At the World Yogasana Championship 2026 in Ahmedabad, India, two YogaFX teacher training graduates won all seven of Indonesia’s medals: one gold, two silver and four bronze. Neither of them trained as a professional athlete. Both learned the Original Hot 26&2 method on the same RYT 200 course any student can join in Bali.
This article explains how that happened, what a teacher training actually gives you, and what it means if you’re thinking about training yourself. It draws on the experience of Mr. Ian Terry, E-RYT 500, founder of YogaFX. He trained both medallists and coached Indonesia’s team in Ahmedabad.
World Yogasana Championship 2026: The YogaFX Results
The World Yogasana Championship 2026, the sport’s first, ran from 4 to 8 June 2026 at EKA Arena, TransStadia, in Ahmedabad. More than 500 athletes from 78 countries took part, according to The Bridge. Host nation India topped the table, and Indonesia’s whole medal haul came from two YogaFX graduates.
| Graduate | Trained with YogaFX | World Yogasana Championship 2026 | Earlier results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ivara Candra Kartika | 2023 | 1 gold, 1 bronze | FORNAS VIII gold (July 2025); Asian Yogasana Championships silver (August 2025) |
| Arkan Fauzan Riyanto | 2022 | 2 silver, 3 bronze | FORNAS champion in 2022, 2023 and 2025 |
India’s cultural office in Jakarta, ICCR Jakarta, confirmed Indonesia’s results in public. The Tangerang City Government also reported Arkan’s five medals when he came home.
Two Graduates, One Standard Course
So here’s the detail that matters most for anyone choosing a teacher training. Neither medallist joined a sports academy. Instead, both took the standard Bikram Hot 26&2 RYT 200 course, the same one listed on our course pages today.
Ivara Candra Kartika, class of 2023
Mr. Ian often points out where Ivara started. Three years before Ahmedabad, she was still struggling with Dandayamana Dhanurasana (Standing Bow Pulling Pose). By June 2026 she had a world gold medal. Today she teaches at the YogaFX studio in Seminyak and leads the posture demonstrations in our online course.
Arkan Fauzan Riyanto, class of 2022
Arkan had already won the asana singles title at FORNAS, Indonesia’s national sports festival, three times. In Ahmedabad he won five medals, the most of anyone on the Indonesian team. That takes more than one good day. It takes clean, repeatable form, round after round.
How Teacher Training Skills Carry Over to Competition
After the World Yogasana Championship 2026, people asked us how a teacher training can produce world medallists. The short answer is that the core skills overlap. A teacher has to see a posture, fix it and explain it clearly. An athlete has to feel a posture, fix it and hold it.
- Alignment. In training you learn all 26 postures from the ground up: where the weight sits, where the hips point, what the spine does. That same eye lets an athlete correct their own form before a judge sees it.
- Discipline. The course runs on a fixed rhythm: practise, study, teach, repeat. Competition rewards exactly that habit.
- Dialogue precision. The Bikram Hot 26&2 dialogue is exact, and every word has a job. Learning it trains your mind to break a posture into clear steps, in the right order.
- Calm under pressure. Practice teaching makes most trainees nervous at first. By the end, they can lead a room while a trainer watches, which is good practice for performing in front of judges.
Judges at the World Yogasana Championship 2026 scored athletes on strength, flexibility, balance, endurance and precision. Balance in particular starts with the standing balancing yoga poses every beginner learns first. A good 26&2 teacher checks for the same qualities in every class. So the overlap isn’t an accident. It’s built into the method.
What the research says about the practice
Research on the hot 26&2 sequence helps explain why it builds both strength and flexibility:
- Tracy & Hart (2013) reported a 20% increase in posterior chain strength after an 8-week Bikram programme, along with better flexibility.
- A 2025 systematic review by Willmott et al. pooled 43 studies with 942 participants and found benefits for flexibility and well-being.
These studies describe the practice in general, not competition results. Results vary, and anyone with a heart condition, an injury or a pregnancy should consult a healthcare professional before intensive training in heat.
