Each pose is shown in a full-color photograph opposite a detailed and annotated anatomical drawing that identifies the active and stabilizing muscles being used. By identifying affected muscles, practitioners can maximize the benefits of each pose and even design a personalized yoga routine that focuses on their specific problem areas. Anatomy of Yoga explains the basics of yoga, breathing and the spine, concentrating on the body's core musculature. It covers:Yoga warm-up Standing poses Forward bends Back bends Seated and twisted poses Poses that balance arms Inversions Restorative poses Sequences, such as sun salutationThere are numerous asides, including "best for" information boxes that describe the muscles that work the most during each pose. Tip boxes give hints on safety and form and outline the target muscles for and benefits of each pose. The author also suggests creative ways to modify the intensity of an exercise. Anatomy of Yoga is an expert guide that is extremely useful for anyone interested in enhancing a personal yoga fitness routine. It will also interest yoga instructors who want a visual aid that clearly illustrates the benefits of each exercise.

    Like millions of Americans, Ali struggled for years with poor eating habits, family problems, stress, and low-self-esteem. After years of being afraid, ashamed, and unhappy, she resolved to change her life, once and for all: to lose weight, get healthy, and pursue her dreams. Before she was even offered a spot on The Biggest Loser campus, Ali made up her mind that she was going to not only drop the weight— but win the competition. In her bedroom at The Biggest Loser ranch, Ali rang a little bell she kept on her bedside table each night before she went to sleep and again when she awoke in the morning, repeating the phrase that had become her mantra: Believe it, be it. Seven months later, she emerged from the grueling competition as its first-ever female champion, claiming the title, the grand prize and, most of all—winning back her life. In Believe It, Be It, Ali shares for the first time her intimate story of personal and physical transformation and provides a rare glimpse inside life at the famous Biggest Loser ranch. Ali also shares the weight-loss strategies, eating habits, and workout tips that helped her lose—and keep off—more than 100 pounds. For anyone who has ever battled with weight loss or struggled to accept themselves for who they are, Ali Vincent’s story provides hope that a happier, healthier, more fulfilling life is within reach. It all begins with believing that it’s possible. Believe it, and be it.

    Whether you’re just getting started or already a seasoned runner, this is the book that will take you to the next level. Kara Goucher’s Running for Women contains her expertise, tips, and tricks targeted specifically at female runners to help you become a better, happier, healthier, and more fulfilled runner. She’ll teach you how to:• Get started with the right gear,• Build a successful support team,• Find the right training program for you,• Overcome psychological setbacks,• Balance running with family and work,• And much more!Designed to fit your busy lifestyle, Kara Goucher’s Running for Women is packed with quick tips, pearls of running wisdom, and sample training schedules and nutrition plans, as well as sections dedicated to running during and after pregnancy, managing the special challenges of the female athlete’s body, and maintaining a balance between sporting and family life. Kara Goucher’s Running for Women is the ultimate guide for women who want to train for the gold or simply discover their personal best.

    Foot expert John Vonhof discredits the conventional wisdom of "no pain, no gain," teaching instead how the interplay of anatomy, biomechanics, and footwear can lead to happy or hurting feet. With a focus on individual and team care, this fifth edition covers everything that an active person needs for immediate and long-term foot care solutions. Vonhof's advice comes not only from his own experience but also from many foot experts and endurance athletes. He offers numerous solutions for each problem, as there is no one best solution — different treatments work for different feet. This comprehensive resource covers footwear basics, prevention, and treatments along with clear diagrams, photos, and charts that demonstrate techniques and solutions. If it can happen to a foot, it's covered in this book.

    Devotees can't rave enough about this ancient art of meditation, breathing, and physical postures that calms the mind and slims the body. Unlike fitness fads, yoga is worth the hype. The postures stretch and tone lean muscle mass and sculpt a strong and slender physique-burning up to 400 calories in a 90-minute session. But yoga does something even better. It's proven to reduce the biggest cause of weight gain-stress-which 43% of Americans say makes them overeat.This definitive volume features:- every essential pose to help readers lose weight and transform their bodies- Total Body Yoga: targeted workouts in 15 minutes or less- core-strengthening routines for hotter, more satisfying sex- a healthy, mindful eating plan centered around calming, cleansing foodsCovering everything from basic postures to relaxation techniques to avoiding common injuries, The Women's Health Big Book of Yoga is the only guide readers need to achieve their fittest, healthiest, happiest selves.

