The Yoga Bible

Getting into yoga for health as I get older. Got this title after considering several others, and zero regrets. It seems arranged in a logical manner. The images and descriptions are clear and easy to follow. And I have to say that the work is paying off with attention to muscles and stretches that I have never really been aware of. This is a great resource even for casual yoga practitioners. I have my routines tabbed out but sometimes I open a random page and read about new positions. One thing I appreciate is that for the advanced positions, they always refer back to the more foundational poses so you can back up and go into the harder stuff more naturally. Not a replacement for a good yoga instructor! But an excellent resource that will be on my shelf for many years.

I'm really enjoying this book. Although there might be too much information for a novice yoga student, the book will be very helpful to an advanced beginner student who is looking to augment their home practice. There are overviews of different types of yoga, pranayama, and meditation which are concise but informative. The pose guide is by far the star of this book! Each pose is disected. You are given written instruction and pictoral guidance to get into and out of poses. Instructions are also included for deepening as well as lessening poses, with lead up poses to prepare yourself for more difficult poses. My favorite part of the book so far is a sun salutation sequence starting in Hero's Pose. My second favorite parts of the book are the talented male models. If you've read any yoga magazines or books, you know that male models are often few and far between!

I had experimented with yoga many years ago, when I was laboring under the misimpression that it would help me develop a different type of physique. I had multiple books, including one by Rodney Yee, which I cheerfully donated once I realized it wasn't going to do anything of the sort. But always I remembered it helped me feel calmer. So last year, when my stress level reached a level than can only be described as hellacious because of a number of things going on in my personal life, and I started feeling a bit more taming of the shrew crazy than I wanted to, I bought this book, hoping that if I could work a few minutes of yoga after my strength training routines it would help me defuse at least some of the stress. What I can say is I thought this book was very well done, much better than any of the books I had previously read or owned. The descriptions and the photographic walk throughs are excellent. However, I think that this book really, really could benefit from being spiral bound. It is smaller, and thicker, and I was continually having to prop it open with free weights, etc. so that I could look at the pictures while I was working on some of the poses. That made it a bit more challenging to use, which is why I took off a star. Ultimately, for me, I just found that lifting weights helped me be calmer overall, so I don't use this as much. One of my son's occupational therapists mentioned that he was always lifting and throwing heavy objects because calming hormones are released from weighted joint compression. I kinda get that now, because between the breathing and the focusing on the mind muscle connection, it pretty much does the same thing for me without the added time at the end of my workouts, and there is a serious premium on my workout time. But there are times when it's still a nice de-stressor, but it's more like a Band-Aid then a cure. If your life is out of balance, yoga is not really capable of fixing that.

For beginners to advanced i love this book & there is something for everyone at any stage in yoga! It works to give you well balanced work out, strengthen your areas of your body you want to improve & overall great meditation, exercise & fun with kiddos & fun for our family... & were not runners or super fit gym people, but this has improved our fun at home, health & overall attitudes!

Love this book... Lots of cool info in a handy size... But a word of caution : while converting the book into a spiral binding makes the book incredible and more accessible a few pages will be negatively impacted in the "Special Uses of Yoga" section of the book (pages 358-365) If this section is important to you proceed with caution. The info is still largely readable, but a words are cut off. I still don't regret rebinding it. Otherwise, this book is a gold mine for cheap! Buy it!

I have been into the martial arts and physical fitness all my life. I have recently included yoga postures into my regular workout routine. Whenever I get into any fitness program I read as much as possible about the subject. In the case of yoga, I have read numerous books and articles lately and I must say this fantastic book (The Yoga Bible: The definitive guide to yoga postures by Christina Brown) is the best book I have ever read on yoga. This incredible volume has over 170 yoga positions and they all are in full color showing the postures. This wonderful 400 page book is organized into four parts. Part one provides a detailed introduction of what yoga is and the various kinds being practiced. The second part is the longest section and covers the actual practice of the yoga movements. It explains preliminary practices, standing postures, seated and floor postures, twists and abdominal toners, arm balances, backbends, inversions, relaxation, pranayama, internal energy locks and yogic cleansing practices. The third part is important because it focuses on the use of yoga exercises for various medical and physical conditions. The final part is about finding your yoga and determining what you are seeking from the practice. This section also explains the “nine branches of the tree of yoga.” What really makes this excellent book unique is that it shows such a wide variety of yoga asanas (Postures). At my advanced age and skill level I could never do many of these yoga postures; however, there are enough simple and beginner yoga postures to practice in this volume. This short review cannot do this book justice, and if you are seeking a clear color reference book on the many yoga asanas (Postures) this book is for you. At this time this is my favorite yoga book. Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Tactical Principles of the most effective combative systems).

As everyone has made abundantly clear, the book is WAY too small and the print is microscopic. There are a number of other defects. While it claims to be a pose bible, it isn't. The very first pose I looked up--anjaneyasana (low lunge), which is mentioned in other books (I wanted to know how to pronounce the Sanskrit name)--wasn't in the book. Not only that, there is no pronunciation guide for the Sanskrit words. Also, you can't find the poses listed in the index under their Sanskrit names, so you have to find them by the names the author has assigned them. Uddyana bandha isn't mentioned by name (see photo) on the page discussing bandhas. It's actually described separately on the previous overleaf, but isn't listed on the bandha page. If you were looking for a description of the bandhas in order, you would probably miss the abdominal lock. (Also, you can't find uddyana bandha listed in the index.) What I like about this book is that it includes a lot of information about yoga that you don't find in most beginner, or low-depth, books. It's not exactly pose info, more like practices, but it's interesting stuff I haven't seen elsewhere in print. And it's pretty cool seeing photos of people who can go full out into the poses. (I THOUGHT I was flexible. Seems I was wrong.) Can't recommend the book though. The tiny print is the deal breaker.

Perfect for PE teaching. Allows students to research areas of concern by reading the highlighted "Information" section . Areas listed include Gaze, Build-up Poses, Counter poses, Lighten and Effect. I have tabbed at least 20 pages for my class with the words "calming", "opening", "strengthening" and "focusing" as these are areas my high school students requested. Examples of how the book is divided is: preliminary practices, standing postures, seated and floor postures, arm balances, inversions...my favorite part is the sea-green pages in the back titled "Yoga for Healing" . Special Uses for Yoga lists several ailments or conditions and recommended postures as a "suggested practice as a potential ingredient for healing, but not as a set recipe". Anxiety, constipation, jet lag to name a few. The students found answers in the section called "Nine Branches of the Tree of Yoga" describing 9 paths a yoga student can travel. I have many yoga books but find this one particularly helpful.