Moving Toward Balance: 8 Weeks of Yoga with Rodney Yee (Paperback)

~ (Author) "BEFORE YOU START OUR EIGHT-WEEK PROGRAM OF HOME YOGA PRACTICE, THERE ARE A FEW SIMPLE things you'll need to do: Find the time and place..." (more)
Key Phrases: restorative backbend, slight backbend, passive backbend, Mountain Pose, Cobbler's Pose, Downward-Facing Dog (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Yee’s trademark long dark ponytail, rock-hard body and constantly serene facial expression have comforted many stressed-out would-be yogi who watch his dozens of bestselling yoga videos. In this new work, he offers yoga practitioners a two-month regimen that they can adopt as a home practice. Yee promises that his regimen will bring readers "physical and emotional well-being," as well as "various insights... about the nature of yoga." The book begins by covering practical concerns—how to prepare a home yoga practice, decide on practice times, set up a location and props—before proceeding to lay out the eight-week program, which tackles a different aspect of yoga each week (e.g., "Moving Toward Balance" and "Being Present"). Anatomy lessons, advice on breathing, copious photographs and detailed directions enhance this friendly guide, making it one of the most comprehensive and accessible yoga books on the market.
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Review

"While yoga classes can be illuminating, it is in one's home practice where the depth and subtlety of yoga is cultivated. Moving toward Balance makes an important contribution by presenting a systematic approach to developing and maintaining a yoga practice. It will speak to everyone from beginners to seasoned practitioners." -Patricia Walden, instructor of best-selling yoga videos and contributor to The Woman's Book of Yoga and Health

"A tremendous amount of insight and practical information is housed within these pages, presented in an orderly, thorough, friendly, and truly helpful manner. Rod and Nina have obviously put a lot of work into this book and have done an excellent job. Plus, it has an important, timely, and often overlooked theme at its core: how to practice on your own and learn from it. What better gift could there be from one of the world's premier yoga teachers than to learn how to do what he is doing?" --Erich Schiffmann, author of Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness

"Rodney Yee is the key that opens the door, allowing you to tap into your mind, body, and soul. He is the charge of electricity that channels the flow of energy, allowing endless possibilities to emerge. I am honored to call him my teacher and friend." --Donna Karan

"In Moving toward Balance, Rodney Yee's instructions are clear and full of the practical details that take you step-by-step to an incredible state of being. This book makes me want to unroll my mat and practice right now!" --Richard Freeman, author of The Yoga Matrix and director of the Yoga Workshop in Boulder, Colorado

While yoga classes can be illuminating, it is in one''s home practice where the depth and subtlety of yoga is cultivated. Moving toward Balance makes an important contribution by presenting a systematic approach to developing and maintaining a yoga practice. It will speak to everyone from beginners to seasoned practitioners. (Patricia Walden, instructor of best-selling yoga videos )

A tremendous amount of insight and practical information is housed within these pages, presented in an orderly, thorough, friendly, and truly helpful manner. Rod and Nina have obviously put a lot of work into this book and have done an excellent job. Plus, it has an important, timely, and often overlooked theme at its core: how to practice on your own and learn from it. What better gift could there be from one of the world''s premier yoga teachers than to learn how to do what he is doing? (Erich Schiffmann, Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness )

Rodney Yee is the key that opens the door, allowing you to tap into your mind, body, and soul. He is the charge of electricity that channels the flow of energy, allowing endless possibilities to emerge. I am honored to call him my teacher and friend. (Donna Karan )

In Moving toward Balance, Rodney Yee''s instructions are clear and full of the practical details that take you step-by-step to an incredible state of being. This book makes me want to unroll my mat and practice right now! (Richard Freeman, author of The Yoga Matrix and director of the Yoga Workshop )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books (April 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875969216
• ISBN-13: 978-0875969213
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,306 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Loved it! But NOT good for beginners...., March 29, 2005

By	Diane Bird "Omani Gopi" (OMAN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really helps make yoga your own, June 6, 2004

By A Customer

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!

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars really creating your own yoga practice, September 15, 2004

By	Renee (Sykesville, MD USA) - See all my reviews

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.