HEALTH & MEDICINE

Accessible Ashtanga: An All-Levels Guide to the Primary and Intermediate Series

Shambhala. Aug. 2024. 240p. ISBN 9781645470816. pap. $29.95. HEALTH
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Omstars yoga TV network founder MacGregor (Act of Love) integrates her long history as a yoga practitioner with the work of body liberation in a book that respects yoga’s history and complex lineages while gracefully reshaping aspects of the practice. Her recognition that yoga can be made accessible for all bodies through student-centered approaches was inspired by her own knee-replacement surgery, which made her consider the barriers—visible and invisible—that have historically made Ashtanga yoga’s benefits inaccessible to a wide audience. Ashtanga is typically a vigorous and continuous sequence of poses and breathwork, but MacGregor demonstrates how to make it inclusive. The 250 color photos show the author in full asana sequences as well as models demonstrating how to modify or individualize the poses for newcomers or people with physical disabilities.
VERDICT This valuable addition to the literature on inclusive fitness is a carefully conceived and well-laid-out guide to Ashtanga yoga. It encourages practitioners of all levels to view yoga as a key to unlocking their bodies, changing a practice that might previously have been closed to them because of their race, gender, class, ability, or size.
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