The Harvard Medical School Guide to Yoga: 8 Weeks to Strength, Awareness, and Flexibility

by Marlynn Wei MD, James E. Groves MD

Overview

An Easy, Accessible Yoga Program for Health & Wellness

Are you looking for a new health practice to enhance your day-to-day routines? Have you been interested in trying out yoga, but are too intimidated by the seemingly fancy and challenging poses? The Harvard Medical School Guide to Yoga is your guide to the true healing heart of yoga, sharing the techniques that Marlynn Wei and James Groves have used to tremendous success with their clients. In this simple, science-based eight-week program, you'll learn about the countless benefits of this proven practice, including:

• Increased flexibility and balance
• Greater muscle and bone strength
• Improved sleep
• Better stress management and resilience
• Strengthened immune system
• Enriched brain health
• And much more!

Complete with illustrations, dozens of yoga breathing and meditation techniques, adaptable sequences, and principles of yoga safety, The Harvard Medical School Guide to Yoga will guide you to health and wellness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738219363
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	06/27/2017
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	497,054
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Marlynn Wei, MD, JD, is a board-certified psychiatrist, certified yoga teacher, and writer. She began practicing yoga in 2008 during her residency training at Harvard Medical School and completed her 200-hour Yoga Alliance teacher certification. Dr. Wei integrates principles of yoga into her work with clients with anxiety and depression, using a holistic approach of psychotherapy, meditation, yoga, and mindfulness.

James E. Groves, MD, is a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. A psychotherapist for more than four decades, he practices psychotherapy, supervises psychiatry and psychology trainees, and offers tutorials in literature and psychiatry.

marlynnweimd.com harvardguidetoyoga.com

Table of Contents

Disclaimer xi

Cautions on Rapid or Forceful Yoga Breathing xi

Cautions on Hot Yoga xii

Reference List xiii

Chapter 1 Why Do Yoga? 3

Benefits of Yoga 4

Our Stories 8

How to Use This Book 11

How Can I Figure Out the Right Style of Yoga for Me? 12

How Do I Find a Yoga Teacher? 17

Chapter 2 Historical Frameworks of Yoga 19

Eight Paths of Classical Yoga 19

Historical Approaches to the Human Body 23

Chapter 3 The Modern Science of Yoga 35

The Rapid Rise of Scientific Yoga Research 36

The Problem of Stress 37

The Mind-Body Connection and Relaxation Response 39

Yoga Improves Flexibility and Balance 40

Yoga Builds Muscle and Bone Strength 40

Yoga Improves Heart Health 41

Yoga Helps with Weight Management 42

Yoga Helps You Sleep Better 43

Yoga and Brain Health 45

Yoga Changes Neurotransmitters 45

Yoga Boosts Natural Antioxidants 46

Yoga Reduces Inflammation, Strengthens Your Immune System 47

Yoga Protects Our DNA 48

Chapter 4 Build Your Foundation 53

Awareness 54

Nonjudgmental Attitude 55

The Present Moment 56

Self-Compassion 56

A Beginner's Mind 56

Intentions 57

Expectations 57

Resilience 58

Trust 58

Self-Acceptance 58

Your Personal Path 59

Chapter 5 How to Prevent Yoga Injuries 61

General Tips to Prevent Injuries 61

How to Protect Your Joints 69

What If I Have an Active Medical Condition? 72

Rare but Serious Injuries 73

Chapter 6 Breathe More, Breathe Better: Yoga Breathing (Pranayama) 77

Models of Yoga Breathing 78

Yoga Breathing Components 79

The Science of Breath 81

Cautions for Yoga Breathing 84

Seated Posture 85

Yoga Breathing Techniques 86

Common Problems with Yoga Breathing 99

Chapter 7 Roll Out Your Mat: Yoga Poses (Asanas) 103

Core Principles of Yoga Poses 104

Equipment 108

How to Get Started 109

Starting Poses 109

Warm-up Poses 115

Arm Support Poses 122

Forward Bend Poses 128

Standing Poses 137

Twisting Poses 150

Balancing Poses 158

Backbend Poses 169

Hip Opener Poses 185

Cool-Down Poses 195

Chapter 8 Deepen Your Practice: Muscle Locks (Bandhas) and Hand Expressions (Mudras) 211

Muscle Locks (Bandhas) 212

Hand Mudras 219

Chapter 9 Learn How to Meditate (Dhyana) 229

What Is Meditation? 230

Why Meditate? 230

What's the Science Behind Meditation? 233

How Do I Get Started? 234

What If I'm Too Busy to Meditate? 236

Is Meditation for Everyone? 237

Meditation Techniques 237

Chapter 10 Putting It All Together: Our 8-Week Yoga Program 255

General Structure of Yoga Pose Sequence 255

Our 8-Week Yoga Program 260

Week 1 Grounding 260

Week 2 Compassion 263

Week 3 Strength 264

Week 4 Energy 266

Week 5 Resilience 269

Week 6 Balance 270

Week 7 Stress Relief 271

Week 8 Gratitude 273

Beyond Our 8-Week Program 275

Appendix A Yoga for Specific Health Conditions 277

Physical Conditions 277

Psychological Conditions 285

Appendix B Yoga and Pregnancy 293

Acknowledgments 299

Notes 301

Index 311

Editorial Reviews

"The Harvard Medical School Guide to Yoga is a wonderful addition to the yoga library that helps bridge the gap between East and West. The yoga world has to clean up its act in order to find its deserved place in the world of medicine, and this manual is a necessary step. The practices and research are sound."
—Rodney Yee, internationally renowned yoga instructor

"Every so often a manual emerges from the sea of 'how-to' yoga books and startles by virtue of its eminent accessibility, its breathtaking comprehensiveness, its scientific underpinnings, its remarkable clarity, and its immediate applicability. Dr. Marlynn Wei and Dr. James Groves's The Harvard Medical School Guide to Yoga is just such a manual. Inspired and inspirational, this book includes a treasure trove of easy-to-follow illustrations of numerous yoga poses; it will be an invaluable resource for all students of yoga interested not only in toning their body and reducing their stress but also, more generally, in evolving their health to ever-higher levels of mental, physical, and spiritual well-being."
—Martha Stark, MD, author of Relentless Hope: Refusal to Grieve and six other award-winning integrative psychiatry books

"Wei and Groves are reaching out to you, inspiring, coaxing, and above all informing about the path you can take for health and wellness of your inseparable body, mind, and soul. The lessons contained herein are encyclopedic in scope, but the message is of a journey that lies ahead for you, within you, accessible and transformative. Whether needed to enhance well-being and facilitate recovery for those who suffer or are ill or just make this one life at once more peaceful, reflective, calm and energetic, The Harvard Medical School Guide to Yoga can be your itinerary."
—Jerrold F. Rosenbaum, MD, chief of psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital; Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

"Marlynn Wei and James Groves have done the public a great service. They are physicians who've learned by acquaintance how yoga can be a powerful aid to health. Consequently, they have produced a thorough and very accessible guide replete with tables and summaries and simple drawings, which leaves the reader with an excellent grasp of this particular pathway to wellness."
—Gregory L. Fricchione, MD, director, Benson Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School

"It is amazing to me that yoga has become popular enough that professors at Harvard Medical School would publish a book on the subject. Giving people more information and helping them find their way is what I see as being the great purpose of a book on the subject of yoga. Blessings to Marlynn Wei and James E. Groves for helping make this Divine Knowledge available to you, and may all achieve success in yoga."
—Sri Dharma Mittra, creator of the Master Yoga Chart of 908 Postures

From the Publisher