Hell-Bent: Obsession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga

Hell-Bent: Obsession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga
ISBN-10
1250017521
ISBN-13
9781250017529
Category
Health & Fitness
Pages
320
Language
English
Published
2012-10-30
Publisher
St. Martin's Press
Author
Benjamin Lorr

Description

Author Benjamin Lorr wandered into a yoga studio—and fell down a rabbit hole Hell-Bent explores a fascinating, often surreal world at the extremes of American yoga. Benjamin Lorr walked into his first yoga studio on a whim, overweight and curious, and quickly found the yoga reinventing his life. He was studying Bikram Yoga (or "hot yoga") when a run-in with a master and competitive yoga champion led him into an obsessive subculture—a group of yogis for whom eight hours of practice a day in 110- degree heat was just the beginning. So begins a journey. Populated by athletic prodigies, wide-eyed celebrities, legitimate medical miracles, and predatory hucksters, it's a nation-spanning trip—from the jam-packed studios of New York to the athletic performance labs of the University of Oregon to the stage at the National Yoga Asana Championship, where Lorr competes for glory. The culmination of two years of research, and featuring hundreds of interviews with yogis, scientists, doctors, and scholars, Hell-Bent is a wild exploration. A look at the science behind a controversial practice, a story of greed, narcissism, and corruption, and a mind-bending tale of personal transformation, it is a book that will not only challenge your conception of yoga, but will change the way you view the fragile, inspirational limits of the human body itself.

Get the book

Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Search the book
eBay.com
eBay.com
Search the book

Other editions

Similar books

  • ADHD is Not a Four Letter Word: Drug Free Strategies for Managing the Gift that is ADHD
    ADHD is Not a Four Letter Word: Drug Free Strategies for Managing the Gift that is ADHD
    By Karen Ryan

    ... John F. Kennedy Justin Timberlake Karina Smirnoff Kurt Cobain Liv Tyler Magic Johnson Malcolm Forbes Melissa Joan Hart Michael Phelps Michelle Rodriguez ...

  • Breastfeeding and Human Lactation
    Breastfeeding and Human Lactation
    By Karen Wambach, Becky Spencer

    Although the gifts might be smaller, these practices are still in use by formula companies today ( Fortin, 2007; Tanovic, 2014). In the United States, ...

  • Freedom from Obesity: Unlock Your Combination to a Healthy Weight
    Freedom from Obesity: Unlock Your Combination to a Healthy Weight
    By Karen Warren Locklear

    If you've lost sight of the dream of ultimate health and wellness, and you never again want to experience the dieting roller coaster, this book will empower you to understand that being lean and fit starts from the beauty within your mind.

  • Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine
    Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine
    By Andrew Chevallier

    With its jargon-free text, fantastic photography, and focus on safety, this guide enables ease of understanding no matter what your level of herbal expertise.

  • Clean House Clean Planet
    Clean House Clean Planet
    By Karen Logan

    Casey Kitty's Litter Box Deodorizer Casey the Kitty is my daughter Sophie's favorite cat; she belongs to our neighbor, Laurie. We can't have cats because Sophie's daddy is allergic to them. Casey is a most friendly cat and willingly ...

  • Nutrition Research: Concepts & Applications
    Nutrition Research: Concepts & Applications
    By Karen Eich Drummond, Alison Murphy-Reyes

    by S.M. Robson, S.C. Couch, J.L. Peugh, K. Glanz, C. Zhou, J.F. Sallis, and B.E. Saelens, 2016, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 116,988. Reprinted with permission of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 6.

  • Therapy and the Postpartum Woman: Notes on Healing Postpartum Depression for Clinicians and the Women Who Seek Their Help
    Therapy and the Postpartum Woman: Notes on Healing Postpartum Depression for Clinicians and the Women Who Seek Their Help
    By Karen Kleiman

    At least 10–20% of mothers will suf- fer from postpartum depression (Kumar & Robson, 1984), defined officially as a major depressive episode that has an onset within 4 weeks postpartum, according to the fourth edition of the Diagnos- ...

  • Nutrition for Brain Health: Fighting Dementia, Second Edition
    Nutrition for Brain Health: Fighting Dementia, Second Edition
    By Laura Town, Karen Hoffman

    ... L., Smith, M., & Segal, R. (2020). Stress management. HelpGuide. Retrieved from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-management.htm Robson, D. (2015). Dos and don'ts to preserve your brainpower. BBC Future.

  • Breastfeeding and Human Lactation
    Breastfeeding and Human Lactation
    By Karen Wambach, Becky Spencer

    Another group of studies report that breastfeeding does not appear to influence resumption of coitus, coital frequency, and other indices of sexuality (Grudzinskas & Atkinson, 1984; Knodel & Chayovan, 1991; Robson et al., 1981) What do ...

  • Backbone: Living with Chronic Pain without Turning into One
    Backbone: Living with Chronic Pain without Turning into One
    By Karen Duffy

    Buff's dog Gibson was a Golden Labrador Retriever puppy, a hair-raising furball of energy who was inflicted on our family for a year. Gibson went through a chewing phase that lasted ...