Yoga: A Gem for Women (Book Review)

If you’re a yoga practitioner, chances are you’ve come across Yoga: A Gem for Women.  It’s a book that most women yoga practitioners turn to, even if they are from other lineages.

There’s no single comprehensive resource that helps women understand how yoga can support fertility, pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and beyond. Reading this book when I was exploring my own health and trying to find solutions changed this book for me. It gave me a softer view of a woman’s health and taught me to  gave me a holistic view of how yoga nurtures women through all of it.

If you’ve followed my fitness journey, you know the long story of my unexplained infertility. I’ve spoken extensively about how yoga and other alternative healing methodologies helped me during that time. That’s when I turned to Yoga: A Gem for Women again, hoping to find a solution and some solace.

When Agi Wittich started a book club to read Gem again, I decided this was the perfect time to read the book cover to cover, something I hadn’t done before. Agi, herself a yoga practitioner, has also been influenced deeply by Geeta Iyengar’s teachings. You can watch our conversation about her pregnancy and postpartum experience, and the influence of yoga on her life.

A Book Ahead of Its Time

This book was ahead of its time. Today, we’re finally acknowledging that women are physiologically, hormonally, and psychologically different from men, and our health and wellness care needs to be modified accordingly. This understanding is fundamental to how yoga treats female practitioners. From the onset of menstruation, yogic traditions have prescribed certain practices depending on the menstrual cycle. For example, many yoga students will tell you that inversions and deep twists are off-limits during their period.  Here’s Rosa Santana telling me about how the yoga practice should be modified for pregnant women.

Geeta Iyengar’s book is a treasure trove of such wisdom.

Three Parts of the Book

The book is structured in a way that makes it easy to understand for practitioners of all levels, lineages and styles.

There are three parts:

Theory

Here she explores how and why yoga is ideal for women.  She speaks realistically, taking into consideration that women shoulder a lot of responsibilities that society puts on them. But she also speaks as a feminist, encouraging women to maintain and pursue good health so that they can be healthy for themselves.

She also speaks of the philosophical foundations of yoga, which gives readers a holistic view of yoga before moving on to the next sections.

Practice

Here Geeta Iyengar discusses the physical practice of yoga. This section is the heart of the book, and also the longest section. It contains detailed yoga sequences for women as well as sequences to address common health issues. I love that she has a sequence to practice for the four days post menstruation p89.

Experience

This is where she explores the deeper states of consciousness that become accessible to practitioners through the practice of pranayama and meditation. These are essential for mothers and mothers-to-be because they focus on calming down the nervous system and bringing the hormones into balance.

In addition to this there is an appendix full of photos of yoga postures that readers can to refer to when they read the asanas prescribed in the book. This is what sets this book apart – there are few books that are this detailed and at the same time have asana photos that are exhaustive. Today most yoga books are photo heavy and bulky, like coffee table books. This one has the right mix to make it useful for all serious yoga practitioners.

My Takeaways from Yoga: A Gem for Women

Takeaway #1: Yoga is for All Women

Geeta Iyengar begins by talking about the outer and inner beauty of women. Externally graceful and soft, but also firm, resilient, and enduring.

She writes:

This excerpt is from p 46 of Yoga: A Gem for Women

Yoga, she says, demands elasticity, and because women’s bodies are naturally elastic, the Creator has favored women with a body capable of yoga. She goes further — for women over 40, yoga can regenerate energy when the body’s recuperative power declines. For women on medication, yoga complements and counteracts side effects. For homemakers and sportswomen, yoga steadies the nerves, renews strength, and restores energy.

Takeaway #2: Practice Shifts with Life’s Phases

Yoga practice must evolve through menstruation, pregnancy, postpartum and menopause, because these phases have a dramatic affect on a woman’s body.

Geeta writes: “Yoga practice, however, is very personal, so the duration of asanas and the selection from the above programme should be made to suit the individual.” (p 92)

She recommends forward bends when feeling tense, but cautions against overexertion. She has different recovery sequences for normal and C-section deliveries. There’s even a dedicated menopause sequence focused on relaxation and calming the nerves.

Examples:

• Menstruation: Trikonasana, Parsvakonasana, Supta Baddhakonasana. Avoid inversions like Sirsasana and Sarvangasana.
• Pregnancy (first trimester): avoid Navasana and Urdhva Prasarita Padasana.
• Menopause: practice Sanmukhi Mudra, Maha Mudra, and Savasana.

Every woman’s yoga should be unique because every woman’s life is unique.

Urdhva Prasarita Padasana

 

Navasana or Boat Pose

 

Supta Baddhakonasana. The arms support the body from below and the fingers are holding the ankles. This variation gives a gentle opening to the spine.

Takeaway #3: Intense Practice is Good!

There’s a misconception that physical yoga practice wasn’t designed for women, and therefore women should avoid advanced asanas. Geeta Iyengar believed otherwise.

“Not only are they helpful in making the inner organs…” (p. 279)

Common Objections

“I’ve never done yoga before. I can’t even touch my toes.”
That’s okay. Don’t aim to do advanced asanas like headstands. Aim for the simpler ones, and eventually the more complex ones will also become accessible. Iyengar yoga is progressive, as your practice deepens so will you alignment and self-awareness.

“How do I know I’m doing it right?”
How do you know you’re not? That said, good teachers are difficult to find.  BKS Iyengar used to say that a good book is better than a bad teacher, and Yoga: A Gem for Women is the best book. Consider joining an online class. I love online classes, and I think there is one for everyone! In fact, I’d highly recommend my online yoga classes.

“If I can’t do the hard poses, will I still get results?”
Yes. Even simple asanas, practiced regularly and mindfully, will bring about change.

Final Thoughts

Yoga: A Gem for Women is an important resource for all women, regardless of what phase of life she is in. I have returned to it time and time again, and each time it’s given me more wisdom, more understanding and more yoga. I’d even go so far as to say it’s given me exactly what I’ve needed when I’ve needed it. I can’t recommend this book enough.