Although it seems like everyone from Madonna to your eighty-three-year-old Uncle Teddy is practicing yoga, most of us are unable to do even the simplest classic yoga poses without undue stress and strain. Now in this clear, understandable, easy-to-follow book, Miriam Austin offers alternative yoga routines that help you reap the greatest rewards from your yoga practice, and she reveals shortcuts to help you perform yoga like a pro.Using everyday items, such as chairs, walls, and blankets, Miriam Austin shows how those of us with normal flexibility limitations can experience the very real benefits of yoga--without dislocating our joints, overstretching our muscles, or giving up in frustration. She makes the basics simple, doable, and down-to-earth.Dog Tricks--lengthen your spine more fully with these Downward Facing Dog tricks, designed to relax your neck, shoulders, and back--and make your Dog Pose much more lovable.Befriending Backbends--increase your preztebility with a little help from your friends--and from some garden-variety folding chairs.Tweaking Your Twists--learn the techniques that will stretch your spine and give you more life energy.Super Stretches--feel as limber as your average bowling ball? Gently coax your muscles to new lengths by practicing the routines in this chapter.

    Restorative yoga, says Judith Lasater, is active relaxation. It makes use of props to create positions of ease and comfort that facilitate relaxation and health. In this companion volume to her seminal book Relax and Renew, Judith Lasater, a well-known and respected yoga teacher, offers a fresh set of restorative practices--with accompanying photos--to help balance and reset the body when you feel weak, fatigued, or stressed from your daily activities. They are especially beneficial for the times before, during, and after major life events, or when you are recovering from illness or injury. Lasater points out that restorative yoga is a wonderfully adaptive practice that can be tailored to people of all ages, all levels of yoga experience, and in all states of health. Yoga practitioners and teachers will appreciate this new collection of practices and sequences that build on concepts from the first volume.

    After we reach a certain age, our bodies change. No matter how fit we may have been at 20, we're very different people after 40. But growing older doesn't have to diminish our fitness level. The good news is that not only can we retain the vigor of our youth, we can actually perform as well, if not better, than ever. Dr. Vonda Wright is the creator of a unique medi-cal program specifically designed to target the fitness and performance needs of mature athletes. In Fitness After 40, she shows readers how to use flexibility, aerobic exercise, and strength training to maximize the benefits of their fitness regime. By following her proven program, anyone can learn to:understand their bodies and approach exercise and injury in a new way - make the most of their exercise routine during a busy week - hydrate and understand how to eat right - avoid injury to rotator cuffs, lower back, knees, and legs - maximize stretching, running, and weight trainingComplete with a nutrition plan and an exercise program for older athletes, Fitness After 40 will help everyone regain the energy of their youth and look and feel better than ever.

    Now she brings her body-positive, emotionally uplifting approach to yoga in a book that will help every reader discover the power of yoga and how to weave it seamlessly into his or her life.

    Far fewer are aware of the full promise of yoga as a 4,000-year-old practical path of liberation—a path that fits the needs of modern Western seekers with startling precision. Now Stephen Cope, a Western-trained psychotherapist who has lived and taught for more than ten years at the largest yoga center in America, offers this marvelously lively and irreverent "pilgrim's progress" for today's world. He demystifies the philosophy, psychology, and practice of yoga, and shows how it applies to our most human dilemmas: from loss, disappointment, and addiction, to the eternal conflicts around sex and relationship. And he shows us that in yoga, "liberation" does not require us to leave our everyday lives for some transcendent spiritual plane—life itself is the path. Above all, Cope shows how yoga can heal the suffering of self-estrangement that pervades our society, leading us to a new sense of purpose and to a deeper, more satisfying life in the world.

    For advanced students, there is a broad menu of additional poses to increase strength, flexibility, and challenge. Far more than an exercise program, Kripalu Yoga also teaches the lifestyle practices and energy techniques that make yoga a powerful catalyst for physical healing, psychological growth, and spiritual awakening.

    With more than 600 photographs depicting all the postures and breathing exercises, it remains the fullest, most practical, and most profusely illustrated guide by the world's foremost yoga teacher. Light on Yoga is a comprehensive and definitive source-book for the initiated, as well as the best introduction for the novice who seeks the healthful benefits of Yoga for mind, body, and soul.

