Yoga RX: A Step-By-Step Program to Promote Health, Wellness, and Healing for Common Ailments

Amidst a superfluity of enthusiastic but unspecialized ""yoga-is-good-for-you"" books, this volume stands out by focusing on yoga therapy, a system of using yogic exercises to relieve pain and sickness. The chapters are organized by anatomical system (musculoskeletal, circulatory, endocrine) and describe a sequence of poses to benefit each one. Usatine, a professor at UCLA's medical school, stresses that yoga therapy is a complement to traditional medical care; he begins each section with easy-to-read overviews of human anatomy and physiology, bolstered by practical advice on both Eastern and Western methods of treating ailments. The clarity and confidence of the yoga directions testify to Payne's many years as an instructor. But learning yoga from a book is difficult, and the novice would likely find this particular volume less forgiving than most. The photographs are fairly small, and for the most part, two must suffice for illustrating a multi-step pose. However, for those who practice yoga on a regular basis (and therefore won't need to parse out sun salutation's complex postures) and would like to refine their routines to improve their health, this book may prove a very valuable resource.