The Coaching Team Behind Indonesia’s Medals
Both medallists trained in person with Mr. Ian Terry. He served as Indonesia’s National Coach in Ahmedabad. In June 2026, the Republic of Indonesia Yogasana Sports Federation appointed him Master Trainer, a role only an outside federation can grant.
A third graduate keeps the team running. Mr. Slamet Ariyanto, class of 2024, chairs the Yoga Practitioner Association of Indonesia (PPYNI) and manages the national Yogasana team. He handles the admin, while Mr. Ian leads the coaching and technical work.
- Lineage: five years, from 2014 to 2019, training directly with Bikram Choudhury, the founder of the Bikram Hot 26&2 method.
- Experience: more than 12,000 teaching hours, and 1,500+ graduates from over 80 countries since 2017.
- Medal record: YogaFX graduates have won 12 medals across national, Asian and world events: 5 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze.
Mr. Ian also holds ongoing talks with World Yogasana’s leadership. The sport’s goal is an Olympic test event by 2032 and full Olympic inclusion by 2036, although both still depend on the International Olympic Committee.
Where a Teacher Training Can Lead
Let’s be clear: you don’t need to want a medal to train with us. Most graduates simply teach. However, the World Yogasana Championship 2026 showed how wide the paths can be after one six-day MasterClass and a lot of practice.
- Studio teacher. The most common path. Graduates teach 26&2 classes at studios around the world, with a credential that studios recognise internationally.
- Studio owner. Some open their own hot yoga studios once they’ve built a teaching base.
- Competitor. A few, like Ivara and Arkan, take their practice into Yogasana sport.
- Organiser or coach. Others, like Slamet, help build the sport from the inside.
Curious about the money side of teaching? Our guide to what yoga instructors actually earn sets out real numbers. And if you’re still comparing courses, read how to choose a yoga teacher training program first.
Do you need to be an athlete to start?
No. Ivara’s story proves it. She struggled with a core balancing posture just three years before winning world gold. What made the difference was steady practice, clear correction and a method that never changes.
Mr. Ian’s rule for trainees is simple: consistency beats intensity. Regular practice changes the body more than occasional heroic sessions. That applies whether you want to teach, compete or just understand the sequence inside out.
Five Lessons From the World Yogasana Championship 2026
Mr. Ian has taught in hot rooms for more than 12,000 hours. So when people ask what the World Yogasana Championship 2026 taught him, he goes back to the same five lessons he gives every trainee:
- Heat is a tool, not a test. The warmth helps the body open. It’s never something to simply survive.
- Beginners need permission to rest. Sitting down in the hot room is part of learning, not failing. Everyone starts somewhere.
- The words must be exact. Every line of the dialogue exists for a reason. As a result, students learn the same posture the same way every time.
- Consistency beats intensity. Regular practice changes the body more than the odd heroic class. That’s how Ivara went from a wobbly Standing Bow to world gold.
- Every body is different. The same sequence and dialogue serve complete beginners and medal winners alike. Only the depth of each posture changes.
None of these lessons is about winning. Instead, they’re about teaching well. That’s the point: the medals at the World Yogasana Championship 2026 were a side effect of good teaching, not the goal of it.
What the Course Actually Covers
Because both medallists took the standard course, it’s worth knowing what’s in it. The training runs in three stages, so you build the theory first and the teaching skill second.
1. Prepare online at home
First comes a self-paced pre-course of 30+ hours. It covers the 26&2 sequence, the teaching dialogue, anatomy, philosophy and class structure. You can study around work, so you arrive in Bali already knowing the words.
2. Train in Bali for six days
Next, the six-day MasterClass in Seminyak brings it all to life. Days are built around posture clinics, dialogue drills, observation and direct correction from Mr. Ian. Because cohorts are kept small, he can correct your alignment and delivery one to one.
3. Teach real students
Finally, you teach live classes and complete a practical assessment. Only then do you graduate with dual certification. In other words, you’ve taught real people in real heat before you leave, just as Ivara and Arkan did.
