Title: Yin Yoga: Stretch the Mindful Way
Author: Kassandra Reinhardt
Type: Nonfiction
Genre: Health & Fitness, Yoga, Body, Mind & Spirit, Mindfulness & Meditation
Imprint: Dorling Kindersley
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Date published: December 12, 2017
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 180
Source: Publisher

A physical copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

Return your physical, mental, and emotional selves to balance through yin yoga and its calming, healing approach.

Yin yoga offers a remedy to the stress and hustle of your busy yang life. By concentrating on restorative poses that target your deeper fascia and connective tissues, you’ll experience increased flexibility and improved joint health. Yin yoga also focuses on deep breathing and longer hold times, allowing you the time and space to clear your mind and enhance your mental acuity. These meditative poses will help you attain a renewed sense of mindfulness and physical well-being, making them the perfect complement to an active yang lifestyle and helping bring you back into balance. Yin Yoga assists you in this endeavor through the following:

• More than 50 step-by-step poses that focus on specific areas of the body
• 20 sequences linking the poses, designed to help readers reach specific physical, mental, or emotional goals
• Introductory information on the basic techniques and philosophies behind yin yoga, including correct breathing techniques, chakras and meridians, and how best to practice yin yoga

– MY REVIEW –

I only started practising yoga myself a few months ago, so do not consider myself an expert in the least. But I think that this would be a good book for beginners, and also those who have been doing yoga for a little longer, and who want to switch up their routine a little. This book features an About section at the beginning that explains what yin yoga is, and what it’s good for. Then the rest of the book is full of poses and sequences!

This is a paperback book, but the cover is rather thick, and well-made. The pages are also made of good quality, almost-glossy paper, which feel quite resistant. I like the colour schemes in this book, the images used, as well as the quality of the colour itself. I also like that there is text, but not too much text. Each pose and sequence have a little bit of an explanation (what the pose or sequence is best for, how to do this or that breathing technique, etc.), but the rest is all visual. There is also never only one photo to explain a pose, but rather a sequence of photos that clearly show how one gets from part 1 of a pose, to say part 3 (for example).

As I mentioned before, I’d only started practising yoga myself a few months ago. I started out with a DVD, which only featured a few poses, so that I could see how the instructor holds herself, how she shifts from one part of a position to another, and for how long she holds each pose. But I wanted to do more, so I switched to just using the pose cards that the DVD set came with, because they featured more poses. I’m familiar now, with the core poses of yoga, I think, but this book certainly featured some that I had never encountered before, which was nice.

I’m always wanting to challenge myself and make myself better (whether it be at work, or for something like a hobby), so this book was great for me in that regard. This is also why I said that I would recommend it for beginners and those with more experience in yoga alike.

– ABOUT THE AUTHOR –

Kassandra Reinhardt is an Ottawa-based yoga teacher and one of the world’s leading online yin yoga instructors. Her “Yoga with Kassandra” YouTube channel has served as the gateway for hundreds of thousands of people across the globe to discover the life-changing benefits of a consistent yin yoga practice. She’s been teaching yin yoga since 2012 and has completed 200- and 300-hour yoga teacher trainings as well as training in yoga therapy. You can practice with her online at www.yogawithkassandra.com. And you can also find her on Facebook and Instagram!