The Over 42 Club

There’s a story about a question that was posed to Mr. B.K.S. Iyengar, the author of this book who is frequently credited for bringing yoga to Europe and North America. Someone studying with him asked what could be done to make their students more spiritual. Mr. Iyengar’s reply was that the job of a yoga teacher was to help others improve their health. This book is an excellent resource for just that.

When I need to look up something about yoga, this book is one of the first places I go. It has detailed explanations of many yoga poses with beautiful photographs. For a given pose, there’s a box with listed benefits, photographs with instructions for getting into the pose and a 360 degree view of the pose with subtleties to take note of.

For me, the best part of the book is Chapter 7, Yoga for Ailments with sequences for many of the body’s systems (heart and circulation, repiratory, digestive, etc.) There are sequences for rheumatoid arthritis, indigestion and back ache among many others. Other chapters contain information about B.K.S. Iyengar’s life and work, Philosophy of Yoga, Yoga for Stress and Pranayama. Chapter 8 is a 20-week yoga course.

This book was first published in 2001 with many editions thereafter. The most recent I found was 2021. I found my 2014 copy at a used book store and it’s been a wonderful resource for my personal practice and work as a yoga teacher. It’s worth considering as an addition to your personal library.

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