The Yoga Body

The general take

Ido Portal sees "The Yoga Body" as a valuable reality check that challenges how people practice yoga today. He appreciates that the book reveals yoga's actual history—showing how Western gymnastics and other influences shaped modern practice, contrary to the idea that it's purely ancient asana work. Portal views it as potentially disruptive to people's current yoga habits, but in a worthwhile way.

About

Yoga is so prevalent in the modern world--practiced by pop stars, taught in schools, and offered in yoga centers, health clubs, and even shopping malls--that we take its presence, and its meaning, for granted. But how did the current yoga boom happen? And is it really rooted in ancient Indian practices, as many of its adherents claim? In this groundbreaking book, Mark Singleton calls into question many commonly held beliefs about the nature and origins of postural yoga (a sana ) and suggests a radically new way of understanding the meaning of yoga as it is practiced by millions of people across the world today. Singleton shows that, contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence in the Indian tradition for the kind of health and fitness-oriented asana practice that dominates the global yoga scene of the twenty-first century.

Who said what

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  Ido Portal💬 Mentioned

  …discussing how yoga has been shaped by western influences over time

  “For example, yoga. There is a good book called The Yoga Body, which will destroy a lot of people's yoga practice. And it goes into, how did we get to this yoga? The influence of Swedish gymnastics and Mongolian contortionists. Western, the West affecting it. And then the ancient practice, which was barely asana related.”

  Huberman Lab — Essentials: The Science & Practice of Movement | Ido Portalat 34:14

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