Accessible Yoga

September 2, 2019
Yoga teacher Heyman, co-owner of the Santa Barbara Yoga Center, presents a practical, creative, and clear-cut approach to his discipline, aiming to make it accessible to people with different body types and physical concerns, including disabilities. Offering useful information for students and teachers alike, he covers basic principles of yoga and gives detailed instructions for different asanas, or poses, with modifications to suit various needs. For example, a chapter on the sun salutation provides variations for students unable to get down on the floor or put weight on their knees, with sequences that can be practiced in a chair (or wheelchair), on a mat, or lying in bed. Heyman’s guiding belief, he explains, is that yoga teachers should adapt the pose to the person, rather than the person to the pose. Other chapters walk readers through warm-ups, standing and balancing poses, backward and forward bending, inverting, and twisting, with helpful accompanying photographs. Heyman also takes care to point out that pranayama (breathing techniques) and meditation, though sometimes neglected by Western yoga classes, are vital to the practice, and accessible to most people. This user-friendly manual provides a welcome and valuable service in potentially opening the world of yoga up to an even wider population.