Ashtanga Yoga: The Practice Manual

I bought this book to help me develop my home practice after about a year of taking instructor led classes. Therefore I was familiar with many of the Ashtanga poses. The book includes detailed description of each pose including alternatives for less advanced students, breath instructions for each movement, and drishti. The instructions include all poses for primary series, secondary series, and finishing poses. Then what I found extremely valuable is a couple of pages that list the sequences pictorially, i.e. Primary series flow, Secondary series flow. Plus David Swenson constructed a few shorter series for either less advanced students or for a shorter practice. Swenson also talks about the other elements of physical yoga (bandas, breath control, vinyasa), as well as the notion that the physical practice comes within a greater context. I don't know if it would be difficult to learn these poses from scratch without any formal instruction. But if you are really looking for a "cheat sheet" or manual to refine your Astanga practice, this is a wonderful book.

Worth the cover price alone for the photo of Doug Swenson practicing along the mountain ridges of Lake Tahoe on page 242. Were his life insurance provider aware of this shot, I guarantee his policy would be dropped immediately.The other pages prove to be possibly the only book you really need on the physical exercise of yoga. While David Life and Sharon Gannen's excellent Jivamukti Yoga emphasizes the origins and much of the spiritual aspects for today's practitioner in clear, modern language (The Yoga Sutras are, after all, pretty dense stuff), Swenson's focus is the asanas, and the primary and intermediate series of the ashtanga yoga system.The asanas are presented in clear, concise detail, along with photos. The book does not intimidate by bogging the reader down in overly long details in either words or pictures. When explaining the translation of an asana's sanskrit name, instead of getting "This very interesting posture has an equally interesting history to its' names origin. In 436 BC, the first king of scotland travelled to india, etc. etc.", Swenson simply writes "Pada=Foot" (But if it is gorgeous, unbelievably crisp photos of asana practice you're looking for, the book to get is Linda Sparrowe's Yoga).One does not need to practice ashtanga for this book to prove useful and inspirational: virtually every asana is displayed, so even if you prefer a vinyasa practice, you can always pick up some new - or remind yourself of many - poses within. (The wisely included index also proves mega-useful in this regard)The book is also practical: not only does it display abrdged versions of the the series for the time-tied, but also because it has a unique spiral hardcover binding and displays one asana per page, making it easy to keep the book beside your mat for reference without it flipping shut every two seconds as you practice. (Anyone who's ever had that experience knows it feels something akin to what Doug Swenson on the aforementioned page 242 is doing, with potentially far more fatal results)(Try transcending THAT!).

I have looked at a lot of books on yoga, and also own both of Beryl Bender Birch's books, but David Swenson's book and tapes are the absolute best for someone who wants to get started with Ashtanga. Highly recommend the "Short Forms" video for those not already familiar with Ashtanga; it is extremely user-friendly and unpretentious. This is supposed to be about the book, though, which is excellent; it includes photos of most modifications that are discussed, is easy to follow, and is the only book that includes ALL of the postures in primary and secondary series. The only criticism I have is that the Birch books are better about letting the reader know which postures should be avoided without help of a teacher. Hopefully, as Ashtanga grows in popularity, there will be more qualified teachers throughout the country. Now, though, many of us do not have the option of regular instruction, and this book is the next best thing.

This book is an extremely user-friendly book for beginner and advanced persons doing Ashtanga yoga. I am a beginner and found this an invaluable tool in my personal practice. It has choices of practices; full practice of Primary and Second Series or the short forms of 15min., 30 min. and 45 min. practices, for those of us on the go. Unlike Power Yoga by Beryl Berder, I found this book clear and precise, with wonderful anecdotes from the author. Other books on Ashtanga yoga are often confusing, not clear about asanas and many other aspects of the practice. I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in yoga and particularly Ashtanga yoga.

While David could use a good copy editor (there are a lot of typos and grammatical errors) this is the most user-friendly yoga book I've seen. The layout and copy content make it a very useful practice companion. I think it is best suited for someone with previous yoga experience. I would still recommend Beryl Bender Birch's Power Yoga to a beginner. She discusses various pose modifications at length; a beginner might find that more useful than the quick easy layout and helpful reminders found in David's book. Since David's book is great for a continuing practice, the two books really go well together.