Review: Ashtanga Yoga Practice Cards: The Primary Series

Ashtanga Yoga Practice Cards: The Primary Series by Kino MacGregor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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.

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