After many years (13 actually) of yoga classes, as well as undertaking yoga teacher training, I still feel there is a major area of yoga I have neglected: my home yoga practice. Asana practice, to be more specific. I have no trouble (well not much trouble anyway) meditating at home, but when it comes to practising the postures I have often unrolled my mat, put my foam blocks in position, and then thought: now what? I have a couple of excellent yoga DVDs that I follow but I often want to practise in the morning and don't want the noise of the tv. I have some yoga books too, but the poses are often presented individually, when I really want some clear sequences to follow (especially in the early morning, when thinking is not my specialty).
Enter Rodney Yee. His book Moving Towards Balance: 8 Weeks of Yoga with Rodney Yee is the most helpful resource I have come across for consolidating a home yoga practice. Rodney Yee is a world-renowned, Iyengar-trained teacher whose love of yoga and desire to share its benefits shine through in this book. You do not need to be an Iyengar student to benefit although he does use props such as blocks, a bolster, belt and blankets (you can make do with items from around your house) but you do need to be open and willing to try variations on well-known asanas (Iyengar students will be familiar with them). Yee encourages this experimentation with the poses to gain an understanding of what works for you at the stage of yoga you're working at, and also to reinforce connections between different postures.
The book presents an 8 week home course that requires 6 days a week of practice (around an hour a day), but if you cannot practise 6 days it is perfectly fine to practise less frequently and just take longer to complete the course (skipping bits is a no-no as you won't experience the same benefits). The postures are broken down into standing poses (week 1), sun salutations (week 2), backbends (week 3), twists (week 4), inversions (week 5), forward bends (week 6), headstand (yikes! week 7) and then several sequences that incorporate the poses learnt previously in a balanced way (week 8). The next section is the icing on the cake: information about how to create your own personal home sequences and how to customise practices to suit your needs.
Is this a book for everyone? Well, I'm not sure that it's ideal for beginners, as there is not much information on how to get in or out of poses, or on what is important for 'correct alignment'. It also tackles some difficult postures - personally I wouldn't have felt ready for headstand so early on in my practice. But for experienced practitioners who are confident in the postures it is an excellent resource for gaining direction as to how to put sequences together, so that you can practice well between formal classes. It is also important to note that this book is very much focused on asana practice, with just a little breath awareness and meditation thrown in, but the devoted practitioner will need to slot these into their practice as they see fit. I have been turning the short meditations at the end of Yee's sequences into 30-60 minute sessions, depending on the time I have.
Enter Rodney Yee. His book Moving Towards Balance: 8 Weeks of Yoga with Rodney Yee is the most helpful resource I have come across for consolidating a home yoga practice. Rodney Yee is a world-renowned, Iyengar-trained teacher whose love of yoga and desire to share its benefits shine through in this book. You do not need to be an Iyengar student to benefit although he does use props such as blocks, a bolster, belt and blankets (you can make do with items from around your house) but you do need to be open and willing to try variations on well-known asanas (Iyengar students will be familiar with them). Yee encourages this experimentation with the poses to gain an understanding of what works for you at the stage of yoga you're working at, and also to reinforce connections between different postures.
The book presents an 8 week home course that requires 6 days a week of practice (around an hour a day), but if you cannot practise 6 days it is perfectly fine to practise less frequently and just take longer to complete the course (skipping bits is a no-no as you won't experience the same benefits). The postures are broken down into standing poses (week 1), sun salutations (week 2), backbends (week 3), twists (week 4), inversions (week 5), forward bends (week 6), headstand (yikes! week 7) and then several sequences that incorporate the poses learnt previously in a balanced way (week 8). The next section is the icing on the cake: information about how to create your own personal home sequences and how to customise practices to suit your needs.
Is this a book for everyone? Well, I'm not sure that it's ideal for beginners, as there is not much information on how to get in or out of poses, or on what is important for 'correct alignment'. It also tackles some difficult postures - personally I wouldn't have felt ready for headstand so early on in my practice. But for experienced practitioners who are confident in the postures it is an excellent resource for gaining direction as to how to put sequences together, so that you can practice well between formal classes. It is also important to note that this book is very much focused on asana practice, with just a little breath awareness and meditation thrown in, but the devoted practitioner will need to slot these into their practice as they see fit. I have been turning the short meditations at the end of Yee's sequences into 30-60 minute sessions, depending on the time I have.
An excellent addition to your yoga bookshelf!
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