 | |
| Author | Mr. Yoga |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Hachette Book Group, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers |
Publication date | November 10, 2015 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 736 |
| ISBN | 978-1631910104 |
2,100 Asanas: The Complete Yoga Positions is a 2015 non-fiction book written by Mr. Yoga, Daniel Lacerda.
2,100 Asanas: The Complete Yoga Positions features 2,100 yoga poses, photographed in color by Lacerda. The models in the book are all yoga students of Lacerda. [1] [2] [3]
Yoga Journal reviewed the book. It reported Lacerda as saying that he had catalogued 8.4 million yoga poses mentioned in Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and that they had been revealed to him in a dream. He stated that 2,100 Asanas was the first edition, and that he was working on a second edition, to be called 50,000 Asanas. The article noted that Dharma Mittra's 1984 chart of 908 Asanas had, until Lacerda's book, been the measure of all the yoga poses that existed. [1]
The Washington Post calls it a "glossy, handsome coffee-table book", and so large as to be "either inspiring or totally daunting". It writes that the asanas range from "extremely simple" to "complicated and extreme" with lengthy names in English and Sanskrit. [2]
2,100 Asanas appeared in the health and fitness bestseller lists of the Toronto Star , the American Booksellers Association, and The New York Times , all in December 2015. [4]
Iyengar Yoga, named after and developed by B. K. S. Iyengar, and described in his bestselling 1966 book Light on Yoga, is a form of yoga as exercise that has an emphasis on detail, precision and alignment in the performance of yoga postures (asanas).
Lotus position or Padmasana is a cross-legged sitting meditation pose from ancient India, in which each foot is placed on the opposite thigh. It is an ancient asana in yoga, predating hatha yoga, and is widely used for meditation in Hindu, Tantra, Jain, and Buddhist traditions.
An āsana is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose, and later extended in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise, to any type of position, adding reclining, standing, inverted, twisting, and balancing poses. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali define "asana" as "[a position that] is steady and comfortable". Patanjali mentions the ability to sit for extended periods as one of the eight limbs of his system. Asanas are also called yoga poses or yoga postures in English.
Sun Salutation, also called Surya Namaskar or Salute to the Sun, is a practice in yoga as exercise incorporating a flow sequence of some twelve linked asanas. The asana sequence was first recorded as yoga in the early 20th century, though similar exercises were in use in India before that, for example among wrestlers. The basic sequence involves moving from a standing position into Downward and Upward Dog poses and then back to the standing position, but many variations are possible. The set of 12 asanas is dedicated to the Hindu solar deity, Surya. In some Indian traditions, the positions are each associated with a different mantra.
Downward Dog Pose or Downward-facing Dog Pose, also called Adho Mukha Svanasana, is an inversion asana, often practised as part of a flowing sequence of poses, especially Surya Namaskar, the Salute to the Sun. The asana is commonly used in modern yoga as exercise. The asana does not have formally named variations, but several playful variants are used to assist beginning practitioners to become comfortable in the pose.
Sarvangasana, Shoulder stand, or more fully Salamba Sarvangasana, is an inverted asana in modern yoga as exercise; similar poses were used in medieval hatha yoga as a mudra.
The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga is a 1960 book by Swami Vishnudevananda, the founder of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres. It is an introduction to Hatha yoga, describing the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. It is said to have sold over a million copies. It contributed to the incorporation of Surya Namaskar into yoga as exercise. While some of its subject matter is the traditional philosophy of yoga, its detailed photographs of Vishnudevananda performing the asanas is modern, helping to market the Sivananda yoga brand to a global audience.
Bakasana, and the similar Kakasana are balancing asanas in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise. In all variations, these are arm balancing poses in which hands are planted on the floor, shins rest upon upper arms, and feet lift up. The poses are often confused, but traditionally Kakasana has arms bent, Bakasana has the arms straight.
A backbend is a gymnastics, contortion, dance and ice skating move, where the spine is bent backwards, and catching oneself with the hands. Throughout the move, the abdominal muscles, obliques, and legs are used to steady the performer while curving backwards. Modern yoga includes some backbending asanas. Backbending can be acquired from intense training or genetics.
Vajrasana, Thunderbolt Pose, or Diamond Pose, is a kneeling asana in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise. Ancient texts describe a variety of poses under this name.
Yin Yoga is slow-paced style of yoga, incorporating principles of traditional Chinese medicine, with asanas (postures) that are held for longer periods of time than in other yoga styles. Advanced practitioners may stay in one asana for five minutes or more. As conceptualized in the Taoist and Dharmic traditions, the sequences of postures are meant to stimulate the channels of the subtle body, known as meridians in Chinese medicine and as nadis in Hatha yoga.
Dharma Mittra is a guru of modern yoga and a student of Swami Kailashananda.
Añjaneyāsana, Crescent Moon Pose, or Ashva Sanchalanasana is a lunging back bending asana in modern yoga as exercise.
Daniel Lacerda, also known as Mr. Yoga, is a New York Times best selling author. He is the founder of Mr. Yoga, Inc. The Mr. Yoga, Inc. office is located in Beverly Hills, California.
Light on Yoga: Yoga Dipika is a 1966 book on the Iyengar Yoga style of modern yoga as exercise by B. K. S. Iyengar, first published in English. It describes more than 200 yoga postures or asanas, and is illustrated with some 600 monochrome photographs of Iyengar demonstrating these.
Yoga as exercise is a physical activity consisting mainly of postures, often connected by flowing sequences, sometimes accompanied by breathing exercises, and frequently ending with relaxation lying down or meditation. Yoga in this form has become familiar across the world, especially in the US and Europe. It is derived from medieval Haṭha yoga, which made use of similar postures, but it is generally simply called "yoga". Academics have given yoga as exercise a variety of names, including modern postural yoga and transnational anglophone yoga.
Yoga the Iyengar Way is a 1990 guide to Iyengar Yoga, a style of modern yoga as exercise, by the yoga teachers Silva Mehta and her children Mira Mehta and Shyam Mehta. They were among the first teachers to be trained by B. K. S. Iyengar outside India.
The history of yoga in the United States begins in the 19th century, with the philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau; Emerson's poem "Brahma" states the Hindu philosophy behind yoga. More widespread interest in yoga can be dated to the Hindu leader Vivekananda's visit from India in 1893; he presented yoga as a spiritual path without postures (asanas), very different from modern yoga as exercise. Two other early figures, however, the women's rights advocate Ida C. Craddock and the businessman and occultist Pierre Bernard, created their own interpretations of yoga, based on tantra and oriented to physical pleasure.
Props used in yoga include chairs, blocks, belts, mats, blankets, bolsters, and straps. They are used in postural yoga to assist with correct alignment in an asana, for ease in mindful yoga practice, to enable poses to be held for longer periods in Yin Yoga, where support may allow muscles to relax, and to enable people with movement restricted for any reason, such as stiffness, injury, or arthritis, to continue with their practice.