    I didn’t run for times, to win, to impress: I ran for me. When I ran my bum cheeks rubbed together, so much so that if I was going on a long run I’d have to ‘lube up’. I maintained that I was not a ‘real’ runner – I just liked to run so that I could eat cake." Anna was never anything like those ‘real’ runners on telly – all spindly limbs, tiny shorts and split times – but when she read about New Zealand’s 3,000-kilometre-long Te Araroa Trail, she began to wonder… perhaps being a ‘real’ runner was overrated. Maybe she could just run it anyway? Travelling alone through New Zealand’s backcountry for 148 days, she scrambled through forests, along ridge-lines, over mountain passes, along beaches and across swollen rivers. Running up to 52 kilometres in a day, she slept wild most nights, and was taken into the homes and hearts of the kiwi people in between. The Pants of Perspective is a witty, colourful and at times painfully raw account of a journey to the edge of what a woman believes herself to be capable of. It is a coming-of-age story which will lead you on a roller coaster ride through fear, vulnerability, courage and failure. For anyone who has ever dreamt of taking on a great challenge, but felt too afraid to begin – this story is for you.

    You can feel that impact in the muscles, ligaments, and bone structures throughout your body. Thankfully, Yoga for Runners addresses both the physical and mental demands of the sport. Whether you are new to yoga or have practiced for years, Yoga for Runners provides you with the most effective poses--88 poses in all. Each pose is described in detail to ensure correct execution, maximizing the physical benefit and decreasing the risk of injury.You'll learn how simple yoga techniques can be incorporated into your existing running workouts and routines to eliminate chronic aches and pains. Discover how each pose can be sequenced to address a specific need, such as strengthen and lengthen the hamstrings, strengthen and increase mobility of the hip joint, eliminate lower-back and upper-body discomfort, speed the recovery process after a practice run or a race, maintain a strong core, or just restore and rejuvenate to prepare for an upcoming event. These sequences target all troublesome muscle regions. Anatomical illustrations and descriptions explain why these poses and sequences decrease your risk of acute or chronic injury as well as why they are beneficial to your training regimen.After just a few weeks of following Yoga for Runners, you will feel stronger, more balanced, more in tune with your breathing, and more aware of your posture and technique. Your entire running experience--endurance, strength, breathing, and mental sharpness--will be more productive, positive, and enjoyable.

    While it's true that we live in an age when we're as obsessed with our bodies as we are with celebrity hairstyles, the reality is that most of us know very little about what chugs, churns, and thumps throughout this miraculous, scientific, and artistic system of anatomy. Yes, you've owned your skin-covered shell for decades, but you probably know more about your cell-phone plan than you do about your own body. When it comes to your longevity and quality of life, understanding your internal systems gives you the power, authority, and ability to live a healthier, younger, and better life. "You: The Owner's Manual" challenges your preconceived notions about how the human body works and ages, then takes you on a tour through all of the highways, back roads, and landmarks inside of you. After taking a quiz that tests your body of knowledge, you'll learn about all of your blood-pumping, food-digesting, and keys-remembering systems and organs.Just as important, you'll get the facts and advice you need to keep your body running long and strong. You'll find out how diseases start and how they affect your body -- as well as advice on how to prevent and beat conditions that threaten your quality of life. Complete with exercise tips, nutritional guidelines, simple lifestyle changes, and alternative approaches, "You: The Owner's Manual" gives you an easy, comprehensive, and life-changing how-to plan for fending off the gremlins of aging. To top it off, you'll also get the great-tasting and calorie-saving Owner's Manual Diet -- a thirty-recipe eating plan that's designedwith only one goal in mind: to help you live a younger life.Welcome to your body. Why don't you come on in and take a look around?

    In Yoga Cures, Tara Stiles—owner of Strala Yoga in Manhattan—offers an A-to-Z guide of the poses you can do to target specific problems in your body and get you feeling better right away. Using the fun, fresh approach to yoga she is known for, Stiles takes on more than 50 common ailments ranging from arthritis and fibromyalgia to jiggly thighs and hangovers. Through a simple sequence of poses for each, suitable for the beginner through the advanced practitioner, she provides smart remedies that will keep you healthy and happy.

