The Yoga Bible Paperback – May 29, 2003

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).

Very informative

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.

I will mirror close to everyone else who has reviewed this product in saying that if it was spiral-bound it would go from being a great book to a near-perfect book. But the occasionally difficult-to-manage perfect binding is not a major deficit to a very well conceived and organized book. Not only are the asanas arranged according to general bodily position (sitting, standing, etc), but they also are arranged in a sequence that flow, so the following is one that would realistically be something that would follow the preceding. So you can intuitively hash out where the position you want is without having to return again and again to the index. At least that's my experience.Each asana is also labeled with lead ins, variations, and other helpful information, and many of the more complex ones have the sequence to enter it. Every single thing in the book is accompanied by good, full color, unambiguous photographs to compare against. If I lost it I would buy another copy. I think that's about the best praise I can give a book like this.

After several years of following the yoga Bible… my soul… oh my soul… I am light like a feather. I can subsist on a single bean per year diet. I am also strangely magnetic to women. They get stuck to me sometimes. I think it’s my infinity pack. Let me explain… an infinity pack is when the muscles in your abdomen are one with the universe and choose to not manifest in one position. Instead my abs look like a cosmic whack-a-mole machine. I recommend this Bible as an alternative to the Talmud. It’s better

The book is ok. Would have liked to see more about what muscles, joints etc the poses benefit. Also a small book which is in the description.