I’ve been invited multiple times to lead yoga teacher training here in Albuquerque.
I’ve been tempted. More than once, I initially said yes. I genuinely believe in deep teacher training and mentorship. But each time, when I examined the actual structure from the economics, the saturation it would add to, the compromises required. I realized I couldn’t participate without perpetuating the problem. So I stepped back.
Not because I don’t value teacher training. Not because I don’t think the people extending the invitations are well-intentioned. But because I can’t participate in a system that I believe fundamentally underserves both teachers and students.
Let me explain.
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The Cycle That Has Broken Yoga
Walk into most yoga studios in Albuquerque, or frankly, across the United States, and you’ll see a familiar business model:
Unlimited monthly memberships for cheap
It sounds like a great deal for students. And on the surface, it is. But here’s what that pricing model has actually created:
For Teachers: Poverty Wages by Design
To make those cheap memberships work financially, studios need high volume. That means:
- Teachers earn roughly $5 per student or small flat rate. Don’t have prime time slots? You’re bummed
- To make even a modest living, teachers need to teach 20-25+ classes per week
- There’s no time for preparation, continuing education, or personal practice
- There’s no incentive to develop specialization or depth
- Many teachers rely on second jobs or partners to survive
The result? Teacher burnout isn’t just common, it’s inevitable. The ones who stay often do so by teaching an unsustainable number of classes, burning out slowly, or by treating yoga as a side hustle rather than a serious practice.
For Students: The Race to the Bottom
Here’s what’s telling: people in Albuquerque readily pay $25-35 for a single Pilates class.
But yoga? That’s supposed to be cheap. Accessible. Something you can do unlimited times for less than the cost of a few lattes.
For now, Pilates still commands this pricing. But watch closely, it’s starting to mirror yoga’s model. Accelerated teacher training programs are popping up. Certifications are getting shorter. More teachers are flooding the market. The devaluation cycle that destroyed yoga’s worth is beginning in Pilates too.
The $3,000 Solution to a $20 Problem
“If you want to go deeper,” the studio says, “you need yoga teacher training.” Suddenly, the answer isn’t better classes or more experienced teachers. It’s a $3,000-5,000 training program.
Now, let me be clear: yoga teacher training can be valuable. In the right context, with the right teachers, it’s transformative.
But here’s what the YTT industry has actually created:
The Teacher Saturation Problem
Here’s the cycle that’s destroyed yoga’s value:
- Studios run cheap unlimited memberships to stay competitive
- To be profitable, they pay teachers poverty wages ($20/class)
- Teachers can’t survive on those wages alone
- Studios respond by running teacher trainings as their primary revenue source
- Hundreds of newly certified teachers flood the market every year
- With so many teachers competing for limited class slots, studios can keep wages low
- Teaching yoga becomes something “anyone can do” after a 200-hour training
- The market becomes oversaturated with undertrained, inexperienced teachers
- Students stop valuing yoga because there are so many new teachers
- Studios can’t pay teachers fairly
- Rinse. Repeat
The YTT model has made teaching yoga so accessible that it’s made yoga itself worthless.
Think about it: When everyone who takes a 200-hour training becomes a teacher, what does that communicate about the depth & difficulty of the practice? When studios churn out new teachers every few months to keep revenue streams alive, what does that say about mastery?
Many YTT hosts started as exploited teachers themselves. They opened studios, couldn’t survive on classes alone, and now perpetuate the same cycle. It’s not malicious. It’s structural. The business model requires exploitation.
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The Insular Training Problem
YTT are often led by teachers whose training primarily happened within a local network. And while many teachers are dedicated and sincere, without exposure to a range of teachers & traditions, something essential can get lost.
These are dedicated, passionate teachers, many of whom I know and respect. But without access to mentors from diverse traditions or opportunities to study outside their community, even the most committed teachers develop blind spots. Years of teaching builds skill, but depth of understanding requires exposure to multiple lineages, cultures, and perspectives.
This isn’t about intelligence or dedication. It’s about the limitations of training in isolation.
When you combine market saturation with insular training, you get exactly what we have now: a devalued practice taught either by undertrained teachers, or overtrained teachers, or burned-out teachers, or overqualified and underpaid teachers, to students who don’t even know what they’re missing.
Why I Said No
I’ve taught internationally and studied extensively in India, training with teachers from diverse traditions. Not everyone needs to or should or wants to do this (of course) but that experience showed me there are other ways to structure a yoga program. They don’t require choosing between exploitation or expensive certifications.
Because of that experience, I can’t pretend that the model I see here, is serving anyone.
Can I offer something truly different within this system, or would I just be putting a new face on the same broken cycle?
I couldn’t do it. So I said no.
What I’m Building Instead
If I can’t participate in the existing model, I can create an alternative. That’s why I started ABQ Yoga Lab. It’s not a studio with unlimited memberships/drop-in classes. It’s not a TT program churning out new instructors.
It’s a boutique yoga circle, small, intimate, and experimental. A place where:
- Teachers are compensated fairly so they can show up resourced, not depleted
- Students get continuity and depth without needing to become teachers to access it
- We explore beyond the standard class format: breathwork, pranayama, meditation, somatic practices, and movement that challenges without depleting
- The practice is valued appropriately — not cheapened into unsustainability
- Mastery is respected — not reduced to a weekend certification
- The focus is transformation, not transaction
An Invitation
Maybe you’ve been feeling like something’s missing in your yoga practice.
Maybe you’ve noticed the abundance of teachers hasn’t improved the quality of what’s available.
Maybe someone told you to do a teacher training when you just wanted deeper practice.
This is my creative answer: yoga that feels honest, alive, and built on respect instead of exploitation.
You’re invited.
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