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Yoga For Dummies guides you slowly, step by step, into the treasure house of Yoga. And it is a fabulous treasure house! You will find out how to unlock your body’s extraordinary potential and enlist your mind to do so, and in the process strengthen your mind as well. This book covers the following topics and more:
Five basic approaches to Yoga
Selecting a Yoga class
Practicing Yoga safely
The mechanics of Yogic breathing
Classic foundational postures
Exercises to target problem areas
Putting together your personal routine
Yoga for special situations
The focus on this book is on Hatha (pronounced haht-ha) Yoga, which is that branch of Yoga that works primarily with the body through postures, breathing exercises, and other similar techniques. When necessary, the book provides helpful photos or illustrations to help you better understand the exercises or postures.
One author (Georg Feuerstein) is internationally recognized as a leading expert on the Yoga tradition and has authored many seminal works on it. The other author (Larry Payne) has a thriving practice as a Yoga teacher in Los Angeles, where he teaches and responds to his clients’ specific health challenges. In this book, their combined 55 years of experience have merged to create a reliable and user-friendly introductory book that can also serve you as a beginner’s reference work on an ongoing basis.

Book: Yoga For Dummies by Georg Feuerstein
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How to start yoga with diabetes

Yoga can be fun, healthy and calming. It is a mind-body discipline that people have practiced for thousands of years, and even a little progress can bring a sense of ease and calm. If you have diabetes, you can enjoy it too, as long as you start with a few sensible precautions.

How can you learn yoga?

You can find audio and video recordings that teach breathing and relaxation techniques at health food stores, bookstores, online and by mail order. It is probably fine to learn breathing and relaxation from a recording or a booklet, but do not try the yoga postures without a skilled teacher. A teacher can correct you, warn you when necessary and help you adapt poses to your body.

It is worth spending some time finding an instructor who is right for you. Your diabetes educator or another health care professional may be able to recommend one. Ask for referrals as you would for any professional you might consult. Yoga instructors do not have to be certified, but many are, through a range of different programs. Ask prospective teachers whether they are certified. A certified teacher is not necessarily better than one who is not, but it is something to consider.

How can you exercise safely with diabetes?

Most people with diabetes can exercise safely, but all physical activity carries some risk. These precautions help to tip the balance in your favor.

Have a medical check-up before you start, especially if you have heart disease, are over 35, have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, smoke, or have a family history of heart disease. Your doctor will tell you whether you need tests such as an exercise stress test with an ECG, which is more likely if you plan vigorous activity.

Tell your doctor about any symptoms that you notice during or after exercise, such as discomfort in your chest, neck, jaw or arms, nausea, dizziness, fainting, unusual shortness of breath or short-term changes in vision.

If you have diabetes-related complications, ask your health care team about special precautions. Consider exercising in a medically supervised program at first if you have peripheral vascular disease, retinopathy, autonomic neuropathy or kidney problems, and ask which poses to avoid.

Learn how to prevent and treat low blood glucose (hypoglycemia). If you take insulin or diabetes pills that can cause lows, check your blood glucose before, during and after exercise. Blood glucose can keep dropping for hours afterward. Keep fast-acting carbohydrate, such as glucose tablets or juice, within reach.

If you have type 1 diabetes and your blood glucose is above 250 milligrams per deciliter, check for ketones. Do not exercise if moderate or large amounts of ketones are present, because activity can raise the risk of ketoacidosis, a medical emergency.

Always warm up and cool down, and avoid exercising outdoors when the weather is extremely hot and humid, or extremely cold. Be careful with hot yoga rooms. Check your feet afterward for sores or blisters.

What can yoga do for you?

Gentle yoga can be a way to move more, relax and manage stress. It does not replace your medication, your meal plan or the advice of your health care team, so keep following them and share your plans. If you are curious about the basics, our post on what yoga is is a good place to start, and our guide to basic yoga postures shows some of the poses you may learn. For more on living with diabetes, see our posts on diabetes and diabetes-friendly recipes.

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The definitive book of yoga therapy, this groundbreaking work comes to you from the medical editor of the country’s premier yoga magazine, who is both a practicing yogi and a Western-trained physician.