    But there isn't one ideal form all runners should try to emulate. Instead, research and experience show that people can run effectively in a wide variety of patterns with some universal elements.In lively, accessible prose, author Jonathan Beverly details his search for common ground among physical therapists, podiatrists, biomechanics researchers, and coaches, and reveals how individual runners can apply those principles and improve their performance, avoid injury, and enhance their enjoyment on the run.With specific, illustrated exercises that show how to counteract tight muscles from excessive sitting, improve limited arm mobility from hunching over electronic devices, strengthen your feet for better balance, and improve speed by lengthening your stride, Runner's World Your Best Stride is an approachable guide to human movement and a practical tool for improved running performance.

    What you think and feel on and off the road also has a huge influence over how you perform once you lace up.Runner's World The Runner's Brain shows you how to unlock and capture the miraculous potential of the body's most mysterious and intriguing organ and rewire your mind for a lifetime of athletic success. The book is based on cutting-edge brain science and sports psychology that author Dr. Jeff Brown uses every day in his private practice and as part of the medical team of several major road races including the Boston Marathon.Full of fascinating insights from runners of all abilities-including champion marathoner Meb Keflezighi and other greats-the book includes trustworthy information that's been proven to work both in the lab and on the road.

    Its fervent practitioners, known as CrossFitters, are as competitive as they are sweaty, striving for the pride of marking their time atop the list of the day’s top performers.CrossFit’s “boxes” are brick-walled industrial warehouses, gyms, and garages floored with rubber mats and chock full of kettlebells, free weights, ropes, medicine balls, truck tires, jump ropes, and bags of chalk. CrossFitters race to complete the day’s prescribed workout, many named after fallen war heroes, with exercises that include burpees, box jumps, clean and jerks, and pull-ups—as many times as they can in a designated time period. Workouts are intense, leaving spent athletes dripping with sweat and glowing with endorphin-fueled satisfaction.In a departure from sterile mainstream gyms, it is camaraderie that keeps CrossFitters coming back week after week for their hour of high-intensity suffering—that and the promise of weight loss and a sculpted physique. Its practitioners know well that CrossFit has changed lives, forming biggest losers into lean, mean evangelists.Author and veteran CrossFitter T.J. Murphy goes inside the box to shed light on the extraordinary community of CrossFit and why this fast-growing fitness movement is coming soon to a garage near you.

    Smart Exercise is a comprehensive guide to exercise and a lucid explanation of how our bodies stay fit or fat. Most important, Smart Exercise reveals the world's best-kept secret about fitness: keep your muscles in peak form and everything else will follow. Using his famous sense of humor to great effect, Bailey explains how muscles function, describes the multiple benefits of a good workout, and shows why muscle efficiency is the key to lowering body fat and improving general health. Take Covert's Home Fitness Test, make this book your exercise bible, and enjoy the benefits of being in the best shape of your life.

    Now, in illuminating and genuinely funny prose, Hamblin explores the human stories behind health questions that never seem to go away—and which tend to be mischaracterized and oversimplified by marketing and news media. He covers topics such as sleep, aging, diet, and much more: • Can I “boost” my immune system?• Does caffeine make me live longer?• Do we still not know if cell phones cause cancer?• How much sleep do I actually need?• Is there any harm in taking a multivitamin?• Is life long enough? In considering these questions, Hamblin draws from his own medical training as well from hundreds of interviews with distinguished scientists and medical practitioners. He translates the (traditionally boring) textbook of human anatomy and physiology into accessible, engaging, socially contextualized, up-to-the-moment answers. They offer clarity, examine the limits of our certainty, and ultimately help readers worry less about things that don’t really matter.If Our Bodies Could Talk is a comprehensive, illustrated guide that entertains and educates in equal doses.

     How many of us really understand that every moment counts, and that physical strength and confidence enable our mind and spirit to make the most of our lives?  Ryan Ferguson does.  He survived nearly a decade behind bars for a murder he did not commit. An innocent collegian imprisoned at nineteen, Ferguson’s disbelief turned to resolve after his father told him: “Son, do whatever you can to get stronger, faster, and smarter.  This is now your number one priority.”In his darkest hour, even after countless appeals and disappointment, in a place that threatened physical violence, malnutrition, and offered almost no medical aid, Ferguson knew his physical health was paramount. In this startlingly elegant, authentic, and inspiring guide, Ferguson shares his simple, universally attainable recipe for health and power.