REVIEW for Yoga Awakening the Inner Body

TITLE: Yoga Awakening the Inner Body

AUTHOR: Donald Moyer

GENRE: Yoga

RATING: 5 Stars

I discovered the joys of yoga a little over a year ago - which is to say that although I adore all there is involving yoga - poses, the breathing, the meditation, I am not an "old pro". When I started reading Yoga, Awakening the Inner Body, I got very excited. You don't have to be able to do headstands to put the techniques and suggestions offered in this book to good use.First off, I have to say that this is a beautiful book. For anyone who adores the physical beauty of yoga, you will want to just go through all the pages first to take a look at all the poses that are considered part of the yoga practice. There are some beautiful pictures. Once this was completed, I started reading the preface which explains in detail the proper way to read and use the book. I must admit that this book is broken down in sections that were a little difficult to understand at first, so reading the preface is important. Part 1 is entitled Finding Inner Balance and takes a detailed look at Salamba Sirsasana and Salamba Sarvangasana and the differences between them. They also carefully detail the props you will need when doing the poses and also outlines the areas in which you need to use caution.

This section was a tad confusing to me as I am still not all that well versed on the differences between the various schools of yoga, however, once I started reading the description of each pose (with the details about proper alignment and how to do the pose effectively) it was much clearer. There are some great pictures of each pose - which helps in making sure that you are practicing the pose correctly and effectively. I also appreciated the "variation" section which was offered for many of the poses.

This book also offers a second section with detailed yoga poses for particular parts of the body what you may wish to work.
I must admit that I was not able to do all of the poses in the book. However, I was certainly capable of doing approximaly 80% of these. My yoga teacher, who is much more advanced, pretty well managed to do all of the poses. I would say that this book is best suited for intermediate to advanced yoga fans. I don't think that beginners will feel comfortable with most of these poses.

This is a very comprehensive book and I loved it. I am still using it as a reference for some of my favorite poses, but it is also a beautiful coffee table book.