Help me find the Yoga Book I am searching for

March 6, 2016 3:33 PM

I need a challenging yoga book for at home practice

Winter in Montreal is a flippin marathon! I find the only thing that helps me cope with the drudgery of winter is to do lots of yoga. But Moksha is far too expensive (and too HOT), and the Y near my place only has yoga classes every couple of days. I want to do yoga every day, at home. But I don't want to get bored with the same yoga routine i have been doing for the past 9 years, and I like to be completely unplugged when I do it, because FACEBOOK, so this is why I need a YOGA BOOK that can sit in my room by my mat and encourage me to try new poses.

-- Is there such thing as a progressively difficult month-long yoga book that gives you a different practice for every day?
-- Is there a book that gives very detailed instructions about breathing, posture, balance, and which muscles you are supposed to feel when? (for the basic Hatha Yoga poses I know all of this stuff by heart, but when learning new poses I want to make sure to do it right)

-- I am very familiar with the "standard(?)" Hatha yoga sequences, so it needs to be a book that has all the weird crazy scary poses in there as well

-- I would love to learn the philosophical and cultural aspects of yoga practice (my knowledge right now is pretty much limited to "namaste"). . .is there a "Yoga bible" I can consult (cringe)?

Send me your recommendations please!

posted by winterportage to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

Have you ever done Ashtanga yoga? The practice is structured in specific ordered series (although you are free to skip or modify poses) and includes many intermediate/advanced poses. E.g. headstand and variations, arm balances beyond just crow. Here's the ashtanga primary series summarized in a PDF, to see what looks familiar to you.
posted by serelliya at 3:52 PM on March 6, 2016

I've used the John Scott Ashtanga book for this. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0609807862/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51lo5WKmBhL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL100_SR100%2C100_&refRID=1FQVMPK1Z7F82JVEWHXT
posted by Sassyfras at 3:58 PM on March 6, 2016

Beth Shaw's Yoga Fit. I have the second edition, but a third edition just came out, so you should probably get that. Excellent, excellent book. It goes through each individual pose, explains how to do it, explains how to modify/enhance it, and lists what muscles it works. It also has extensive information on breathing, nutrition, alignment, and the different pose sequences in yoga, like the sun salutation. At the end it lists a number of different workouts, in addition to workouts geared toward conditioning yourself for specific sports. Great book. It's actually geared toward people training to be teachers but it's also very helpful for individual practices.
posted by Amy93 at 4:23 PM on March 6, 2016

BKS Iyengar - The Light on Yoga.

I've got an older copy - it really is a classic. There are other Iyengar books that also have great pose descriptions and weeks' worth of suggested sequences.
posted by pipstar at 9:21 AM on March 7, 2016

Best answer: I know you are asking about books, but perhaps a yoga magazine subscription would provide the variety and background information you're looking for?

I also highly recommend Yoga Today, which has a free class every week - lots of variety and new poses, as well as amazing (very detailed) instructions. You can also subscribe and get access to a huge library of classes, of different lengths, difficulty levels, and styles.
posted by acridrabbit at 11:18 AM on March 7, 2016