I’ve been doing yoga for a while, and I definitly can feel a deference in how I am able to move now. The guys on my yoga tapes are bendy to the extreme though. Any yoga gurus out there, please let me know how many months, years, etc. it takes to have a great range of motion, and a ton of flexibility.
I obtained it a while ago but didn’t turn pro so I could keep my amateur status and try out for the Olympics. 
just kidding…
Yippie,
It depends on where you are starting from. Some people have flexibility of the body before they even begin, and it is easy for them, while others need to practice consistently for years. There are many many factors that play a part, including your age, weight, diet, lifestyle, genetic heritage, the type|consistency|difficulty of your practice. Not all practices will heed flexibility or strength, and not all people will make it to those complicated postures. There is no rule-stick for measurement in time here. It’s all up in the air. If you visit a class though, a qualified teacher might be able to help you figure out what practice would be most beneficial for you in gaining flexibility.
Hi Yippie,
The golden rule in Yoga is that every body type is different. Even paradoxically is the fact that you may do your organs more benefit than another who is more “flexible”. Again, the reason being that Yoga exercise is very individual in nature. You should be more in tune with your movements and capacities to get the fullest benefit. If you overdo or overexert, it will be counterproductive (we were addressing this in another thread). The way to being a yoga pro is to develop an intuitive insight into how and how much. This will not happen by imitating or copying but by seeing what works for you. All best 
Hmmm a challenging question from you Yippie.
A “professional” technically is one who makes something their vocation rather than avocation. There are some professionals in the yoga industry however they are not professionals as a result of their mobility, suppleness, or, as you so aptly put it “bendy to the extreme”.
The practice of asana, which is only a sliver of the practice of Yoga is not about flexibility, per se, despite what your television or magazine or chat at Starbucks with friends might lead you to believe. Asana is about moving some things and stabilizing others.
The poses themselves are, perhaps, perfected over many lifetimes, if at all. So in that respect there’s no “pro” status to be had AND its pursuit is often the pursuit of the Ego. However in Yoga there is no room for the Ego as it obstructs the evolution of the student.
One other clarification, if I may. A Guru is one who removes darkness or shines light into the living of the student. It is a term of great respect (as is yogi) and is radically different than a “teacher”. While I don’t know my peers here personally, I don’t believe any of us currently qualify as guru.
gordon
Yoga for fitness may have eligible teachers of a few hundred hours training, I don’t know.
Yoga, the spiritual path, has bars to pass that have nothing to do with seniority. It has legacy across lifetime(s) and that means one can pass the spiritual stages rather easily if one is born with accumulated legacy of past lives.
One day on the bank of river ganges, a visitor asked Ramakrishna Paramhansa, why he didn’t see god yet inspite of trying so hard for many years. Paramhansa ignored him, but he insisted on knowing. Finally, he caught the visitor’s head and pushed it under water and held it there for a while. When, he released him he was gasping for life. Paramhansa told him, “when you wold seek god that desperately you will find it instantly; otherwise any number of years are in vain!” That’s also true of qualifying to be a guru, or even a good teacher.
I am sure I am not the only one who was floored when Gordon (much respect) did not respond with his need more information, response reflex.
Without detailed personal background information your question is a challenge that might (must?) only result in cryptic answers.
Consider that many of these yoga tape bendies, and probably more often than not, were drawn to yoga, came to yoga, because of their flexibility, to demonstrate their abilities, not as a means to attain.
Consider Rodney Yee for example, as one of the most prolific yoga tape personalities, has a professional background in gymnastics and ballet with the Oakland Ballet Company and the Matsuyama Ballet Company of Tokyo.
Consider to that these bendies will also likely have a genetic predisposition to attaining these bendy forms, that yoga might take years, or lifetimes to correct the decades or lifetimes of misalignment, of form and function.
While Rodney does allow his handlers to call him a master, he himself responds: “They call me a ‘yoga master,’ and I sort of laugh. What have I mastered? I don’t even know what that means. It’s just an ongoing exploration. The more you practice, the more you sense the infinite nuances. It’s an endless journey of your curiosity.”
