Yoga for Dummies

The benefits of Yoga are many. When adopted as a lifestyle, Yoga extends over the entire day. Find out how this can be done and why Yoga is so often loved by people who are

• Interested in becoming more fit and flexible
• Looking for stress relief
• Seeking to live a more peaceful and joyful life

Yoga For Dummies guides you slowly, step by step, into the treasure house of Yoga. And it is a fabulous treasure house! You will find out how to unlock your body's extraordinary potential and enlist your mind to do so, and in the process strengthen your mind as well. This book covers the following topics and more:

• Five basic approaches to Yoga
• Selecting a Yoga class
• Practicing Yoga safely
• The mechanics of Yogic breathing
• Classic foundational postures
• Exercises to target problem areas
• Putting together your personal routine
• Yoga for special situations

The focus on this book is on Hatha (pronounced haht-ha) Yoga, which is that branch of Yoga that works primarily with the body through postures, breathing exercises, and other similar techniques. When necessary, the book provides helpful photos or illustrations to help you better understand the exercises or postures.

One author (Georg Feuerstein) is internationally recognized as a leading expert on the Yoga tradition and has authored many seminal works on it. The other author (Larry Payne) has a thriving practice as a Yoga teacher in Los Angeles, where he teaches and responds to his clients' specific health challenges. In this book, their combined 55 years of experience have merged to create a reliable and user-friendly introductory book that can also serve you as a beginner's reference work on an ongoing basis.

Amazon.com Review
Yoga for Dummies proves that this 5,000-year-old Indian discipline can be all things to all people--the athlete striving for more-limber limbs, the stressed-out professional needing mental calm, peace, and clarity; the pregnant mom-to-be looking to keep herself toned and her emotions balanced, the spiritual seeker wanting to access the higher planes of consciousness.

Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D., and Larry Payne, Ph.D., are internationally recognized yoga experts. After explaining how to prepare your body and mind for yoga--including warnings about how to practice safely--they jump straight into the postures (asanas), instructions for which make up the meat of book (relaxation, breathing, movement, sequencing, compensation, sitting). Feuerstein and Payne carefully and in great detail lead the reader through every step, although they do advise first-timers to supplement the book with actual classes until they have the basics down. Throughout the book, clear explanations accompany black-and-white photos and drawings. (Unfortunately, following the written instructions is hard enough when your feet are in the air or your head's down by your ankles, and the book would have been improved if the pictures always appeared on the same page as their instructions.)

Readers then learn about tailoring a yoga program to their needs; using props; practicing "Yoga Throughout the Day"; incorporating yoga into sex, meditation, menopause, and pregnancy; using yoga to treat back problems and PMS; and practicing yoga with kids. The book also covers yogic ethics, philosophy, and resources. It's not all asanas and pranas, though--Yoga for Dummies is sprinkled with the humor characteristic of the For Dummies series (a section explaining that the ego is the ultimate source of stress is titled "Wherever ego, I go") and practical advice (the Forgiving Limbs maneuver allows you to bend your legs and arms a bit rather than try to fully extend them, so that you can perform postures you're not yet quite limber enough for). This is both an excellent beginner's guide and a good reference for more advanced yoginis who want a brush-up course. --Stefanie Durbin

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Fantastic introduction to Yoga!, 2008-06-26
This is the perfect book for a beginner wanting to start yoga on their own. I've looked at quite a few yoga books, and even own a few others, and I've never seen one that leads the complete beginner into yoga as well as this one. The Basic Yoga Workout for Dummies DVD is excellent too and I highly recommend it. I have not yet seen the second DVD from this series but I'd bet is great too and I plan to get it soon. Of course it's probably best to get instruction from a teacher in person, but if you can't or don't want to do that right now, this series is probably the next best thing.


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Very very good for starting and for learning how to build a safe practice , 2008-04-10
The authors tried to be neutral besides theirs styles of Yoga. They describe how to initiate in this and what to expert in teacher and a school of Yoga. Teaches how to build a practice yourself. How to do the asanas, some pranayama and meditation. They teach a soft Yoga that is perfect for first time yoguis, but if you are advanced you may apply the principles they teach to your practice, if you don't do that yet! If you are new in this you have the all in this book. If not, you may think that the advanced asanas and the final form of some asanas are not there. But then you need to remember the book's tittle. In this last case you also can learn that in asana practice the function is more important that the form! So I think that more than just showing the asanas' picture the bok teachs you how to use it!


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Another great book, 2007-10-04
I totally get the concept thanks to this kind of book. There are plenty of books out there that help you get started. This is one of the best. I need/want books that open my mind to a new kind of experience---It met my expectations


3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Too much New age, not enough stretching., 2007-05-25
A few years ago, I was in a Yoga class, but after moving to a new state, I lost the thread of regular exercise. I picked this book because I like Yoga, but I don't remember the proper stances and wanted a basic book for getting started.

What I didn't want was a dissertation on breathing, and why I have to eliminate stress from my life, and how many different forms of Yoga there are (you're only going to be teaching stances for one type of Yoga, so how about we dispense with the history and get on to the exercise?)

This book was choked with new-age mysticism and positive thinking pap. As I read it, I could feel the author trying to rein in his "crystals and incense" rhetoric so that he didn't lose people like me. At one point, I just started flipping through the pages, hoping to find a picture of a person that might mark the beginning of actual information. You know what I found? A picture of a person lying down, and a description of how to rest properly.

I don't mean to sound unkind, but I know how to lie down. I've been doing it for most of my life. I'm well practiced in that. I follow a religious regimen of lying down at least once every night, and I don't remember ever getting it wrong. Can we get to the freaking exercise!


5 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

underwhelmed, 2006-05-20
I ordered what I thought was a full size intro to yoga book and got the pee wee version for elves. I had been breathlessly waiting for my full size edition to arrive in the mail because I was so excited to be starting yoga. As I held the pitifully small thing in my hand I got so depressed because it reminded me of some bad relationships i've had in the past--big promises and nothing to back it up with. I binged on a quart of dulce de leche ice cream and a dozen black bottom cupcakes to try to numb my pain. These evil satanic deceivers must be stopped.

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