Yoga For Sports: A Journey Towards Health And Healing Kindle Edition

This is a book by the renowned Pune yoga guru who passed away in 2014, B.K.S. Iyengar, on how athletes can use yoga to build general health, prevent injuries, and combat postural misalignments that result from sporting activities that are asymmetric or unbalanced. A book on yoga for athletes might address any number of topics from core strength and stability to meditations to prevent choking under pressure, but this one focuses heavily on asana (postural yoga) – particularly – for improving flexibility and postural alignment. (It does introduce pranayama, but only the practices of viloma and ujjayi breathing.)Iyengar is most well-known for an approach to hatha yoga that uses props to allow anyone to achieve a properly aligned posture, regardless of whether one has a yogi-level contortionist body (and most athletes don’t because of the countervailing requirements for strength necessitated by their sports.) This prop-centric approach is seen heavily in the book’s second part, which describes and demonstrates a range of basic asana (postures) along with relevant variations. I mention this because through the first part of this book, I felt it was much more of a book for yoga practitioners who might also happen to be amateur athletes than it was for athletes looking to introduce yoga into their training regimen. By that I mean that the photos of recommended poses in Part I are unlikely to be useful for athletes who have tight muscles from intense physical activity. However, if you’re feeling that way about the book, too, you may find that the second part’s variations are more reasonable for a person who doesn’t have an extensive background in yoga or stretching.The book is divided into four parts. The first part consists of ten chapters that cover the topic of yoga for sports with broad brush strokes, covering topics like skeleto-muscular anatomy, common sports complaints, yoga for warmup, yoga for prevention and for recovery. It also deals with specialty topics like maintaining a healthy body in retirement as well as issues for women athletes (women may find this section to be a bit menstruation-heavy, as if that were the predominant challenge facing women engaged in athletics. On the plus-side there’s none of the bizarre and / or offensive notions about menstruation that have been known to presented in the context of yoga.) As I mentioned, during this first part I thought the book would not be so useful for the problems of athletes, and some may find that still seems to be the case after reviewing part two. The gulf between what is recommended and what the average practitioner can physically do is a perennial difficulty with books on yoga.The second part discusses asana in detail, providing pictures, text descriptions, and notes on benefits and – where applicable -- other considerations (e.g. contra-indications.) Here one can find prop-based variations to allow individuals who may be stiff or in recovery to perform the asana. Mostly, there is just one photo of each posture in mid-pose. However, where special guidance is needed getting into or out of the pose (which can be the case with prop yoga) there are sometimes multiple photos demonstrating a progression of movement. My major gripe with this book is that it was littered with typos (at least the e-book edition that I read on Kindle.) The typos were most notable in this section. I can’t remember if I saw any in parts I, III, or IV, but the errors stuck out in part two because there is a lot of repetitive directions for the poses that seem to have been copy / pasted such that the same missing letter typos appear many places throughout the section.The third part is much briefer than the first two, and it simply describes props that an athlete might consider acquiring. It starts with basic kit and moves to bigger items, though it doesn’t discuss all the huge equipment that one would find in a fully equipped studio teaching Iyengar-style yoga. It provides text discussions of critical considerations as well as photos.The last part is just a couple pages of testimonials of famous athletes saying how much yoga (in general) and Iyengar’s teaching (specifically) helped them to improve their games. These brief testimonials are presented in text-boxes and look somewhat as one might see on the opening pages of a novel.As would be expected of a book on sports published in India, most of the examples are cricket-centric. (Again, not surprising as cricket is the 800-pound gorilla of sports on the subcontinent.)I found this book to be quite informative. If you can bear the typos (and they may have been exorcized from the print editions,) you’ll likely find the book to be informative and well-presented.

I really like the sequencing and the explanations for why you would do the sequences in that way. He covers in detail the various types of injuries and provides the asanas for how to overcome them. He also gives asanas for things like overheating, warming up, traveling, anxiety before a match, and the different things an athlete might encounter in their career. He also talks in detail about how an athlete can transition from being a professional to retiring and how to deal with that. There is also a section of the book in which he covers in detail the different postures and how to modify them using various props. Overall, this is a great book for anyone looking to get a deeper understanding of how yoga can be used in sport and also in life in general.

In true Iyengar style this book delivers great inspiration and information on how yoga affects us in every part of our being. I personally love how professional athletes get introduced to the benefits of yoga , how it is needed to keep your body in balance so to not have to give up your carrier because of irresponsible(I actually call it that when you stop paying attention to what your system signals) behaviour.This book is filled with suggestions how you can adapt asana into your sports practice and I strongly recomend it.//Jejja

Having already bought/perused the e-book form I was anxious to include a "hard copy" in my library (purchased paperback, however, as I like to mark up my books!). It did not disappoint. I will be using this reference book from now on in my practice and for students.

BKS Iyengar left us with such a wealth of knowledge. We are grateful to have his teachings. This one I use to teach dynamic Iyengar classes at the gym and with more athletic students.

There are other books that are better resources, ie. Holistic Path

The book is filthy, dusty and has stained spots. The description does not define if this book was new or used but it’s obviously used. Inside pages are fine but all outside is covered in grime.

This is the perfect book for all physical aches & pains. The suggested exercises/poses really work!!! Definitely worth having in your research library!

Yoga is a natural compliment to the physical and mental challenges of sport. This book is straight to the point from one of the most influential yoga teachers.

This book is extremely helpful for yoga teacher who would like to prepare classes for athletes, however helps in other area of life too, how to practice to be more focused, how to practice at climate change, when injured, specific muscle limitations. Love every bit of it.

Great book that gives yoga asana details by problem area and body part. Presentation is also good. Only niggle is that the pictures are not big enough, and the exact posture becomes difficult to follow in some cases.

A must buy especially for people playing sports, even otherwise anyone can use this book. B.K Iyengar books are always exceptional.

Nice book explains different muscles, composition of the body, etc. also process step by step guide on how to perform asanas and I believe is helpful for people. I just read it and going to soon start with performing the asanas