Customer Reviews

Ashtanga Yoga: The Practice Manual

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently started practicing The Primary Series, and although there are some really good books out there (Julie Pegram, Berly Bender Birch, Richard Freeman, etc.) I must say this is the best. This book gives a lot of what alot of the other books give (History, Sanskrit Terminology, The entire Primary Series, some or all of the Intermediate Series, modifications to postures, etc.), but this book goes a little beyond. A prime example of this concept is the abbreviated workouts (aka "Short Forms"). The Short Forms range from 15-45 minutes. I can speak from personal experience on how well even a 15 minute Short Form can improve your overall wellness. In addition David Swenson's breaking down of how to properly perform a half vinyasa (the Up Dog, Down Dog, jump through after every seated posture) is unparalled, a very detailed step-by-step analysis that makes this impossible display of dexterity seem attainable. Any person with at least a base understanding of Ashtanga Yoga, or Yoga in general, could benefit from this book. In fact, anybody interested in developing an at home practice could benefit from what this book has to offer. What else can I say, this book is really that good.

This book is the best yoga book i have ever read it clearly explains all the poses while adding in little black and white pictures to have for visual cues when you are praticeing. The book includs two sun salutations a standing series also an primary and intermediate series as well as 3 short forms form 15-30-45 minutes it also has the finishing sequence. Also at the back it has a quick refence to the poses in a certain pratice with little pictures so it can be open on the floor while you pratice to remind you of the order of asana. Buy this book if you are serious about doing yoga and want to do it right it wont let you down.

I bought this book to help me develop my home practice after about a year of taking instructor led classes. Therefore I was familiar with many of the Ashtanga poses. The book includes detailed description of each pose including alternatives for less advanced students, breath instructions for each movement, and drishti. The instructions include all poses for primary series, secondary series, and finishing poses. Then what I found extremely valuable is a couple of pages that list the sequences pictorially, i.e. Primary series flow, Secondary series flow. Plus David Swenson constructed a few shorter series for either less advanced students or for a shorter practice. Swenson also talks about the other elements of physical yoga (bandas, breath control, vinyasa), as well as the notion that the physical practice comes within a greater context. I don't know if it would be difficult to learn these poses from scratch without any formal instruction. But if you are really looking for a "cheat sheet" or manual to refine your Astanga practice, this is a wonderful book.

This book is awesome - it gives you everything you need to begin or expand on a yoga practice. Plenty of positioning instructions with a focus on the most important benefits of yoga beyond the physical. Helps combine positioning, breath, bandhas and flow. Enjoy! Namaste.

I just wanted to add my own 5 stars to the line up. This is the yoga book I can't live without...if someone borrows it I get all edgy until it's returned. The scenic photos are stunning but the easy-to-use layout for my own practice is invaluable.

I too, recommend practice with a live class but once you know what you're doing this book will take you a long way. It's a gift to the yoga community and just fun to look at if you like to be amazed at what the human body can do.

I would love to see the other two series' layed out like this--just for fun. I'm personally a primary series girl all the way, but still, I'm curious.

I was a bit dissapointed with this book after all the good reviews it got. I didn't think it was nearly as good as Beryl Bender Birch's book.

It does have photos of all the asanas, including several variations for less flexible people. However so does BBB's book, so in this respect they come out equal.

It has good binding and a hard cover, which is a plus ( which you pay for )

But it has hardly any words in the book. What you can't pick up from the photos he often doesn't explain. Most inhales / exhales only have a half line of text, which leaves a lot of details out!

Lots of short inspirational quotes, which I liked. But I did find BBB's illustrative stories more inspirational. ( Althought these quotes are the kind of thing you can apply during practice, and are good. )

This book would be useful to anybody reading this post who has been to classes and knows (vaguely) what they're doing. But I don't think a total beginer would get a good idea just from the book. I think BBB's book is much better for beginers, and much more informative in general.

( 'Power Yoga' by BBB is the exact same yoga system as 'Astanga yoga' described in this book.)

