In 1971 Yoga & Health was launched in the UK. Tied in with the broadcast of Richard Hittleman’s Yoga for Heath on ITV, the glossy magazine was a departure from the yoga books, newsletters and correspondence courses which preceded it.
Several of those I have spoken with as part of my research have told me that the magazine soon became a must-have for those who wanted to develop a home practice but maybe couldn’t (or didn’t want to attend in-person sessions. This was because the magazine contained a summary of the yoga instruction and teaching from the TV shows which had been broadcast that month.
While I will look at this relationship between the TV show, magazines (and other tie-in products) and people’s home practice in a later post, I wanted to share the titles of some of the articles which appeared in early issues of Yoga and Health including:
- Richard Hittleman – the new-style guru (No 1, P2)
- Are you a Yoga bore? (No 1, P36)
- How old is Yoga? (No 2, P28)
- Apres-Yoga: Fashion (No 4, P22)
- Shaping up to summer (No5, P20)
Regular features in the magazines (though they changed significantly over the next few years) also included:
- The Richard Hittleman TV Classes
- Yoga with Jan
- Starting a healthy kitchen
- Classic Poses of Yoga (pull-out posters)
- Book corner
Which, if any, of those articles/features jump out at you? Can you imagine them featuring in whatever your current magazine/website of choice for yoga info is?
If you were an early reader of the Yoga and Health magazine, what was it that made you buy it, and how did you use it? I’d love to hear in the comments.