Online Resources
The Web and yoga make a nice match: yoga thrives on a spirit of service, and the Web welcomes no- (or low-) cost resources. After all, yoga's sacred texts have been around for centuries, if not millennium, so the original copyright has run out. I have listed these resources because they have been useful to me. I am a newcomer, so the list is incomplete, transitory and slanted towards the beginner. I plan on improving the list gradually, but it will never be comprehensive.
It's hard to be consistent across all the classification methods used to lay out these resources. A resource site may also sell props, books and CDs. A yoga studio's site might also serve as a specific approach or a teacher training program. An online store may also have reference articles. Hopefully, my explanations will clarify and enrich the selection. I make heavy use of the acronym tag to add clarity to some of the esoteric terms that predominate in yoga speak. Sanskrit is the source of most yoga terminology so lots of names are not familiar to the ear. Just float your cursor over the underscored text. I may also use an inline icon
to draw attention to additional information.
Special Sections
General
Yoga Portals
Sites have emerged that provide services like studio/teacher directories, online forums, and resources, but they are also generating cash flow by selling yoga props, CDs, books and other merchandise. Those sites that are exclusively retail are on my Tracks page. I am also trying to separate approaches and studios to other sections.
Traditions or Lineages
As practiced here in the United States, yoga is a relatively recent phenomenon and is quickly taking on its own characteristics. In most cases, it is hatha yoga, which refers to the physical poses.
- Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram: Krishnamacharya was the root of contemporary hatha yoga, having taught T.K.V. Desikachar, his son and leader of this school, plus B.K.S. Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois (See below). World of Yoga. The Heart of Yoga is the defining text of this tradition.
- Iyengar Yoga Resources and Forum ::: Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States (IYNAUS)::: IyengarYoga.org B.K.S. Iyengar has been a highly influential advocate of hatha yoga. His book Light on Yoga led many
- Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute: Pattabhi Jois is another influential force in modern yoga technique. Yoga Mala is his guide through the Sun Salutation and the 42 asanas that form the core of the Ashtanga system. Ashtanga Yoga ::: Ashtanga Yoga.info ::: AshtangaChola.de Also see Terry Slade's Ashtanga Links and Ashtanga.net blogs
- Saraswathi - Pattabhi Jois's daughter
- Manu - Pattabhi Jois's son who teaches around the world.
- Sharath - son of Saraswathi and Jois's teaching assistant.
- Integral Yoga - Satchidananda Ashram (better known as Yogaville, VA) ::: Integral Yoga Institute of New York ::: San Francisco - Sri Swami Satchidananda was the guru who blessed the Woodstock Festival in 1969. He passed on in 2002.
- Anusara: John Friend's American synthesis of yoga and tantric philosophy. Anusara means "flowing with grace" in Sanskrit. Also see Douglas Brooks's Rajanaka Yoga for the historical and pedagogical lineage of this thinking.
- Kripalu: both a yoga retreat/center in Massachusetts and a specific style of yoga that originated in the center.
- Bikram Choudhury: now infamous because of efforts to copywrite a sequence of yoga positions and force royalty payments, but still a popular approach that gets sweaty because the room is headed to 104 degrees. Program consists of a series of 26 asanas, performed in the same sequence.
- Kundalini yoga was brought to the States by Yogi Bhajan in 1969. It focuses on the controlled release of Kundalini energy. But I can't seem to find a site that really centralizes the school. Kundalini and 3H0 ::: Sri Swami Sivanandaji
- Classic Texts: As you might guess, there are many online copies of the classical yogic texts. Experts devote life times to understanding them.

Practitioners
Individual yoga instructors or their studios have additional content that might be of use to anyone learning yoga.
- Kelly McGonigal: Open Mind Open Body ::: I am taking a year-long e-mail/online yoga course from Kelly. Class Material 2006
::: Bulletin Board ::: My Chat
- Erich Schiffmann's Moving Into Stillness has a chapter of his book and other online resources. Check out his forum.
- Claudia Cummings .
- Bryan Kest's Power Yoga has a Southern California studio and a line of videos
- Beryl Bender Birch and her Hard and Soft Ashtanga Yoga Institute are at Power Yoga. She has several well-regarded books and is published regularly in Yoga Journal.
- Judith Hanson Lasater: In addition to her books, she has posted some additional writing.
- Richard Freeman's Yoga Workshop
- Cyndi Lee's OmYoga studio is located in NY City. She also has 20-some columns in Shambhala Sun, the Buddhist quarterly. She has also published several books.
- Amy Weintraub wrote Yoga for Depression: A Compassionate Guide to Relieve Suffering Through Yoga and a CD, Breathe to Beat the Blues, explaining pranayama applied to mood disorders. Don't be misled by the depression tag -- the book is really about how yoga generates vitality in our existence, taps into energy and alleviates human suffering. Amy has also set up an online forum.
- Jivamukti Yoga: Sharon Gannon and David Life led this influential (even trendy) center in NYC.
- Baron Baptiste, charismatic and intense as a teacher, is based in Boston, but teaches all over the country and the world. Power vinyasa yoga is what he calls his style.
- Darren Main, an SF teacher who has written several interesting books, including Yoga & the Path of the Urban Mystic. His site has a lot of insight.
Therapeutic Approaches
Not all these links are specifically yoga-related, but are different ways of dealing with bodywork and physical therapy. I probably should also include chiropractors and Chinese medicine (acupuncture), but they're a lot easier to find than the techniques below. If you are interested in specific illness or conditions, do a search in Yoga Journal for a start.
Magazines and Publications
Forums
Most forums will require prior registration to have full access. There are new kinds of online interactions, like the Tribe link below.
Blogs
You have to be dedicated, courageous and a bit exhibitionist to want to lay out your yoga practice in a blog. Writing about a physical and spiritual practice is a tall order because it takes time and frankness about one's personal life. You have to be careful to give the most accurate description of the practice or meditaiton or whatever, and it may be open to misinterpretation.
- Alan Little - also see his Ashtanga vinyasa yoga links and his photo of Pattabhi Jois, a real mean lookin' dude.
- Sri Ganesha Tea & Book Stall: NYC and Ashtanga yoga scene
- Julie's Lotus Garden: "A place to document my yoga practice. Grab a mat, drishti right in front of you. Maybe you will see the lotus grow." Julie records her progress in yoga and life.
- Facinginward: bearing her yoga practice and her parenting (among other joys), the AshtangaGirl blogs daily, it seems. I think she is Julie Kremer -- courageous.
- Practice, Practice, Practice: Ashtanga and everything in between.
- Flying Monkey - Ashtanga yoga practice by Jason
- Chiotissa's Bit by Bit including a summer in Mysore, practicing Ashtanga yoga with Jois.
- Diary of a yoga nobodhi: "For God to visit there must be nobody home" A journal of inner experiences in the life of an urban yogi...
- Everyday Yoga - Tyran Ormond is a LDS yogin.
- yogablog - stopped updating in February 2004
- days in my lives: An Ashtanga practice journal by okrgr, "a middle aged hacker trying to absorb the many lessons of Ashtanga yoga"
- The Yoga Room: thoughts and practice journal (no updates since May 2003)
- TranquiliT thoughts by Kimberly Wlson - the blog seems more like a draft of a book she's writing.
- YogaNerd: even in Texas, Sara can dig deep into experience -- yoga and other facets of life. She opened my eyes to Kundalini yoga.
- Mars Orange
- Yogalila: "A group of yoginis ranging in age from 26 to 60 and spanning the globe from Israel to North America to Hawaii. This blog will be a compendium of our yoga wisdom and experiences."