RRC Archives

Yea, videos. Yoga For Dummies with Sara Ivanhoe. They're cool because they have Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.

I've heard good things about the book Power Yoga.

I'm not sure what you're trying to get, but how many difficult complex endeavours have you started that you understood after a few times? To most who study, Yoga is a life long study, where you will never arrive anywhere and just get it. The practice and the discoveries you make along the way are what are important. If you are a tight adult like most of us that hasn't been doing much "stretching" you have a long way to go before you will be able to do most of the asanas properly. Don't let this frustrate you, accept your limitations and start eroding them. Climbing is great excercise but it requires a lot from our bodies and it is fairly repetitive in nature with respect to which muscles we use and how we use them, can you say shoulder/elbow tendonitis,back pain, neck pain, etc... Climbing really stiffens the bloody hell out of your shoulders elbows and wrists, you won't believe how true this is until you try your first back bend (Urdhva Dhanurasana). Yoga addresses these imbalances quite well and with some patience it will teach you how to properly stretch every joint in your body from head to toe, to counteract the stresses imposed by not only by climbing but our fast paced high stress lifestyles. If you get into it you will find that the postures are only a small aspect of Yoga, really the tip of the iceberg. The power of breath control (pranayama) and meditation can not be overstated. Find a good teacher (beware there are a lot of people out there claiming to be yoga instructors who really don't know shit, they should have at the minimum 4-5 years of solid practice), there is no better way to learn, but if you can't do this, videos or books.

One of the best books, which is a little overwhelming when you first open it, is Light on Yoga by B. K. S. Iyengar.

hope that helps

glad to hear your condition is improving SCIN!

To Lateralus' point, think about climbing. Compaired to where you are today, you probably sucked (assuming you don't still suck) and if you keep climbing for years to come, you will hopefully be much better than you are now. Yoga is the same way. I have never founda good yoga teacher (mostly because im really cheap) but I still find it very relaxing. When i return to school i am going to take some time off climbing to let my body heal and start doing yoga to stretch out and help me improve my lead head.

Quite true. But with climbing I understood what it was even if I didn't understand how to do it. I knew you climbed up and climbed things with higher numbers as you got stronger. That's the thing with yoga, I don't even understand where it goes, let alone how to get there.

I'd highly suggest a class to start, especially if you aren't "getting it." I've been working through routines based on the Sivananda Yoga Companion off and on since college. The variations change for me based on how much I've been slacking and what areas I'm working/favoring. Learned lots from this book and others but the key for me was pacing myself and understanding the breathing. A teacher will be invaluable in this, even if it's just the structured class that starts and doesn't stop. To really work through a good session, you have to control your breathing from beginning to end and know when and how long to rest. I do not answer the phone, get up, and try not to let my mind wander until my session is over. For me the rhythm and pace is just as important as the postures. It's different for each person, each day, and each posture, and a teacher will help you learn these things.

That said, once I started getting it the teacher wasn't so important. Good luck!

long url......
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books

Charlie, you beat me to the punch. I was also about to recommend the Sivananda Yoga Companion. This book contains good advice on developing your own unique series of hatha yoga postures.

Yeah that's the best book I've found. The session guides are great and there's lots of other info on meditation and diet that's handy if you wanna take it that far. Good focus on the breathing and there are variations for almost every posture once you get ready for them.

I used to have pretty bad back pain from a younger injury and was even pissier then than now. My back pain is a distant memory and although it probably isn't apparent I've gotten much calmer over the last decade.

Yoga works, if you do it right.