Your Body, Your Yoga

Produktbeschreibung

"More important than knowing what kind of pose the student is doing is knowing what kind of student is doing the pose."

There is a revolution occurring in yoga today around the alignment paradigm. The concept of one and only one ideal alignment for each yoga posture, taught through an aesthetic focus on how the student looks in the pose, is being replaced by a functional approach that acknowledges not only the intention of the posture but each studentâ€Ös unique biology and biography. In parallel, the paradigm of focusing on the muscles as the limiters and causal agents of movement is being replaced by a broader understanding. The role of fascia is being recognized and incorporated into yoga classes and trainings. Beyond muscles and fascia, there is a wide spectrum of causes for and resistance to motion, ranging from various sources of tension to the qualities of compression.

Your Body, Your Yoga is the first book in a series describing the many contributors to limitations in our yoga practice. This book looks at the lower body, and the variety of shapes, movements and potential restrictions to movement in the hips, knees, ankles and feet. Introduced are the causes of resistance to movement, the frequency, extent and consequences of human variation, and their implications for our yoga practice. While short, tight muscles can restrict movement, there are many reasons for a lack of mobility. The causes can be cast into a gradient, called the “What Stops Me? Spectrumâ€�: fascia, ligaments and joint capsules can be tight and tense, while compression arising from the body contacting other parts of the body will also impede movement. How these tissues develop their tension may be due to actions of our nervous or immune systems, or it may be due to our inherently unique body structure. Compression is the ultimate limiter of movement and is variable, depending upon a studentâ€Ös individual skeletal structure. All students are unique to varying degrees, and this individuality determines their ability and progress in their yoga practice and its benefit for them. 

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements
How to Read this Book
Foreword: The History of Teaching Alignment in America

Table of Contents for Volume 1: What Stops Me? Sources of Tension and
Compression
Intentions

Chapter 1: You Are Unique—So Is Your Yoga
Range of Human Variations
Examples of Human Variations

Chapter 2: What Stops Me?
Tension
Compression
Sensing Tension and Compression
Functional Yoga versus Aesthetic Yoga

Chapter 3: The Value of Stress

Chapter 4: The Physiology of Our Tissues
Sources of Tension
Muscles
Myofascia
Tendons
Fascia
Ligaments
The Nervous System
The Immune System
The Wonder of Water
Sources of Compression
Bones
Joints and Cartilage

Volume 1 Summary
Appendix A: The Forms of Stress
Appendix B: Muscle Shapes and Functions
Appendix C: The Myofascial Meridians
Appendix D: Facts About Osteoporosis
Appendix E: The Types of Joints
Appendix F: The Biomechanics of Joint Motion
Volume 1 Endnotes

Table of Contents for Volume 2: The Lower Body

Intentions
1. The Bare Bones of Yoga
The Planes of the Body

2. The Joint Segments of the Lower Body
The Hip Joint
Form
The Architecture of the Hip Joint
The Bones of the Hip Joint
The Joint Capsule and Ligaments
Muscles of the Hip
The Types and Ranges of Variations
Function-Application in Yoga Postures
Normal Ranges of Motion
Sources of Tension
Sources of Compression
Variation in Ranges of Motion
Hip Joint Summary

3. The Knee Joint
Form
The Architecture of the Knee
The Bones of the Knee
The Knee-Joint Capsule and Ligaments
Muscles of the Knee
The Types and Ranges of Variations
Function-Application in Yoga Postures
Normal Ranges of Motion
Sources of Tension
Sources of Compression
Variation in Ranges of Motion
Knee Joint Summary

4. The Ankle-Foot Segment
Form
The Architecture of the Ankle-Foot Segment
The Bones of the Ankle and Foot
The Ligaments
The Muscles and Tendons
The Types and Ranges of Variations
Function-Application in Yoga Postures
Normal Ranges of Motion
Sources of Tension
Sources of Compression
Variation in Ranges of Motion
Ankle-Foot Segment Summary

