Yoga for Dummies

435 Pages·2023·55.095 MB·English

by  Larry Payne, Brenda Feuerstein, Georg Feuerstein

Yoga
4th Edition
by Larry Payne Ph.D.,
internationally renowned Yoga therapy pioneer,
teacher, and author
Brenda Feuerstein,
internationally renowned Yoga teacher and author
Georg Feuerstein Ph.D.,

internationally renowned Yoga researcher and author
Yoga For Dummies®, 4th Edition
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2023931516
ISBN: 978-1-119-98906-6 (pbk); 978-1-119-98907-3 (ebk); 978-1-119-98908-0 (ebk)
Contents at a Glance
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Part 1: Getting Started with Yoga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER 1: Yoga 101: Building a Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHAPTER 2: Ready, Set, Yoga! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
CHAPTER 3: Preparing for a Fruitful Yoga Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
CHAPTER 4: The Fine Art of Letting Go of Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
CHAPTER 5: Breath and Movement Simplified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Part 2: Moving into Position: Basic Yoga Postures . . . . . . . . . . 83
CHAPTER 6: Please Be Seated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
CHAPTER 7: Standing Tall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
CHAPTER 8: Steady as a Tree: Mastering Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
CHAPTER 9: Absolutely Abs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
CHAPTER 10: Looking at the World Upside Down: Safe Inversion Postures . . . . . . . . 131
CHAPTER 11: Easy ‘round the Bends: Classic Bending Floor Postures . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
CHAPTER 12: Several Twists on the Yoga Twist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
CHAPTER 13: Dynamic Posture: The Rejuvenation Sequence and
Sun Salutation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
CHAPTER 14: A Beginner’s Routine for Everyone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Part 3: Creating and Customizing
Your Yoga Routine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
CHAPTER 15: Designing Your Own Yoga Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
CHAPTER 16: Partnering Up for Yoga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
CHAPTER 17: It’s Never Too Soon: Pre- and Postnatal Yoga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
CHAPTER 18: Yoga for Kids and Teens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
CHAPTER 19: It’s Never Too Late: Yoga for Aging Adults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
CHAPTER 20: Prop Art: The Why and How of Simple Props . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
CHAPTER 21: Yoga Against the Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Part 4: Living Life the Yoga Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
CHAPTER 22: Yoga throughout the Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
CHAPTER 23: Meditation and the Higher Reaches of Yoga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
CHAPTER 24: Yoga Therapy: Customizing Your Back and Body Treatments . . . . . . . 359
CHAPTER 25: Using Restorative Postures to Relieve Stress and Chronic Pain . . . . . . 381
Part 5: The Part of Tens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
CHAPTER 26: Ten Tips for a Safe Yoga Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
CHAPTER 27: Ten Ways to Get the Most out of Your Yoga Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Foolish Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Icons Used in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Beyond the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Where to Go from Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
PART 1: GETTING STARTED WITH YOGA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER 1: Yoga 101: Building a Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Understanding the True Character of Yoga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Finding unity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Finding yourself: Are you a Yoga practitioner? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Considering Your Options: The Seven Main Branches of Yoga . . . . . . . 9
Taking a Closer Look at Hatha Yoga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Finding Your Niche: Four Basic Approaches to Yoga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Yoga as fitness training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Yoga as therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Yoga as a lifestyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Yoga as a spiritual discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
What most approaches to Yoga have in common . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Pointing the Way to Happiness: Health, Healing, and Yoga . . . . . . . . . 19
Balancing Your Life with Yoga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Locating Your Starting Place in the World of Yoga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
CHAPTER 2: Ready, Set, Yoga! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
Finding Suitable Yoga Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Checking out classes and teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Making sure the course fits your experience level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Taking other important considerations into account . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Preparing for Group Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Deciding what to wear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Packing your Yoga class kit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Putting safety first . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Class etiquette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Going for It on Your Own . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Fulfilling Your Promise to Yourself: Making Time for
Yoga Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Table of Contents v
CHAPTER 3: Preparing for a Fruitful Yoga Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Cultivating the Right Attitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Leave pretzels for snack time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Practice at your own pace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Send the scorekeeper home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Picture yourself in the posture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Enjoying a Peaceful Yoga Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Busting the perfect posture myth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Listening to your body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Moving slowly but surely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Practicing function over form with Forgiving Limbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
CHAPTER 4: The Fine Art of Letting Go of Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
The Nature of Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Correcting wrong attitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Changing poor habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Releasing bodily tension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Relaxation Techniques That Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Deep relaxation: The corpse posture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Afternoon delight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Magic triangles: Relaxing through visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Relaxation before sleep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Insomnia buster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Yoga Nidra: Catch Up on Your Sleep Quotient with Yogic Sleep . . . . . 54
