Customer Reviews

The Athlete's Guide to Yoga: An Integrated Approach to Strength, Flexibility, and Focus

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Not only is this a perfect book for athletes, it is also perfect for non-athletes. It is an excellent introduction for those new to yoga, and would be a great new resource for yoga instructors. As a cyclist and a yoga teacher in training, I found this writing to be the most elegant and direct explanation of the broad principles of yoga of any book I've read. It introduces the concepts of yoga and then provides examples of how they are to be applied in the real world. Resources are provided for those who want further study.

Sage Rountree's introduction to yoga in the first part of the book is worth the price itself. For anyone curious about yoga, this explains everything needed to approach it safely and with confidence. For athletes, she specifically discusses how the different types of yoga can be appropriately incorporated into their training program. The middle of the book is dedicated to the poses, breathing and meditation. Each pose is illustrated and fully described as to how to safely get into the pose, along with modifications. Relaxation and breathing are well covered with an emphasis on how important they are to an athlete's recovery time. The last part of the book discusses how to use yoga within the cycles of a training plan and finishes with several sequences for specific needs, such as stretching, warming up and restorative poses. Many of these sequences are great for any busy person wanting to "sneak" in some yoga during their hectic day. This author seems to be one of the few who understands that many who are interested in yoga are also very busy.

This is just a wonderful book. I hope it gets the attention of a very broad audience because it has so much to offer. It has now become the first book I would recommend to anyone asking about yoga.

As a busy professional, dedicated age group triathlete, and regular yoga class student, I've experienced both the physical and mental benefits of yoga in my racing and my life. However, I've really struggled to practice yoga at home - without a teacher telling when, where, and how. Sage Rountree's book is what I've been looking for: a practical, user-friendly guide that speaks my "athlete language" and includes step-by-step yoga rountines that complement specific portions of my training. The pictures are beautiful - and depict realistic pose modifications that make yoga much more enjoyable when I'm feeling especially tight. I also have a deeper (and more functional!) understanding of yoga's history and philosophy thanks to Sage's clear description of yoga's 8 limbs - and how they translate to the athlete's world. A helpful book for those very new to yoga AND those hoping to practice outside the gym or studio.

As the title suggests, this book is intended to teach athletes how to enhance their performance with yoga. Author Sage Roundtree, a distance competitor herself as well as a registered yoga teacher, makes the point that yoga can help to make good athletes even better by encouraging flexibility, fostering strength, increasing balance, preventing injuries, and improving mental training. In Part 1, Roundtree offers a general overview appropriate for those new to yoga. In Part II of the book, Roundtree presents the postures, or asanas. This section features wonderful, full-color illustrations of Roundtree herself as well as models Michael and Amanda Lovato, husband-and-wife professional triathletes. Roundtree does an excellent job of breaking down each pose in detail, using plain, down-to-earth language. She also provides visualizations on the wrong way to perform the postures, which can be extremely helpful. Roundtree organizes the book by introducing the postures in the same order that they would be presented in a practice session.

In Part III, Roundtree provides a very nice introduction to breathwork (pranayama) and meditation. The final part of the book provides athletes with specific information on how to incorporate yoga into their training plans. Using runners and triathletes as examples, Roundtree talks about how yoga might be incorporated throughout the series of training mesocycles. Finally, she offers various routines which can be used for home practice. Each routine has a specific focus--for example, warm-up, core strength, strength-building, or emphasis on problem areas such as shoulders, chest, hips, and hamstrings. Each sequence also features names and thumbnail illustrations of all the poses included (page numbers are given as well so that readers can refer back to the full descriptions of the postures if necessary). Tucked into the back flap of this book is a "Sampler DVD," a DVD offering two yoga practices intended as warm-up and cool-down routines. This DVD is meant to be a "sneak peak" into Roundtree's companion DVD of the same name, The Athlete's Guide to Yoga, but it should be noted that the footage on the Sampler DVD is different from the footage on the actual DVD release. However, the Sampler still provides a good taste of Roundtree's live instruction.

