Total Astanga: The Step-By-Step Guide to Power Yoga at Home for Everybody

After 10 years of doing ashtanga vinyasa yoga in a class, I moved, and I have been looking for years for a book that could remind me of everything I knew, and I've never been satisfied with any of the ones I found, so I'm really happy to have found this one. I took my first ashtanga vinyasa yoga class in 1996, and have practiced on and off for the past 12 years: sometimes 3 times a week, and sometimes just 20 times a year. When I started, I had a fantastic teacher, a compact guy from Brooklyn who if you did the math must have been 60 years old, but the only hint of his age was his nearly bald head. He first learned yoga in the hippie era, and would regale us with images of 80 year old yogis in India walking up the stairs on their hands, and taught in a very improvisational style, as if he had an entire encyclopedia of yoga in his head and would turn at random to a page for us to try that day, so over the years I saw a great deal of different yoga. He himself was such a yogi that when he fell on the ice and broke his hip, he was walking with canes the next day and teaching yoga 3 days later, though only he apologized he was "only" doing the sitting poses. Three months after breaking his hip, he was doing even the standing poses, though he excused that he couldn't do one side because he'd broken his hip. I feel fairly safe in saying that, in spite of his Brooklyn accent, he was the real deal. Unfortunately I moved away, and needed to find a way to remind myself of everything I had learned. Tara Fraser's book refreshed my memory, and was a perfect guide to (almost?) everything I had once done. She does describe each pose very well, and it's an attractive book, and much more detailed and attractive than the competitors that I saw at the bookstore. I have been looking for a book that could remind me of yoga for a long time, and never been satisfied with any of the ones I found, so I'm really happy to have found this one. I also like that the models are fully clothed. Some books have models in leotards, which makes me start thinking about how I wish I was 10 pounds lighter which is not conducive to yoga. I have few beefs with this book. I wish it were more compact, like her Total Yoga book. The other book also has some details that this one doesn't such as the right mentality to be in for better yoga practice: reminding us that it is not an athletic contest, and that one should not have pride or despair over something being easy or hard. The overview of the series could be more thorough. Also the book doesn't say whether the poses should go all on one side then the other, or alternating sides (R L R L) or if it doesn't matter.

Clearly you can not learn Ashtanga from a book, as Tara and John Scott point out in their books on how to practice Ashtanga. However, you can get great ideas, tips, and reminders about the practice from text and photos. Tara states that Ashtanga was originally designed for young men. That's an accurate statement. Most women and older people that don't have significant upper body strength can and do practice Ashtanga, but they may need to make modifications to make the practice accessible and useful while avoiding injury. Tara did a nice job of offering those modifications along with providing excellent visuals of the poses. Just because Tara hasn't studied in Mysore doesn't mean she isn't qualified to write this book. She obviously can do the poses and knows a great deal about yoga in general, so there is no question she is qualified to author this book. I recommend this book to anyone that is just starting to take Ashtanga classes at a yoga studio. It will help you remember the poses and begin to perfect them. Women should feel inspired by Tara's ability to do this practice. This is important. Being a man that teaches Ashtanga to women, I see the importance for women to see that other women can do this practice. John Scott's book does an outstanding job of showing the flow of the Ashtanga sequence. I recommend John's Ashtanga book for people that are a bit more advanced in the practice. Ashtanga is a great yoga practice. Modify it so it is doable for you; but keep doing it!