Birch - Power Yoga

the total strength
and flexibility workout

B ERYL B ENDER B IRCH

P HOTOGRAPHS BY N ICHOLAS D E S CIOSE

A F IRESIDE B OOK
P UBLISHED BY S IMON & S CHUSTER

NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO SYDNEY

F IRESIDE
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Copyright 1995 by Beryl Bender Birch

All rights reserved,
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.

F IRESIDE and colophon are registered trademarks
of Simon & Schuster Inc.

Designed by Jennifer Dossin

Manufactured in the United States of America

17 19 20 18 16

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Birch, Beryl Bender.

Power yoga: the total strength and flexibility workout /
by Beryl Bender Birch; photographs by Nicholas DeSciose.

p. cm.

A Fireside book.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Astanga yoga.

I. Title

RC781.68.B57 1995

613.7046dc20 93-48099

CIP

ISBN 0-02-058351-6
eISBN: 978-1-451-60221-0

T HE H ARD & THE S OFT

B REATHING FOR L IFE

T HE G ENERATION OF H EAT : T HE S UN S ALUTATIONS

P OWER & B ALANCE : T HE P RIMARY S ERIES S TANDING P OSTURES

S TRENGTH & S URRENDER : T HE P RIMARY S ERIES S EATED P OSTURES I

F INE -T UNING : T HE P RIMARY S ERIES S EATED P OSTURES II

P ROTECTION IN THE U NPROTECTED S TATE : T HE C LOSING S EQUENCE

L EAP INTO N OTHINGNESS : I NTRODUCTION TO THE S ECOND S ERIES

Y OGA T HERAPY

Ever since 1981, when I first began work on this book, I thought about whom I would thank if and when it was ever finished. Although at that time I didnt have a clue as to what the finished form would be like (or even have the tools to complete the task), I did know that I would probably feel a lot of gratitude to those faces and forces, both seen and unseen, that had helped me to get it done.

Now, as the project reaches completion, the gratitude I feel most strongly is for the eight-limbed path of astanga yoga and the practice itself. Without the practice, I would never have developed the focus and concentration needed to complete this projectespecially in the midst of New York City, while running a full-time yoga business. Consequently, I find myself feeling an enormous sense of appreciation running backward through time to all the yogis who took the time and effort to practice astanga yoga, especially this particular form, and keep it alive over the millennia.

First, I would obviously like to thank my teacher, Norman Allen, and his teacher, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, for their dedication to astanga yoga. I would like to thank Norman for beginning the process of teaching me to be regular and consistent and earnest in all aspects of my yoga practice. He gave me my first copy of the Yoga Sutras and the Hatha Yoga Pradapika. He will always be the person I remember as my teacher.

It is interesting, as you write an acknowledgment, how you begin to see what the Buddhists refer to as the interconnectedness of all things. If I hadnt moved to California in 1971, I might never have taken that first yoga class at UCLA. And if I hadnt gotten into yoga, I probably wouldnt have gone to India. And if I hadnt gone to India, I wouldnt have had the opportunity to travel with the Jain nuns, study meditation, practice silence, learn about nonviolence, and continue my spiritual searchwhich eventually led me to New York City and astanga yoga.

If any little thing had been different, I wouldnt be sitting here typing out these acknowledgments today. Who then to thank? Everyone and every experience of life leading up to now. And not only every one of my experiences but every one of everyone elses experiences that put them where they were when they connected with me and my path.

More than anything, I would like to thank my soul mate and husband, Thom Birch, for his faith, devotion, love, and support. Through his example as a world-class long-distance runner, he taught me the meaning of discipline and dedication, and the importance of staying in one place and digging your well, long after everyone else has bounced around from spot to spot and given up on ever finding water. Without his encouragement and coaching, I might never have found the method, the mental strength, or the endurance to successfully complete this work.

I would like to thank Fred Lebow for his courage in supporting the Power Yoga program in the early eighties, when very few other people did, and offering me the opportunity to teach it to all fitness-minded people through the prestigious New York Road Runners Club. I would also like to thank Elizabeth Phillips for her early faith and support, without which I could never have approached Fred Lebow.

I would like to thank Syracuse University and all my teachers there in the early sixties, for awakening me to Western physics and Eastern mysticism, both of which have captivated me ever since. I will always be grateful for their general efforts to educate me, despite my dyslexia and the death of my mother, neither of which were much acknowledged in those days.

I would like to especially thank Edward Ruscha, who first encouraged me as a writer and photographer back in 1971 and taught me to trust my own creativity and imagination. I am grateful to Virginia Miller Cornell, who took my yoga classes in Winter Park, Colorado, in the midseventies and told me I should forget everything else and concentrate on teaching yoga because thats what I did the best.

I am also most grateful to Vine Deloria, who in 1975 encouraged me to believe that I could actually be a writer and tackle a major projectand then taught me that the way to get through any ambitious undertaking is to just chip away at it one day at a time. I thank all my formal and informal teachers over the years, those who have become friends and those whom Ive only known through their workshops or writings. For helping me to find, and begin travel on my path in the early seventies, special thanks to Paramahansa Yoganandas Autobiography of a Yogi, John Lillys Center of the Cyclone, Alice Baileys The Reappearance of the Christ, Carlos Castenedas A Separate Reality, Baba Ram Dasss Be Here Now, Robert DeRopps Drugs and the Mind and The Master Game, Fritjof Capras The Tao of Physics Krishnamurtis The Flight of the Eagle and The Impossible Question, Joseph Campbells The Mythic Image, Al Huangs Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain, Suzuki Roshis Zen Mind, Beginners Mind, Chogyam Trungpas Meditation in Action, and Allan Wattss Psychotherapy East and West. I am greatly indebted to many other teachers as well who have continued to inspire me through their writings or our meetings over the years. Especially thanks to David Rappaport for patient support and encouragement.

I would like to thank Dr. Dean Ornish for his total dedication to his belief in the prevention and reversibility of heart disease through lifestyle changes, which include diet, meditation, and yoga practice. As a result of his persistent effort to follow through and confirm this as fact to the medical community, he has helped to establish the credibility of yoga as a serious healing modality. Thanks to Thich Nhat Hahn, whom I first met in 1981 at the Reverence for Life Conference in New York City, for