    For women over forty it can be the key to the most fulfilling years life has in store.Katherine Switzer, a pioneer in women's fitness since 1967, when she became the first woman to officially enter the Boston Marathon, is once again blazing a trail with the very first running and walking program designed specifically for women over forty. Now every woman can benefit from Katherine's highly personal, motivational, and step-by-step advice.For women beginning fitness programs at age forty, fifty, and beyond, the results can be nothing short of dramatic. For the first time they are reaching the body weight and physical conditioning they've always dreamed of. Women who have been reasonably active off their lives can also find a new and exciting road of fitness ahead of them after age forty. Some even find themselves outrunning women half their age! --Katherine Switzer

    Foundational to all yogic thought, they are considered to be the guidelines to the yoga way of living that free individuals to take ownership of their lives, direct them toward the fulfillment they seek, and gain the skills to choose attitude, thought, and action. The first five guidelines are referred to as the yamas—a Sanskrit word that translates to "restraints"—and encompass nonviolence, truthfulness, not stealing, nonexcess, and nonpossessiveness. The last five are referred to as the niyamas, or observances—purity, contentment, self-discipline, self-study, and surrender. A self-study section at the end of each chapter may also be used by instructors for group discussion.

    Whether you are just beginning your journey or have been practicing yoga for years, Yoga Anatomy will be an invaluable resource-one that allows you to see each movement in an entirely new light.Leslie Kaminoff is a recognized expert and teacher in anatomy, breathing, and bodywork. He is the founder of the Breathing Project, New York City's premiere yoga studio dedicated to the teaching of individualized, breath-centered yoga practice and therapy.

    He reveals what is real and what is illusory, in the process exposing moves that can harm or even kill. Five years in the making, The Science of Yoga draws on a hidden wealth of discovery, drama, and surprising fact to cut through the fog that surrounds contemporary yoga and to show—for the first time—what is uplifting and beneficial and what is delusional, flaky, and dangerous. At heart, it illuminates the risks and rewards.Broad describes yoga as a burgeoning global industry that attracts not only curious scientists but millions of true believers and charismatic hustlers. He takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of unknown yoga that goes from old archives in Calcutta to world capitals of medical research, from storied ashrams to spotless laboratories, from sweaty yoga studios with master teachers to the cozy offices of yoga healers. In the process, he shatters myths, lays out unexpected benefits, and offers a compelling vision of how the discipline can be improved.

    Embracing the yoga lifestyle has more to do with how you live your life than how successfully you can pull off yoga poses, or how good you look in your yoga outfit. In this heartfelt and inspiring guide, master Ashtanga yoga teacher Kino MacGregor offers a personal and spiritual challenge, distilling some of the tradition's essential teachings into thirty key lessons to help you truly live the yogi's life. Each day's Yogi Assignment focuses on a key yoga concept--such as stillness, vulnerability, truthfulness and authenticity, intention, and selfless service, to name just a few. MacGregor explains and expounds on the concept, using examples from yoga philosophy and her own life experience and twenty years of practice, and then offers practices and poses to support the concept of the day. Each day is actually a journey in itself that helps you to confront your emotional, physical, and mental limitations, and inspires hope and real change in your life. Beautifully illustrated with over 250 color photos, this book will motivate experienced yoga practitioners, as well as people who are new to the practice. MacGregor is a fierce, loving guide, enouraging you to look deeply within, to find your wellspring of inner strength and courage, and to embrace your daily practice.

    This groundbreaking work in transpersonal psychology has been revised and redesigned for a more accessible presentation. Arranged schematically, the book uses the inherent structure of the chakra system as a map upon which to chart our Western understanding of individual development. Each chapter focuses on a single chakra, starting with a description of its characteristics, then exploring its particular childhood developmental patterns, traumas and abuses, and how to heal and maintain balance. Illuminated with personal anecdotes and case studies, Eastern Body, Western Mind seamlessly merges the East and West, science and philosophy, and psychology and spirituality into a compelling interpretation of the chakra system and its relevance for Westerners today.Revised edition of the groundbreaking New Age book that seamlessly integrates Western psychology and the Eastern chakra system, including a new introduction from the author.Applies the chakra system to important modern social realities and issues such as addiction, codependence, family dynamics, sexuality, and personal empowerment.

    

    You don't have to ditch the bikini when you turn 40 - this can be the beginning of your sexy years! And it's never too late to start: Thorbjorg's vitality and charisma have made her a wellness guru for women of all ages. The book features a 10-week full anti-age programme from inside out with delicious recipes, invigorating exercises, tests to see how you are progressing and nutritional supplement recommendations. It also provides natural alternatives to injectibles and skin care, and describes cleansing and relaxation as the sources of eternal youth, and case studies from women who talk about how the 10-week programme transformed their lives. Want secrets to avoiding sagging skin, flabby bits and mood swings? Want healthy tips and facts on how your food can make your body younger, your skin firmer and your life more energetic? Read this book on how to become your best self. Are you ready to light the flame? I followed Thorbjorg's 10 Years Younger Program, and was truly delighted with the results. Her deep understanding of nutrition, as much as her motivating personality, made the experience a complete success; and I am certainly not alone in my belief that Thorbjorg's work has the power to make a huge impact on today's culinary and fitness culture. - Tamara Rappa, Senior Accessories Editor, The Oprah Magazine