Ashtanga Flash Cards (Primary Series) Hardcover – November 28, 2008

I love this deck - it is exactly what it is...a deck on the Ashtanga practice poses - I see reviews that unfairly reduces the marks this deck should receive because they “wanted more of the common poses” or “less advanced poses” - do your homework before ordering something and especially before leaving a review - this is a deck of the Ashtanga poses and accomplishes what it was designed to do

These cards are not as nice as other yoga cards I've seen. They are simple glossy coated card stock, but are not laminated. They are not as durable as I expected for the price: mine arrived already dog-eared, and there is no storage box. They are also quite expensive for the quality, IMO.The photos of the asanas, while attractive, do not illustrate some important aspects of the poses (e.g. foot position, as another reviewer has pointed out). This is a somewhat minor nit, as no cards could be a complete teaching tool in this regard; you'll need a teacher, and/or a book such as Maehle's  Ashtanga Yoga: Practice and Philosophy .But where I wanted to use these cards simply to memorize the Mysore Ashtanga sequence, which would seem to be their primary use, they fail miserably. The reverse side of the cards is orange with white text in a poorly chosen type-face. All that is listed is the Sanskrit name of the asana and a simple translation to english. The text is, in my opinion, far too small and there is too little contrast between text (white) and the background color (orange) to be useful... granted I'm at the age where I need reading glasses now, but I'm still dumbfounded how underutilized the back of the cards is. I would have really liked to see some information on the reverse side about the asana count, transitions between the postures, and notes on proper breathing. Because the back side is glossy orange there is no good way to include you're own such notes on the asanas... even if you wanted to mark up the deck that cost you almost twenty bucks with a sharpie it probably wouldn't be very legible.It's really too bad these cards aren't nicer as there are no alternative flashcards I can find to aid in the memorization of the Ashtanga sequence. If these cards were priced at less that five bucks I'd have been much less critical, but the value to price ration is just way off here.In summary, I just can't understand all the glowing reviews... yes, there are pretty pictures of the asanas... but the photos lack some important detail... the cards themselves are not durable and are vulnerable to moisture (sweat) as they aren't laminated... there is no descriptive text other than the name of the asana, and this is in a small thin, low-contrast typeface.FAIL.

I bought these cards thinking that I could use the pictures to play children's games, but most of the poses, although beautifully photographed, are too advanced for children. (As a matter of fact, they're also too advanced for me, and I'd consider myself more intermediate than beginner!) There's no description how to come into and move out of poses, and it's hard to tell in some of the pictures what posture the feet/ legs are in. It also appears that there are pictures of stage I and II of a particular pose, but again, there's nothing written about it except the name of the pose in Sanskrit. I was disappointed when I bought it because I figured that if I couldn't use the pictures for children's games, I could use them in adult classes--but the poses are too advanced for most adults as well. I would not recommend these.

I LOVE these cards. We give them to our yoga teacher training students to assist with the memorization of the Primary Series and also with help in learning the Sanskrit names of each pose. I've purchased many of these cards over the year and everyone loves them!! Great quality and I love that they come on a ring. The cards can be removed from the ring and my students lay them down on the floor as they learn the sequence. I'd give it more stars if that were an option! They are a little pricey but I feel like it's completely worth it!

These would have been great if the lettering was much larger. Sad I have to wear glasses just to review.

I bought these because I still need to cheat sheet Mysore practice (sorry guruji if I am a slow learner) and I have to use 'readers' -- so I thought this would be a perfect solution... and the cards are great, laminated, on a ring loop... but the thing is, if I get off sequence or forget what posture is next, I have to stop and flip through the cards -- and that's not what I want. I think I can use these at home OR to help memorize the sequence.

These are great cards. They're bound in a ring, so you can remove some poses you can't do yet, or reorder if you're feeling wild and crazy! There's one flaw, though. In some poses, you can't see what the model is doing with his feet, which makes all the difference in janu shirshasana, for instance. I found myself making notes on some of the cards, so that I have the poses in the correct order. Even if it would be unreasonable to have a photo that showed his foot position, a note on some of the poses would have been helpful for those of us still learning.