Best Yoga Book (Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha) |
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 Internationally recognised as one of the most comprehensive manuals available, Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha gives clear illustrations and step-by-step directions for more than 400 practices, from the simplest to the most advanced. If you buy only one yoga book, it should be this one. |
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| First published in 1969, Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha has been reprinted 13 times and is used by yoga teachers and students all over the world. It is one of the few yoga books to try to cover everything, from postures to detoxing, breathing exercises and awareness of chakras, or energy centres - most deal with only one type of practice. |
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 It’s not this year’s coffee-table book full glossy photographs - the diagrams, such as the one shown here, are clear rather than decorative - but you could be using this book for a lifetime. It is the standard text for those on yoga teacher training - as a reference work, it‘s invaluable and is used as a source by many other yoga books. |
Asanas |
| Most of the book is devoted to the asanas, or postures, as you would expect. These are divided into beginners, intermediate and advanced sections, so it is useful for students at all levels. |
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 The instructions are illustrated by diagrams and accompanied by detailed directions on breathing during the posture; awareness; benefits; warnings of any contra-indications (e.g. not for those with a particular joint problem); variations of the posture and so on. It also groups related postures into sequences, such as sun salutations (surya namaskara) and comes with a therapeutic index recommending particular postures for medical conditions ranging from sciatica to flatulence. The author, Swami Satyananda Saraswati, right, aimed to bring yoga into the domain of medical science, and to explain esoteric techniques in terms of western anatomy and physiology.
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Pranayama |
| This section details breathing exercises, such as kapalbhathi, and describes different types of breathing such as the ujjayi breathing used in Ashtanga. These might be difficult to perfrom from the manual alone, but the descriptions often clarify practices described by yoga teachers. |
Mudras and Bandhas |
The mudras (locks) mainly detail hand and feet positions, such as the chin mudra, the finger and thumb lock used in lotus. The bandhas describe the internal locks such as jalandhara bandha, the throat lock used for ujjayi breathing, or uddiyana bandha, the abdominal contraction used for most postures.
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 The book also explains some shatkarma, or cleansing practices, such as nauli, an abdominal massage technique that stimulates the digestive system. Some shatkarma, involving swallowing and regurgitating lengths of cloth and salt water or doing unspeakable things to yourself with a tumeric root, are perhaps less likely to catch on the west.
There is a section at the end on the more esoteric aspects of yoga, covering chakra awareness and kundalini.
As one reviewer put it: “A book to read and re-read for many, many years ... an amazingly concise and complete resource for the yoga practitioner - this is an excellent textbook.”
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Click here for a glossary of yoga terms
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