Your Body, Your Yoga - Learn Alignment Cues That Are Skillful, Safe, and Best Suited To You by Bernie Clark (US edition, paperback) - 9780968766538

Your Body, Your Yoga goes beyond any prior yoga anatomy book available. It looks not only at the body’s unique anatomical structures and what this means to everyone’s individual range of motion, but also examines the physiological sources of restrictions to movement. Two volumes are provided in this book: Volume 1 raises a new mantra to be used in every yoga posture: What Stops Me? The answers presented run through a spectrum, beginning with a variety of tensile resistance to three kinds of compressive resistance. Examined is the nature of muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments, joint capsules, bones and our extracellular matrix and their contribution to mobility. The shape of these structures also defines our individual, ultimate range of movement, which means that not every body can do every yoga posture. The reader will discover where his or her limits lie, which dictates which alignment cues will work best, and which ones should be abandoned. Volume 2 will take these principles and apply them to the lower body, examining the hip joint, the knee, ankle and foot, and will present how your unique variations in these joints will show up in your yoga practice.AcknowledgementsHow to Read this BookForeword: The History of Teaching Alignment in AmericaTable of Contents for Volume 1: What Stops Me? Sources of Tension and CompressionIntentionsChapter 1: You Are Unique—So Is Your YogaRange of Human VariationsExamples of Human VariationsChapter 2: What Stops Me?TensionCompressionSensing Tension and CompressionFunctional Yoga versus Aesthetic YogaChapter 3: The Value of StressChapter 4: The Physiology of Our TissuesSources of TensionMusclesMyofasciaTendonsFasciaLigamentsThe Nervous SystemThe Immune SystemThe Wonder of WaterSources of CompressionBonesJoints and CartilageVolume 1 SummaryAppendix A: The Forms of StressAppendix B: Muscle Shapes and FunctionsAppendix C: The Myofascial MeridiansAppendix D: Facts About OsteoporosisAppendix E: The Types of JointsAppendix F: The Biomechanics of Joint MotionVolume 1 EndnotesTable of Contents for Volume 2: The Lower BodyIntentions1. The Bare Bones of YogaThe Planes of the Body2. The Joint Segments of the Lower BodyThe Hip JointFormThe Architecture of the Hip JointThe Bones of the Hip JointThe Joint Capsule and LigamentsMuscles of the HipThe Types and Ranges of VariationsFunction-Application in Yoga PosturesNormal Ranges of MotionSources of TensionSources of CompressionVariation in Ranges of MotionHip Joint Summary3. The Knee JointFormThe Architecture of the KneeThe Bones of the KneeThe Knee-Joint Capsule and LigamentsMuscles of the KneeThe Types and Ranges of VariationsFunction-Application in Yoga PosturesNormal Ranges of MotionSources of TensionSources of CompressionVariation in Ranges o