Yoga All-in-One For Dummies

Larry Payne, Georg Feuerstein, Sherri Baptiste, Doug Swenson, Stephan Bodian, LaReine Chabut, Therese Iknoian

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781119022725
• eBook ISBN: 9781119022756
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Ciencias biológicas
• Subtopic: Ciencias del deporte y del ejercicio

Everything you need to make yoga an integral part of your health and well-being

If you want to incorporate yoga into your daily routine or ramp up what you're already doing, Yoga All-In-One For Dummies is the perfect resource! This complete compendium of six separate titles features everything you need to improve your health and peace of mind with yoga, and includes additional information on, stretching, meditation, adding weights to your yoga workouts, and power yoga moves.

Yoga has been shown to have numerous health benefits, ranging from better flexibility and athletic performance to lowered blood pressure and weight loss. For those who want to take control of their health and overall fitness, yoga is the perfect practice. With Yoga All-In-One For Dummies, you'll have everything you need to get started and become a master of even the toughest yoga poses and techniques.

• Find out how to incorporate yoga to foster health, happiness, and peace of mind
• Get a complete resource, featuring information from six titles that are packed with tips
• Use companion workout videos to help you master various yoga poses and techniques that are covered in the book
• Utilize tips in the book to increase balance, range of motion, flexibility, strength, and overall fitness

Take a deep breath and dive into Yoga All-In-One For Dummies to find out how you can improve your health and your happiness by incorporating yoga into your daily routine.

Book II

Basic Yoga Techniques and Postures

Many yoga postures call for a neutral spine. Find out what that is and how to achieve it at www.dummies.com/extras/yogaaio.

Contents at a Glance

Chapter 1: The Fundamentals of Yogic Breathing

Breathing Your Way to Good Health

Starting Out with Focus Breathing

A Variety of Yoga Breathing Techniques

Seeing How Breath and Postural Movement Work Together

Chapter 2: Please Be Seated

Understanding the Philosophy of Sitting

Adding Variety to Your Sitting Postures

Chapter 3: Standing Tall

Standing Strong

Exercising Your Standing Options

Chapter 4: Steady as a Tree: Mastering Balance

Getting to the Roots of the Posture

Balancing Postures for Graceful Strength

Chapter 5: Absolutely Abs

Taking Care of the Abdomen: Your Business Center

Exercising Those Abs

Chapter 6: Looking at the World Upside-Down: Safe Inversion Postures

Getting a Leg Up on Leg Inversions

Trying a Trio of Shoulder Stands

Chapter 7: Classic Bending Floor Postures

Bending over Backward

Bending from Side to Side

Bending Forward

Chapter 8: Several Twists on the Yoga Twist

Trying Simple Upright Twists

Twisting while Reclining

Chapter 9: Dynamic Postures: The Rejuvenation Sequence and Sun Salutation

Warming Up for the Sun: Rejuvenating in 9 Steps

Gliding through the 7-Step Kneeling Salutation

Advancing to the 12-Step Sun Salutation

Chapter 10: Basic Preparation, Compensation, and Rest Poses

Getting Started with Warm-ups

Selecting Your Compensation Poses

Mastering Rest Postures

Chapter 1

The Fundamentals of Yogic Breathing

In This Chapter

Understanding breathing basics

Detailing yogic breathing mechanics and techniques

In the ancient Sanskrit language, the word for “breath” is the same as the word for “life” — prana (pronounced prah-nah) — which translates into what is known as vital force, your life force. This gives you a good clue about how important yoga thinks breathing is for your well-being. Yoga practiced without conscious breathing (which awakens prana) is like putting an empty pot on the stove and hoping for a delicious meal.

In this chapter, you discover how to use conscious breathing in conjunction with the yoga postures. This chapter also introduces several breathing exercises that you do seated either on a chair or in one of the yoga sitting postures (if you’re up to that).

Breathing Your Way to Good Health

Most people’s breathing habits are quite poor and to their great disadvantage. Shallow breathing, which is common, doesn’t efficiently oxygenate the ten pints of blood circulating in your arteries and veins. Consequently, toxins accumulate in the cells. Before you know it, you feel mentally sluggish and emotionally down, and eventually organs begin to malfunction. Poor breathing is also known to cause and increase stress, which itself shortens your breath and increases your level of anxiety.

You can help alleviate stress through the simple practice of yogic breathing. Among other benefits, breathing loads your blood with oxygen, which, by nourishing and repairing your body’s cells, maintains your health at the most fundamental level. Is it any wonder that the breath is the best tool you have to profoundly affect your body and mind?

The masters of yoga discovered the usefulness of the breath thousands of years ago and have perfected a system for the conscious control of breathing. In yoga, consciously regulated breathing has three major applications:

• In conjunction with the various postures, to achieve the deepest possible effect and to prepare the mind for meditation
• As breath control (called pranayama, pronounced prah-nah-yah-mah), to invigorate your vitality and reduce your anxiety
• As a healing method in which you consciously direct the breath to a particular part or organ of the body, to remove energetic blockages and facilitate healing

During your normal breathing, you may notice a slight natural pause between inhalation and exhalation. This pause becomes important in yogic breathing; even though it lasts only one or two seconds, the pause is a natural moment of stillness and meditation. If you pay attention to this pause, it can help you become more aware of the unity among body, breath, and mind — all of which are key elements in your yoga practice. With the help of a teacher, you also can discover how to lengthen the pause during various yoga postures to heighten its positive effects.

Practicing safe yogic breathing

As you look forward to the calming and restorative power of yogic breathing, take time to reflect on a few safety tips that can help you enjoy your experience:

• If you have problems with your lungs (such as a cold or asthma), or if you have heart disease, consult your physician before embarking on breath control, even if you’re under the supervision of a yoga therapist.
• Don’t practice breath...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Book I: Getting Started with Yoga Principles
• Book II: Basic Yoga Techniques and Postures
• Book III: Yoga for Life
• Book IV: Powering Your Way to Fitness: Power Yoga
• Book V: Yoga-ing Your Way to a Toned Body: Yoga with Weights
• Book VI: Ancient Practices in the Modern World: Hot Trends in Yoga
• Book VII: Meditation, Mindfulness, and Letting Go of Stress
• About the Authors
• Cheat Sheet
• Connect with Dummies
• End User License Agreement