Formulating your intention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Performing Yoga Nidra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
CHAPTER 5: Breath and Movement Simplified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Breathing Your Way to Good Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Taking high-quality breaths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Relaxing with a couple of deep breaths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Practicing safe yogic breathing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Reaping the benefits of yogic breathing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Breathing through your nose (most of the time) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Mastering the Mechanics of Yogic Breathing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Understanding how your emotions affect your diaphragm . . . . . . 66
Appreciating the complete yogic breath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Starting out with focus breathing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Realizing the power of a pause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Seeing How Breath and Postural Movement Work Together . . . . . . . . 70
Breathing in four directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Recognizing the distinct roles of movement and
holding in Yoga postures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Achieving a deeper stretch with The Yoga Miracle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Answering common breath and movement questions . . . . . . . . . . 74
vi Yoga For Dummies
Infusing Sound into Yogic Breathing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Breath Control the Traditional Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Alternate nostril breathing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
The cooling breath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
Shitkari: Inhalation through the mouth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Kapala-bhati: Frontal sinus cleansing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
PART 2: MOVING INTO POSITION:
BASIC YOGA POSTURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
CHAPTER 6: Please Be Seated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
Understanding the Philosophy of Sitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Adding Variety to Your Sitting Postures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Chair-sitting posture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
The easy posture: Sukhasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
The thunderbolt posture: Vajrasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
The auspicious posture: Svastikasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
The perfect posture: Siddhasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
CHAPTER 7: Standing Tall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Standing Strong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Exercising Your Standing Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Mountain posture: Tadasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Standing forward bend: Uttanasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Half standing forward bend: Ardha uttanasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Asymmetrical forward bend: Parshva uttanasana . . . . . . . . . . . . .103
Triangle posture: Utthita trikonasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Reverse triangle posture: Parivritta trikonasana variation . . . . . . 106
Warrior I: Vira bhadrasana I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
Warrior II: Vira bhadrasana II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Standing spread-legged forward bend: Prasarita pada
uttanasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Half chair posture: Ardha utkatasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110
Downward-facing dog: Adhomukha shvanasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
CHAPTER 8: Steady as a Tree: Mastering Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Getting to the Roots of the Posture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Balancing Postures for Graceful Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Warrior at the wall: Vira bhadrasana III variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115
Balancing cat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
The tree posture: Vrikshasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
The karate kid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118
Standing heel-to-buttock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Scorpion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Table of Contents vii
CHAPTER 9: Absolutely Abs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Taking Care of the Abdomen: Your Business Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124
Exercising Those Abs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Exploring push-downs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Trying yogi sit-ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Strengthening with yogi sit-backs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
Creating variety with extended leg slide-ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Arching with the suck ‘em up posture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Exhaling “soundly” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Looking at the World Upside Down:
CHAPTER 10:
Safe Inversion Postures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Getting a Leg Up on Leg Inversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Legs up on a chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Legs up on the wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
The happy baby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Standing spread-legged forward bend at the wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Trying a Trio of Shoulder Stands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Half shoulder stand at the wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Reverse half shoulder stand at the wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Half shoulder stand: Viparita karani . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Easy ‘round the Bends: Classic Bending
CHAPTER 11:
Floor Postures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Gaining a Strong Spine (and Some Insight) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Bending over Backward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Cobra I: Salamba bhujangasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Cobra II: Bhujangasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Cobra III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Locust I: Shalabhasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Locust II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Locust III: Superman posture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Bending from Side to Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Seated side bend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
All-fours side bend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Folded side bend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Bending Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Seated forward bend: Pashcimottanasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153
Head-to-knee posture: Janushirshasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
The great seal: Mahamudra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156
Wide-legged forward bend: Upavishta konasana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
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