Teaching Yoga Beyond The Poses: A Practical Workbook For Integrating Themes, Ideas, And Inspiration Into Your Class
Create class themes with yoga philosophy, inspirational quotes, and simple concepts to inspire and motivate students
Experienced yoga instructors Sage Rountree and Alexandra DeSiato give yoga teachers the tools to find their voice and tap into innate wisdom. The authors offer ready-made, detailed themes to use in classes and provide flexible templates for building a toolkit of themes for future use. Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses offers guidance for both new and experienced teachers starting with a section on voice, authenticity, emulation, phrasing, practice, repetition, and finding inspiration. It continues with a second section that contains fifty-four complete themes that instructors can easily use in their own classes. The final section includes blank templates for instructors to create their own class themes and notes. With a unique angle and practical feel, this workbook will appeal to yoga teachers, teacher trainers, and at-home practitioners who want to move to the next level.
2,100 Asanas: The Complete Yoga Poses
This fully-illustrated New York Times bestseller categorizes an astonishing 2,100 yoga poses through photographs and descriptions for optimal benefit including adaptations for all levels of expertise and ages.
A thoughtful, inspiring, meticulously-crafted guide to the practice of yoga, 2,100 Asanas will explore hundreds of familiar poses along with modified versions designed to bring more healthful options to yogis of all experience and ability.
Organized into eight sections for the major types of poses — standing, seated, core, quadruped, inversions, prone, supine and backbends — and each section gently progresses from easy to more challenging. Each pose is accompanied by the name of the pose in English and Sanskrit, the Drishti point (eye gaze), the chakras affected and primary benefits.
I said, let me order & see and I’m so glad I have ordered.
I have yet to truly dive in but so far I feel like this book speaks to me on so many levels. I have a mellow voice and I teach yin & somehow I know I have to take up more space.
I feel like this books gently reminds me and encourages me in different ways!
I’m very glad that I ordered this book :)
Highly recommend it, especially if you are a new teacher working on « Theming » your class.
As a yoga student I love well themed classes. They are food for my soul. But, as a new teacher Theming a class is intimidating. I hate body part themes unless I am in fitness mode, which isn’t why I come back to my mat. This book is perfect: clear, inspiring, well documented but not overwhelming.
There is an underlayer of true understanding, support and compassion for the reader.
I taught my first class yesterday using the first theme: Ahimsa. Students were very positive. It was uplifting!
The tone and content of the book encourage you to draw from your own experience and voice; not just to use the authors' examples for themes, but to create your own and build upon what feels true to YOU. They're not out to tell you that their way of theming is the right way, but to prompt you with deep-diving questions into finding your own voice and purpose as a teacher. I found myself circling and highlighting passages, phrases and ideas, while also feeling totally empowered to nix things that didn’t resonate with me/my style/my playlists.
All told, I’m super grateful to have this book in my stockpile of teaching resources. It richly fills a much-needed gap in the yoga-teaching literature, and I plan to recommend it to all the yoga teachers I know - whether new or seasoned. I know I’ll be returning to it again and again. (Plus, it’s a really beautifully designed book, which doesn’t hurt one bit.;)
Coming up with a theme for a yoga class can be tough. Fortunately, some of my favorite teachers have come together in this newly released book and - dare I say it - make theming approachable and easy! There’s over 54 ready made themes including yoga philosophy, seasons, quotes, inspiration, and more. Each theme is broken down with some background information, songs, quotes, and even information to weave throughout your class to really bring the theme home! Scroll to the right to see a few sample pages.
The beginning of the book is a communication coach’s dream because it’s a primer on finding your voice as a teacher and using it from a place of compassion and authenticity.
In the back of the book there are templates so you can theme your classes from your own favorite sources.
To break it down, if you’re a yoga teacher, get this book. And as a bonus I’ve heard that there will be an online workshop coming up to expand teaching knowledge even more.
#teachingyogabeyondtheposes
Amazing clear photos of each pose and modification.
For some it could be a reference material, I bought it to just learn to see if I could to do some to work on flexibility and health.
This is a great reference book while working towards injury recovery. It's great to see so many pose variations for beginners. For example, the 'easy one-legged king pigeon pose 1' on page 376 is great for people working towards the 'one-legged king pigeon pose 1 preparation' on page 377. Getting deeper stretches for certain muscles have been a goal towards my recovery along with regular r8 roller usage for my Piriformis and Psoas muscle. This reference book allows me to share rookie stretches with elderly friends.
Having reviewed every pictured pose, I've already noticed a few of stretches that could use better form presentation.
Having no background in Yoga, I can only hope that all data in this book is accurate for learning this discipline.
EDIT: March 13, 2018
I've been putting together my own routine with pictures. The alternative english pose names really help.
However, I have noticed that spelling isn't always correct such as on pages 682 and 683 where Muktyasana is also spelled Muktasana respectively. I have noticed many uses of '...yasana'. Perhaps, that's just how sanskrit goes..
This is why this book is so valuable. It is a great reference book. I ordered my copy in hardcover, so it will not bend or assume unseemly shapes. Book is made of high quality paper and has fantastic photography pictures of each and every pose demonstrated by very experienced practitioners/teachers. Author of the book is Canadian yogi who dedicated his life teaching yoga and he thought yoga to many athletes over his career. Most of the poses are demonstrated by female practitioners but there are a few male practitioners and they all look amazing. Each pose has a name in Sanscrit and English and description of it. I want to thank Daniel Lacerda for creating one of the most precious asana books that compiles all 2,100 poses that I could find in 10 years of practicing yoga.
The introduction to the book is vry thoughtful and also gives a brief description of yoga philosophy. People unfamiliar with yoga will be surprised to learn that yoga is so much more than a physical practice.
For me there is a bit of confusion around some of the sanskrit names.... sometimes I learned a different sanskrit name for the same pose. However, that is not a deal breaker for this book, since Sanskrit isn't what this is about. This is still an incredible investment for all yoga teachers and anyone interested in learning something new.
A must read for anyone who wants to expand their knowledge of yoga, and try new poses.
It helps me to perfect my postures, modify the ones I know and the pictures are really nice. I also like the that the proper names are used. I used it more like a dictionary, whenever I need to look up a posture. However, it is also nice to just browse. I personally believe that every yogi who is seriously practicing yoga and improving postures or thinking about getting a teaching license should have this in their yoga book library.
This is a great reference book for Yoga Teachers like myself. I appreciate that this isn't just a yoga asana book but also explains the chakras being affected with each pose.
It's photos are catorgorized beautifully with great depth and clarity on each pose, and has a very user friendly layout. I share this book with all my students and encourage them to just get on their mat and explore all the possibilities.
Love you Daniel Lacerda, one of my favorite teachers! Thank you for your devotion and epic creativity. All I have to say is Jah vibes! And big up to all the models!! :)
– Josiah Batson