliance?

Yes. Vida Asana School of Yoga is a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga School.

After successfully completing Phases 1 and 2, you'll receive your 200-hour certification and be eligible to register with Yoga Alliance as an RYT 200.

Do I need to want to become a yoga teacher?

No.

Some students join Awakenings knowing they want to teach. Others come because they want to deepen their personal practice, understand yoga beyond asana, or immerse themselves more fully in the teachings.

You will participate in teaching methodology and practice teaching as part of the certification, regardless of whether you ultimately choose to teach professionally.

How much yoga experience do I need?

We recommend approximately one year of consistent yoga practice before beginning Awakenings.

If you're newer to yoga but have a strong commitment to learning, please reach out to us. We're happy to talk with you about whether the training is a good fit.

Will I actually practice teaching?

Absolutely.

Practice teaching is an important part of Awakenings. You'll create sequences, teach your peers, observe other teachers, receive feedback, refine your approach, and teach again.

Our goal is for you to graduate having already experienced what it feels like to stand in front of students and teach.

What is included during the Costa Rica immersion?

Your stay at Vida Asana includes accommodations, three nourishing meals each day, all in-person training, workshops and course materials, use of our yoga spaces and property, and roundtrip group transportation from San José International Airport within our designated transportation schedule.

What are the accommodations like?

Vida Asana offers comfortable shared and private rooms. All rooms include air conditioning, hot water, private ensuite bathrooms, and comfortable beds.

You'll have access to our pool, yoga shalas, common spaces, and the many quiet places around the property to study, connect, or relax.

What kind of food is served?

Our kitchen prepares three fresh, nourishing meals each day, with vegetarian, pescatarian, and plant-based options.

We use fresh, locally sourced ingredients whenever possible and design our meals to support the demands of your practice and training.

What does a typical day in Costa Rica look like?

Days during the immersion are full but balanced.

A typical day may include morning meditation, pranayama and asana, shared meals, workshops in anatomy, philosophy or teaching methodology, teaching labs and practice teaching, and afternoon or evening practices.

The exact schedule varies throughout the immersion depending on the curriculum.

Will I have any free time in Costa Rica?

Yes. Although the immersion is intensive, there is also time to rest, connect with your fellow students, enjoy the pool, visit the beach, explore the surrounding area, or find a hammock and simply relax.

What teaching materials are provided?

You'll receive a comprehensive training manual and additional materials covering the core areas of the program, including philosophy, anatomy, asana, teaching methodology, sequencing, and the practical aspects of becoming a yoga teacher.

Are payment plans available?

Yes. We offer payment plans to make the training more accessible. Please contact us for current options.

Do I need a visa to travel to Costa Rica?

Entry requirements depend on your nationality and can change. We recommend checking the current requirements for your passport before booking travel.