The book is ringed, making it easy to navigate, and stand the book up to follow it while practising. The images and instructions are thorough and easy to follow. There are different series of movements shown for different levels, making this book great for beginners and more advanced practitioners alike.

Worth the cover price alone for the photo of Doug Swenson practicing along the mountain ridges of Lake Tahoe on page 242. Were his life insurance provider aware of this shot, I guarantee his policy would be dropped immediately.

The other pages prove to be possibly the only book you really need on the physical exercise of yoga. While David Life and Sharon Gannen's excellent Jivamukti Yoga emphasizes the origins and much of the spiritual aspects for today's practitioner in clear, modern language (The Yoga Sutras are, after all, pretty dense stuff), Swenson's focus is the asanas, and the primary and intermediate series of the ashtanga yoga system.

The asanas are presented in clear, concise detail, along with photos.

The book does not intimidate by bogging the reader down in overly long details in either words or pictures. When explaining the translation of an asana's sanskrit name, instead of getting "This very interesting posture has an equally interesting history to its' names origin. In 436 BC, the first king of scotland travelled to india, etc. etc.", Swenson simply writes "Pada=Foot" (But if it is gorgeous, unbelievably crisp photos of asana practice you're looking for, the book to get is Linda Sparrowe's Yoga).

One does not need to practice ashtanga for this book to prove useful and inspirational: virtually every asana is displayed, so even if you prefer a vinyasa practice, you can always pick up some new - or remind yourself of many - poses within. (The wisely included index also proves mega-useful in this regard)

The book is also practical: not only does it display abrdged versions of the the series for the time-tied, but also because it has a unique spiral hardcover binding and displays one asana per page, making it easy to keep the book beside your mat for reference without it flipping shut every two seconds as you practice.

(Anyone who's ever had that experience knows it feels something akin to what Doug Swenson on the aforementioned page 242 is doing, with potentially far more fatal results)(Try transcending THAT!).

First the positive -- a good review of basic yoga principles, good pictures, and the coil binding. I bought the book for a) the good reviews, and b) frankly, the coil binding.

The not-so-positive has more to do with me than the book -- if you're a rank beginner like myself, get this book once you're comfortable with the basic poses and have begun to put together a home practice. I had only taken a couple of drop-in Ashtanga classes before I bought this book. I reviewed it from cover to cover when I got it over a month ago, and haven't cracked it since because I was so intimidated. I've since signed up for a beginner class, where I can get some direct feedback and learn alternate poses (to be fair, Swenson does offer alternatives), and also to get a better sense of the flow of yoga and absorb some of the gestalt. You can't get that from a book. I'll probably return to this book once I figure out what I'm doing, and what place yoga has in my life.

Well, if you're one of these 'power' yoga people and want a book with all the correct Hindi terms, descriptions and pictures, this is it. A large, oversize book that will likely daunt a beginner, and serve as perpetual reference for the would-be yoga teacher who finds personal satisfaction in likewise daunting beginners.

It is WAY more than the average person wants (or needs) to know about yoga and, sadly, like so much of pop-yoga these days, seemed to emphasize the physical form over the spiritual and meditation limbs of Ashtanga yoga. (In case you didn't know, the purpose of the physical postures and vinyasas are to strengthen the body so it can sustain the intensity of pranayama and meditation practices, which in turn lead to higher states of consciousness and eventually true liberation.)

Instructors like David Swenson seem to regard yoga as a masochistic obstacle course where the goal is to be a kind of contortionist extrordinaire. While he lists all eight limbs and touches on some spiritual aspects, the vast majority of the material focuses obsessively on the physical form and thus fails to correctly provide the true purpose of yoga. Swenson apparently hasn't yet realized he is much more than his physical body and that the aim of yoga is nothing less than the union of the limited Self with the Infinite.

If you're studying to be an Ashtanga yoga teacher in the Pattabhi Jois tradition, this is the ultimate reference to all the essential asanas, vinyasas, bandhas and their accompanying Hindi names. If you're out to impress people with how many Ashtanga postures you can do, you'll want this on your coffee table.

For the rest though, it's likely more than you ever wanted to know about the physical side of Ashtanga yoga.