Product Description

See inside every yoga pose! With clear, expert instruction and full-color, detailed anatomical drawings, Yoga Anatomy depicts the most common asanas to provide a deeper understanding of the structures and principles underlying each movement and of yoga itself.

From breathing to standing poses, see how each muscle is used, how slight alterations of a pose can enhance or reduce effectiveness, and how the spine, breathing, and body position are all fundamentally linked.

Whether you are just beginning your journey or have been practicing yoga for years, Yoga Anatomy will be an invaluable resource--one that allows you to see each movement in an entirely new light.

Author Leslie Kaminoff is a recognized expert and teacher in anatomy, breathing, and bodywork. He is the founder of The Breathing Project, New York City's premiere yoga studio dedicated to the teaching of individualized, breath-centered yoga practice and therapy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #527 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-20
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 221 pages

About the Author
Leslie Kaminoff has more than 20 years of experience and is an internationally recognized specialist in the fields of yoga and breath anatomy. He is cofounder and head instructor of the Breathing Project, a New York City-based yoga studio dedicated to the teaching of individualized, breath-centered yoga practice and therapy. He currently practices yoga therapy and teaches anatomy in New York City and Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and advises various yoga schools on the anatomy content of their national certification program. He has led workshops for many of the leading yoga associations, schools, and training programs in the United States, and he has helped organize international yoga conferences and symposia. Kaminoff is the founder of the highly respected international yoga list e-Sutra, and he has been a featured yoga expert in Yoga Journal and the New York Times, as well as online at WebMD, FOXNews Online, and Health.com. Kaminoff resides in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, with his wife, Uma, and their three sons.

About the Illustrator

Sharon Ellis has worked as a medical illustrator in New York for more than 25 years. Her award-winning illustrations have been exhibited at the New York Academy of Medicine, the Society of Illustrators, the Association of Medical Illustrators, the Rx Club, and the Spring Street Gallery in Soho. Ellis is a member of the Association of Medical Illustrators and has received the organization's Best Illustrated Surgical Book award. She was also awarded a grant from the New York Foundation of the Arts, and her work has appeared in many medical books and magazines. Ellis holds a master's degree in medical art from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and a master of fine art from the State University of New York. She resides in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Yoga Anatomy by Leslie Kaminoff, Amy Matthews, and Sharon Ellis
This was the book I had wanted to write myself!

Having read Strength Training Anatomy by Frederic Delavier when I studied for a Gym Instructor's course, (ironically so that I could go on an Exercise Referral course which I felt would help me when I teach Hatha Yoga to people who have problems;) I was certain there was a need for a similar book that would show clearly the major muscles involved in different asanas.

It is clear. The diagrams are excellent and it will help any hatha yoga teacher who is seriously interested in helping students who have particular physical problems.

Well done and many thanks. I will certainly be recommending it to my students.

Helen Lloyd Jones Cardiff Wales

An excellent body of work for regular yoga practitioners or medical professionals
This book strikes me as a labor of love - immense and incredible detail pours forth on every fully illustrated page.

Serious yoga practitioners will glean useful insights on joint actions, breathing, and the precise inner workings of their bodies, in poses from savasana to scorpion. Excellent color drawings show where your intestines curl up to in poses like shoulderstand (they take up a lot more room in the torso than we realize), what parts of the body hold up weight in inverted poses, and even what our illustrated musculature looks like from underneath, in, for example, turtle pose (the publishers photographed yogis underneath suspended glass slabs). There is a lot of neat stuff here.

The "Joint Action," "Working" and "Lengthening" paragraphs detail what parts of the body are under stress or responding to gravity. The arms, legs and spine are given extra attention.

"Obstacles and Notes" includes where one might feel restrictions, try variations or deal with bodily congestion.

"Breathing" offers tips on how the breath might be restricted and how to align each pose to more comfortably/fully breathe.

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION -

Beginners won't really know what to make of this book. Besides the "oh, cool!" factor, it's difficult to figure out what beginners could do with this information. It's not a pose book per se. It's not causal reading. It's a serious texbook for serious yogis.

While the top of each page provides both Sanskrit and English pose names, the text refers to the Sanskrit, forcing yoga beginners to fumble around between pages to catch what the references are.

Proper names of muscles, bones and tendons are used: if reading about adductors, flexors, rotators, erector spinae, multifidi and rhomboids that "work eccentrically" are confusing, this book might not be altogether helpful.

That said, this book is a must-have for the libraries of yoga instructors and yoga therapists. Doctors and medical professionals endorsing yoga for health/fitness will likely enjoy this reference tool.

Intermediate to advanced practitioners with a working knowledge of anatomy and Sanskrit names should find exploring Yoga Anatomy an - ahem - illuminating experience. :)

Yoga anatomy
I think it is very interesting to be able to know what your body is really doing while you move and stretch.