Frequently Asked Questions

The Yoga International help desk is staffed only during business hours during the week (open Monday to Friday 9 – 5 ET). The easiest way to connect to them is via the Chat icon at the bottom right of their webpage. (The icon looks like a white, smiling square within a blue circle.) Please be patient as this is a small group of dedicated people who will try to help you as fast as they can.

All the course materials, links to the live sessions and recorded videos as well as the schedule for the course will be on your course home page. The link to your course home page will be in the registration package you will receive when you register for the course, but you can also find it by signing in to Yoga International and clicking the top right, profile icon and selecting the “My Courses” button. To sign in, you will need the same email address you used to register for the course. If you are unsure of which address you used, check the registration package email you received from YI, as it was sent to that address.

The manual for the course will be available a few days before the course begins. The pre-recorded videos will be available at the same time. The live sessions will be enabled when the live session begins to stream.

Once you are signed in to the YI website, find the course and remember to scroll down the whole of the course page. The calendar boxes at the top are useful shortcuts but each day’s box disappears as soon as we start the live session. All the links for each day’s live stream and video recordings can be found by scrolling down through the different sections of the course page. 

The course will begin on Monday, September 19th, 2022 at 8am Pacific Time (PT). If you are not sure what time this is in your time zone, try the Time Zone Converter found at https://www.thetimezoneconverter.com/. Simply type 8 AM and Vancouver in the right hand boxes, and you will see what your local time will be in the left hand boxes. 

The live session each day will go from 8am PT until 1:30pm PT with a half hour break at 11am PT. 

The main book for the course is The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga. You will need to get a copy before the course begins (it is available through Amazon and as an eBook). Other useful books, but not required, are Your Body, Your Yoga and Your Spine, Your Yoga.

For the practice sessions, a cushion to sit on is useful.  If you do not have one, use a folded blanket.  Blocks, straps, sandbags and bolsters will be handy as well, but they are not required.  You do not even need a yoga mat to do Yin Yoga.  We will talk about what to do if you don’t have any props during the course, and how to improvise.

Yes. The live sessions are being recorded in real time and you can join them at any time. When you join a live session you will have two options: you can watch live via Zoom in which case you can also ask questions in real time, or you can watch via the Yoga International course page. If you choose that option, you lose the ability to ask questions in real time but you gain the ability use DVR type functions. This means you can rewind back to the beginning of the session and watch from there. You can also skip forward, passing over breaks for example, until you are watching live again.

No. The live sessions are all recorded and you can watch them at any time. While watching the live sessions in real time via Zoom gives you the chance to ask questions in real time, you can still submit your questions via email, Facebook or the Forum at any time.

If you wish to ask questions in real time, you must watch the course via Zoom. There you will find a Chat function that allows real time questioning. This function is not available if you watch the course via the Yoga International course page. However, you can always ask non-real time questions via the Facebook Group, through the YinYoga.com Forum or via email to Bernie, Diana or Nathalie. If you need help registering on the Forum, please contact Nathalie. If you are having problems joining the Facebook group, please contact Diana.

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

When you hear an echo it is usually due to both the Zoom live link being active as well as the YI feed playing at the same time. We suggest you stop one of the two processes and just watch via Zoom or the YI feed, but make sure you are not running both.

When people post a chat, the icon at the bottom of the Zoom page changes, which can be annoying. If you do not want to be distracted by these indicators, click on the chat icon and then drag the whole screen down to the bottom left corner of your screen. Tuck it under the corner as far as you can to minimize its size. You no longer be distracted!

Another option is, before you join the daily session, go into Zoom and sign in. Look for the chat options in settings (top right will have gear icon). Uncheck the boxes “Show unread message count.. ” and “Show message preview” (which is at the bottom).

Unfortunately, we have tried closed captioning (CC) in the past but it did not work very well and everyone found it distracting. One problem was that closed captioning runs too slow, so the translations were several seconds behind the talk. Also, the translations were very poor: CC does a bad job of rendering technical terms and Sanskrit words. We found it better to not offer CC.

Sometimes browsers show the same page even though a newer version of the page is available. So, when you experience a problem the first thing to do is refresh the page. If that doesn’t work, clear you cache (you can Google how to do that for your particular browser: it is quite simple.) Another trick is to try logging out of Yoga International, and then log back in again. If all of this doesn’t work, try rebooting your computer.

You will need all check marks to take the final test and finish the course. If you have watched the videos and a check does not appear, you can try these steps:

• Open the video and watch the first 30 seconds or so
• Use your mouse to click the time bar at the bottom of the video close to the end of the video
• Watch the last minute or so of the video
• When you reach the end of the video, the system will consider that you have watched it all and should give you the tick mark beside that video

If this doesn’t work try the Yoga International help desk, which is open Monday to Friday 9 – 5 ET.

There is no deadline for completing the course. You can watch the videos at your own pace and take the test in your own time. Go at your own pace. The videos will be permanently available to you via the Yoga International course page.

Yes, we plan to have a 5-minute break every hour during the live sessions, but we will also have a longer 30-minute break after about 3 hours of presentations.  This half hour break will occur at about 11:00-11:30 am PT. Thus there will be three 5-minute breaks and one 30-minute break each day. During the breaks, the screen will show a countdown timer indicating how much time is left in the break.

