Product Description

John Scott is the yoga teacher who helped Madonna sculpt her body to its high level of fitness and toned physique. He is also personal yoga teacher to Sting and Trudi Styler. With this book, Scott introduces the principles of ashtanga yoga to a wider audience. Ashtanga is one of the more dynamic forms of yoga, as powerful an exercise as doing an aerobic class. However, the benefits go far deeper than a fitter body. Ashtanga yoga is a movement meditation, where the breath is the key to focusing the mind, balancing the emotions and strengthening the spirit, while toning the muscles and building stamina. Yoga is also a philosophy and discipline for developing patience, inner strength and heightened concentration. Ashtanga literally means "eight stages" - abstinence, observance, posture, breath control, sense withdrawal, concentration, meditation and contemplation. The book's sequence of practice sessions provides the foundations which should allow the practitioner to achieve his or her physical and psychological peak. It starts with a simple sequence for beginners, moving on to breath-synchronized "asanas" that massage inner organs to purify the body. The structured course develops the strength, stamina and flexibility, which should provide progressively deeper therapeutic benefits.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #330468 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 142 pages

Customer Reviews

This is the best book on Ashtanga Yoga I have come across .
John Scott goes into great detail to talk about yoga theory, especially the Ahstanga breath, and the internal locks used through the practice. It is the first book I have seen which explains the difficult vinyasa transitions is such a lucid manner, using full color photographs to illustrate each subtlety. Another outstanding feature is that John takes you through how to enter and exit each posture step by step, breath by breath. I have been doing Ashtanga yoga for five years, and this book has helped me greatly in my own practice and as a teacher. I cannot recommend this book highly enough to students at all levels. Thank you John Scott!

A brilliant book written by a brilliant yoga teacher.
This is my favourite book on ashtanga vinyasa yoga. John scott has made the book to be accessible for all levels of ashtanga yoga practitioners, without any jargons or complicated writings. Each pose in the primary series is described in full details, with a picture alongside them, and the sanskrit names too.

I have been fortunate enough to have been able to attend his workshops, and i would recommend you to get this book in order to deepen your study of ashtanga yoga.

not exactly inspiring
What on earth were the publishers, and the author, thinking about? This book presents ashtanga in such a dull mechanised way, one wonders why anyone ever took the practice up. Full of insipid step-by-step pictures that completely miss the spirit of ashtanga. Who exactly is this book aimed at? There is not enough info for a beginner and there is no 'heart' for the more experienced yogi. The photos are neither artistic nor particularly useful. Shame really, as John Scott was the first westener to draw the visual sequence of the ashtanga primary series in a sort of pictogram form. Why was that not included in the book, and instead we got those awful close ups!
If you are looking for a really good ashtanga book that is about the spirit of the practice and is also practical to actually use get David Swensons, 'Ashtanga Yoga'. He designed and published it himself and quite frankly I do not see how anyone can improve on it.