– Rodney Yee
Peace be your journey
So if I understand you correctly Mark (respect back at ya), you are on the floor, think my response is not mindful because it is begged by beginners all too often (and therefore categorized as “reflex”), and have opted to respond the way you presume I would have? Excellent
Depends on how you are practicing and your natural level of flexibilty and range of motion; also type of Yoga you are doing. Read a book like Pavel Tsatsouline’s ‘Relax Into Stretch’ which really covers the theory on stretching.
[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;67953]So if I understand you correctly Mark (respect back at ya), you are on the floor, think my response is not mindful because it is begged by beginners all too often (and therefore categorized as “reflex”), and have opted to respond the way you presume I would have? Excellent[/QUOTE]
Yes, I think. I think I’m good with all that, but for the thinking that your posts are ever not mindful. They are ever and more.
Please accept that I was only trying to be familiar or playful, with a familiar, and so oft warranted feature of your posts to those new to the forum.
[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;67953]So if I understand you correctly Mark (respect back at ya),[B] you are on the floor[/B], think my response is not mindful because it is begged by beginners all too often (and therefore categorized as “reflex”), and have opted to respond the way you presume I would have? Excellent.[/QUOTE]
This whole response made me laugh so hard that I have tears in my eyes.
Thanks, Gordon.
[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;67886] While I don’t know my peers here personally, I don’t believe any of us currently qualify as guru.
gordon[/QUOTE]
Well, I was rather aiming for real discipleship anyway. 
It’s all good dawgs.
Thanks for the good laugh this morning, gurus
As for the the original question:
[B]How much yoga does it take to become a yoga pro? [/B]
I think the answer is 42.
You shouldn’t use the word pro. You should practice yoga ALL the time. By that I mean ALL the time.
The fact that you’re talking about flexibility means you consider yoga to merely be acrobatics really, and definitely limited to asana. There is much more to it than this. In fact, what you are talking about yippee has nothing to do with yoga whatsoever. Using the word “pro” as well has nothing to do with yoga.
It’s a journey from the known to the unknown, and this is a constant journey which a true yogi does all the time. Just practice, don’t look to the future of when you’ll be able to achieve this or that because that’s not yoga at all.
Yes, you can become a yoga pro. Start with some sort of 200 hour/ 500 hour certification course and open your own studio. Start filming your daily practice and talk a little in the camera. Upload those videos for a membership fee on your website. The next step would be to start producing DVDs with images of a tropical resort on the background. You are now a highly sought after yoga instructor, start charging a lot of money for yoga seminars. Combine the last two steps, sell DVDs of your seminars. You begin your own brand of yoga and start producing certification courses. Charge people money to stay certificated with a yearly fee of only 20% of their profits of teaching yoga. Broaden your business by selling yoga props like chakra candles and healing necklaces. Write some books about your life and struggles. Now you will get a lot of media attention and your yoga business will blow up.
Here, I gave away the secret to becoming a yoga pro for free.
One of my yogis is in her mid-60’s. I just found out this past weekend that she began practicing yoga in her mid-50’s to address back issues. When she began, she was almost crippled. 10 years later, her asanas are good, still with some tight quads, but more importantly, her spirit is beautiful.
In my opinion, that is ‘turning pro.’ When you live yoga on and off the mat and you approach life with a gentle and loving spirit.
The asanas are only 1/8th of the entire journey.
Well speaking as one who has often been referred to as GURU (Generally Unreasonable Relatively Useless ) I would think that first it would depend on what is meant by ?yoga pro? (business person, instructor, star of DVDs, enlightened, etc.) and after that it would be dependent on the individual. Meaning how much effort they put in, how serious they are, who good their teachers are/were?. I frankly do not see how anyone could give an answer to the question ?How much yoga does it take to become a yoga pro?? and have that arbitrary amount of time apply to everyone?or anyone for that matter
IF you hit a plateau in your asana practice, just change your perspective.
Depends on what you think a pro is. I am not sure what the standard is for the “pro” status, but I do know that some of the advanced yogis I know can hold warrior poses for hours. One of my yoga teachers actually went to some kind of yoga camp or some meeting where all they did was hold a few poses for hours and hours…
Also, there’s so many different types of yoga as well as so many things to improve constantly…Not a pro so can’t tell you exactly I guess