This was easy to follow and understand. I enjoyed how it looked and felt like there was enough information without being over-complicated.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review these cards. I plan to order these cards, so that I have actual cards to use in my daily practice. The cards provide visuals of how to do the pose - as in a photo of a real person, not a drawing. It then gives information on how to do the pose. Further it gives feedback on the benefits of the pose such as stimulates liver and kidneys or helps counteract the effects of osteoporosis. I plan to get these cards as gifts for my yoga friends this Christmas. These cards would also be great for planning out your sequence for your practice. Very well done.

Not only does this book have great pictures of the poses, it has explicit directions on how to do each pose. I will use this as a reference in my Yoga practice for many years. For beginners to advance this is a great book when practicing Yoga.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Shambhala Publications Inc., and Kino MacGregor for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

This is a book of practice cards. Each has an illustration of the pose, the name of the pose, an explanation of how to execute the pose and the benefits to your body. The explanation is quite detailed and very thorough. There are standing poses, seated poses, finishing poses with a small opening and closing prayer. It seems like you could print out them out as cards and mix and match them to make your own routine. You could always trade old pose cards in and create new routines, increasing level of difficulty as you master certain poses. There are almost 60 poses in all.

The illustrations are great and show the “ideal” way the pose should be executed. Unless you are extremely flexible or very advanced, you won’t look like her. I like the section on the benefits of each pose because it is nice to know how each one helps your body. She gives lots of cues for how to do each pose, which muscles need to pull in or tighten, where to look, all the instructions an actual live instructor would give.

Be warned that I think you need some experience in ashtanga yoga before attempting any of these cards. There are also no order or easier to harder poses and if you just decide to “try” it out, you could hurt yourself. There aren’t any warnings as to who should use this, seeing a doctor or any other warnings that usually accompany even the easiest physical exercise programs. I also happen to know that if you have high blood pressure there are certain poses that you should never try because you can pass out. So if I was doing this in my home, by myself, that might be very dangerous. Some of these are very advanced poses and without the proper build up of skills and muscle control you could really hurt yourself.

So, if you have enough experience and are just using this as a guide, I think it might be helpful. If you are starting from scratch and are looking to educate yourself with the book, I say - go take a class or 10 or 100, before relying on these cards. Remember, in yoga, it is not about executing the pose “perfectly” but doing what you can, at your level, to the best of your ability, without pushing yourself.

I think this could be very helpful for somebody in active practice to refer to the specifics before they begin a pose. I have been doing yoga for years and feel these provide very good quality instructions. I was not able to view these as they will be marketed because I received an advance reader copy as an e-book which it does not lend itself very well to flash card style