Yoga Anatomy

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I bought this book based upon many positive reviews, but I am so dissapointed! It's just pictures and lists of medical terminology that I am not familiar of. I'm looking at the book now, but it just does not give me any inspiration! I glimpsed at a bookstore a new book "Anatomy for Yoga" by Leigh Brandon and Nicky Jenkins, which was released pretty recently and when I looked the review section of "Anatomy for Yoga" on Amazon, interestingly, I found Leslie Kaminoff, the very author of "Yoga Anatomy" condemned "Anatomy for Yoga" and rated "one star"! There are also correspondences between Leslie Kaminoff and Leigh Brandon. I agree with Leslie that the new book looks very well written and to me, inspiring. I haven't bought it yet, but I am going to buy one. The very fact that Leslie Kaminoff got so angry about this new book is simply because the new book is really good even in the eyes of Leslie. And printing the muscle anatomy chart in the Yoga book may be a new trend. It's not just Leslie's previledge to do so, although he was certainly the forerunner and thus gathered acclaim from others. "Anatomy for Yoga" really looked intresting incoporating different approaches to how to deal with "Kyphosis", "Lordsis" and other symptons of spine and the authors list several yoga poses to fix each sympton. There are even detailed mention about chakras and other useful information on poses. So it is totally different book from "Yoga Anatomy". And I wish that I had waited to buy this book until I found "Anatomy for Yoga"!

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I haven't read this book through, just examined the treatments of a few poses. That was enough to see that the book wasn't what I was looking for -- a quick visual reference to the muscular activity involved in a pose a la Delavier's Strength Training Anatomy. Trouble is that the illustrations highlight all involved muscles in red. I then have to go to the text to see which muscles are working and which are stretching. The stretching muscles should have been in blue so that the reader could see at a glance what's happening in the pose. I'm sure it's well done for what it is but ultimately not very helpful.

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this is an interesting book, for any Yogis to under stand more on how the body moves

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The illustrations in this book are fantastic! The intricate detail provides a great visual to see what is actually happening in a well executed asana. The text is useful too, but it is written with very technical language and may take a bit of extra effort to absorb. I have found some answers to questions I have had in acheiving certain poses. I would recommend this book to serious Yogis.

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This book does an excellent job of explaining which part of the body is used in each asana (muscle groups, tendons, etc). I particularly liked the very in depth intro describing the anatomy of how humans breathe - very useful in yoga practice. The illustrations were also great and they covered quite a variety of poses.

However, I was expecting more of a how to guide for each pose. Possibly a "make sure to keep your feet in line...tuck your tailbone...look forward to lengthen the neck...keep your thigh rotated to bring your knee out...etc" - things you hear from teachers in class that help you get the correct posture. This is not the case with this book.

I also thought the anatomy part was a little overkill. It's nice to know which part of the body is affected but I am not a doctor and to use the Latin terms just confuses me. Many times muscles were referenced in the text of a pose that did not have a label in that pose's illustration - which means I either had to remember what that muscle was or look back through the book. Not that user friendly.

Overall: good book for those who want an anatomical understanding of yoga. Not good for someone looking to supplement classes or practice on their own.

Hope this helps, Namaste.