This book is certainly likely to appeal to its intended audience of athletes, from hard-core performers to more casual sports participants. Roundtree effectively makes the case that yoga can enhance any training program, and she makes the practice of yoga accessible for virtually anyone. Because this book is so specific to athletes, it may be less suited to a general population. However, I would not hesitate to recommend The Athlete's Guide to Yoga for use as designed.

While yoga is an extensive topic and can be difficult to understand, Sage keeps it simple to understand and easy to follow. I love the way she breaks it down to incorporate into various training programs as an adjunct to the primary training.

This book begins by briefly explaining the benefits, history, and different styles of yoga. The bulk of the book is devoted to describing yoga poses in meticulous (yet appropriate) detail, including which muscle groups are targeted and which poses should be done regularly. If you enjoy running, biking, swimming or any other repetitive motion sport, I am certain that this book will assist you in staying injury free (or at least minimizing your repetitive use injuries) and enjoying your pursuit to the fullest!

As a coach and long time distance runner, I had approached incorporating yoga into my workouts with skepticism. This book changed all that. Ms. Rountree puts yoga into a new light and this book is very runner friendly. I now use the workouts for myself, my cross country and track teams. Great book.

I am a clumsy, non-flexible person with IT Band issues...Doing the poses explained very well in this book (both verbally and pictorally) has made a noticeable difference in my flexibility. I also have less IT Band issues. Great book.

Now training for longer distance triathlons, we must leverage potential tools and techniques to help us get to our peak performance. There is no "special ingredient" says Kung FU Panda; I agree. Point here is that the ""special ingredient" comes from inside your ability to believe in your own success despite what obstacles you encounter. However, leveraging yoga (meaning poses and significant stretching) into your weekly, monthly and yearly training plan without question for many of us will make a direct impact to our peak race performance and overall fitness.

I started as the last one to be interested in yoga. I stretched some, but by training smarter and adding in yoga and Pilates my performance without question has improved significantly.

My goal is purchasing this book was to expand on the great sage roundtree podcasts and have some simple, quick poses that I could do at home when I didn't have time to hit the gym/studio for yoga class or immediately pre/post workouts.

This is a solid book with great illustrations, a must buy.

I am a pretty advanced yogi and attend practice 5 times per week, two being Power Vinyasa heated to 85 degrees. I didn't think a yoga book would be too useful, but I was wrong!

I checked out 4 different books, including this, from the library and upon examining and reading each one, purchased this one.

What is nice about this book is that it shows the poses as one should properly perform them; but it also has some pictures showing what you should NOT look like. One in particular is on triangle where the 'wrong way' picture shows the curvature of the side (the C shape) and the other picture shows the proper straight line. These are the little adjustments that even advanced yogis such as myself sometimes gloss over. So maybe "look I have my hand on the ground in triangle!" is not as good as "my hand is a foot from the ground..." as long as your side lines up straightly. It also helps when you are practicing a few postures at home. If you have someone to practice with then it is even better - that person can check your posture and tell you if you are rounding, or curving, or doing something wrong.

So my two cents is this: this book is great for beginners because it covers a wide range of yoga poses from child's pose to hero pose and half moon and other more difficult poses. Also this book is great for even advanced yogis trying to shape up a couple of the more difficult poses or just practice at home.

The content is great and packed with more useful information than other books; plus the photos are fully colored and very clear. The DVD in back is a joke, but don't buy it for that! I actually think that yoga should be practiced with a licensed instructor so that you don't injure yourself!

This book is an amazing resource for anyone interested in yoga. I'm an instructor for both adults and kids and purchased this book to learn more about the needs of student athletes in regards to practicing yoga. I was overly impressed with the quantity and quality of information. It is the most comprehensive yoga book on my shelf (and it's a big shelf!) The languaging is perfect for anyone new to yoga to understand the concepts without needing a ton of body awareness, athletes or not. The sanskrit names are included in parentheses for those who are interested as well. In addition to the multitude of yoga poses it covers breathwork, training cycles, and meditation.
Over all this book is a must-have!