Rating: 
Summary: Increase your knowledge & improve your yoga
Review: A much needed approach to yoga! As a yoga teacher, I found this book to be extremely useful and I have referred beginning (and not so beginning!) students to at least read the "basic premises". As others have mentioned, the only drawback is it is not all easy reading and some may be put off by that. But even if you read excerpts throughout, you & your practice will benefit immensely from this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent reference book for teachers & students
Review: A much needed approach to yoga! As a yoga teacher, I found this book to be extremely useful and I have referred beginning (and not so beginning!) students to at least read the "basic premises". As others have mentioned, the only drawback is it is not all easy reading and some may be put off by that. But even if you read excerpts throughout, you & your practice will benefit immensely from this book.
Rating:
Summary: Anatomy of Hatha Yoga
Review: As a student and a teacher of yoga, I found this book extremely helpful. Not only does it give detailed information about how yoga affects the body on every level, it is full of good suggestions on how to build up to the more difficult poses. Variations on standard poses were also very helpful. I strongly recommend this for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the time-honored practice of yoga.
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Summary: An incredible reference for yoga teachers and students alike
Review: As a yoga student of less than two years, i have found this book to be invaluable. While very dense, easier to read as a reference than a novel, it contains rich details about the entire body's anatomy as it relates to yoga. You learn what muscles are used in countless poses, and how to deepen your practice to invigorate deeper tissues through more knowledgeable yoga. It also dwells on breathing and meditation.
It's a bit expensive, so you should be a committed yogi or yogini of any level before you spend the money. Keep it handy, read a bit here and there as you grow your own practice, and you will find yourself becoming more aware of your amazing body.
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Summary: Indispensable for yoga teachers and serious students
Review: As hatha yoga approaches the "Granola Standard" of public acceptance -- it's not just for aging hippies and health nuts anymore --there's a growing need for foundational work in the anatomic and physiological effects of the discipline. It may still be a while before our leading medical schools issue texts examining yoga in detail, so former anatomy professor and dedicated yogi H. David Coulter, Ph.D. has done them a favor (and they, along with every HMO, hospital, and preventive-care clinic in the country should order copies now). In this exhaustive guide to the ups, downs, twists and turns of most fundamental asanas (and a few advanced ones), Coulter tells you a lot more than your recently certified yoga teacher may know about exactly what's going on with your body during the yogic experience. (Yoga teachers, you should order now too!) And the author has the seasoning to issue knowledgeable warnings about the fact that, poorly practiced, yoga can certainly be bad for you: "Cultivate a frolicsome enthusiasm in the morning to counter stiffness, and cautiousness in the evening to avoid hurting yourself. And at any time, if you start feeling uncommonly strong, flexible, and frisky, be careful. That's when it?s easy to go too far."In these days when most books are more cheaply made than ever, it's nice to see a volume like this that's built to last; the glossy text paper gives the book the physical heft and authority to match the value of the content. The pricetag is what you're used to seeing on the latest computer books, but when you consider that this tome will be timely for years instead of months, it's a real bargain. -- P.MILLER for the FEARLESS REVIEWS
Rating:
Summary: enrich your understanding and practice of yoga
Review: Coulter's comprehensive book provides a new bridge between the empirical traditions of yoga science, and Western physiology and anatomy. He uses his deep knowledge of both sides of the divide to provide detailed accounts of what is happening during yoga asanas and pranayama breathing. While I had expected this to be useful in providing answers for questions that I, my colleagues and students have had, trying to fit yoga into a Western scientific context, I have been delighted to find that there is a feedback loop, with the Western analysis making it easier to maintain the detailed instructions I had previously learned from teachers and other books.
This is an impressively detailed and exhaustive book, including coverage of movement and posture, breathing, many categories of asana, and relaxation and meditation. In each case, the physiological information is linked to practice, and often different levels of the posture are discussed. The writing style is clear and informal. There are anatomical diagrams, charts of breathing patterns, and photographs of the poses, but this is a long way from the current trend towards thumbnail pictures of every stage of a pose.
In such a thorough and dense volume (over 600 pages in all) the major challenge is easy access to specific information when you need it. There are two indexes, by anatomical term and by specific practices, but I would have welcomed more context within the indexes (for example, to direct me to the most appropriate of 12 mentions of the synovial joint). I think my carping on this topic will diminish my familiarity with the content grows, as I use the book more over the months and years -- which I certainly intend to do. Highly recommended.
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Summary: a must-have for every yoga instructor
Review: Finally, a yoga book that explains hatha yoga from a physiological perspective based on medical science, yet balanced with respect for the tradition of yoga. I think this book has achieved this balance almost perfectly. Mr. Coulter obviously has a love and respect for yogic tradition, and has allowed this passion to inspire him to look at yoga from the view of medical science to invite those who are motivated by common sense and science to see the benefits of yoga that many of the rest of us have already discovered. Mr. Coulter's academic status as a professor of anatomy blended with his overall knowledge, education, and experience as a yoga practitioner make him the perfect author of this book. This should be a required textbook for all yoga instructors, and a useful tool for all serious practitioners.
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Summary: A wealth of information for the serious yogi
Review: I am a mostly casual yogini, probably at an advanced beginner to intermediate level, but I am always interested in expanding my knowledge and improving my form. As you can see from the reviews which precede mine, this book comes highly recommended, and I must add my own kudos. Author David Coulter has done an amazing job of breaking down a huge amount of scientific information on anatomy and communicating it in a readable, relevant form. In each chapter, Coulter first presents applicable anatomical concepts and then relates these concepts to specific posture groups. He frequently guides the reader through brief asana exercises to better illustrate particular areas of focus in the body; I found these exercises to be especially helpful. Clear black and white photos accompany many of the text's asana descriptions, and the various anatomical illustrations provide supplemental information. I admit that some of the more detailed anatomical discussions were well over my head, but this is due to my own shortcomings, not those of the author. Even with this limitation, I found this book to be extremely educational; yoga teachers and more advanced practitioners are likely to derive even more benefit from this comprehensive manual.
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Summary: the most useful guide to understanding yoga ever written
Review: I am both a psychophysiology researcher and a yoga teacher and this book does a better job explaining both the physiological processes and yogic practices than any other text I've read. I could not recommend this book highly enough for those yoga students and teachers who want to understand what exactly they are doing to their bodies during asanas and especially pranayama. This book does not wave hands and make vague claims or explanations like so many general-audience health of yoga books. My only complaint is that the author does not share the specific studies and sources he used to write the text (other than the knowledge acquired from his medical experience). Perhaps that is because this work is the first of its kind. If you are teaching yoga now, you should read this book from start to finish as many times as necessary to assimilate the incredibly udeful information. That's what I'm trying to do now!
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Summary: "So that's how it works![.]"
Review: I first saw this book after a yoga class, in the bookstore of Piedmont Yoga Studio. As I flipped through the pages... great paper stock[!]...I became totally intrigued by the science of what I generally considered to be a spiritual practice.
It isn't easy reading, but if you really want to know the "bones" about why yoga is so beneficial, then this IS your book![.]
The author does a fabulous job of explaining just about everything you will ever need to know about muscle groups and what groups are affected in the practice of yoga.
I have many other books and I use them frequently in my practice, but this is one everyone, who takes yoga seriously should have. Arkangel
Traven8@hotmail.com
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