from book 1 : The Key Muscles of Yoga: Scientific Keys Volume I
- Through full-color, three-dimensional illustrations of the skeleton, major muscles, tendons, and ligaments, Dr. Ray Long describes the science behind yoga. A board certified orthopedic surgeon who has studied yoga for more than 20 years, Dr. Long combines his knowledge of anatomy with his understanding of yoga to present the anatomic structures that are key to your practice of this discipline. The book balances art, science, and spirituality as it traces the forces at work throughout your musculoskeletal system during yoga practice. Stunning illustrations reveal the role that each muscle plays in the practice of yoga. With an understanding of these structures, you can learn to break through blockages, optimize your experience, and avoid injuries. Designed for use on the mat, this book is an indispensable guide for anyone who wishes to fully integrate the body and mind during yoga practice.
from book 2 : The Key Poses of Yoga: Scientific Keys, Volume II
- Using detailed, full-color illustrations of the human muscu-loskeletal system, orthopedic surgeon and founder of Bandha Yoga, Dr. Ray Long, reveals the anatomical and physiological truths at the core of 55 fundamental poses of yoga. He examines the form of these poses from an anatomical perspective to reveal their unique function in the practice of yoga. With a stunning combination of graphic and textual information, Dr. Long illustrates the specific groups of muscles that work together to create optimal form in a given pose. By activating these muscles, you can learn how to deepen and stabilize a pose to obtain greater functional benefit. Demonstrating how muscles operate in the various categories of poses, the author helps you influence unconscious physiological responses with conscious biomechanical actions. Experience muscle awakening and in-creased body awareness as you engage more and more of your muscle groups during your yoga practice. This book will become your practice companion, as you integrate the science and art of yoga poses for maximum physical and spiritual benefit.
The book shows each muscle in the body separately, and believe me -there are more than you thought! The illustrations (computer generated) are very helpful and mind-opening.
This book takes anatomy seriously and is a valuable reference book.
I like the yoga anatomy book better than just a student's medical anatomy guide. The yoga reader can connect this to what is going on on the mat so much easier.
I bought two other books in this sequence and hope to refer to them more as I go through my teacher training as well as for my own practice.
I liked the fact that the author was trained by Iyengar. This adds some authencity to what he teaches .
I also like the author's blog at bandhayoga.com
Only recently I am learning and seeing the power of activating various bandhas, especially Uddhiyana bandha (abdomen bandha -- pulling the navel to the spine).
I’ve been practicing Yoga for decades and I am currently in a teacher training program. I highly recommend this book. The illustrations and explanations are easy to understand, yet scientifically exact.
A couple years ago, I had looked through "Yoga Anatomy," but it wasn't really what I had expected. I was searching around for other yoga anatomy-type books, and I saw the high reviews for this one. I purchased it, along with Volume 2, and WOW, I am SO impressed! I teach high school anatomy, so I have some anatomy background; this book helped me review what I know and helped build off that. For someone new to anatomy, I am guessing that this book is perfect as well--all of the information is so clear and well-explained. The pictures are awesome and really help you see the muscles and how they work--something that is very important during yoga (if you know where a muscle is and how it should be moving, it makes poses that much deeper).
Volume 1 focuses on the muscles--their actions, insertions, origins; what they do as a prime mover, their antagonists, and synergists. It shows key poses that use the muscle, ways to really awaken the muscle, and limitations that the muscle causes if it is tight. There is a really nice introduction at the beginning of the book to all of the vocabulary terms, in case you don't know what they mean. Along the way in the book, there are short quizzes that you can use to test your new anatomy knowledge. At the end of the book is some general yoga information on breathing, bandhas, chakras, etc. It's a really nice introduction to everything!
I'm excited to read Volume 2 next. The difference between the two books is that Volume 2 is the "Key Poses" of yoga, whereas Volume 1 is the "Key Muscles" of yoga. Just from flipping through Volume 2, I can tell that it'll be just as good as Volume 1!! These two books operate great as a set for anyone interested in expanding their knowledge for personal reasons, or learning because they plan to teach, or learning just because they are interested in anatomy.
There are also four other books in the line--"Yoga Mat Companion"--focusing on groups of poses (inversions/backbends, vinyasa flow, etc.). I'm definitely buying those next!
