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The Yoga Minibook For Energy and Strength

Scroll down this page to read more about The Yoga Minibook For Energy and Strength, the Back Cover Description, Table of Contents, Excerpts and Yoga Poses.

ABOUT THE YOGA MINIBOOK FOR ENERGY AND STRENGTH


You can find The Yoga Minibook For Energy and Strength, and the rest of Elaine’s yoga minibooks series including The Yoga Minibook For Weight Loss, The Yoga Minibook For Longevity, and The Yoga Minibook For Stress Relief (Fireside Simon & Schuster), in your local bookstores or simply order here! These personalized yoga books target specific health and wellness goals. Whether you’re looking to lose weight, find the fountain of youth, reduce stress or increase your vitality, there’s a Yoga Minibook for you!

THE YOGA MINIBOOK FOR ENERGY AND STRENGTH: A Specialized Program for a Stronger, High-Energy You
by Elaine Gavalas
Publisher: Fireside Simon & Schuster, 2003
Tradepaper: 0-7432-2700-X

This complete program provides dozens of yoga exercises and practices for your unique body type, designed to promote lean strength and high energy, two of today’s most desired fitness goals.

In this comprehensive guide, Elaine Gavalas demonstrates that yoga, the enduring and immensely popular wellness philosophy, offers a superior approach to boosting energy and relieving fatigue, while improving strength, stamina and flexibility. She presents a brief explanation of the basic principles of yoga and draws on various traditions - including Hatha Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, and Power Yoga - to create personalized, highly effective workouts for your unique body type. Incorporating centuries-old exercises that use the body’s own weight (and light hand weights) to build muscle strength, as well as breathing and meditation practices, self-massage, and techniques that increase energy by balancing your nervous and circulatory systems and chakra energy centers. The black-and-white illustrations throughout The Yoga Mini Book for Energy and Strength will help readers develop lean, strong and fit bodies and enjoy new levels of energy and stamina. Each exercise is accompanied by a clear instructional illustration.

BACK COVER DESCRIPTION


Unleash your natural energy to build the body you've always wanted. Few fitness goals rank higher than lean strength and high energy — and yoga delivers both!

In this unique program, centuries-old poses (asanas) rely on the body's own weight — as well as light hand weights — to build strength without bulk and create a sleek, strong physique. Also included are yoga breathing exercises (pranayama), meditation and self-massage techniques that boost energy and relieve fatigue. Following fully illustrated step-by-step instructions for your unique body type, you'll learn:

· QUICK, EFFECTIVE STRENGTH-TRAINING TECHNIQUES
· HEALTHY BREATHING TO MAXIMIZE YOUR EXERCISE BENEFITS
· POWER YOGA WORKOUTS DESIGNED TO INCREASE STAMINA
· ENERGIZING POSES AND SELF-MASSAGES FOR THE ENTIRE BODY

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Chapter 1: Understanding Yoga
Chapter 2: Before You Begin
Chapter 3: Yoga for Your Body Type
Chapter 4: Yoga for Strength
Chapter 5: Yoga for Energy
Chapter 6: Chakra Yoga
Chapter 7: Yoga to Relieve Fatigue

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 1


Would you like to feel more energized and enjoy new levels of stamina? The demands of our non-stop society have made lack of energy a widespread problem. At one time or another we all face days filled with far too much to do and too little energy to do it. What can you do to regain your vitality and reinvigorate your entire being?

You hold the answers to these questions in your hands. I’ve written The Yoga Minibook for Energy and Strength for all of you who are rundown and out of shape and feel tired way too often. By following the yoga program described in this book, you can revitalize and strengthen your body, mind and spirit. Yoga for Energy and Strength incorporates various yoga traditions, including hatha yoga, chakra Yoga, power Yoga, and Ayurveda, to create personalized, highly effective, and time-efficient workouts. It includes yoga exercises that use the body’s own weight (and light hand weights) to help you build muscle strength. In addition, you’ll find self-massage, breathing, and meditation practices to enhance your physical and mental energy.

Exercise fads continue to come and go, but after more than five thousand years, the practice of yoga is still with us - and more popular than ever. It offers a positive change in lifestyle, in which increased vitality, strength, stamina, and physical and mental well-being are natural by-products of enjoyable exercise.

