Yoga Cards: Create Your Own Yoga Program

A wonderful tool to help you practice yoga at home. Pre-defined classes and well-written instructions with illustrations make this set exceptionally easy to use. I've tried audio and video tapes, but this was the ONLY thing that helped me practice yoga at home without an instructor.

As a novice yoga instructor, I was searching for a concise, well-illustrated program that would be versatile, easy to use and designed for each class. I found it in "Yoga Cards: Create Your Own Yoga Program/Cards" by Tim Clark and Loretta McArthur with stylized figures created by Matt Mawson. The large, 64 illustrated cards show key positions of each of the 57 poses and the large type makes for easy-reading and organization. The thoughtful extra hints (where to inhale and exhale in the pose, the Sanskrit name of the pose underneath the English and the symbols categorizing each pose make this an enjoyable system to create either an individual lesson or a teaching presentation. The back of these laminated cards note the duration and repetition of each pose, physical benefits, injury guidelines and variations of the pose to help attain the posture if there is weakness or injury - great for putting together group lesson plans with different individuals' strengths and flexibilities to consider! Along with a pocket-sized information booklet, there are also cards providing 8 programs for beginning to intermediate yoga, neck, shoulder and back release, flexibility, strength, stress release and a busy day rejuvenation. These planning cards select various poses for a well-balanced emphasis in each of the five body movements, from forward bends to lateral stretches, and the most enjoyable part of yoga - relaxation. Small enough to carry in your yoga bag and informative enough to provide years of yoga instruction, these cards are, as Prudence Kestner, president of the International Yoga Teachers Association exclaims, "a great boon to beginner students and teachers."