Weight-Resistance Yoga

HEALTH / FITNESS "In Weight-Resistance Yoga, author Max Popov blends weight training and yoga practice in a conscious manner. His attention to paying attention assures not only a well-sculpted form but also a finely honed mind." --Christopher S. Kilham, author of The Five Tibetans "This more meditative form of weight lifting seeks self-liberation through the mindful movements of the joints against resistance." --Yoga Journal Applying the wisdom of hatha yoga to weight-lifting exercises, fitness trainer Max Popov's Weight-Resistance Yoga reveals the path to transforming strength-training sessions into a mindful, calm, and meditative yoga practice. Fully illustrated instructions for 26 weight-resistance exercises offer tips for safely, effectively, and efficiently strengthening the neck, shoulders, arms, torso, hips, knees, and ankles using machines, free weights, and the body itself as resistance. Popov's guidelines for becoming fully absorbed in the body's movements against resistance--movements made within stillness and stability and coordinated with rhythmic breathing--point the way to performing the exercises with tranquillity. To support the contemplative state of this practice, Popov includes 20 themed meditations on the embodied experience of performing the exercises. The perfect complement to weight-surrender yoga (the yoga of flexibility postures), weight-resistance yoga (the yoga of strengthening exercises) allows you to become stronger, fully inhabit your body, empty your mind of everyday preoccupations, and fill your soul with comprehensions of deeper realities--creating a yoga practice that provides strength, attentiveness, serenity, and spiritual illumination. MAX POPOV is a fitness trainer and scholar of modern yoga. He began developing weight-resistance yoga in the late 1980s by applying the teachings of yoga master B. K. S. Iyengar to the strength-training teachings of famed 1920s Indian bodybuilder K. V. Iyer.

Preface: My Journey to Weight-Resistance Yoga

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Path of Weight-Resistance Yoga

Part One
Exercise Guidelines

1 Immersion

2 Safe and Efficient Effort

3 Stillness

4 Movement in Stillness

5 Great Effort

6 Accord and Acceptance

Part Two
Exercise Instructions

7 Exercises for the Shoulder Joint
Lat Pulldown
45-to-90-Degree Shoulder Press
Seated Low Row
0-to-90-Degree Front Raise
Standing High Row
Flat Bench Press

8 Exercises for the Elbow Joint
Standing Biceps Curl
Triceps Pushdown

9 Exercises for the Shoulder Girdle
Shoulder Pulldown
Shoulder Shrug
Shoulder Diagonal Pulldown
Shoulder Diagonal Raise

10 Exercises for the Trunk
(Vertebral Column and Abdominal Wall)
Back Raise
Side Bend
Ab Curl
Seated Twist
Neck Bends

11 Exercises for the Hip Joint and Pelvic Girdle
Bent-Leg Hip Extension
Hanging Knee Raise
Hip Abduction
Hip Adduction

12 Exercises for the Knee Joint
Prone Knee Curl
Knee Extension

13 Exercises for the Ankle Joint
Standing Heel Raise
Seated Heel Raise
Weighted Toe Raise


Part Three
Meditations

14 Meditations on the Shoulder Joint
On Expressiveness--Introduction to the Shoulder Joint
On Wholeness--Lat Pulldown
On Gravity--Shoulder Press
On Right Tension--Seated Low Row
On Harmony--Standing High Row

15 Meditations on the Elbow Joint
On Enchanted Space--Introduction to the Elbow Joint
On Energy--Standing Biceps Curl and Triceps Pushdown

16 Meditations on the Shoulder Girdle
On Fragility--Introduction to the Shoulder Girdle
On the Silent Sound--Shoulder Pulldown and Shoulder Shrug

17 Meditations on the Trunk
(Vertebral Column and Abdominal Wall)
On Mortality--Introduction to the Trunk
On Nonviolence--Back Raise
On Withdrawal--Ab Curl

18 Meditations on the Hip Joint and Pelvic Girdle
On Stability--Introduction to the Hip Joint and Pelvic Girdle
On Standing Up--Bent-Leg Hip Extension and Hanging Knee Raise
On Arrested Falling--Hip Abduction and Hip Adduction

19 Meditations on the Knee Joint
On Pain--Introduction to the Knee Joint
On Calmness--Prone Knee Curl and Knee Extension

20 Meditations on the Ankle Joint
On Motion--Introduction to the Ankle Joint
On Pleasurable Repetition--Standing Heel Raise,
Seated Heel Raise, and Weighted Toe Raise

21 Meditation on Savasana
On Contentment--Savasana

Notes

Index