Emma Silverman - The Joy of Yoga Fifty Sequences for Your Home and Studio Practice

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation. www.skyhorsepublishing.com 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Silverman, Emma. The joy of yoga: fifty sequences for your home and studio practice/Emma Silverman; illustrated by Kerri Frail. pages cm ISBN 978-1-62873-776-9 (hardback) Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62914-145-9 1. Hatha yoga. Exercise. 3. Health. I. Title. Title.

RA781.7.S546 2014 613.7046dc23 2014005912 Cover design by Victoria Bellavia Cover illustrations by Kerri Frail Printed in China Emma: I dedicate this book to my father, my mother, Danny, Rachel, and Jaketo my family. Kerri: To my family, most importantly my sister, for their patience and encouragement throughout this project. Table of Contents Introduction I taught myself yoga out of a book. I was seven years old, a child deprived of television, when I started to poke around my parents bookcase for entertainment. The book I came across was T HE C OMPLETE I LLUSTRATED B OOK OF Y OGA by Swami Vishnudeananda. It had a pale orange cover with tattered edges and a photo of a serene Indian man meditating, his legs perfectly crossed.

Immediately, I was drawn to the pictures inside of the same man rolling his eyes back into his head and sticking his tongue out of his mouth. What I kept coming back to, though, were the many pictures of the different poses or, in Sanskrit, ASANAS shown throughout the pages. The twelve pictures that comprised the Sun Salutations A series changed my life. That same book, stolen from my parents shelf (sorry, Mom), is on my own bookshelf today. When I look back at it, I cant imagine how I spent so much time with the book. With the exception of the Sun Salutations images, the book was mostly text and showed incredibly advanced postures.

I have some memories of opening to pages at random and trying to do the pose. Its lucky I was young; without any warm-ups, some of those poses I tried at random would probably throw my back out today. T HE J OY OF Y OGA : F IFTY S EQUENCES FOR Y OUR H OME AND S TUDIO P RACTICE illustrates fifty sequences, warm-ups included, for the newest yogi (of any age) to the yoga teacher. By linking together images of postures in a sequence, an entire yoga class is created. The incredible thing about the practice of yoga is that it can soothe so many physical, mental, and emotional ailments. In these sequences, I tried to address the concerns I regularly hear from my yoga students; there is a sequence for achy hips and also for heartbreak.

If you look at the table of contents, I bet youll find the sequence you need today, in this very moment. Using this book is simple. Find the sequence that sounds just right, open up to the page, and follow the images. All of the poses have their names listed in Sanskrit and in English. The sequences are complete with warm-ups, complete yoga practices, and cool downs. If youre a little pressed for time (who isnt?), then move through the postures using one breath per pose, unless otherwise noted.

If youre looking for a longer practice, you can hold poses for a little longer or combine multiple sequences. Or just take a really long S AVANASA (Relaxation Pose) at the end. This is a book for the seven-year-old poking around in her (or his) parents living room and who has never heard of yoga before. This is a book for your grandmother, who has been doing yoga with Jane Fonda since the 1970s, but is looking for something to help her joints. This is a book for the Power Yogi, who throws push-ups in between each Sun Salutations. This is a book for you: wherever you are in life or yoga.

Welcome to your practice. Sun Salutations While the origins of the Sun Salutations ( S URYA N AMASKAR ) might be debatable, the ubiquity of this series in the modern-day yoga studio is definite. The sequence of poses that are shown here are practiced in a style of yoga called A SHTANGA . That said, numerous variations exist and have similar health and wellness benefits. There are a couple of reasons that these two sequences are set aside from the rest. Primarily, I will sometimes refer to the Sun Salutations as a step in a larger sequence without writing out each individual pose within the Sun Salutations.

That way, you can flip back to this page as a reference while youre still learning the Sun Salutations and later you can move through the flow without needing to check. In addition, this fun and vibrant sequence is usually practiced as a warm-up to other yoga poses, but can be a great stand-alone sequence if you only have a few minutes to spare and could use a yoga wake-up call. Feel free to add in a Sun Salutations (or twelve) to any sequence in this book. Youll feel more energized, fired up, and radiantjust like the sun! Sun Salutations A Sun Salutations B Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Yoga for Travelers Airplane Yoga People ask me all the time about how I became a yoga teacher. The short answer is that I flew in airplanes way too often. I worked as a consultant and had to travel at least four times a month.

Pretty quickly, my body assumed the form of an airplane seat. The upside is that I developed a routine to help make flights a little easier on my body. You might look a little weird, but maybe youll be the only one walking off the plane not aching and hunched over. Then whos the weird-looking one? 1. Breathe deeply into your belly, ribs, and collarbones. Exhale the breath away from your collarbones, rib cage, and belly (Three-Part Yogic Breath).

Continue to deeply breathe in and out. 2. In meditative seat: roll the neck, shoulders, wrists, and ankles 3. Interlocking fingers, raise arms above head. Gentle side-to-side motion, side stretch 4. Taking hands to seat head in front of you, let head and neck drop, stretching upper back 5.

Move slightly forward in the seat, bringing hands behind you, gentle chest opener 6. Cat/Cow spine in seated position 7. Gentle seated twist using your armrests. Twist both ways. 8. Waiting for the restrooms, N ATARAJASANA (Dancers Pose).

Repeat other side. 9. T ADASANA (Mountain Pose) 10. P AVANA M UKTASANA (Standing Wind Relieving Pose). Repeat other side. 11.

T ADASANA 12. Seated T ADASANA 13. Repeat all steps whenever the body starts to feel achy Seated Meditation