Power Yoga: The Total Strength and Flexibility Workout [Paperback]

The official yoga program of the New York Road Runners club,Power Yogais a unique combination of dynamic breathing and strong, flowing movement, which creates a high-heat, high-energy workout.

Unlike any other yoga program,Power Yogais a choreographed sequence of postures that flow into one another, building strength, unwinding tight joints,and loosening muscles. Beautiful photographs and clear instructions guide you through this effective and popular routine.

Based on the classical and original yoga system calledastanga, Power Yogais a complete mind and body workout that develops concentration and reduces stress. With its focus on mindful breathing and body heat,Power Yogagoes beyond the relaxation benefits of traditional yoga to offer a route to health and fitness that athletes of all levels will embrace.Chapter 1: The Quest

Everywhere I went the search continued. Four years in California. I looked in the sea. Seven in Colorado. I looked in the mountains. In 1974 I even traveled to India for six months and looked there in the cities and the mountains. The pretext for the trip was to cover -- as a photojournalist forEast West Journal-- Kumbha Mela, a huge spiritual festival held only once every twelve years on the banks of the Ganges River. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus from all over India make a pilgrimage to Hardwar, a small town north of Delhi, and all try to bathe in the Ganges at the same auspicious moment. I was in India to search. Photographing and writing about monks, mystics, and myriads of spiritual sojourners was just a way to validate my own ethereal wandering.

One evening in the swarming marketplace of Bombay, weeks before I was due in Hardwar for Kumbha Mela, I was hard at work on my search. In Bombay at night, small fires of burning dried buffalo dung are omnipresent, and a hazy yellow-orange curtain hangs over the churning sea of night life. The smell is intoxicating. And the dals!