Yoga For Dummies

There can be little doubt as to the overall health benefits of practising yoga. This substantial Dummies Guide (nearly 400 pages) is an introduction and a beginner's reference guide to anyone wanting to take it up, either at home or in a class with others. Like all Dummies guides, exceptional thought has gone into the layout and design: apart from an overview of the yoga philosophy, there are exercises for one person or doubled up with a partner, during and after pregnancy, yoga especially for women, children, teenagers, midlifers and older adults, floor exercises and exercises against a wall, breathing exercises and exercises to improve balance, basic postures and more advanced ones, postures to relieve stress and chronic pain, and show more that's by no means all. Among others, it gives advice on how to use props, and how to customise your own personalised yoga programme. If anything, there is maybe a little too much information, and I found the degree of choice and variation slightly bewildering, having had no previous experience apart from the odd posture here and there.

The actual exercises are well explained and feature step-by-step instructions and loads of photographs of the various postures. There is even some bonus content online that can be accessed with this book.

So, the good intention to incorporate some yoga exercises into my life is there, but how will I find the time?

(This review was written as part of Amazon's Vine programme.) show less

3.75

This book is mostly designed as a reference where you can open at any chapter and not feel left out. As such, reading from cover to cover was redundant. However, what makes this book great are the broad array of beginner-adapted yoga exercises, advice for designing a program, and (my favorite) are the conceptual chapters in the front third of the book. I don't think many other books in the same niche properly address the mental aspects of yoga like its history and philosophies (just from the first chapters I would rate this 4.5).

Basically, this is a well-rounded, better-than-most beginner yoga book.

After looking over many yoga books in an effort to find a good resource for beginners, I finally found this book. This book is ideal for anyone needing a general overview of yoga, its purpose, usefulness, and rewards. With all the books, magazines, and internet information at our disposal it can be a daunting task to figure out how it all fits together, without feeling discouraged. This book does a nice job of explaining Yoga in a easy-to-digest manner, without making you feel overwhelmed. The tips sprinkled throughout the book are helpful and the jargon alerts are nice because they clarify unfamiliar terms. Most importantly, the overall tone encouraged me to incorporate Yoga into my life at my pace- whether I have 15 minutes a day or show more three hours. In addition, the resources section helped me find reliable resources. show less

very good manual for yoga beginners

REVIEW
By Ann Pizer, About.com Guide
When I saw a pocket-sized Yoga for Dummies in the supermarket checkout line recently, I tossed it into my cart, thinking it would be good to see what kind of misinformation was being marketed to the masses. I was quite surprised to discover the (full sized) book is actually a really good introduction to yoga practice for beginners, written by two respected yoga experts, Georg Feuerstein and Larry Payne...Despite the series title, these books are actually intended to make complex topics digestible for intelligent, curious readers. They are also written in plain language with a humorous touch. So don't be put off by the less than promising title of this book: the information is made accessible, but not show more dumbed down.
Solid Information for Yoga Beginners
While yoga has many ancient philosophical texts (such as the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras of Patanjali) and modern classics (like Light on Yoga) explaining particular hatha yoga methods, these may not provide the best introduction for people completely new to yoga. Yoga for Dummies fills that need, providing basic, down-to-earth information ranging from the practical (what to expect when attending yoga class, beginners poses) to the philosophical (explaining different approaches to yoga beyond the physical, offering a guide to meditation).
My only real criticism is that the book was written in 1999, so it includes some out of date information on the current state of yoga, which has changed quite a lot in the last ten years as yoga’s popularity has soared. However, the core information on the practice of yoga remains valid, and I consider this book, despite the silly name, to be a solid introductory text.
retrieved from http://yoga.about.com/od/yogabooks/fr/yo... show less

Todo el mundo puede practicar yoga, sólo tiene que encontrar los ejercicios adecuados. Esta práctica física y mental milenaria sigue siendo perfectamente válida en el siglo XXI. Deportistas de élite, personas convalecientes de lesiones o enfermos con dolores crónicos se benefician de las virtudes del yoga. En Yoga para Dummies encontrará todo lo que necesita para conocer y comprender a fondo la sabiduría del yoga y una guía ilustrada para practicarlo. Después de leer y poner en práctica los ejercicios de este libro,notará la diferencia.