What the Medals Don’t Tell You
It would be easy to say “train with us and win medals”. That wouldn’t be honest. Two medallists at the World Yogasana Championship 2026 tell you about two dedicated athletes, not about every graduate.
Similarly, a graduate count doesn’t show how many people are still teaching, and teaching hours don’t prove every hour was equally good. So Mr. Ian points prospective students to sources they can check for themselves:
- The YogaFX listing on the Yoga Alliance public profile.
- The federation’s confirmation of his Master Trainer appointment.
- Published results from the World Yogasana Championship 2026.
- Third-party reviews on Google and Yoga Alliance, plus graduate video testimonials on YouTube.
Every school deserves the same scrutiny, including ours. That way, you choose a training on evidence rather than on headlines.
What Is Yogasana Sport?
If the sport is new to you, here’s the background. Yogasana is yoga postures performed as a judged sport. Athletes perform set poses or routines, and a panel scores their form and control. India formally recognised it as a competitive sport in 2020.
The World Yogasana Championship 2026 was the first global championship for the sport. Athletes competed in seven official categories, which India’s selection trials grouped into four main types:
- Traditional: one athlete performs set postures and holds each one.
- Artistic: a choreographed routine, solo or in pairs.
- Rhythmic: pairs perform a routine set to music.
- Athletic: routines built around strength-heavy postures such as arm balances.
One more thing is worth knowing. A separate federation, the International Yoga Sport Federation (IYSF), runs its own “World Championship of Yogasana Sports”. Its 17th edition takes place in Italy in December 2026. The two events aren’t connected, and the Indonesian medals described here were won at the World Yogasana event in Ahmedabad.
Train Where the Medallists Trained
The course Ivara and Arkan took is the same one we run today. It’s a hybrid format, so you start at home and finish in Bali:
- Format: a self-paced online pre-course, then a six-day MasterClass in Seminyak, Bali.
- Certification: Yoga Alliance RYT 200 plus a Bikram Hot 26&2 200-hour certificate.
- Next intake: check-in Sunday 24 January 2027, check-out Friday 29 January 2027.
- Venue: Soham Wellness Center, Seminyak.
- Price: US$1,899 Early Bird, with interest-free instalments from US$250 a month.
For the full programme, see the 200-hour yoga teacher training in Bali guide, or check course dates for every open intake.
FAQ
Who won the World Yogasana Championship 2026?
India topped the medal table as host nation. Indonesia won seven medals: one gold, two silver and four bronze. All of them came from two YogaFX teacher training graduates, Ivara Candra Kartika (gold and bronze) and Arkan Fauzan Riyanto (two silver and three bronze), coached by Mr. Ian Terry.
Where was the first World Yogasana Championship held?
The first World Yogasana Championship was held at EKA Arena, TransStadia, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, from 4 to 8 June 2026. More than 500 athletes from 78 countries took part, competing in seven official Yogasana categories under one set of judging rules.
Are there yoga competitions?
Yes. Yogasana competitions run at national, regional and world level. In Indonesia, athletes compete at FORNAS, then at the Asian Yogasana Championships and the World Yogasana Championship. Most yoga teachers never compete, but a teacher training builds many of the same skills judges reward, such as precise alignment and control.
Is yoga in the Olympics?
Not yet. The World Yogasana Sports Federation aims for an Olympic test event by 2032 and full inclusion by 2036, subject to IOC recognition. In 2024, the Olympic Council of Asia also approved Yogasana as a demonstration sport for the 2026 Asian Games in Japan.
Do you need to be an athlete to join yoga teacher training?
No. Neither World Yogasana Championship 2026 medallist arrived as a competitor. Both took the standard Bikram Hot 26&2 RYT 200 course that’s open to any committed student. The course is built to make confident teachers, not athletes, and most graduates never compete. Competition came later, through steady practice.
Still have questions? Message Mr. Ian on WhatsApp and he’ll answer them personally. Whether you want to teach, compete or simply learn the 26&2 method properly, he’ll help you decide if the January 2027 MasterClass is right for you. There’s no pressure and no sales script, just honest answers from the coach who trained both medallists.
