An estimated 16 million people currently practice Yoga and spend roughly 6 billion dollars annually on classes, products, and services in the United States. On the one hand, Yoga’s widespread popularity means that more people are being exposed to the potential benefits Yoga has to offer. And yet, Yoga has expanded over the decades to become a full-fledged industry of the contemporary marketplace, filled with so many producers, sellers, and consumers that they seem to outnumber the spiritual teachers, healers, devoted adepts, and practitioners. Yoga has become an unusual blend of ancient spiritual path from India and American commercialism, begging the question,

 “Is Yoga merely a fitness industry masquerading as spirituality?”

This issue is being discussed at Yoga magazines, retreat centers, studios and centers across the country. Yoga Beyond Fitness captures the story of American Yoga practice today, with special attention given to the issues confronting those who treat Yoga with reverence and wish to explore it as a receptacle of transformative power, for which it was originally intended.

Yoga instructor and social scientist Tom Pilarzyk helps us restore the transformative center at the heart of Yoga by showing how to bring greater intention, open-heartedness, and peace into our practice both on and off the mat. With personal stories and testimonials from students, teachers, and other professionals, Pilarzyk delivers a meaningful guide for staying true to the heart of Yoga. A valuable resource for further practice, the book also includes an extensive listing of national Yoga centers and a study guide with discussion questions at the back of the book.

For those just discovering Yoga or for those who have practiced for a while and feel that there is a deeper meaning readily accessible but not directly evident, this book is both a sober wakeup call about how Yoga is being transformed and a hopeful, heartfelt tribute to its highest aspirations.

As a December 2008 review in Yoga Chicago concludes, "Ultimately, Pilarzyk’s book is both a love letter to yoga and a plea to yoga’s leaders." Click on this link to read the entire book review: http://www.yogachicago.com/nov08/bookreview.shtml