Don’t worry: this is yin. The test will be simple: just a 15 multiple choice questions. It is open book, so you can have all your resources on hand, and there is no time frame for completing it. Also, you can take the test as many times as you need to.

The test will be available when you have finished watching all the live sessions (either in real time or by viewing the recorded playback) and pre-recorded videos. Once you have tick marks besides all of these activities, the test will be viewable.

Your certificate will be available for downloading from Yoga International course home page once you have completed the final test. It will show the name that you registered with when you signed up for the course. If you desire a name different on your certificate, remember to change that first by going into your YI account. You can do that by logging into Yoga International, go to the top right shaded face and click that to get to your account. You can change your name there and then re-download the certificate. If necessary you can contact the YI help desk.

Be sure ALL modules have been checked off (including the video for bonus yin poses and the survey AND THE Q&A; you don’t have to watch the video or take the survey or look at the Q&A, but you will need the check marks). If you’ve double-checked all of the above but still don’t see the certificate, go here to look for it: Right-hand side drop-down menu on the homepage; Library/Certificates

For a receipt, please contact the Yoga International Help Desk. (See first FAQ above.)

If you want to be listed as a Yin teacher in the teacher directory at yinyoga.com, send an email to [email protected]. Include your name, location (country/state or province/city), web address, Facebook or Instagram information, email address, phone no., studio name and web address where you are offering classes, a short bio or description of your teaching (150 words max), and a small head & shoulders picture of yourself.

No. You do have to have an account with Yoga International, but you do not have to pay any monthly subscription fees. Your course and all the videos are permanently available through your account. Yoga International has a separate membership program which gives access to yoga classes and other things but it is not required to access your yin yoga teacher training course videos.

• Yoga International recommends using the latest version either Safari or Google Chrome as your web browser when viewing their site. Those web browsers are the most compatible with the YI systems and will offer the best user experience.
• If you’re using one of these browsers and still experiencing issues, the most common issue is incorrectly cached information. Please be sure to log out of your current session and clear your cache and cookies before attempting again.
• Alternatively you can do a hard refresh on your web browser. This process varies depending on your browser so please search online for your specific web browser if you’re unsure.
• Please ensure your internet speed is fast enough for streaming or processing any requests on YI’s site. You can learn more about your internet speed in this article from Google’s Support Center.
• If you have any sort of ad-blocker or anti-virus software on your computer and are experiencing issues, these could be blocking your ability to access certain functions when logged into YI’s site so YI recommends disabling these when on YI’s site if you continue to experience issues.

No! While the intention of this training is to allow yoga teachers to add yin yoga to their repertoires (and if you are not yet a yoga teacher, this training will not certify you as one; you will still need to take a 200-hour training if you’d like to teach), many yoga students have taken it, not to become teachers, but to deepen their own personal practices. Anyone who has a thirst to learn can benefit from this training.

Yes. The entire training, including the recordings of the live sessions, will be permanently available to students who attended the live training and completed it.

After purchasing the training on this page, you will be redirected to the training page. Two days before the course begins, you will be able to visit this page to find all of the course materials and information on how to view each session.

Yes! If you cannot attend any or all of the live sessions (perhaps you are in a time zone where the live sessions don’t work for you), you will be able to access the recordings after.

Yes, the live five and a half hour segments will begin at 8:00 am PT, 11:00 am ET, and 4 pm in the United Kingdom each day. This time was chosen to allow live participation throughout North/South America, Europe, and Africa. However, for students in Asia/Australia/New Zealand, it will be necessary to watch the recordings of these presentations later (The recordings of the live sessions will be available for replay in as little as an hour.) The pre-recorded classes can be watched at any time.

The only thing you will need is an Internet browser and optionally the Zoom software/app. When the training begins, you will log into your Yoga International course page and click on the first day’s live video feed. If you do not have or don’t wish to use Zoom, you can watch all the videos from Yoga International’s page so you don’t need any specialized software. .

There is a facility via the Zoom app for you to ask questions in real-time. If you are not watching via Zoom there will be no ability to ask live questions.  However, you can still ask questions via email and the Facebook group for non-real-time questions, which is especially useful for students watching the replay of the videos.

You can choose to pay with your local currency or USD. You’ll be given the option before completing your purchase.

You can use either a credit card or a debit card. Just enter your debit card number in the spot for the credit card number

The required text for this training is “The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga” by Bernie Clark. It is up to you to acquire this text either in hard copy or as an eBook before the training begins. Optional, though recommended books are “Your Body, Your Yoga” and “Your Spine, Your Yoga”.

While the training is structured to run from September 19 – 25, it’s not required that you complete the training in this time frame. You can take as long as you’d like to watch all of the prerecorded videos and live session recordings. There is no deadline for completing this training. Once you have watched all the videos and taken the final test you will receive your certificate of completion.

No. You must create an account to access the course materials but you do not need to pay for a membership. If you’d like a membership you can sign up for a free trial to test it out first! A membership includes unlimited access to classes, meditations, articles, member courses, and more.