Customer Reviews

Ashtanga Yoga As It IS (Revised Third Edition)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was so excited to get this and when I received it I thought that they must have sent me the wrong thing - it is just like a calendar! It has some very good practical information and visually documents all of the series in the ashtanga practice. However, there are some serious drawbacks including the fact that the pictures are the size of postage stamps, there are no descriptions of how to get into and out of the postures and no information on alignment. Unless you are very familiar with all of the poses in the primary, intermediate, and advanced a and b this book is seriously lacking in this area. The written information is directed toward the beginner/intermediate practitioner and the visual information is for someone well advanced. His practice is lovely but the "book" is not worth the price.

If you're practicing Astanga regularly and learning a lot of new poses, this book is a great resource. I've just started 3rd series, and when being given the poses, most of my attention is on doing rather than remembering. This book allows me to review and study the vinyasas at home.

Matthew's got an amazing practice. I was lucky enough to see some of it during my first of two (thus far) trips to Mysore, India. He knows what he's talking about.

A friend recommended this book to me because it has photos of all the postures in all the series of Ashatanga Yoga, laid out in an easy to use format. It also has 35 pages of sound advice and information about the practice. It is a great yoga book and a great ashtanga book.

This book is not for the amateur. You need to have a rock-solid foundation. Sweeney doesn't give you much information, just pictures. You need to understand what you're looking at and how yoga posture alignment works generally, and how to safely get into and out of postures. In short, your practice needs to be established. And nothing beats a real live teacher.

This book is one of very few sources for the Advanced Series, and it only covers 2 out of 4 of them. No one in my area teaches anything beyond primary, so I am especially grateful for this resource. Get it if you want to practice 3rd or 4th at your own pace. For 1st or 2nd, I recommend the Gregor Maehle books. They give tons of details about postures. Also check out the David Swenson videos for Advanced. He is superhuman, but a joy to watch.

The book is spiral binded which makes it easy to turn pages and even display in poster style, should you want to, which you may.

He has a great introduction in which he talks about Jois, Krishnamacharya, the practice, the ujjaji breath, alignment, core postures of the first and second series, bandhas and more. He spared no details and it is a pleasure to read.

But the most important and great addition in my eyes is all the pictures that come afterwards, it is like having a huge poster on all the series.

Not only does he have picture after picture of all the asanas in each of primary, intermediate, advanced A and B, which could be used from the perspective of a student learning the series -in the beginning of the book-, but also, at the end of the book he has a description of the vinyasas together with counts, pictures, and number of breaths which could be very useful from the point of view of a new teacher.

From the second set of photographs where he includes all vinyasas
On the second set of photographs you can learn where you inhale, where you exhale, for how long, and how you move from one asana to the other (vinyasas). Great resource.

I was particularly inspired by the backbending asana and vinyasa page. It was good to finally reconcile how it is supposed to be done exactly -at least the way he learned it-

Urdhva Dhanurasana - first line
Vinyasa for Primary (drop backs) second line
and Vinyasa for Intermediate (tick tacks) third line
Somehow, looking at the picture made me realize that perhaps attempting to come back up from the back bend and into standing instead of dropping back might be a way to get started.

So, for those of you with visual preferences, this is the book to have! The price is a bit high but definitely worth it.

I bought it in Mysore on the last trip and use it often for reference and inspiration.

As it's name says, is a complete guide of Ashtanga Yoga AS IT REALLY IS. It solved me a looot of doubts about the ashtanga tradition, asanas, it have a complete guide of every asana with each of the vinyasas and the counts. Incredible book, totally recommend it!

An absolutely fantastic book covering the primary, intermediate and advanced series, complete with full illustrations of all of the asanas and a complete and interesting discussion of the philosophy behind the practice. It's the only book I've been able to find that is so complete in its coverage.

The only thing that might not be to everyone's taste is that the book is spiral bound. It makes it easy to keep the pages open at the right place, so you could even have it with you during your practice, but it does make the book less attractive than others, and maybe a little less study that a conventionally bound book.

Wonderful summary relating ones practice with the overall yogic path, the photographic breakdown of Ashtanga sequences is clear and well done.
While the photos are small, large photos would make for a large book... this size is very portable and light which is great especially if you find the most difficult part of practicing Ashtanga (as taught by Pattabhi Jois)to be remembering which pose comes next:}

An excellent, probably the very best, text on Ashtanga series 1-4. Postures and vinyasas are meticulously documented in text and photos. Great introduction and background material. Consider investing in Matthew's newer book as well, with 5 new sequences.