78 of 81 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it! But NOT good for beginners...., March 29, 2005
This review is from: Moving Toward Balance: 8 Weeks of Yoga with Rodney Yee (Paperback)
Things I like about the book:
1. It's incredibly beautiful! I love LOOKING at it, and it's inspiring.
2. He talks about emotional aspects as well as physcial ones, and gives you good information on anatomy, aspects of the asanas, and building a practice for yourself.
3. The structure of the course in general is excellent, and there is a great deal of knowledge put into each sequence. He has good reason for placing asanas in the order he has.
4. The photos make it easy to follow the daily sequence
5. He offers alternative postures for every asana.
WHAT I DON'T LIKE ABOUT THE BOOK:
1. It seems like a book a beginner could use, but as a long time practitioner/instructor, I find it falls short with simple things like positioning of the feet or the hips in certain asanas.(eg. Trikonasana requires that hips are facing the side and the rear foot should be at a 45degree angle, etc)
2. The meditations don't give much for a beginner to go on, and seem flimsy at times for those who do have experience. It could quickly frustrate a beginner or turn them off from an essential aspect of a full yoga practice.
3. There are no warnings about postures that are potentially dangerous for beginners, or information about postures like back bends, that for many people may take years to work up to.
4. Frequently the alternative postures are too difficult for students with limited abilities and the presentation implies that the alternative is the 'easy' pose.
If you are a beginner, or are not confident with your own knowledge of asana/the physical body...please, please, please find a qualified person to take you through DAY 1 at least. This will give you solid knowledge about which postures are feasible for you at the present moment and which ones you should alter.
Don't be afraid to stray slightly from the book....you don't need to do every posture he recommends...some of them will only create injuries if you force your body into something it's not ready for.
Having said all this, I will say I am living in the Middle East in the middle of the desert and I am using this book as a base text to teach a number of expats in my community. We are all enjoying the program...but I've made several key changes:
i)I've added basic breathing practices(pranayama); ii)I've removed postures that are too difficult and substituted them with something more appropriate for beginners; iii)I've changed the meditations and frequently change the suggested postures for the meditations.
When it's all said and done, personally I really like the book, and recommend it to anyone who has experience with asana classes, and is at the point of wanting to establish a home practice. This book helps you lay a great foundation of 'asana knowledge' that will ultimately allow you to create a personalized practice suited to your needs. However, I have more than 10 years of knowledge and I found that I frequently supplemented with my own knowledge to make my experience more fruitful and pleasurable.
If you buy this book, make sure you also get a book on pranayama/breathing....Like Donna Farhi's book for example and one on meditation...like Lawrence LeShan.
If you want to create a full practice, it's important to incorporate all aspects of yoga, not just asana.
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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really helps make yoga your own, June 6, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Moving Toward Balance: 8 Weeks of Yoga with Rodney Yee (Paperback)
After having done yoga on and off for the past three years, this book really helped me incorporate yoga into my every day life. I have taken yoga classes and practiced with numerous videos, but it never really felt like "my own" until I started using this book eight weeks ago. Not only does doing yoga every day revolutionize how your body feels, but the workouts are extremely well-developed and enjoyable. Yee's pictures and explanations are incredibly helpful and encouraged me to do things (ie: backbends, handstands, and headstands) that I never thought I'd try by myself at home; I always felt safe and prepared for the poses. I cannot say enough good things about this book. I actually look forward to doing yoga every morning. I feel like Yee has prepared me to practice at home much beyond the eight weeks he promises. I will never do another video; I enjoy too much looking out my window, listening to my music, while doing yoga at my own pace. Thank you Rodney Yee!
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
really creating your own yoga practice, September 15, 2004
This review is from: Moving Toward Balance: 8 Weeks of Yoga with Rodney Yee (Paperback)
I really loved this book. I've just finished the 8 week program - it took me more like 10 to get through with my schedule, but I loved the organization of it.. each week has a different focus, and every day within that week a different angle on the week's focus... there are different versions of each pose so that you can really see how the placement of the body matters. the pictures were quite good and in the end, you have yourself weeks of practices that you can comfortably reconfigure over and over. this is a slow moving practice; generally you hold each pose for 30 seconds to several minutes. it covers a really wide range from standing poses to inversions. I really feel that I can just turn on some music, lower the lights, and comfortably make my own home practice on the fly of any length.
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