5 Volume 2 Summary

Appendices
A. List of Anatomical Directions
B. Variations in the Female Pelvis
C. Mechanical Advantage-Pulleys and Levers
D. Flexion-Caused Impingement at the Hip Joint
E. The Dangers and Benefits of Valgum or Varum Knee Orientation
F. The Movements of the Foot and Ankle

Sidebars
Itâ€Ös Important: Beware of studies
Itâ€Ös Important: Who is flying the airplane
Itâ€Ös Important: Playing your edge
Itâ€Ös Important: Injuries caused by yoga
Itâ€Ös Important: Antifragility (or no strain—no gain!)
Itâ€Ös Important: The value of compression
Itâ€Ös Important: Millimeters versus inches
Itâ€Ös Important: Safely stressing joints
Itâ€Ös Important: The value of alignment
Itâ€Ös Important: Remember, compression can be good!
Itâ€Ös Important: Co-contraction
Itâ€Ös Important: Are you valgus or varus?
Itâ€Ös Important: Donâ€Öt assume itâ€Ös your ankles!

Itâ€Ös Complicated: Averages and norms
Itâ€Ös Complicated: Femoral neck-shaft-angle variations
Itâ€Ös Complicated: Stress at the cellular level
Itâ€Ös Complicated: Sarcomere contraction
Itâ€Ös Complicated: Adding sarcomeres
Its Complicated: Our ground substance
Itâ€Ös Complicated: Other parts of our joints
Itâ€Ös Complicated: Which muscles cause which movement can vary
Itâ€Ös Complicated: Estimating available ranges of motion
Itâ€Ös Complicated: Femoral acetabular impingement syndrome
Itâ€Ös Complicated: What is a newton?
Itâ€Ös Complicated: Hyperextension of the knee
Itâ€Ös Complicated: The trochlea of the talus
Itâ€Ös Complicated: What causes plantar fasciitis?
Itâ€Ös Complicated: Arch support
Itâ€Ös Complicated: Where should the dorsiflexed foot point?

Note to Teachers: When students canâ€Öt go further
Note to Teachers: Stress when injured
Note to Teachers: Should we try to stress tendons?
Note to Teachers: Sources of compression
Note to Teachers: Be cautious of creating alignment cues based only on
your own experience
Note to Teachers: Yoga is a self-selecting practice
Note to Teachers: Explore from the core outwards
Note to Teachers: Customizing Classes
Note to Teachers: Do not offer a correction without knowing the cause!
Note to Teachers: Donâ€Öt be afraid of locking the knees
Note to Teachers: Getting grounded
Note to Teachers: Sickling—plantarflexion with supination
Note to Teachers: Aligning the feet in Down Dog 

Autoreninfo

Bernie Clark author of the best selling The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga , has had a passion for science, health, sports and spirituality since childhood. He has a degree in science from the University of Waterloo and spent over 25 years as a senior executive in the high-tech/space industry. Bernie has been investigating the path of meditation for over three decades and began teaching yoga and meditation in 1998. He conducts yoga teacher trainings several times a year and aims to build bridges between the experiences of yoga and the understandings of modern science. He is creator of the YinYoga website. Bernie lives and teaches in Vancouver, Canada.

Paul Grilley , creator of the influential DVD Anatomy for Yoga , began practicing yoga in 1979 after reading "The Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananada. He moved to Los Angeles in 1982 where he studied and taught yoga for 12 years. His special interest is the teaching of anatomy. He is the initial popularizer of the style of yoga called yin yoga, and patterns his philosophy on the writings and researches of Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama ? a yogi and scientist from Tokyo, Japan. This philosophy integrates the Taoist meridian and acupuncture theories of China with the yogic and tantric theories of India. Paul started his studies of anatomy with Dr. Garry Parker in 1979. He continued his studies at UCLA where he took courses in anatomy and kinesiology. He earned a M.A. from St. John's College, Santa Fe in summer 2000 and an Honorary Ph.D. in 2005 from the California Institute for Human Science for his efforts to clarify the latest theories on fascia and its relevance to the practice of hatha yoga.