Beginning with an overview of the history and science of yoga, Dr. McCall describes the many different techniques in the yoga tool kit; explains what yoga does and who can benefit from it (virtually everyone!); and provides lavishly illustrated and minutely detailed instructions on starting a yoga practice geared to your fitness level and your health status. Yoga as Medicine offers a wealth of practical information, including how to:

•Utilize yogic tools, including postures, breathing techniques, and meditation, for both prevention and healing of illness

•Master the art of becoming more in tune with your body

•Communicate more effectively with your doctor

•Adopt therapeutic yoga practices as either an alternative or a complement to surgery and to expensive, sometimes dangerous medications

•Practice safely

Book: Yoga as Medicine by Timothy Mccall
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Yoga for Anxiety is aimed at readers who want to explore yoga, breathing, and mindfulness as tools for feeling steadier in daily life. The book’s description frames anxiety through yogic philosophy and offers practices meant to calm the body and mind. That can make it appealing to readers who want a gentle, reflective introduction rather than a fast-moving fitness program.

What does the book focus on?

The description highlights meditations, mindfulness practices, self-inquiry exercises, and yoga poses. In other words, the book is not only about stretches. It presents yoga as a broader practice that includes attention, breath, and personal reflection. For many readers, that combination may be more approachable than a purely athletic style of yoga.

Can yoga help with anxiety?

Yoga may help some people feel calmer, especially when it involves slow breathing, gentle movement, and regular practice. But it is important to keep expectations realistic. The World Health Organization notes that anxiety disorders are common and that effective treatment can include psychological therapies and, for some people, medication. The NCCIH also says research into yoga for anxiety is still limited and that complementary practices should not replace standard care.

Who may enjoy this book?

This looks best suited to readers who want a supportive home practice and who like the idea of pairing yoga with mindfulness. If you are interested in journaling, self-observation, or simple calming rituals, the book’s approach may feel useful. If you are looking for a medical manual or a treatment plan for severe anxiety, it is probably not the right starting point on its own.

A sensible way to use it

Think of the book as a companion to, not a substitute for, evidence-based care. You might borrow a few gentle practices from it, notice what helps you slow down, and talk with a doctor or therapist if anxiety is affecting your sleep, work, or relationships. That balanced approach respects both the value of yoga and the seriousness of mental health care.

Related on Veggie-Blog: Can Yoga Help You Think Clearly at Work? Stress, Focus and Better Decisions and Breathing and Relaxing: A Five-Minute Breath Break and What the Research Says.

Book: Yoga for Anxiety by Mary NurrieStearns and Rick NurrieStearns
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What is yoga?

Yoga, a Sanskrit word often translated as union or discipline, is an ancient practice from India. The sage Patanjali compiled the Yoga Sutras, one of its key texts, many centuries ago (scholars date it somewhere between about 200 BC and AD 400). The aim of yoga is to stretch the muscles, exercise the body and improve concentration. It can also help you relax, if you have trouble doing that.

No wonder this ancient practice has become popular among entertainers and athletes. Depending on who practices it, yoga can be simply a set of exercises or a whole way of life.

Discipline and breathing

Some who study yoga, called yogis, try to use it to reach a higher level of consciousness. They respect certain abstentions (things not to do), such as not lying, stealing, being greedy or harming other people. They also practice certain observances (things to do), such as being clean, content, self-controlled, studious and devoted.

Physical control is also important in yoga. Yogis train themselves to take full, deep breaths. They regard breathing as a life force, counting a lifespan not in years but in the number of breaths taken.

Yoga poses

Unlike exercises that focus only on strength, yoga also helps the body become flexible. Some yoga exercises (called asanas) look rather odd, and you may think you need to be a human pretzel to do them. Not so. You just have to relax.

In yoga, you do gentle stretches, never forcing yourself. The “no pain, no gain” rule does not apply. You do only the best you can at the moment, and at some later moment you will do more.

All yoga poses involve balance. And since you can’t balance if you’re thinking about last night’s TV show, yoga also demands concentration. Learn to concentrate in yoga, and you will be better able to concentrate in baseball, tennis or even school.

Yoga exercises borrow from nature. Many yoga poses can be traced to the shapes of animals, such as the cobra, cat, dog, tortoise, crab and eagle.

In the cobra pose, for example, you ask yourself, what would it feel like to be a cobra? You lie on your stomach with your forehead on the floor. As you inhale, you slowly lift your head and chest, supporting yourself with your hands. You hold that pose, then come down slowly, trying to move as a snake would move.

All yoga exercises develop skill and calmness. The effect of each move on a muscle or joint is carefully worked out.

You can choose exercises to ease typical aches, such as the stiffness from back-packing or the leg strain from jogging. Yoga can also help prepare you for skiing, and it may help you manage stress and feelings of fear or low mood, although it is no replacement for treatment if those feelings are strong.

Any good book on yoga will describe different asanas and explain how each works. You may already have done some yoga exercises without knowing it. Ever done a handstand, or the wheel? Many exercise programs borrow from yoga.

What is Yoga