Learn basic yoga postures and series in a day? Easy.
Want to start enjoying the benefits of yoga today? The secret’s out—you can quickly get up-to-speed on the basics of yoga and begin your workout with the help of this fun guide.
Basic Yoga Postures & Series In A Day For Dummies gives you an easy-to-follow introduction on the essential beginning elements of yoga. It’s packed with tips and advice for staying balanced while maintaining proper posture (when sitting or standing) and step-by-step instructions for basic yoga sequences.
- An overview on the basic philosophy and benefits of Yoga
- Essential keys to posture, sitting, and standing
- The mechanics and practice of breathing during Yoga practice
- A recommended routine for beginners
- Online component takes you beyond the book with bonus content and features
Get ready to start reaping the many benefits of this ancient practice with Basic Yoga Postures & Series In A Day For Dummies.
Tabella dei contenuti
Introduction 1
What You Can Do In A Day 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 2
Chapter 1: The Ins and Outs of Yoga and Breathing 3
A Brief Introduction to Yoga 4
Breathing Your Way to Good Health 5
Taking high-quality breaths 6
Relaxing with a couple of deep breaths 7
Practicing safe yogic breathing 7
Reaping the benefits of yogic breathing 8
Breathing through your nose (most of the time) 9
What if I can’t breathe through my nose? 9
How about breathing through my nose all the time? 9
The Mechanics of Yogic Breathing 10
Appreciating the complete yogic breath 11
Belly breathing 11
Belly-to-chest breathing 12
Chest-to-belly breathing 13
Starting out with focus breathing 15
Realizing the power of a pause 16
Partners in Yoga: Breath and Postural Movement 16
Chapter 2: Please, Be Seated 19
Understanding the Philosophy of Yoga Postures 20
Looking at the Many Variations of Sitting 21
Chair-sitting posture 21
The easy posture: Sukhasana 23
The thunderbolt posture: Vajrasana 24
Chapter 3: Standing Tall 27
Standing Strong 27
Exercising Your Options 28
Mountain posture: Tadasana 29
Standing forward bend: Uttanasana 30
Triangle posture: Utthita trikonasana 32
Warrior I: Vira Bhadrasana I 33
Warrior II: Vira Bhadrasana II 34
Standing spread-legged forward bend: Prasarita pada uttanasana 36
Downward-facing dog: Adhomukha shvanasana 37
Chapter 4: Steady as a Tree: Mastering Balance 39
Getting to the Roots of the Postures 39
Balancing Postures for Graceful Strength 40
Warrior at the wall: Vira Bhadrasana III variation 41
Balancing cat 42
The tree posture: Vrikshasana 43
The karate kid 44
Standing heel-to-buttock 45
Chapter 5: Dynamic Posture: The Sun Salutation 47
Gliding Through the 7-Step Kneeling Salutation 48
Advancing to the 12-Step Sun Salutation 50
Chapter 6: A Recommended Beginners’ Routine 53
Starting Off Slowly and Wisely 53
Trying Out a Fun Beginners’ Routine 54
Corpse posture 54
Lying arm raise 55
Knee-to-chest posture 56
Downward-facing dog 56
Child’s posture 57
Warrior I 58
Standing forward bend 59
Standing spread-legged forward bend 60
The karate kid 61
Corpse posture redux 62
Chapter 7: Where to Go from Here 63
Taking Your First Steps 63
Visiting dummiescom 64
Circa l’autore
Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D. (Saskatchewan, Canada) has written more than 30 books on such topics as yoga, tantra, and spiritual transcendence.
Larry Payne, Ph.D. (Los Angeles, CA) is an internationally respected Yoga teacher and workshop leader.