Peter Blackaby - Intelligent Yoga: Listening to the Body’s Innate Wisdom

I consider Peter to be one of the most high-integrity leaders of a major paradigm shift in how we conceive of, and therefore how we exist within and relate to, the human body. Always willing to throw dogma under the bus, always willing to let his inquiry deepen and expand, this book is a gift to those who are engaging with their bodies as a lived experience or who are helping others to do so; whether yoga teachers, movement educators, or bodyworkers of any stripe.

Brooke Thomas, Liberated Body podcast

Peter Blackabys aptly named Intelligent Yoga is a true game-changer for anyone willing to ask the tough questions of how and why we do yoga. I highly recommend it to all my serious students.

Leslie Kaminoff, co-author of Yoga Anatomy

Peter Blackabys writing (like his teaching) is intelligent, incisive, gracious and immensely pragmatic. He is proposing shifts in our assumptions about anatomy, asana and teaching that are much needed in yoga, and in any movement practice. I highly recommend that everyone engage with the ideas in this book.

Amy Matthews, co-author of Yoga Anatomy

Peter Blackaby has a rare gift for expressing his deeply felt understanding for yoga through the written word. This book captures the essence of his enquiring nature while providing a distinctive method and practice suggestions which might equally serve the total beginner and the seasoned practitioner. Substantially revised and updated from the first edition, it is humane, rigorous and refreshing in equal measure. The illustrations exhibit the very qualities of light, spacious stability and ease that the practice evokes. By the simple device of stating a purpose (rather than a list of supposed benefits), a method and a sense of enquiry in each asana, he initiates the intelligent approach that characterises his teaching. This is what I love about his work. Any body of any shape or size can take this approach and find freedom to move optimally with ease and grace. It really is essential reading for every modern yoga practitioner.

Tara Fraser, author of Yoga for You and the The Easy Yoga Workbook

Yoga is undergoing a massive paradigm shift. People in the West have been practising yoga for long enough to start questioning some of the things that the gurus taught. People have gotten injured from yoga practice and had to explore other modalities and information to heal. Fortunately, Peter Blackaby is at the forefront of a fantastic new conversation around synthesising knowledge and evolving yoga practice to incorporate new understandings of how the body works, the role of physical practice in addressing pain, and larger questions into the nature of being. In his new edition of Intelligent Yoga, he offers a clear lens that both allows for scientific rigor yet still advocates for the innate wisdom at the heart of yogic inquiry. Anyone who feels a passion for yoga deserves to read this book.

J. Brown, yoga teacher, writer, podcaster

A teachers plea for safety through individualisation and anatomic savvy. (first edition)

William J. Broad, author of The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards

I have been a yoga practitioner for 20 years and teaching for 12 years. I have over 100 books on yoga but I turn to this one for inspiration more often than any other. I cannot recommend it highly enough. (first edition)

Sally A. Furness, on Amazon UK

Copyright 2020 Peter Blackaby

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

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Publisher, Editor & Production

Anna Norman

Art Director

Samuel Blagg

Proofreaders

Ros Sales and Richard Norman

Photographer

Charlotte Macpherson

(www.charlottemacpherson.co.uk)

Additional photography

p.15 istock.com/SolStock; p.16 Alena Vezza/Shutterstock.com; p.19 franco lucato/Shutterstock.com; p.27 istock.com/FatCamera; p.31 fizkes/Shutterstock.com; p.33 Pan Xunbin/Shutterstock.com; p.34 Pete Saloutos/Shutterstock.com; p.35 JonathanC Photography/Shutterstock.com; p.37 istock.com/Imgorthand; p.42 Ivanko80/Shutterstock.com; p.43 lolloj/Shutterstock.com; p.45 Popperfoto/Getty Images; p.46 Inu/Shutterstock.com; p.49 AYakovlev/Shutterstock.com and istock.com/bauhaus1000; p.50 Henny Allis/Science Photo Library; p.51 imageBROKER/Alamy Stock Photo; p.54 Christine Hanscomb/Science Photo Library; p.56 Cultura/Science Photo Library; p.64 fizkes/Shutterstock.com; p.70 Supavadee butradee/Shutterstock.com; p.71 Wellcome Collection. CC BY; p.72 istock.com/RobertCrum; p.74 Tyler Olson/Shutterstock.com; p.75 Astrakan Images/Getty Images; p.76 Kenny Tong/Shutterstock.com; p.77 Shaiith/Shutterstock.com; p.81 Edvard Munch/Dag Fosse/KODE; p.82 Martchan/Shutterstock.com; p.85 Daxiao Productions/Shutterstock.com; p.86 eye-blink/Shutterstock.com; p.90 Helen Hotson/Shutterstock.com; p.91 Standret/Shutterstock.com; p.185 Don Pablo/Shutterstock.com; p.187 Ilya Andriyanov/Shutterstock.com

ISBN 978 1838595 654

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

Acknowledgements

The author would particularly like to thank the following for help in shaping this book: Christine McHugh, Diane Farrell, Taravajra, Peter Connolly and Lisa McRory, for their generous sharing of ideas and practice I value their friendship; Mary Stewart for her straightforward and direct teaching; Serge Gracovetsky for his patient answering of my persistent questions; Monica Voss for her conversation and encouragement; and Michael Barnes for introducing me to the wonderful world of yoga. Finally, thanks to my wife Sabine, and Dominik, my son, who have had to put up with me when my time has been consumed by writing. The author and editor would also like to thank the following for modelling the asanas so patiently for us: Mia Dafe, Christine McHugh, Lisa McRory, Anil Rawal, Taravajra and Ann Thomson.

Mary Stewart

Yoga is Indias gift to the world. Pre-dating both Hinduism and Buddhism, it was handed down verbally from teacher to pupil for hundreds of years before it was ever committed to paper.

Most people in the West have heard of yoga, perhaps as a form of keep-fit practised by celebrities, as a weekly class in a local village hall, or even as a dangerous Eastern cult. Yoga has been interpreted in innumerable ways over its long history and there is probably a grain of truth in all its many descriptions.