This title features a practical, easy-to-follow yoga course, with stage-by-stage visual guidance and postures especially chosen for beginners and intermediates. Learn how to tone the muscles, acquire suppleness, stimulate the circulation, improve posture and benefit overall health. Use this expert book to build up your yoga sequences over time, with therapy sessions for problem areas. Calm the mind, increase concentration and relieve stress with the beneficial powers of yoga. The book shows over 100 yoga sequences in step-by-step detail, in more than 500 specially-commissioned colour photographs. It explains the origins and philosophy of Iyengar yoga, the most widely practised form of yoga, giving advice on how to begin, when to practice and what equipment you will need. The classic asanas are grouped into type for easy reference and graded by difficulty, with modified variations to suit all levels of fitness and flexibility. The chapter on sequences demonstrates a series of routines that will build up into a personalized daily and monthly practice plan. There are also sequences to follow for certain times and conditions of your life that will benefit illnesses and common problems, such as headaches, backache and arthritis. Written and presented by Judy Smith, a highly experienced teacher, "Essential Yoga" combines expert guidance with over 500 specially-commissioned inspirational and practical photographs to create the perfect yoga manual for all ages and abilities.