The Sivananda Companion to Yoga: A Complete Guide to the Physical Postures, Breathing Exercises, Diet, Relaxation, and Meditation Techniques of Yoga

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Very good starter book. Flexibility is a cornerstone of bodily health. This book will help get you there. Very good philosophy too. Recommended by a contortionist friend of mine.

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This is traditional hatha yoga i.e. yoga as a complete lifestyle and spiritual path. In other words, this isn't the yoga you'll find at your local gym. I love it. Beautiful pictures.

The only potential drawback I see is that even some of the basic poses are so difficult (like headstand) that beginners may be discouraged, unless they already know how to adapt poses to their own needs. Beginners should check out the sections for pregnancy and the elderly, and they'll find some good alternatives to the basic sequence.

This also isn't the first yoga product at Amazon where I find a review cautioning practicioners that yoga makes one "dangerously" flexible, and is an incomplete fitness program. Somebody appears to have made this their project. There are also studies which have found that weight-bearing yoga poses ward off osteoperosis as well as weight training. As for cardio -- pick up a heart monitor and check out what happens to your heart rate during Sun Salutations. Add that to the fact that were it not for yoga's gentle approach, there are people (like myself) who wouldn't be exercising at all.

In any case, there are at least a hundred conflicting theories when it comes to health, diet, and exercise. The best exercise is the one that you'll keep doing i.e. the one you don't hate.

I love yoga, and hate 'most everything else. And the Sivananda guide is a succinct yet complete textbook you can refer to again and again. It's also a good starting place if you want to get into the more spiritual side of yoga -- breathing, meditation, vegetarian diet, and philosophy.

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this one has proven superbly useful to me throughout my practice thus far (when it wasn't serious, and when it turned serious). the illustrations and photos are incredibly handy; and coupled with all of the descriptions of how to progress through basic to advanced variations of poses, this book is an incredibly comprehensive approach to beginning a serious home yoga practice.

+there's a chapter on breathing with a variety of depictions ranging from basic to advanced.
+lays out basic poses into a beginner/maintenance routine on a chart.

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I have a previous version of this book science 1992. Its been the foundation for my practice. I have dwelled into other schools of YOGA like ashtanga, but this practice is always from where I start every time I come from a break. The book also covers the basics of pranayama, meditation, nutrition and other things that go hand in hand with Hatha Yoga. The Sivananda School of though is concentrated on holding an asana and relaxing, controlling the breathing and meditating while holding it.

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Despite the ridiculous advice in the review "Approach traditional hatha yoga like Sivananda Yoga with extreme caution. In only a little time, you too can develop a degree of flexibility that can directly cause a loss of stability in your spine, in turn causing long lasting health issues. Strength and flexibility are not incompatible, but it is very easy and tempting to pursue yoga as your only fitness program, at the expense of strength, stability, muscular, and cardiovascular endurance. This is not a good health and fitness strategy for most folks. " -this book is just fabulous. If you're performing the asanas properly, as this book clearly details, then there is no risk of your back getting so flexible you will loose stability in your spine. In fact, if your doing the asanas in the proper fashion, in the order this book detail, then the strength of your spine will increase dramatically, not loose stability. That is simply ridiculous. It sounds like a weight trainer/strength trainer loosing clients to a yoga class. Yes, it's true there are plenty of weekend trained yoga instructors that don't know what they are doing, but this book is not one of them. It is simply the best methodical approach to Yoga I have yet read, and tells you why one posture follows another in a particular order, increasing strength and flexibility. Also, the "cardiovascular" benefit mentioned in the review, or supposed lack thereof, is simply not true if these asanas are performed with the proper breathing techniques and meditation. Whatever "study" the reviewer is supposedly sighting is clearly flawed. My own experience, verified by my doctor and several cardiologists, is to keep doing what I'm doing for such overall excellent cardiovascular health (which I have not always had). That would be Yoga, derived not from a class, but at home, from this fine volume. Read it thoroughly to understand the underlying principles, then do it, every day. You will not be disappointed.