The Yoga for Your Body Type Workout in Chapter 3 feature vinyasa (a continuous flow of yoga poses) for the full range of body types. These powerfully effective workouts will make the most of the time you devote to exercise. The individual body types described in this chapter carry different names in the ayurvedic and Western physiological traditions, but whatever your call them, identifying your type and tailoring your yoga practice to it will have a powerful effect. In fact, it’s the first step on the most direct path to achieving your fitness goals. With consistent practice, you’ll enjoy new levels of energy and endurance, while improving cardiovascular fitness, reducing fat and increasing lean muscle mass.

Yoga has long been acclaimed as a great way to improve flexibility, balance, and relaxation. But what’s not as well known is that yoga can build muscle strength. The Yoga for Strength Workout in Chapter 4 combines strength training with yoga poses and includes a customized practice for your unique body type. You’ll improve your functional fitness - in other words, your physical ability to meet the challenges of everyday life.

If you’re feeling totally wiped out, try the Yoga for Energy Workout in Chapter 5. It includes energy-boosting yoga poses, breathing, meditation and self-massage techniques that will maximize your physical and mental vitality. This yoga practice will help you accumulate prana (life-force energy) and efficiently circulate it throughout your body. You’ll soon build a supply of prana life force energy from which you can draw during times of need.

Tune up your energy centers with the Chakra Yoga Workout in Chapter 6. Practicing yoga poses, mantras, and meditations that correspond to each chakra is better than taking energy vitamins. This chapter’s yoga workout helps prevent and eliminate chakra energy imbalances and blockages. With regular practice you’ll increase your physical and mental well-being, enhance your vitality, and ultimately expand your consciousness.

If you’re suffering from persistent fatigue, recovering from an illness, or you’re a newcomer to yoga, the Yoga Basics and Relieve Fatigue Workout outlined in Chapters 2 and 7 will help you to gently build your strength, stamina and confidence without injury or strain.

Over the years, I’ve studied and practiced many hatha yoga styles, such as Integral, Iyengar, ashtanga vinyasa, kundalini, mantra, raja and tantra, and have been especially interested in yoga’s therapeutic applications. I’ve observed individuals and groups practicing yoga, and I’ve seen its power to help people relieve stress and lose weight while they increase their energy, strength, and longevity. I’ve had an opportunity to apply yoga techniques to help people achieve their wellness goals, and observed spectacular results. I’ve written my yoga book series - the first four being The Yoga Minibook for Weight Loss, The Yoga Minibook for Stress Relief, The Yoga Minibook for Longevity, and The Yoga Minibook for Energy and Strength, as self-help guides in response to people’s many fitness, wellness, and diet problems, questions, and concerns.

My greatest wish is to share with you the many wonderful benefits yoga practice has given to me and the individuals I’ve assisted over the years. Whether you’re looking to boost your energy, lose weight, relieve stress or find the fountain of youth, I’ve created a yoga book for you.

YOGA POSES



POSE FROM CHAPTER 7, "Yoga to Relieve Fatigue" - SUPPORTED RELAXATION POSE (SUPPORTED SAVASANA)

What it does: This is the granddaddy of all the restorative poses. Savasana enhances the effectiveness of all the poses, calms the mind and nervous system and helps relieve back tension. End your yoga practice with this pose.

How To Do It:
1. Lie on your back on a mat on the floor with a folded blanket under your head and neck. You may want to put an additional folded blanket or two under your back and/​or cover your eyes with an eye pillow or face cloth.
2. Place your feet a comfortable distance apart. Hands are at your sides, palms turned upward. Move your shoulders down and away from your ears, and tuck the shoulder blades in toward your spine. If your back feels uncomfortable with your legs straight, bend your knees as much as you need to, to alleviate pain or discomfort. You may feel more comfortable with a folded blanket or pillow beneath your knees.
3. Inhale; exhale, contracting the buttock muscles and pressing the curve out of your lower back. Release and relax completely.
4. Continue to breathe comfortably. With each exhalation, allow the weight of your bones to sink toward the floor. Scan your body, your spine and your lower back, noting any unnecessary muscular tension. Now, with each exhalation, surrender your muscles to the pull of gravity, sinking further into the floor.
5. If desired, practice Yoga Observation (page 31).
6. Relax all efforts and rest in the healing stillness for as long as you wish. When you’re ready to come out of the pose, roll onto one side and use your arms to push yourself up into a seated position.