HIGHLY recommended!!!!
how they attach to other body areas. This book accurately explains why to so many questions!
and provides a clearer image within my mind of what I'm doing.
Great drawings and explanations.
Would buy again
It helps to have some background of anatomy when tackling this book. By the way, I would give it four stars for those not versed in anatomy as it can tend to be technical. But the illustrations alone are worth five stars and anyone who teaches yoga could benefit from the information in this book.
It may be that the book is for physical or massage therapists, or yoga teachers, but it's useful even for curious amateurs such as myself. It sits on our coffee table, I leaf through it every so often. Had I more time, I would work through the names and eventually memorize what moves this bag of skin and bones (and, of course, organs, nails, teeth and emotion). Even without, a hasty review can be helpful, as what's noticed remains in memory for at least a 90-minute yoga session.
I 'm Yoga Instructor and I was studing Anatomy and Biomechanic, but this book really add a lot of details to my practices.
Is an excelent and all day necesary guide to put near your mat.
Thanks !
highly helpful to integrate the knowledge in to the practice,
it's recommended start the study with
"The Key Muscles of Yoga: Scientific Keys, Volume I",
The illustrations are gorgeous, amazing graphic work of Chris Macivor.
They put all this information together in a friendly way
making the study so enjoyable.
I'm very grateful with this work, totally advisable.
Beyond that, I simply cannot rave enough about the groundbreaking, astounding digital images of the musculoskeletal structures that display the specific muscle agonists and antagonists being utilized in the asanas. What clarity! I spend a lot of time on anatomy websites like Get Body Smart and others, and this book's images take all of their images to the next level and complement the understanding of exactly which structures are being used, where they are in relation to the bones of their insertion and attachment points, and how the entire body should align.
What does this mean for the yoga practitioner? She/he can now consciously contract the right muscles while simultaneously relaxing the antagonist muscles within any pose to go deeper into the pose easily (by understanding reciprocal inhibition), and instructors can use this book as a valuable tool for teaching the fine alignment points that constitute the proper asana to help their students receive the full benefits from the pose.
I am enjoying this book thoroughly and strongly recommend it for anyone even remotely interested in yoga, anatomy, muscles, fitness, or just plain beautifully rendered digital images.
I'm really stoked on this and find it incredibly useful - a great book as an intro to anatomy for those wanting to learn in order to teach yoga or deepen their scientific understanding of practice.
Wow. Some books offer way too much in the way of exactly how a pose is supposed to work; you've seen them, the ones where they spend several pages going into great detail about every possible muscle twitch. (Dr. Long's other books do this, yes, but you're reading those books because you want to know how to fix that one last little kink in a pose, or how to get more out of it. That's an entirely different situation from figuring out how to get started.) Other books don't offer enough, so you give up after a while because you're not getting anywhere.
This book is just right. For the beginning yogi, or someone getting back into it after some time away, this is a terrific start. I'm finding that the poses feel better and I can hold them longer without a struggle. And I feel much better afterward; where I'd been thinking, what did I do that for, now, while I can't explain exactly how, I do feel a lot better.
Not every pose is detailed in here, but there's enough to get a good start on your practice. Thanks, Dr. Long.
The visual impact is overwhelming, and for the first time in my life i understand what things look like, their function and their possibilities.
The author does a marvelous job: this is definitely one of the best books i have ever owned.
Both books are in my top shelf and are never gonna come down. If it were smaller, or if i could find a kindle version of it, i'd be carrying it every time i leave on a trip.
Visualizing ALL that this book offers is worth to me infinitely more than its market price. Add to that a brilliant, clear explanation.. it doesn't get better than this.
dr. hope, naturopathic physician, educator, writer and practitioner.
I keep this book and its companion open on my coffee table for quick reference every morning. This provides me the opportunity to better visualize my movements and when I find a pose is harder to move into sometimes, I check the book to see which muscle might be the problem.
Many thanks to the author and illustrator for this series!
I keep this book and its companion open on my coffee table for quick reference every morning. This provides me the opportunity to better visualize my movements and when I find a pose is harder to move into sometimes, I check the book to see which muscle might be the problem.
Many thanks to the author and illustrator for this series!
Highly recommend this for the person new to either yoga, anatomy or both!