Richard Hittleman’s Yoga: 28-Day Exercise Plan
by Richard Hittleman

When I first got involved in yoga over thirty years ago, I didn’t how to practice at home. I’d taken a couple of classes, but knew very little about how to exercise on my own. This was long before videotapes and DVD’s. I discovered this book, and it was exactly what I was looking for. When a client comes to me, and expresses an interest in yoga, I recommend this book.

As its title suggests, it’s a 28-day yoga plan. Every day, you have certain postures that you do. Each fourth day, you review what you’ve learned. The postures are explained step-by-step, and you’re taken through them from a beginner’s perspective and flexibility. At the end of each day, there’s an essay about some aspect of yoga. Some of the titles of these essays: “What is yoga,” “Yoga nutrition,” “Arthritus,” “Weight regulation,” and “Exercising the organs and glands.”

The author claims that this is an “accelerated method of instruction that now enables any serious student to learn and practice 38 Yoga exercises within a four week period.” I can attest to the truth of that statement. At the end of the 28 days, he’s compiled the exercises into three daily routines that you rotate.

Even now, many years later, I still keep and use this book as my main reference for yoga. To this day, despite owning many other books on this subject, I model my routines around the postures from this simple book.

Although I have many books on yoga, this is the one I refer to the most. I find the postures explained well and the instructions easy to follow. Even though, over the years, I’ve created my own routines, it’s based on what I learned from this gem of a book.