Pathways to a Centered Body 2nd Ed: Gentle Yoga Therapy for Core Stability, Healing Back Pain, and Moving with Ease

Yoga teachers Donna Farhi and Leila Stuart have joined forces to produce a definitive guide to centering the body, sharing their gentle, yet incredibly effective, approach to balancing body structure for optimal pain-free movement. This book demystifies the catch phrase "core fitness" and teaches you how to center your pelvis and find optimal spinal alignment as the foundation for true core strength and stability. Using easy-to-understand anatomical terms combined with exquisite illustrations, the authors unravel the complexities of the deepest core muscles, the psoas, to reveal its function as an extraordinary unifying structure for the entire body. In a step-by-step protocol, you'll learn how to release, balance, and engage your core muscles, and you'll learn how to safely improve your flexibility in Yoga practices without compromising pelvic and spinal stability. As deeply held tension is resolved, this work will help you to feel more grounded, mentally focused, and emotionally calm. Pathways to a Centered Body is an invaluable practical guide for Yoga and Pilates students and teachers, personal trainers, dancers, and athletes as well as physical therapists, chiropractors, and somatic practitioners, indeed, anyone who wants to live in their body with greater ease. With more than 108 color photographs, concise instructions, and rich experiential anatomy inquiries, this manual will be a requisite text for movement training programs worldwide.